Living on the edge: stress and activation of stress responses promote lifespan extension

Zuin, Alice, 1978-Castellano Esteve, DavidAyté del Olmo, JoséHidalgo Hernando, Elena2015-05-252015-05-252010Zuin A, Castellano-Esteve D, Ayté J, Hidalgo E. Living on the edge: stress and activation of stress responses promote lifespan extension. Aging. 2010;2(4):231-37. DOI: 10.18632/aging.1001331945-4589http://hdl.handle.net/10230/23632Oxidative stress constitutes the basis of physio-pathological situations such as neurodegenerative diseases and aging. However, sublethal exposure to toxic molecules such as reactive oxygen species can induce cellular responses that result in stress fitness. Studies in Schizosaccharomyces pombe have recently showed that the Sty1 MAP kinase, known to be activated by hydrogen peroxide and other cellular stressors, plays a pivotal role in promoting fitness and longevity when it becomes activated by calorie restriction, a situation which induces oxidative metabolism and reactive oxygen species production. Activation of the MAP kinase by calorie restriction during logarithmic growth induces a transcriptional anti-stress response including genes essential to promote lifespan extension. Importantly enough, the lifespan promotion exerted by deletion of the pka1 or sck2 genes, inactivating the two main nutrient-responsive pathways, is dependent on the presence of a functional Sty1 stress pathway, since double mutants also lacking Sty1 or its main substrate Atf1 do not display extended viability. In this Research Perspective, we review these findings in relation to previous reports and extend important aspects of the original study. We propose that moderate stress levels that are not harmful for cells can make them stronger.application/pdfeng© Zuin et al. This is an open‐access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are creditedCèl·lules -- EnvellimentEstrès oxidatiuProteïnes quinasesLiving on the edge: stress and activation of stress responses promote lifespan extensioninfo:eu-repo/semantics/articlehttp://dx.doi.org/10.18632/aging.100133MAP kinaseAgingOxidative stressProtein kinase ASty1Sck2info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess