Discover Community Create You

Loading publication...

Noodle always counts identifier-free feature events for service operation. With your permission, Google Analytics can also estimate audience and engagement. Search text, publication identifiers, cookies, IP addresses and browser fingerprints are never included in Noodle's first-party event counters.

Privacy details

Article

Senescence as an adaptation to limit the spread of disease.

Journal of theoretical biology - 21 Sept 2009

Mitteldorf Josh, Pepper John

Abstract excerpt

Aging has the hallmarks of an evolved adaptation. It is controlled by genes that have been conserved over vast evolutionary distances, and most organisms are able to forestall aging in the most challenging of environments. But fundamental theoretical considerations imply that there can be no direct selection for aging. Senescence reduces individual fitness, and any group benefits are weak and widely dispersed...

Read the complete abstract on PubMed

Topics

Share this publication in a Topic to start or enrich a Post.

Share to Adaptation, Physiological
Share to Aging
Share to Biological Evolution

Methodology Data sources Editorial policy Privacy About Contact Helena Bioinformatics

Share to Epidemics

Share to Longevity

Share to Mortality

Share to Population Density

Share to Selection, Genetic

Source

Identifiers

PMID: 19481552
DOI: 10.1016/j.jtbi.2009.05.013

Provenance

PubMed metadata and Literature Corpus relationships. Corpus snapshot updated 7 Sept 2026. Manifest publication-graph-cohort-2026-09-08.1.

Source receipt: pubmed, retrieved 7 Sept 2026.

Related research

Semantic proximity does not establish scientific evidence.

Research trail→

Click a neighbor to travelStep 1 · 12 closest

Senescence as an adaptation to limit the spread of disease.PMID 19481552Read ↗

Directional selection coupled with kin selection favors the establishment of senescence.Semantic proximity Read ↗

Optimal virulence in ageing populationsSemantic proximity Read ↗

Demographic changes and behavioural responses shape vulnerability to infectious disease outbreaksSemantic proximity Read ↗

The evolutionary ecology of senescenceSemantic proximity Read ↗

Maladaptation as a source of senescence in habitats variable in space and time.Semantic proximity Read ↗

Host Demise as a Beneficial Function of Indigenous Microbiota in Human HostsSemantic proximity Read ↗

Change and aging senescence as an adaptation.Semantic proximity Read ↗

Protection from epidemics is a driving force for evolution of lifespan setpointsSemantic proximity Read ↗

Demography, life history and the evolution of age-dependent social behaviour.Semantic proximity Read ↗

Evolutionary demographic models reveal the strength of purifying selection on susceptibility alleles to late-onset diseases.Semantic proximity Read ↗

Kin competition, natal dispersal and the moulding of senescence by natural selection.Semantic proximity Read ↗

Evolutionary significance of ageing in the wild.Semantic proximity Read ↗

⌁Select a neighboring publication to make it the new centre.