Evolution of human lifespan: Past, future, and present

@article{Rose1998EvolutionOH,
  title={Evolution of human lifespan: Past, future, and present},
  author={M. Rose and Laurence D Mueller},
  journal={American Journal of Human Biology},
  year={1998},
  volume={10}
}
The only satisfactory general theory for understanding the biology of aging is that provided by evolutionary genetics. The central theoretical result of the evolutionary theory of aging is that aging is caused by a fall in the force of natural selection, beginning at the time of the onset of reproduction and continuing until the cessation of reproduction. This formal result has been tested using breeding experiments in which the force of natural selection is altered in replicated laboratory… 
View on Wiley
darwin.bio.uci.edu
22 Citations
Highly Influential Citations
1
Background Citations
10
Methods Citations
1
Results Citations
1

22 Citations

Citation Type

Citation Type

The aging brain: The cognitive reserve hypothesis and hominid evolution
TLDR
A clinical model, “the cognitive reserve hypothesis,” proposes that both increased brain volume and enhanced cognitive ability may contribute to healthy brain aging, reducing the likelihood of developing dementia.
Human lifespan: what determines the intrinsic length of human lives?
TLDR
The relatively long human lifespan therefore co-evolved with the selection of an unusually large brain that both confers advantages that promote longevity and requires longevity to make it a worthwhile investment.
The Role of Neoteny in Human Evolution: From Genes to the Phenotype
TLDR
Recent advances in this field are described, which imply a molecular link between the evolution of two seemingly independent human-specific features: cognitive abilities and longevity.
The Human Life Course and the Biodemography of Aging NIH / NIA FOR 2004 -
TLDR
The long-term goal of the research is to explain the age profile of human mortality and the rate at which humans develop and senesce in terms of economic productivity, muscular strength, endurance, body composition, disease resistance, and cognitive function.
The emergence of humans: The coevolution of intelligence and longevity with intergenerational transfers
  • H. Kaplan, A. Robson
  • Biology, Psychology
    Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
  • 2002
TLDR
A general formal demographic model for constrained growth and evolutionary tradeoffs in the presence of life-cycle transfers between age groups in a population is introduced and applied.
An evolutionary and genomic approach to challenges and opportunities for eliminating aging.
TLDR
It is confident that biology and medicine will effectively solve the problem of aging within the next 50 years, providing Hamiltonian lifestyle changes, tissue repair, and genomic technological opportunities are fully exploited in public health practices, in medical practice, and in medical research, respectively.
Post-Fertile Lifespan in Female Primates and Cetaceans
TLDR
It is concluded that although a prolonged post-fertile stage of life is very rare in mammals, it does occur in some exceptionally long-lived taxa, such as humans and resident killer and short-finned pilot whales.
The evolution of lifespan and age-dependent cancer risk.
Neural Capital and Life span Evolution among Primates and Humans
This paper presents a theory of brain and life span evolution and applies it to both the primate order, in general, and to the hominid line, in particular. To address the simultaneous effects of…
Host Demise as a Beneficial Function of Indigenous Microbiota in Human Hosts
TLDR
The age structure of early humans was balanced by fertility and mortality, with an exceptionally prolonged juvenility, and the role of indigenous microbes in early humans as fundamental contributors to this age structure is examined.
...
...

References

SHOWING 1-10 OF 62 REFERENCES
SELECTION FOR DELAYED SENESCENCE IN DROSOPHILA MELANOGASTER
TLDR
No new major theories of the evolution of senescence have arisen since Williams (1957) and one reason for this may be that until recently, the few experimental tests performed contributed comparatively little substantiating information toward these theories.
A genetic analysis of senescence in Drosophila
TLDR
It is reported that the genetic variability of mortality in male Drosophila melanogaster increases greatly at very late ages, as predicted by the mutation accumulation hypothesis, providing a possible explanation for recent observations of non-increasing mortality rates in very old flies.
Selection for increased longevity in Drosophila melanogaster: a new interpretation.
TLDR
Considering the time lag between the measurement of a given generation in early and late lines, the experiments of reproduction at late age cannot demonstrate the genetic determinism of longevity.
A test of evolutionary theories of senescence
TLDR
The present results provide evidence for the pleiotropy theory, but do not support the mutation–accumulation theory.
DIRECT SELECTION ON LIFE SPAN IN DROSOPHILA MELANOGASTER
TLDR
The longevity of D. melanogaster can be genetically altered in a direct‐selection design, and such an increase is accompanied by a decreased general reproduction and thus early reproduction, support the negative‐pleiotropy–disposable‐soma theory of aging.
Evolution of accelerated senescence in laboratory populations of Drosophila.
  • L. Mueller
  • Biology
    Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
  • 1987
TLDR
The acceleratedsenescence exhibited by females from the r environment appears to be due to the accumulation of deleterious alleles whose effects are expressed late in life, which is consistent with the mutation accumulation hypothesis for the evolution of senescence.
LABORATORY EVOLUTION OF POSTPONED SENESCENCE IN DROSOPHILA MELANOGASTER
  • M. Rose
  • Biology
    Evolution; international journal of organic evolution
  • 1984
TLDR
It would be misleading to claim that all relevant experimental results directly corroborate the evolutionary theory of senescence, but there are two corollaries which follow from the general theory itself: the reproductive schedule of an outbred population will give rise to natural selection acting to accelerate senescences in populations with a relatively earlier age of reproduction and postpone senescenced populations.
Prospects for postponing human aging
  • M. Rose, T. J. Nusbaum
  • Biology
    FASEB journal : official publication of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology
  • 1994
The postponement of human aging is a long‐standing aspiration in many cultures, particularly non‐Western ones. Renewed interest in this goal is now being shown within the biomedical research context.…
PLEIOTROPY, NATURAL SELECTION, AND THE EVOLUTION OF SENESCENCE
TLDR
Natural selection will frequently maximize vigor in youth at the expense of vigor later on and thereby produce a declining vigor (senescence) during adult life, which explains much of what is known of phylogenetic variation in rates of senescence.
Selection for life span in Drosophila melanogaster
TLDR
These experiments suggest that life span is either physiologically limited in that environment, or populations are unable to respond because either phenotype/genotype correlations are reversed, or genetic variation is suppressed.
...
...