"The purpose of this article is to provide a balanced scientific
discussion of the evolutionary theories of aging, which evolutionary biologists
suggest as “the intellectual core of gerontology”. Such a discussion of the
evolutionary theories of aging is needed, and it may be particularly useful for
students and researchers entering the field of aging studies. This article will
also provide them with an orientation to the abundant scientific literature on
the evolution of aging, which requires knowledge of the historical background,
i.e., how these evolutionary ideas evolved themselves over time. While working
on this article, we found that the scientific literature on evolutionary
gerontology should be handled with great care because the significance of some
publications could only be understood in the context of related studies made by
other researchers.
Evolutionary theories of aging and longevity are those theories that try to
explain the remarkable differences in observed aging rates and longevity records
across different biological species (compare, for example, mice and humans) through
interplay between the processes of mutation and selection. The appeal for
understanding the biological evolution of aging and lifespan comes also from
puzzling observations of the life cycles of some biological species. For example,
a bamboo plant reproduces vegetatively (asexually) for about 100 years, forming
a dense stand of plants. Then in one season all of the plants flower
simultaneously, reproduce sexually, and die. About 100 years later (depending
on the exact bamboo species) the process is repeated. This intriguing
observation, as well as other similar observations of “suicidal” life cycles of
species like pacific salmon, has promoted the idea that sexual reproduction may
come with a cost for species longevity. Thus, in addition to mutation and
selection, the reproductive cost, or, more generally, the trade-offs between different
traits of organisms may also contribute to the evolution of species aging and
longevity. The evolutionary theories of aging are closely related to the
genetics of aging because biological evolution is possible only for heritable
manifestations of aging."
BIBLIOGRAFÍA:
Gavrilov LA, Gavrilova NS. Evolutionary theories of aging and longevity.ScientificWorldJournal. 2002
Feb 7;2:339-56. Disponible
en: http://www.tswj.com/2002/704240/abs/
Kunlin J. Modern Biological
Theories Aging. Aging Dis.
2010 October; 1(2): 72–74. Disponible en:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2995895/?tool=pubmed
