Change and aging senescence as an adaptation.

Understanding why we age is a long-lived open problem in evolutionary biology. Aging is prejudicial to the individual, and evolutionary forces should prevent it, but many species show signs of senescence as individuals age. Here, I will propose a model for aging based on assumptions that are compati...

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Autor principal:	André C R Martins
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	Public Library of Science (PLoS) 2011
Materias:	Medicine R Science Q
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/e59e65aa25c64c628bd5deaddf8f3f34
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:e59e65aa25c64c628bd5deaddf8f3f342021-11-04T06:08:25ZChange and aging senescence as an adaptation.1932-620310.1371/journal.pone.0024328https://doaj.org/article/e59e65aa25c64c628bd5deaddf8f3f342011-01-01T00:00:00Zhttps://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/pmid/21949706/pdf/?tool=EBIhttps://doaj.org/toc/1932-6203Understanding why we age is a long-lived open problem in evolutionary biology. Aging is prejudicial to the individual, and evolutionary forces should prevent it, but many species show signs of senescence as individuals age. Here, I will propose a model for aging based on assumptions that are compatible with evolutionary theory: i) competition is between individuals; ii) there is some degree of locality, so quite often competition will be between parents and their progeny; iii) optimal conditions are not stationary, and mutation helps each species to keep competitive. When conditions change, a senescent species can drive immortal competitors to extinction. This counter-intuitive result arises from the pruning caused by the death of elder individuals. When there is change and mutation, each generation is slightly better adapted to the new conditions, but some older individuals survive by chance. Senescence can eliminate those from the genetic pool. Even though individual selection forces can sometimes win over group selection ones, it is not exactly the individual that is selected but its lineage. While senescence damages the individuals and has an evolutionary cost, it has a benefit of its own. It allows each lineage to adapt faster to changing conditions. We age because the world changes.André C R MartinsPublic Library of Science (PLoS)articleMedicineRScienceQENPLoS ONE, Vol 6, Iss 9, p e24328 (2011)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	Medicine R Science Q
spellingShingle	Medicine R Science Q André C R Martins Change and aging senescence as an adaptation.
description	Understanding why we age is a long-lived open problem in evolutionary biology. Aging is prejudicial to the individual, and evolutionary forces should prevent it, but many species show signs of senescence as individuals age. Here, I will propose a model for aging based on assumptions that are compatible with evolutionary theory: i) competition is between individuals; ii) there is some degree of locality, so quite often competition will be between parents and their progeny; iii) optimal conditions are not stationary, and mutation helps each species to keep competitive. When conditions change, a senescent species can drive immortal competitors to extinction. This counter-intuitive result arises from the pruning caused by the death of elder individuals. When there is change and mutation, each generation is slightly better adapted to the new conditions, but some older individuals survive by chance. Senescence can eliminate those from the genetic pool. Even though individual selection forces can sometimes win over group selection ones, it is not exactly the individual that is selected but its lineage. While senescence damages the individuals and has an evolutionary cost, it has a benefit of its own. It allows each lineage to adapt faster to changing conditions. We age because the world changes.
format	article
author	André C R Martins
author_facet	André C R Martins
author_sort	André C R Martins
title	Change and aging senescence as an adaptation.
title_short	Change and aging senescence as an adaptation.
title_full	Change and aging senescence as an adaptation.
title_fullStr	Change and aging senescence as an adaptation.
title_full_unstemmed	Change and aging senescence as an adaptation.
title_sort	change and aging senescence as an adaptation.
publisher	Public Library of Science (PLoS)
publishDate	2011
url	https://doaj.org/article/e59e65aa25c64c628bd5deaddf8f3f34
work_keys_str_mv	AT andrecrmartins changeandagingsenescenceasanadaptation
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Change and aging senescence as an adaptation.

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