Year: 2022

INTERNAL TRIGGERS. "These experiments indicate that rapid senescence and death following reproduction in at least some semelparous animals are genetically “programmed” and internally controlled." https://lnkd.in/ecP3KMX View in LinkedIn

SENESCENCE AS BYPRODUCT. "Most evolutionary explanations of organismal senescence are based on individual selection or selective neutrality, and interpret senescence as a byproduct rather than an adaptation selected for its own sake." https://lnkd.in/ecP3KMX View in LinkedIn

DEATH AS ADAPTIVE. "A common theme in all the hypotheses discussed above is that the organism is the primary unit of selection. In contrast, other authors have advanced alternative views for the adaptive value of programmed organismal death in a multilevel selection framework. Among those authors that accept organismal death as programmed, many also support the hypothesis that death is adaptive, generally at a level of function other than the individual organism." https://lnkd.in/ecP3KMX View in LinkedIn

APHID SUICIDE. "Observations of organismal suicide have been carefully researched and documented. Pea aphids (Acyrthosiphon pisum) that are parasitized by the Braconid wasp Aphidius ervi drop from the host plant, causing their own death." https://lnkd.in/ecP3KMX View in LinkedIn

PEA APHIDS. "These insects live in groups of close kin, and their death prevents their body from producing parasites that would then attack their siblings. Death therefore increases the individual’s inclusive fitness, or equivalently, increases the fitness of the kin group." https://lnkd.in/ecP3KMX View in LinkedIn

POST-MATING DEATH IN SPIDERS. "Male self-sacrifice”, or apparent male cooperation with female cannibalism, is part of male copulatory behavior in several spider species, and in some insects. One study also reported that males of the spider Argiope aurantia spontaneously die when they copulate." https://lnkd.in/ecP3KMX View in LinkedIn

ALTRUISTIC BEES. "One familiar example occurs in honeybee workers, which commit suicide each time they sting invaders in defense of their hive. Similarly, these workers altruistically commit suicide in ways that apparently function to prevent the spread of disease within the hive. In these cases, there is little mystery concerning function or evolution. Kin selection, or equivalently, selection among colonies, is a powerful force shaping the evolution of eusocial insects." https://lnkd.in/ecP3KMX View in LinkedIn

DEATH FITNESS IN UNICELLULAR ORGANISMS. "There is considerable experimental evidence for fitness advantages from programmed organismal death to clonal kin groups of cells of species usually considered to be ‘unicellular’. These fitness advantages may represent a significant source of selection pressure." https://lnkd.in/ecP3KMX View in LinkedIn

COMPETING INTERESTS. "The reproductive interests of genetic elements can differ from those of the organism carrying them. It is well established that gene-level selection can generate traits that are detrimental to individual fitness, while benefitting smaller genetic entities within them." https://lnkd.in/ecP3KMX View in LinkedIn

MOBILE ELEMENTS. "Genetic elements have been closely studied that routinely increase their inclusive fitness by killing their host. In some cases, this peculiar form of selection may explain the function and evolution of genes for unicell programmed organismal death When a cell has low chances for reproduction, programmed organismal death and the transfer of genes from the dying cell to a new host can save the genes." https://lnkd.in/ecP3KMX View in LinkedIn