[extropy-chat] mutated lamin A likely key driver of human aging

[Robert Bradbury]

On 5/4/06, ben <benboc at lineone.net> wrote:
>
> Hm.
> How likely is it that a mutation, or set of mutations, would produce a
> very-long-lived human?
> I'd think we'd know about it if it happened. Unless the individuals were
> very crafty. I suppose they'd have reason to be.
>
> Highlander, anyone?
>

Given evolutionary biology and the molecular mechanisms of aging it is very
unlikely.  My guess is that Jeanne Marie Calment got very lucky and has an
optimal set of polymorphisms which reduced the rate of aging but did not
stop it.

That does not mean however that we cannot steal solutions which have evolved
in other directions.  The DNA double strand break repair machinery in some
bacterial species, and in particular Deinococcus radiodurans, is quite
different from that found in mammals and most eukaryotic cells.

You should view aging & cancer as flip sides of the same coin -- they
involve a variety of genes (potentially hundreds for both of them) and
fixing them all isn't going to be trivial -- and it is highly unlikely that
one would get there through natural evolutionary processes.

Robert
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