Michael R. Rose
Encyclopedia
Michael R. Rose is a Professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of California, Irvine
. His advisor was Brian Charlesworth
. His main area of work has been the evolution of aging
. In 1991, he published Evolutionary Biology of Aging exploring a view of the subject based on Antagonistic Pleiotropy. This is the hypothesis that aging is caused by genes that have two effects, one acting early in life and the other much later. The genes are adopted by natural selection as a result of their early benefits, and the costs that accrue much later appear as incidental side-effects that we identify as aging. The phenomenon was first described by George C. Williams
in 1957, but it was Rose who coined the phrase Antagonistic Pleiotropy.
Rose's laboratory has conducted the longest-running artificial selection experiment designed to test the theory of Antagonistic Pleiotropy. Fruit flies are being bred for longevity by collecting eggs from the longest-lived flies in each generation. The experiment has run since 1981, and has produced flies with quadruple the original life span. The prediction of the Antagonistic Pleiotropy hypothesis was that these long-lived flies would have much lower fertility early in life. The result has been the opposite - that the long-lived flies actually lay more eggs at every stage of life. Rose explains this result in terms of an interaction between genotype and environment. The long-lived flies show other weaknesses that would make them poor competitors in the wild, and perhaps these traits are the true areas of Antagonistic Pleiotropy.
The field of aging biology is divided between those who think that it will be very difficult to develop technology to postpone human aging and those who expect breakthroughs in this field in the near future. Rose is an outspoken advocate for the latter position.
In 1997, Rose was awarded the Busse Research Prize by the World Congress of Gerontology. His most recent book is The Long Tomorrow: How Advances in Evolutionary Biology Can Help Us Postpone Aging. He is one of the biologists featured in the innovative 1995 science documentary
Death by Design / The Life and Times of Life and Times.
University of California, Irvine
The University of California, Irvine , founded in 1965, is one of the ten campuses of the University of California, located in Irvine, California, USA...
. His advisor was Brian Charlesworth
Brian Charlesworth
Professor Brian Charlesworth FRS is a British evolutionary biologist at the University of Edinburgh, and editor of Biology Letters....
. His main area of work has been the evolution of aging
Evolution of ageing
Enquiry into the evolution of ageing aims to explain why almost all living things weaken and die with age. There is not yet agreement in the scientific community on a single answer...
. In 1991, he published Evolutionary Biology of Aging exploring a view of the subject based on Antagonistic Pleiotropy. This is the hypothesis that aging is caused by genes that have two effects, one acting early in life and the other much later. The genes are adopted by natural selection as a result of their early benefits, and the costs that accrue much later appear as incidental side-effects that we identify as aging. The phenomenon was first described by George C. Williams
George C. Williams
Professor George Christopher Williams was an American evolutionary biologist.Williams was a professor emeritus of biology at the State University of New York at Stony Brook. He was best known for his vigorous critique of group selection. The work of Williams in this area, along with W. D...
in 1957, but it was Rose who coined the phrase Antagonistic Pleiotropy.
Rose's laboratory has conducted the longest-running artificial selection experiment designed to test the theory of Antagonistic Pleiotropy. Fruit flies are being bred for longevity by collecting eggs from the longest-lived flies in each generation. The experiment has run since 1981, and has produced flies with quadruple the original life span. The prediction of the Antagonistic Pleiotropy hypothesis was that these long-lived flies would have much lower fertility early in life. The result has been the opposite - that the long-lived flies actually lay more eggs at every stage of life. Rose explains this result in terms of an interaction between genotype and environment. The long-lived flies show other weaknesses that would make them poor competitors in the wild, and perhaps these traits are the true areas of Antagonistic Pleiotropy.
The field of aging biology is divided between those who think that it will be very difficult to develop technology to postpone human aging and those who expect breakthroughs in this field in the near future. Rose is an outspoken advocate for the latter position.
In 1997, Rose was awarded the Busse Research Prize by the World Congress of Gerontology. His most recent book is The Long Tomorrow: How Advances in Evolutionary Biology Can Help Us Postpone Aging. He is one of the biologists featured in the innovative 1995 science documentary
Documentary
A documentary is a creative work of non-fiction, including:* Documentary film, including television* Radio documentary* Documentary photographyRelated terms include:...
Death by Design / The Life and Times of Life and Times.