Impact of intracellular biophysics on quiescence and aging
Description: Cells are exposed to changes in their environment that trigger major physiological responses, including the entry into a reversible and non-dividing state known as quiescence. Quiescence is one of the most common cellular states in nature and a hallmark of the life cycle of many cell types. Importantly, the capacity of quiescent cells to return to proliferation progressively diminishes with time. This widespread phenomenon of chronological aging is central to the biology of living organisms, but the core processes that modulate chronological lifespan (CLS) remain surprisingly elusive. Remarkably, we have shown that quiescent fission yeast cells exhibit a dramatic increase in internal stiffness and density. Furthermore, our unpublished results revealed that the CLS of fission yeast cells is surprisingly delineated by their genome copy number and volume in quiescence, with implications for their intracellular density and macromolecular crowding. These findings led us to hypothesize that the significant changes in the biophysical properties of cells that occur during quiescence entry are critical for ensuring cell survival during extended periods of dormancy. We therefore propose to combine original biological systems with innovative, multidisciplinary approaches to investigate how cells control their internal diffusional properties and the impact of this regulation on their physiology and lifespan.
Funder: Agence Nationale de la Recherche
Amount: €693,500
Funding type: research
Funder scheme: AAPG2024
Start date: 2025-03-01
Investigator: Damien COUDREUSE
Institution: Centre national de la recherche scientifique
Subfield: Aging
Domain: Life Sciences
Funded outputs count: 0
Funder award ID: ANR-24-CE13-2733
OpenAlex ID: G2784119678