Is ageing inevitable, or can senescence and death be evaded? Large animals and plants always age if they live long enough; even individual cells from theirbodies cannot continue living and dividing indefinitely. Whether or not single-celled organisms also age and die, and what relation sex bore to the processof senescence, was the subject of vigorous debate and experimentation early in the last century. In this book, Dr Bell disinters and reanalyzes these forgotten experiments, and argues that protozoan lineages do indeed senesce, as theresult of an accumulated load of mutations that can be shed only through sexual reproduction. This unexpected connection between sex and death is the central theme of a book that will interest all students of evolutionary biology, sexuality and senescence. INDICE: List of illustrations; List of tables; Preface; 1. The question ofprotozoan immortality; 2. Sex and reproduction in ciliates and others; 3. Isolation cultures; 4. The fate of isolate cultures; 5. The culture environment; 6. Does sex rejuvenate?; 7. Germinal senescence in multicellular organisms; 8.The ratchet; 9. Soma and germ; 10. Mortality and immmortality in the germ line; 11. The function of sex; References; Index of first authors; Index of genera; Index of subjects.
- ISBN: 978-0-521-05670-0
- Editorial: Cambridge University
- Encuadernacion: Rústica
- Páginas: 216
- Fecha Publicación: 27/03/2008
- Nº Volúmenes: 1
- Idioma: Inglés