Month: September 2022

SYMMETRIC DIVISION. "We find that the old pole is a significant marker for multiple phenotypes associated with aging, namely, decreased metabolic efficiency (reduced growth rate), reduced offspring biomass production, and an increased chance of death. Thus, E. coli, an organism with a morphologically symmetrical division, no juvenile phase, and no identified separation between germ line and soma, is susceptible to aging." http://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article?id=10.1371/journal.pbio.0030045 View in LinkedIn

REJUVENATION. "Unlike the process of clonal senescence, where an entire population progressively declines in fitness, here the life potential of the lineage is continually renewed through young offspring cells (the process of rejuvenation) that are produced at the expense of aged parent cells." http://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article?id=10.1371/journal.pbio.0030045 View in LinkedIn

WEEDING THE UNFIT. "Biological evolution, too, is anti-fragile. The death of unfit individuals is what causes a species to adapt and improve." https://lnkd.in/ddsS3VH View in LinkedIn

DARK DRIVER OF EVOLUTION. "Evolution advances by means of death (as opposed to the survival of the "fit")? That's a dark spin on Darwinian theory that I didn't expect to come across." http://www.evolutionnews.org/2012/11/evolution_by_me066801.html View in LinkedIn

SURVIVAL OF THE GENE. "A useful way to look at this problem is Dawkins's "Selfish Gene" picture of evolution, where the fundamental unit to be maintained by natural selection is not the individual, nor the group or the species, but the gene." https://lnkd.in/ecMXQ_u View in LinkedIn

UNIT OF EVOLUTION? "Individuals are merely disposable vehicles for the replicating information contained in the genes. As long as the genes survive (that is, are replicated in offspring before the individual dies), the survival or death of the individual is not very important." http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/evolage.html View in LinkedIn

GENE VEHICLE. "For a gene, the main criterion that must be fulfilled or maximized in order to be naturally selected, is that its vehicle (individual organism) should survive long enough to be able to produce (numerous) offspring." http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/evolage.html View in LinkedIn

LOGICAL HESITATION. "Now, one might argue that the longer the organism lives, the more offspring it can produce, and the more copies of its genes will be made. Hence, the genes of organisms that do not age, and thus live longer, would be naturally selected." http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/evolage.html View in LinkedIn

LUCK. "However, mortality depends on at least two different factors: (internal) aging, and (external) perturbations (accidents, diseases, predation, starvation, ...). Though a gene can make its vehicle or carrier stronger, smarter and more resistant, it can never completely eliminate all possible perturbations causing death." http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/evolage.html View in LinkedIn

THE WHY NOT? "On the other hand, we might imagine genes stopping the process of aging. There are enough examples of self-repair mechanisms in cells and organisms to suggest that this is possible. Moreover, the fact that genes themselves are immortal should be sufficient to counter any arguments based on uncontrollable deterioration because of the second law of thermodynamics." (Genes have a life cycle too). http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/evolage.html View in LinkedIn