Anhydrobiosis as a Model of Aging and Longevity: The Role of Autophagy and Metabolism in Yeast Cells

Anhydrobiosis, the ability of cells to endure severe dehydration, provides a valuable model for investigating cellular resilience, aging, and long-term endurance processes. Yeast species, such as Saccharomyces cerevisiae and non-conventional yeasts, are valuable tools for understanding how stress-response pathways, metabolic regulation, and proteostasis contribute to desiccation tolerance. Experimental studies show that trehalose build-up, High Osmolarity Glycerol (HOG)-MAPK signalling, mitochondrial energy maintenance, and protein quality control networks are all protective of cellular structures during water loss and facilitate the rapid recovery of cellular structures upon rehydration. In yeast, these processes are tightly linked to chronological lifespan regulation and stress resistance in non-dividing cells. Multi-omics studies, such as transcriptomics, lipidomics, and chromatin accessibility studies, indicate widespread remodelling of metabolic pathways, membrane architecture, and chromatin states, with transcriptional stress memory maintained by epigenetic mechanisms to improve survival during repeated cycles of dehydration. Anhydrobiosis has been applied in biotechnology, agriculture, and biomedical science, with yeast-based systems being used to produce active dry yeast, preserve enzymes and vaccines, and create stress-tolerant microbial inoculants to enhance crop growth. Yeast anhydrobiosis integrates genetics, biophysics, and systems biology to explain cell survival under extreme stress and to guide the engineering of more stable biological systems. Overall, this summary of recent findings on genetic determinants, molecular pathways, and yeast responses to stress during anhydrobiosis provides valuable insights into aging and resilience mechanisms and establishes anhydrobiosis as a conceptual framework for studying conserved cellular maintenance strategies rather than a direct model of organismal longevity.