Parsons Peter A
La Trobe University, Bundoora, Victoria, Australia.
Biogerontology. 2004;5(3):201-10. doi: 10.1023/b:bgen.0000031225.11101.28.
Simplistically, high fitness depends upon high energy efficiency in the stressful habitats of organisms in the wild. Rapid development and high survival to adulthood should be followed by long-lived stress-resistant genotypes under this reductionist model. Empirical evidence is very limited because of the common use of benign laboratory environments, which remains a major difficulty in understanding relationships between life-history traits under more natural settings. Heterozygotes tend to show greater energy efficiency than do corresponding homozygotes especially in stressful environments, which leads the above connections among fitness traits. In particular rapid development and increased longevity should be correlated, and underwritten by the availability of metabolic energy. Empirical work is needed based upon severe stresses where a small environmental perturbation cases lethality; drought, heat and nutritional inadequacy are suitable candidate stresses. The importance of viewing fitness in energy terms is emphasized throughout. A byproduct is the potential to fuse functional and evolutionary biology under stressful environments.
简单来说，在野外生物所处的压力环境中，高适应性依赖于高能量效率。在这种简化模型下，快速发育和高成年存活率之后应伴随着长寿且抗应激的基因型。由于普遍使用良性实验室环境，实证证据非常有限，这仍然是理解更自然环境下生活史特征之间关系的一个主要困难。杂合子往往比相应的纯合子表现出更高的能量效率，尤其是在压力环境中，这导致了适应性特征之间的上述联系。特别是快速发育和延长寿命应该相互关联，并以代谢能量的可获得性为支撑。需要基于严重压力开展实证研究，在这种情况下，微小的环境扰动就会导致死亡；干旱、高温和营养不足是合适的候选压力因素。文中始终强调从能量角度看待适应性的重要性。一个附带成果是在压力环境下将功能生物学和进化生物学融合的潜力。
