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Hallmarks of Biological Failure/OphelieRonce

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Notes by user Ophelie Ronce (UBC) for Hallmarks of Biological Failure

Post-meeting Reflection

1+ paragraphs on any combination of the following:

  • Presentation highlights
  • Open questions that came up
  • How your perspective changed
  • Impact on your own work
  • e.g. the discussion on [A] that we are having reminds me of [B] conference/[C] initiative/[D] funding call-for-proposal/[E] research group

Bernie Crespi:

The hypothesis/framework presented that risk of failure increases with linearity and tightness of coupling in the functioning of a system is interesting and stimulating, but I wondered about how to quantify these two axes in a practical manner in order to test this idea. How easy is it to classify biological systems on these axes? How much of this classification is artificial? I was also puzzled about how to separate these processes (brain functioning, immune response, and others) given their interactions and integration; but if all these different systems are integrated, then does it make sense to attribute risk of failure to properties of each system? Can this approach be adapted to take into account this integration?

The fact that some aspects of senescence may be due to overdefense in later age, seems in line with other observations and theories that senescence may be the result of protective systems dysfunctioning with age; I wondered about the role of our interaction with infectious diseases in shaping our biology and therefore our life history through these mechanisms.

I would like to learn more about how mental disorders match "attractors" potentiated by tight coupling; should read more about this.

Dario Valenzano:

A very nice study system in killifish populations and species where climate/aridity/habitat (temporal ponds) correlates with divergence in life history. Lots of different approaches (QTL, genomics, comparative analysis, phenotypic studies of aging): overall suggest that populations/species living in drier/more ephemeral habitats have accumulated a high genetic load affecting aging and lifespan through relaxed selection, which may be due in part to their demography with frequent bottlenecks

Reference material notes

Some examples:

  • Here is [A] database on [B] that I pull data from to do [C] analysis that might be of interest to this group (insert link).
  • Here is a free tool for calculating [ABC] (insert link)
  • This painting/sculpture/forms of artwork is emblematic to our discussion on [X]!
  • Schwartz et al. 2017 offers a review on [ABC] migration as relate to climatic factors (add the reference as well).

1) Tenaillon (2014) reviews the insights brought upon by Fisher Geometric model in evolutionary genetics: could it be useful as well for our understanding of aging?

2) Martin (2014) shows how and when Fisher geometric model of adaptation emerges from complex networks of interacting modules

3) Promislow and Moorad (2088) did use that framework to model aging; could it be used to address different questions about aging, dfferent attractors, resilience?

4) tipping points on one side and evolutonary theories of aging on the other have been discussed as distinct frameworks, which should be better connected; how tipping points may be affected by evolution was discussed in a recent review (interested in ecological tipping points mostly); it could be a good starting point to read Dakos et al. (2019)

5) another example of mutation accumulation affecting aging in daphnia in Lohr et al. (2014)

6) still another one on fitness landscapes but combined with data on antibiotic resistance evolution to address questions about how these fitness landscapes change with the environment/stress: check Harmand et al. (2017)

Reference Materials

Title Author name Source name Year Citation count From Scopus. Refreshed every 5 days. Page views Related file
The Utility of Fisher's Geometric Model in Evolutionary Genetics Phenotypic complexity: the number of statistically independent phenotypic traits an organism exposes to natural selection in a given environment Annu. Rev. Ecol. Evol. Syst 2014 0 0
Fisher's geometrical model emerges as a property of complex integrated phenotypic networks Genetics 2014 0 0
A theory of age-dependent mutation and senescence Genetics 2008 0 4
Reduced lifespan and increased ageing driven by genetic drift in small populations Evolution 2014 0 1
Ecosystem tipping points in an evolving world Nature Ecology and Evolution 2019 0 2
Fisher's geometrical model and the mutational patterns of antibiotic resistance across dose gradients Evolution 2017 0 1