Raubenheimer David, Simpson Stephen J, Le Couteur David G, Solon-Biet Samantha M, Coogan Sean C P
Charles Perkins Centre, The University of Sydney, NSW, Australia; School of Life and Environmental Sciences, The University of Sydney, NSW, Australia.
Charles Perkins Centre, The University of Sydney, NSW, Australia; School of Life and Environmental Sciences, The University of Sydney, NSW, Australia.
Exp Gerontol. 2016 Dec 15;86:50-61. doi: 10.1016/j.exger.2016.04.007. Epub 2016 Apr 16.
Considerable progress has been made in understanding both evolutionary and mechanistic aspects of biological aging, although the two areas remain poorly integrated. We suggest that a greater emphasis on ecology can help to remedy this, by focusing on the interface between biological mechanisms and the environments in which they evolved by natural selection. Among the most salient aspects of the environment relevant to aging is nutrition, and yet in the bulk of aging research nutrition is coarsely represented as dietary restriction or caloric restriction, without consideration for how specific components of diet, beyond "energy" (the undifferentiated mix of macronutrients), are driving the observed effects. More recently, it has become clear that specific nutrients (notably amino acids) and interactions among nutrients (i.e., nutritional balance) play important roles in the biology of aging. We show how a method developed in nutritional ecology, called the Geometric Framework for nutrition, can help to understand the nutritional interactions of animals with their environments, by explicitly distinguishing the roles of calories, individual nutrients and nutrient balance. Central to these models are the active regulatory responses that animals use to mediate between variation in the nutritional environment and fitness-related consequences such as lifespan and reproduction. These homeostatic responses provide a guide for researchers that can help to link the biological mechanisms with evolutionary processes in the context of a multi-dimensional nutritional environment.
尽管在理解生物衰老的进化和机制方面均已取得了显著进展，但这两个领域的整合程度仍然很低。我们认为，通过关注生物机制与其在自然选择中进化所处环境之间的界面，更加强调生态学有助于弥补这一不足。与衰老相关的环境中最显著的方面之一是营养，然而在大多数衰老研究中，营养被粗略地表示为饮食限制或热量限制，而没有考虑除“能量”（未区分的大量营养素混合物）之外的饮食特定成分是如何驱动所观察到的效应的。最近，已经清楚的是，特定营养素（特别是氨基酸）以及营养素之间的相互作用（即营养平衡）在衰老生物学中发挥着重要作用。我们展示了营养生态学中开发的一种方法，称为营养几何框架，如何通过明确区分热量、单个营养素和营养平衡的作用，帮助理解动物与其环境之间的营养相互作用。这些模型的核心是动物用来在营养环境变化与诸如寿命和繁殖等与适应性相关的后果之间进行调节的主动调节反应。这些稳态反应为研究人员提供了一个指导，有助于在多维营养环境的背景下将生物机制与进化过程联系起来。
