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Naked mole-rat mortality rates defy Gompertzian laws by not increasing with age [pdf]

ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

1–10 of 21 posts

Re: Naked mole-rat mortality rates defy Gompertzian laws by not increasing with age [pdf]

#3

If the naked mole rat does not age in terms of negative consequences of age, what makes them die at 30?

Have not read the paper I assume that if you had a large enough mole rat population you would observe some of them to live beyond 30.

Re: Naked mole-rat mortality rates defy Gompertzian laws by not increasing with age [pdf]

#4

If the naked mole rat does not age in terms of negative consequences of age, what makes them die at 30?

The authors address this this to some degree in the Discussion. See the para beginning "Indeed, naked mole-rat mortality was less consistent with a typical Gompertz model of hazard than it was with an exponential decay model, with a constant probability of decay (death) defining a species’ half-life."

Re: Naked mole-rat mortality rates defy Gompertzian laws by not increasing with age [pdf]

#7
post #3

If the naked mole rat does not age in terms of negative consequences of age, what makes them die at 30?

Have not read the paper I assume that if you had a large enough mole rat population you would observe some of them to live beyond 30.

The total compiled sample size is rather small.

3848

Re: Naked mole-rat mortality rates defy Gompertzian laws by not increasing with age [pdf]

#8

If the naked mole rat does not age in terms of negative consequences of age, what makes them die at 30?

What makes them die younger is the real question. Their curve is pretty flat as a trend line (although with plenty of peaks and valleys) and seems to start at 600 day old mouse mortality rates. Although they are also infamously inbred.

I wonder if it would be possible to breed for lifespan by breeding only the 'elders' among them or if it would do about as much good as breeding for resistance to gunshots - outside circumstances not influencible.

Re: Naked mole-rat mortality rates defy Gompertzian laws by not increasing with age [pdf]

#9
post #3

If the naked mole rat does not age in terms of negative consequences of age, what makes them die at 30?

Have not read the paper I assume that if you had a large enough mole rat population you would observe some of them to live beyond 30.

Also we have mole rats in captivity above 30 years at this moment.

I guess we only have had size-able mole rat population for around 30 years.

Re: Naked mole-rat mortality rates defy Gompertzian laws by not increasing with age [pdf]

#10

If the naked mole rat does not age in terms of negative consequences of age, what makes them die at 30?

What makes them die younger is the real question. Their curve is pretty flat as a trend line (although with plenty of peaks and valleys) and seems to start at 600 day old mouse mortality rates. Although they are also infamously inbred. I wonder if it would be possible to breed for lifespan by breeding only the 'elders' among them or if it would do about as much good as breeding for resistance to gunshots - outside ci…

It works on fruit flies, see Rose, M. Laboratory Evolution of Postponed Senescence in Drosophila melanogaster. Evolution (1984), where the lifespan was doubled.

So this certainly works in principle. For longer lived species I expect it will still work, but it would take hundreds to thousands of years to breed for even a few dozen generations.

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