Advances in measuring lifespan in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae

Much research aimed at discovering the genetic bases of longevity focuses on the budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Unfortunately, yeast researchers use a definition of longevity not applied to other species. We propose here a method that makes it possible to estimate for yeast the same measures of longevity calculated for other species. We also show that the conventional method (equating longevity with the number of offspring) is only an approximate measure of true chronological lifespan. Our method will allow results for yeast to be compared more correctly with those for other species.