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- Nature magazine article reports tie between lifetime mutations and life span across a wide variety of species.
It is reported that todays issue of Nature Magazine includes an article reporting a correlation between typical total life time gene mutations and typical life span in a variety of species. I do not subscribe to that magazine and have not it or its abstract on the web.
But ... in an article in Science Daily that reports on that article, it is claimed that a group from Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute has found that the number of mutations accumulated by a species over an individuals typical life span is about 3200 - and that this value can be applied across a wide range of species.
My interpretation is that as a species evolves, genetic age-lengthening strategies tend to pay off until about 3200 mutations have formed. At which point extending life become a Darwinian "loosing cause".
But ... in an article in Science Daily that reports on that article, it is claimed that a group from Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute has found that the number of mutations accumulated by a species over an individuals typical life span is about 3200 - and that this value can be applied across a wide range of species.
My interpretation is that as a species evolves, genetic age-lengthening strategies tend to pay off until about 3200 mutations have formed. At which point extending life become a Darwinian "loosing cause".