Yeast MOOC

Baker’s yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae has NOT been used to make:

• Beer.
• Bread.
• Marmite.
• Toothpaste.

Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Homo sapiens last shared a common ancestor:

• ~100 million years ago.
• ~1 billion years ago.
• ~10 billion years ago.
• They never shared a common ancestor.

Yeast is a great model organism because:

• A yeast cell does not have a nucleus, making it simpler to study.
• Yeast cells divide every 20 minutes.
• The yeast genome is very similar to the human genome in terms of size and number of genes.
• Yeast can grow as haploids or diploids.

Yeast would NOT be a great model organism to study:

• Telomere biology.
• Asymmetric cell division.
• Neuronal synapses.
• Protein aggregation.

True or false? Yeast chronological ageing refers to the progressive loss of viability of cells maintained in a non-dividing, post-mitotic state.

• True.
• False.

With respect to replicative ageing, compare a daughter cell born from a mother cell of age 0 and a daughter cell born from a mother cell of age 8.

• They are indistinguishable.
• On average, the daughter cell from the age-0 mother will have a longer lifespan than the daughter cell from the age-15 mother.
• They have the same lifespan, but the daughter cell from the age-15 mother will have inherited more ageing factors.
• None of the above.

Which of the following does NOT cause mother cell replicative ageing?

• Extrachromosomal rDNA circles.
• Telomere attrition.
• Protein aggregates.
• Mitochrondrial dysfunction.

Yeast replicative ageing is a model for:

• Ageing of human neuronal cells.
• Ageing of dividing cells, such as stem cells.
• Ageing of prokaryotic systems.

True or false? The Mother Enrichment Program prevents the ageing of yeast mother cells.

• True.
• False.

After 20 cell divisions, a yeast mother cell will be surrounded by ___ of her descendants.

• 20
• 20²
• 2²⁰
• 20^!