Müller H G, Carey J R, Wu D, Liedo P, Vaupel J W
Department of Statistics, University of California, Davis 95616, USA.
Proc Biol Sci. 2001 Mar 7;268(1466):445-50. doi: 10.1098/rspb.2000.1370.
Reproduction exacts a price in terms of decreased survival. Our analysis of the interplay between age patterns of fecundity and mortality for individual female medflies (Ceratitis capitata) revealed that individual mortality is associated with the time-dynamics of the egg-laying trajectory. In a sample of 531 medflies, we found that each individual has a characteristic rate of decline in egg laying with age. This defines an individual's rate of reproductive exhaustion. This rate was shown to predict subsequent mortality The larger the remaining reproductive potential, the lower the subsequent mortality An increased mortality risk was seen in flies for which egg production declined rapidly early on, irrespective of the level of egg production. Thus, reproductive potential and lifetime are coupled in such a way that those flies which are able to profit most from an extended life span in terms of increased egg output are indeed likely to live longer.
繁殖是以生存能力下降为代价的。我们对地中海实蝇（Ceratitis capitata）个体雌蝇的繁殖力和死亡率年龄模式之间的相互作用进行分析后发现，个体死亡率与产卵轨迹的时间动态相关。在531只地中海实蝇的样本中，我们发现每只个体都有随着年龄增长产卵量下降的特征速率。这定义了个体的生殖衰竭速率。结果表明，该速率能够预测随后的死亡率。剩余的生殖潜力越大，随后的死亡率越低。无论产卵量水平如何，早期产卵量迅速下降的果蝇的死亡风险都会增加。因此，生殖潜力和寿命是相互关联的，那些能够从延长寿命中在增加产卵量方面获得最大益处的果蝇确实更有可能活得更长。
