A test of evolutionary theories of aging.

@article{citeulike:2397562, abstract = {Senescence is a nearly universal feature of multicellular organisms, and understanding why it occurs is a long-standing problem in biology. The two leading theories posit that aging is due to (i) pleiotropic genes with beneficial early-life effects but deleterious late-life effects ("antagonistic pleiotropy") or (ii) mutations with purely deleterious late-life effects ("mutation accumulation"). Previous attempts to distinguish these theories have been inconclusive because of a lack of unambiguous, contrasting predictions. We conducted experiments with Drosophila based on recent population-genetic models that yield contrasting predictions. Genetic variation and inbreeding effects increased dramatically with age, as predicted by the mutation theory. This increase occurs because genes with deleterious effects with a late age of onset are unopposed by natural selection. Our findings provide the strongest support yet for the mutation theory.}, address = {School of Integrative Biology and Program in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Illinois, Urbana, IL 61801, USA. kahughes@uiuc.edu}, author = {Hughes, K. A. and Alipaz, J. A. and Drnevich, J. M. and Reynolds, R. M. }, citeulike-article-id = {2397562}, doi = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.222326199}, issn = {0027-8424}, journal = {Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A}, keywords = {biology, evolution, experiment}, month = {October}, number = {22}, pages = {14286--14291}, posted-at = {2008-02-19 07:11:25}, priority = {2}, title = {A test of evolutionary theories of aging.}, url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.222326199}, volume = {99}, year = {2002} }

TY - JOUR ID - citeulike:2397562 L3 - citeulike-article-id:2397562 TI - A test of evolutionary theories of aging. JF - Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A VL - 99 IS - 22 SP - 14286 EP - 14291 AD - School of Integrative Biology and Program in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Illinois, Urbana, IL 61801, USA. kahughes@uiuc.edu SN - 0027-8424 N2 - Senescence is a nearly universal feature of multicellular organisms, and understanding why it occurs is a long-standing problem in biology. The two leading theories posit that aging is due to (i) pleiotropic genes with beneficial early-life effects but deleterious late-life effects ("antagonistic pleiotropy") or (ii) mutations with purely deleterious late-life effects ("mutation accumulation"). Previous attempts to distinguish these theories have been inconclusive because of a lack of unambiguous, contrasting predictions. We conducted experiments with Drosophila based on recent population-genetic models that yield contrasting predictions. Genetic variation and inbreeding effects increased dramatically with age, as predicted by the mutation theory. This increase occurs because genes with deleterious effects with a late age of onset are unopposed by natural selection. Our findings provide the strongest support yet for the mutation theory. KW - biology KW - evolution KW - experiment AU - Hughes, KA AU - Alipaz, JA AU - Drnevich, JM AU - Reynolds, RM PY - 2002/10/29/ UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.222326199 ER -