william@rivendel.newcastle.ac.uk (William Coyne) (10/22/90)
Have any experiments ever been done in which many generations of an animal were prevented from breeding until they were near the upper end of the range of ages at which they can reproduce. Did the researchers find that the average lifespan of those animals tended to increase over the generations? Replies can be sent by email to - JANET: W.P.Coyne@uk.ac.newcastle UUCP : ...!ukc!newcastle.ac.uk!W.P.Coyne ARPA : W.P.Coyne%newcastle.ac.uk@nss.cs.ucl.ac.uk ............................................................
gagen@bgsuvax.UUCP (kathleen gagen) (10/24/90)
From article <1990Oct22.101226.22113@newcastle.ac.uk>, by william@rivendel.newcastle.ac.uk (William Coyne): > Have any experiments ever been done in which many generations of an > animal were prevented from breeding until they were near the upper > end of the range of ages at which they can reproduce. > > Did the researchers find that the average lifespan of those animals > tended to increase over the generations? > Selection for increased (and decreased) adult longevity has been done with Drosophila melanogaster (the fruit fly). Although the adults were not prevented from breeding at earlier ages, only offspring of old individuals were kept as parents of the next generation. The average adult longevity increased over the generations. It was also significantly different from that of lines selected for short longevity. Kathleen Gagen