Centenarians- The role of genetics
This article opens by saying that it seems likely there is a genetic factor to long lifespan, because there have been plenty of people who make the same lifestyle choices of centenarians and face the same environmental factors, who pass away at an average age.
The article goes on to also question the genetic factor of centenarians. It states that "genes don't "care" about longevity because they're only concerned with procreation." They don't care whether a person lives to be 100 or 110. All genes care about is if a person has been able to reproduce.
The article uses the analogy of airplane engineers being similar to our genes. Engineers don't care if planes can fly all over the world in one flight, they just care that they can get rom point A to point B. This is similar to our genes not caring whether we get to be 100 or 110. All they care is that we get to the point of reproduction.
My question at this point, is if this theory is correct, why do we ever live beyond 40 years of age?
The article quickly answers my questions, stating that a longer lifespan allows for more child-bearing years and parents who can raise their children into adulthood.
The next section of the article discusses the Hayflick phenomenon. It says that cells follow a type of clock and are only able to make x number of cell divisions in their lifetime before they slow down and completely stop dividing. This is thought to be the genetic process of aging.
The article says that they started researching siblings who were both centenarians. At this point, it was hard for them to deny some type of genetic factor.
It's pretty interesting to think about what it could be like to outsmart mother nature and extend our biological/cell division clocks. Everything would change, wouldn't it?
ReplyDeleteHeidi- cool article. I think it matches well with what we've talked about in class!
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