Publication Date:
2000-01-05
Description:
Mortality rates typically increase rapidly at the onset of aging but can decelerate at later ages. Reproduction increases the death rate in many organisms. To test the idea that a delayed impact of earlier reproduction contributes to both an increase in death rates and a later deceleration in mortality, the timing of the surplus mortality produced by an increased level of egg production was measured in female Drosophila. Reproduction produced a delayed wave of mortality, coincident with the sharp increase in death rates at the onset of aging and the subsequent deceleration of mortality. These results suggest that aging has evolved primarily because of the damaging effects of reproduction earlier in life, rather than because of mutations that have detrimental effects only at late ages.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Sgro, C M -- Partridge, L -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 1999 Dec 24;286(5449):2521-4.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Department of Biology, University College London, Wolfson House, 4 Stephenson Way, London NW1 2HE, UK.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10617470" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉
Keywords:
*Aging/genetics/physiology
;
Animals
;
*Biological Evolution
;
Crosses, Genetic
;
DNA-Binding Proteins/genetics/metabolism
;
*Drosophila Proteins
;
Drosophila melanogaster/genetics/physiology/radiation effects
;
Female
;
Fertility/physiology
;
Genes, Insect
;
Hybridization, Genetic
;
*Longevity/genetics/physiology
;
Male
;
Oviposition
;
*Reproduction/genetics/physiology
;
Selection, Genetic
;
Transcription Factors/genetics/metabolism
Print ISSN:
0036-8075
Electronic ISSN:
1095-9203
Topics:
Biology
,
Chemistry and Pharmacology
,
Computer Science
,
Medicine
,
Natural Sciences in General
,
Physics
