From: Rafal Smigrodzki (rms2g@virginia.edu)
Date: Wed Aug 28 2002 - 15:51:28 MDT
Phil Osborn wrote:
Another systemic cause of aging - altho related to the
genome corruption you wrote of - is likely simply an
evolutionary strategy. We are born typically with a
diverse population of mitochondria of varying degrees
of capability and durability, mainly based on their
genomes.
### Actually, evidence (e.g. recent articles from the Attardi group, and
many others) is for the opposite - the infant is largely homoplasmic, and
diversity develops only with aging.
-----
The ones that run really hot burn themselves and the
cells they power out first, when we are young and
stupid and need every edge to survive. Then the
majority population hums along through our normal
breeding years. A few real slowpokes concentrate in a
smaller population of cells that can last a long time,
due to lessor free radical damage, altho they also
have lessor general capability of doing anything
useful, which is what we end up with when age starts
really catching up.
### Again, the opposite - mitos with lower membrane potential produce more
free radicals and less energy.
Rafal
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