Dear buddies (sorry - I don't mean to be a speciesist, but this IS a
S. cer. stuff),
I am not entirely sure whether anybody ever saw a yeast cell autolyze
because of old age. What I remember from some talk a while ago, S. cer.
cells with up to 40 bud scars have been observed. However, as the
number of scars increases, following the individual old cells becomes
more and more difficult as they form a smaller and smaller fraction
of the population. Some three or four years ago I came across a paper
describing the isolation of old yeast cells but I did not follow what
came out of it later on. But I guess that you might find some interesting
stuff related to aging in yeast if you look for papers by Egilmez et al.
(I hope I remembered the spelling right.)
Hoping it helped to sooth your curiosity -
Fatima
