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Informational hypothesis of aging: How does the germ line “avoid” aging?

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Abstract

An informational hypothesis of aging is formulated, and a model is proposed for the survival of a population of multicellular organisms under conditions of informational degradation of the cell genetic material (accumulation of random errors in the genome). The germline cells are not anyhow privileged in this respect, but the genetic material undergoes “rejuvenation” (decrease in the number of errors) during its transition from parents to progeny, owing to meiotic crossover (which changes the error density in individual gametes) and subsequent selection of the most functional (i.e. most error-free) gametes to form the progeny genomes. With a simulation-type model, it is shown that such a mechanism ensures stability of the population gene pool in many generations, though in any individual organism the amount of genome errors in all cells increases with aging.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Cell Biophysics, Russian Academy of Sciences, Pushchino, Moscow Region, 142290, Russia

    A. V. Karnaukhov & E. V. Karnaukhova

Authors
  1. A. V. Karnaukhov
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  2. E. V. Karnaukhova
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Original Russian Text © A.V. Karnaukhov, E.V. Karnaukhova, 2009, published in Biofizika, 2009, Vol. 54, No. 4, pp. 726–732.

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Karnaukhov, A.V., Karnaukhova, E.V. Informational hypothesis of aging: How does the germ line “avoid” aging?. BIOPHYSICS 54, 531–535 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1134/S0006350909040216

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1134/S0006350909040216

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