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On age-specific selection and extensive lifespan beyond menopause
Standard evolutionary theory of ageing predicts weaker purifying selection on genes critical to later life stages. Prolonged post-reproductive lifespan (PPRLS), observed only in a few species like humans, is likely a result of disparate relaxation of purifying selection on survival and reproduction...
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
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The Royal Society
2020
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Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7277242/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32537201 http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsos.191972 |
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author | Pang, Tin Yau |
author_facet | Pang, Tin Yau |
author_sort | Pang, Tin Yau |
collection | PubMed |
description | Standard evolutionary theory of ageing predicts weaker purifying selection on genes critical to later life stages. Prolonged post-reproductive lifespan (PPRLS), observed only in a few species like humans, is likely a result of disparate relaxation of purifying selection on survival and reproduction in late life stages. While the exact origin of PPRLS is under debate, many researchers agree on hypotheses like mother-care and grandmother-care, which ascribe PPRLS to investment into future generations—provision to one’s descendants to enhance their overall reproductive success. Here, we simulate an agent-based model, which properly accounts for age-specific selection, to examine how different investment strategies affect the strength of purifying selection on survival and reproduction. We observed in the simulations that investment strategies that allow a female individual to remain contributive to its own descendants (infants and adults) at late life stages may lead to differential relaxation of selection on survival and reproduction, and incur the adaptive evolution of PPRLS. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-7277242 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2020 |
publisher | The Royal Society |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-72772422020-06-11 On age-specific selection and extensive lifespan beyond menopause Pang, Tin Yau R Soc Open Sci Organismal and Evolutionary Biology Standard evolutionary theory of ageing predicts weaker purifying selection on genes critical to later life stages. Prolonged post-reproductive lifespan (PPRLS), observed only in a few species like humans, is likely a result of disparate relaxation of purifying selection on survival and reproduction in late life stages. While the exact origin of PPRLS is under debate, many researchers agree on hypotheses like mother-care and grandmother-care, which ascribe PPRLS to investment into future generations—provision to one’s descendants to enhance their overall reproductive success. Here, we simulate an agent-based model, which properly accounts for age-specific selection, to examine how different investment strategies affect the strength of purifying selection on survival and reproduction. We observed in the simulations that investment strategies that allow a female individual to remain contributive to its own descendants (infants and adults) at late life stages may lead to differential relaxation of selection on survival and reproduction, and incur the adaptive evolution of PPRLS. The Royal Society 2020-05-06 /pmc/articles/PMC7277242/ /pubmed/32537201 http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsos.191972 Text en © 2020 The Authors. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Published by the Royal Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/, which permits unrestricted use, provided the original author and source are credited. |
spellingShingle | Organismal and Evolutionary Biology Pang, Tin Yau On age-specific selection and extensive lifespan beyond menopause |
title | On age-specific selection and extensive lifespan beyond menopause |
title_full | On age-specific selection and extensive lifespan beyond menopause |
title_fullStr | On age-specific selection and extensive lifespan beyond menopause |
title_full_unstemmed | On age-specific selection and extensive lifespan beyond menopause |
title_short | On age-specific selection and extensive lifespan beyond menopause |
title_sort | on age-specific selection and extensive lifespan beyond menopause |
topic | Organismal and Evolutionary Biology |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7277242/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32537201 http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsos.191972 |
work_keys_str_mv | AT pangtinyau onagespecificselectionandextensivelifespanbeyondmenopause |