A general corollary of population genetic theories of senescence is that the culture of outbred laboratory populations using females of later ages should lead to the evolution of postponed senescence. This has been tested before, but the predicted results have not been consistently reproducible. An experiment of this kind was both repeated and replicated, using a previously studied
Drosophila melanogaster
population. The results uniformly corroborated the evolutionary theory of senescence. Senescence was consistently postponed. Other, anomalous, results are explained in terms of experimental artifact.
Reproduced by permission.
Michael R. Rose, Laboratory Evolution of Postponed Senescence in
Drosophila Melanogaster.
Evolution
38
, 1004-1010 (1984).
RAPID LABORATORY EVOLUTION OF ADULT LIFE-HISTORY TRAITS IN DROSOPHILA MELANOGASTER
IN RESPONSE TO TEMPERATURE
