Fruit

WHY CAN’T we live forev-
er?

Scientists as well as
laymen have contemplated
the onset of sagging muscles
and graying hair with
dismay. This dismay has
spawned more than a cen-
tury of serious biological
research into why we seem
programmed to age.

Now a young researcher at
Halifax’s Dalhousie Univer-
sity has experimentally ma-
nipulated the aging process
in fruit-flies. His work may
ultimately help attempts to
postpone human aging.

Dr. Michael Rose,
Associate Professor in the
department of Biology, has
bred fruitflies that lived 30
to 50 per cent longer than
their ordinary counterparts.
He did this by selectively
breeding the flies over sever-
al generations.

The flies’ longevity is not
without a pricetag, however.
These Methuselahs of the
fruitfly world suffer delayed
reproduction.

matter how careful we are,
an

flies

The ovaries of Dr. Rose’s
female fruitflies are about
half the size they should be
at adulthood. The females
do not reproduce as early as
normal fruitflies do and
hence have fewer offspring.

Dr. Rose is still studying
the male flies to see if they
too suffer from reduced

‘reproduction as a penalty for

living longer.

Dr. Rose feels he has pro-
vided the first clear experi-
mental results that support
one of the two major con-
flicting theories on the origin
of aging: the ‘‘physiological’’
and the ‘‘evolutionary’’
theories. :

The process of aging can-
not be simply explained on
the basis of accumulated
damage -- ‘‘wear and tear’’
of everyday life that even-
tually tires our biological
machines.

We seem to be program-
med with an internal biolog-
ical time clock, so that no
of

internal process

live to

deterioration, called
‘*senescence’’, is inevitable.
Even closely related species
have dramaticaly different
lifespans; for example,
humans live about twice as
long as chimpanzees.

The physiological theory
argues that each species has
a life span limited by its size,
metabolism etc. The evolu-

“PARK -ROVAL'NORTH -

~ QAKRIDGE
“266-8811

tionists, on the other hand,
feel that the life span is
something that has evolved
because it suits the survival
of the particular species.

The physiological theory
of aging has been very popu-
lar. Its proponents feel that
you ‘only go round once in
life’? and how fast you do it,
determines how quickly you

~ LANSDOWNE
273-7538 ©

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We-82D

13 - Wednesday, July 31, 1985 - North Shore News

ripe old age

physiological theory have
focused on genetic
breakdown as the root cause
See Theories
Page 15

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