by Impact Journals LLC – MedicalXpress
A new editorial paper titled “A novel theory of ageing independent of damage accumulation” has been published in Aging.
The underlying cause or causes of aging are an enduring mystery, but in 1977, Kirkwood postulated that organisms might gain a fitness advantage by reducing investment in somatic maintenance if this allowed them to invest more resources in more crucial processes such as reproduction. The accumulation of somatic damage was therefore inevitable, and his disposable soma theory has dominated gerontology ever since.
