Evolution and genetics of senescence in the wild

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All organisms age and eventually die. However, we know very little about the physiology that causes ageing or how ageing has evolved in the first place. We propose to study in detail how mortality risk changes with age and what the genetic contribution is to this. We reason that by understanding the underlying genetics we can both directly test how ageing has evolved, using methods that study how DNA sequences have changed through evolutionary time, and can deduce the mechanisms of ageing. We can then subsequently use this knowledge to understand what happens in a natural setting. Using novel statistics that we will develop, we will test for a genetic signal of ageing in natural populations. We will then identify the genes responsible for ageing using a model system, the fruitfly, and subsequently study both how these genes have changed through evolutionary time and the role of these specific genes in ageing in natural populations. We have gathered a team of international partners with the skills required to make this interdisciplinary project a success. Our work will contribute to understanding the fundamental biology of how and why ageing evolved, and will help us to begin to understand the genetic and cellular processes that cause ageing, with obvious potential future applications in medicine.