Mitochondria reorganization upon proliferation arrest predicts individual yeast cell fate.

Most cells spend the majority of their life in a non-proliferating state. When proliferation cessation is irreversible, cells are senescent. By contrast, if the arrest is only temporary, cells are defined as quiescent.

Yeast quiescence exit swiftness is influenced by cell volume and chronological age.

Quiescence exit swiftness is crucial not only for micro-organisms in competition for an environmental niche, such as yeast, but also for the maintenance of tissue homeostasis in multicellular species. Here we explore the effect of replicative and chronological age on quiescence exit efficiency. Our study reveals that this step strongly relies on the cell volume in quiescence but is not influenced by cell replicative age, at least for cells that have undergone less than 10 divisions.