Abstract
Surveys of taxonomic groups of animals have shown that contrary to the opinion of most gerontologists aging is not a genuine trait. The process of aging is not universal and its mechanisms have not been widely conserved among species. All life forms are subject to extrinsic and intrinsic destructive forces. Destructive effects of stochastic events are visible only when allowed by the specific life program of an organism. Effective life programs of immortality and high longevity eliminate the impact of unavoidable damage. Organisms that are capable of agametic reproduction are biologically immortal. Mortality of an organism is clearly associated with terminal specialisation in sexual reproduction. The longevity phenotype that is not accompanied by symptoms of senescence has been observed in those groups of animals that continue to increase their body size after reaching sexual maturity. This is the result of enormous regeneration abilities of both of the above-mentioned groups. Senescence is observed when: (i) an organism by principle switches off the expression of existing growth and regeneration programs, as in the case of imago formation in insect development; (ii) particular programs of growth and regeneration of progenitors are irreversibly lost, either partially or in their entirety, in mammals and birds.“We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.” (Ascribed to Albert Einstein)
Highlights
“We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.” (Ascribed to Albert Einstein)
It is necessary to bear in mind that in the presented tree of life, a specific aging phenotype was assigned to a particular taxonomic group, if at least some representatives within the group presented obvious high longevity accompanied by lack of organismal senescence symptoms or biological immortality
An analysis of differences in life programs among various taxonomic groups of animals as well as within a particular group allows for a generalisation that there are three main aging phenotypes
Summary
“We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.” (Ascribed to Albert Einstein). It is generally believed that senescence, which alongside mortality is considered part of the aging process, is a consequence of operation of various adverse forces that are often associated with the effects of the Second Law of Thermodynamics on living things. Cells are a dominant part – in quantitative terms – of a multicellular organism, the process of human or animal aging mostly comprises negative consequences which affect the organismal-level processes.
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