Mitigating the tithonus error: genetic analysis of mortality phenotypes.
Summarizing an organism's age at death in terms of the mean or maximum life-span is the most popular way to describe genetic effects on aging. In this Perspective, the author describes a new study with the fly Drosophila melanogaster, in which another type of measure is also used: the age-dependent risk of death, or age-specific mortality. Changes in age-specific mortality reflect the underlying physiological deterioration of an organism as it ages. Thus, the author argues that these changes provide a phenotype that is ideal for the genetic analysis of aging.
Pletcher
Scott D
SD
Department of Biology, University College London, London WC1E 6BT, UK. s.pletcher@ucl.ac.uk
D000375:Aging / Q000235:genetics*; D000818:Animals; D017173:Caenorhabditis elegans / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology; D004330:Drosophila / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology; D009026:Mortality; D010641:Phenotype; D012441:Saccharomyces cerevisiae / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology