Pang Tin Yau
Computational Cell Biology Group, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, 25.02 02.33, Universitätsstr 1, Düsseldorf 40225, Germany.
R Soc Open Sci. 2020 May 6;7(5):191972. doi: 10.1098/rsos.191972. eCollection 2020 May.
Standard evolutionary theory of ageing predicts weaker purifying selection on genes critical to later life stages. Prolonged post-reproductive lifespan (PPRLS), observed only in a few species like humans, is likely a result of disparate relaxation of purifying selection on survival and reproduction in late life stages. While the exact origin of PPRLS is under debate, many researchers agree on hypotheses like mother-care and grandmother-care, which ascribe PPRLS to investment into future generations-provision to one's descendants to enhance their overall reproductive success. Here, we simulate an agent-based model, which properly accounts for age-specific selection, to examine how different investment strategies affect the strength of purifying selection on survival and reproduction. We observed in the simulations that investment strategies that allow a female individual to remain contributive to its own descendants (infants and adults) at late life stages may lead to differential relaxation of selection on survival and reproduction, and incur the adaptive evolution of PPRLS.
标准的衰老进化理论预测，对生命后期阶段至关重要的基因上的净化选择会减弱。仅在人类等少数物种中观察到的延长的生殖后寿命（PPRLS），可能是生命后期阶段对生存和繁殖的净化选择不同程度放松的结果。虽然PPRLS的确切起源仍在争论中，但许多研究人员认同诸如母亲照料和祖母照料等假说，这些假说将PPRLS归因于对后代的投资——为子孙后代提供帮助以提高他们的整体繁殖成功率。在这里，我们模拟了一个基于主体的模型，该模型恰当地考虑了年龄特异性选择，以研究不同的投资策略如何影响对生存和繁殖的净化选择强度。我们在模拟中观察到，允许雌性个体在生命后期阶段继续为自己的后代（婴儿和成年个体）做出贡献的投资策略，可能会导致对生存和繁殖的选择出现不同程度的放松，并引发PPRLS的适应性进化。
