Lenart Peter, Bienertová-Vašků Julie
Department of Pathological Physiology, Faculty of Medicine, Masaryk University, Kamenice 5, Building A18, 625 00, Brno, Czech Republic.
Research Centre for Toxic Compounds in the Environment, Faculty of Science, Masaryk University, Kamenice 5, Building A29, 625 00, Brno, Czech Republic.
Biogerontology. 2017 Aug;18(4):693-709. doi: 10.1007/s10522-016-9674-4. Epub 2016 Dec 24.
For decades, a vast majority of biogerontologists assumed that aging is not and cannot be an adaptation. In recent years, however, several authors opposed this predominant view and repeatedly suggested that not only is aging an adaptation but that it is the result of a specific aging program. This issue almost instantaneously became somewhat controversial and many important authors produced substantial works refuting the notion of the aging program. In this article we review the current state of the debate and list the most important arguments proposed by both sides. Furthermore, although classical interpretations of the evolution of aging are in sharp contrast with the idea of programmed aging, we suggest that the truth might in fact very well lie somewhere in between. We also propose our own interpretation which states that although aging is in essence inevitable and results from damage accumulation rather than from a specific program, the actual rate of aging in nature may still be adaptive to some extent.
几十年来，绝大多数生物老年学家都认为衰老不是也不可能是一种适应性特征。然而，近年来，几位作者反对这一主流观点，并多次提出衰老不仅是一种适应性特征，而且是特定衰老程序的结果。这个问题几乎立刻就变得有些争议性，许多重要的作者发表了大量著作来反驳衰老程序的概念。在本文中，我们回顾了当前的争论现状，并列出了双方提出的最重要的论点。此外，尽管对衰老进化的传统解释与程序化衰老的观点形成了鲜明对比，但我们认为事实可能实际上介于两者之间。我们还提出了自己的解释，即虽然衰老本质上是不可避免的，是由损伤积累而非特定程序导致的，但自然界中实际的衰老速度在某种程度上可能仍然是适应性的。
