Yeast apoptosis debate continues

Yeast, as a unicellular organism, would seem to benefit most from self-preservation. But yeast altruism, in the form of apoptosis, is a new-found, if controversial, field of study. Many doubt the validity of experiments supporting programmed cell death in yeast and call for better controls. In this issue, the debate continues with two new articles that suggest that yeast cells do organize their own deaths—for the sake of their brethren.

Biologists often address how a phenomenon occurs, but seldom why. For the yeast apoptosis field, however, why is a painfully obvious question. On page 1055, Fabrizio et al. suggest a method to the madness. They show that yeast populations survive better in the long run when they initiate an early death program through superoxide.

Superoxides are produced by the everyday activities of life,...