Abstract
The Evolutionary Biology of Aging, Sexual Reproduction, and DNA Repair
Highlights
The phenomena of aging and of sexual reproduction are surely among the most counterintuitive and puzzling of widespread outcomes to have evolved under the influence of natural selection
The central thesis of Rose's book is that the mathematical framework of evolutionary genetics has solved the paradox of aging in age-structured populations by showing that the phenomenon is an inevitable outcome of the declining force of natural selection through successive age classes
Particular genetic mechanisms of aging are not specified by this evolutionary theory, but two leading candidates for which explicit theoretical treatments are available are (1) antagonistic pleiotropy, in which alleles tend to evolve that have beneficial effects at early ages of life but antagonistic deleterious effects later, and (2) age specificity of gene action, in which alleles with agedelayed deleterious somatic effects accumulate in evolution because they are nearly neutral in terms of fitness because of weak selection in later age classes
Summary
Abstract.-Three recent books on the evolutionary biology of aging and sexual reproduction are reviewed, with particular attention focused on the provocative suggestion by Bernstein and Bernstein (1991) that senescence and genetic recombination are related epiphenomena stemming from the universal challenge to life posed by DNA damages and the need for damage repair Embellishments to these theories on aging and sex are presented that consider two relevant topics neglected or underemphasized in the previous treatments. Another set of scenarios in this category (chapters by Bernstein et al, Holliday, Levin, and Shields) proposes that the evolution (and perhaps maintenance) of sexual reproduction involved selection pressures favoring mechanisms for the correction of genetic errors This leads us to discussion of the DNA repair theory of sex and aging, as further elaborated by Bernstein and Bernstein (1991)
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