title: What good is it to get old?
abstract: The physiologic basis for aging is still incompletely understood, and most investigators have looked at aging as a process of decay without any clear adaptive advantage to the species. It is proposed that aging has potential evolutionary advantages, and that the aging process may have been the subject of positive selection.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, Tulane University School of Medicine, New Orleans VA Medical Center (11G), LA 70112-2699, USA.
authors.forename: N J
authors.initials: NJ
authors.lastname: Nusbaum
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000375:Aging / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology*; D005075:Biological Evolution; D004261:DNA Replication; D004272:DNA, Mitochondrial / Q000235:genetics; D006801:Humans; D008136:Longevity; D008957:Models, Genetic; D009154:Mutation; D012641:Selection, Genetic
chemical_list: D004272:DNA, Mitochondrial