On Sun, Mar 12, 2000 at 08:18:48PM -0800, Doug Skrecky wrote:
> Title
> What triggers senescence in Podospora
> anserina?.
Random query (from someone who is _way_ to out of date in the biological
sciences):
Is anyone contemplating the possibility that senescence in mammals and
some other vertebrates may be due to the presence of one or more archaic
retroviruses? I'm thinking in particular of telomere shortening, and
mitochondrial efficiency decline, and so on. Such a virus wouldn't be
selected out if it had a long, slow onset -- as witness the appearance
of CJD being a hereditary trait rather than a very slow infection that
is transmitted to the next generation in utero, long before the mother
succumbs to it. It'd need some sort of "reset switch" (triggered at time
of meiosis, maybe?) but I can't help thinking that a viral hypothesis
might explain the fact that there exist animals that _don't_ appear
to age.
-- Charlie
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