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Genetics of Survival
Author(s) -
SCHÄCHTER FRANÇOIS
Publication year - 2000
Publication title -
annals of the new york academy of sciences
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.712
H-Index - 248
eISSN - 1749-6632
pISSN - 0077-8923
DOI - 10.1111/j.1749-6632.2000.tb06636.x
Subject(s) - clarity , axiom , confusion , consistency (knowledge bases) , population , life expectancy , life span , gerontology , epistemology , sociology , psychology , biology , computer science , medicine , demography , mathematics , artificial intelligence , philosophy , biochemistry , geometry , psychoanalysis
A bstract : The fields of gerontology and genetics have merged, spawning novel lines of investigation and generating a wealth of new results in recent years. However, the lack of clarity and consistency in the basic definitions upon which the science of gerontology must rest has fostered a certain amount of enduring confusion. Among the unclear issues are the genetic components of life span and the distinction between “normal” and “pathologic” aging. At a time of massive world population aging, such issues have, beyond their scientific importance, a momentous social and economic impact. A simple axiomatic framework, consisting of three definitions and five axioms, is proposed that clarifies the aforementioned issues and reconciles disparate data in gerontology. Based on this framework, a new classification of genes involved in survival is proposed. Within the Compensatory Adaptation Theory of aging, apparent paradoxes are solved and problems in gerontology may be formulated anew.