Created June 24th, 1996. Copyright 1996 by Duane Hewitt
In the May 26th issue of Science it was reported that a group had successfully extended the lifespan of a nematode strain from 9 days to over two months by combining a small number of mutations. This is the most dramatic extension of the life span of any species to date.
These results support the hypothesis of a genetic master clock. The clk genes have been determined to affect the rate of the nematode's metabolism. This data supports the "rate of living" theory of aging which proposes that toxic metabolic by-products are a major contributing factor to the aging process.
Of course one must be cautiously optimistic about extrapolating this data to human biology. The developmental program of the nematode is very deterministic with each animal possessing exactly the same number of cells (959) which follow the same rigid developmental pathways. This is in contrast to human development which is much more complex and not as constrained. However, this does demonstrate that a small number of mutations can have a dramatic effect upon the life span of a species. This hypothesis is also supported by evolutionary history. Humans and chimpanzees differ by 2% in their genomes but differ by 3-fold in their maximum life spans.
To forward information or give feedback: duane@immortality.org