RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Two stochastic processes shape diverse senescence patterns in a single-cell organism
JF bioRxiv
FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
SP 105387
DO 10.1101/105387
A1 Ulrich K. Steiner
A1 Adam Lenart
A1 Ming Ni
A1 Peipei Chen
A1 Xiaohu Song
A1 François Taddei
A1 Ariel B. Lindner
A1 James W. Vaupel
YR 2017
UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2017/02/02/105387.abstract
AB Despite advancements in aging research, we lack basic understanding of the biological processes that shape senescence. Here, we show that for a simple isogenic bacterial system, Escherichia coli, in a controlled environment, senescence results from two stochastic processes: a primary random deterioration process within the cell underlying classical senescence patterns; and a secondary process of stochastic asymmetric transmission of a factor influencing mortality at cell fission. This second process is required to explain the near non-senescence of old mothers offspring and the lack of a mother offspring correlation in age at death. We observed that life span is predominantly determined by underlying stochastic stage dynamics. Our findings do not support evolutionary postulates that base their reasoning on the age-specific action of alleles, but could support stage-specific actions of alleles.One Sentence Summary Senescence in bacteria is driven by two stochastic processes that produce large variation in lifespan among isogenic individuals.Contributions U.K.S. planned, performed, analyzed, and directed the experiments, and prepared and finalized drafts of the manuscript; M.N., performed experiments; A.L., X.S. analyzed data; F.T., A.B.L., J.V. and all other authors discussed the results and wrote the manuscript.Competing financial interests The authors declare no competing financial interests