Michael Rose
University of California, Irvine, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Faculty Member
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Michael R. Rose’s 1991 book Evolutionary Biology of Aging offered a view of aging that was a complete departure from ... moreMichael R. Rose’s 1991 book Evolutionary Biology of Aging offered a view of aging that was a complete departure from the views that had dominated the aging field since 1960. In 1997, Rose was awarded the Busse Research Prize by the World Congress of Gerontology. In 2004, he published a technical summary of his work on the postponement of aging in Drosophila, Methuselah Flies, followed by a 2005 popular book, The Long Tomorrow. His most recent book, with L.D. Mueller and C.L. Rauser, is 2011’s Does Aging Stop? He is currently a Professor at the University of California, Irvine. edit
We conducted concurrent measurements of rates of CO2 and H2O release from individual fruit flies Drosophila melanogaster taken from populations subjected to three different selective regimes: (1) populations selected for resistance to... more
We conducted concurrent measurements of rates of CO2 and H2O release from individual fruit flies Drosophila melanogaster taken from populations subjected to three different selective regimes: (1) populations selected for resistance to desiccation (D flies); (2) populations maintained as their controls (C flies); and (3) the ancestral populations of the D and C populations (O flies). In the D flies, water loss rates were significantly reduced, the standard error of the regression (SER) of the CO2 release pattern measured over the survival period of the flies was increased, and the ratio of CO2 loss to H2O loss (VCO2/VH2O) was increased. Correlations across all 15 populations from the three selection treatments indicate that survival time was negatively correlated with water loss rate, positively correlated with the SER of CO2 release and positively correlated with the VCO2/VH2O ratio. We did not, however, find a significant correlation between the SER of CO2 release and rates of wate...
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Evolving Human Nutrition: Implications for Public Health . Cambridge Studies in Biological and Evolutionary Anthropology, Volume 64. By Stanley J. Ulijaszek , Neil Mann , and Sarah Elton . Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press. $99.00. vii + 405 p.; ill.; index. ISBN: 978-0-521-86916...more
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Theoretical ecology requires simulation because real istic ecosystem models are too complex for mathemati cal analysis. In this paper we propose a way of moving from a complex simulation model based on the "mechanics" of an... more
Theoretical ecology requires simulation because real istic ecosystem models are too complex for mathemati cal analysis. In this paper we propose a way of moving from a complex simulation model based on the "mechanics" of an ecosystem to a much simpler model that exhibits behaviour similar to that of the origi nal model in its major features. The tool used to isolate the key characteristics of the original model is sensitivity analysis. It enables the investigator to identify the variables and parameters that deter mine the essential behaviour of the original model and to formulate a clear picture of that behaviour. With this information in hand, the investigator can devise a simplified model that exhibits the same essential behaviour. While the simplified model behaves like the original model, its inner workings only generally parallel those of the original. Its simplicity allows the investigator to test his intuitive ideas directly, clarifying understanding of the ecosyst...
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There used to be a broad split within the experimental genetics research community between those who did mechanistic research using homozygous laboratory strains and those who studied patterns of genetic variation in wild populations. The... more
There used to be a broad split within the experimental genetics research community between those who did mechanistic research using homozygous laboratory strains and those who studied patterns of genetic variation in wild populations. The former benefited from the advantage of reproducible experiments, but faced difficulties of interpretation given possible genomic and evolutionary complexities. The latter research approach featured readily interpreted evolutionary and genomic contexts, particularly phylogeny, but was poor at determining functional significance. Such burgeoning experimental strategies as genome-wide analysis of quantitative trait loci, genotype–phenotype associations, and the products of experimental evolution are now fostering a unification of experimental genetic research that strengthens its scientific power.
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Five laboratory populations of Drosophila melanogaster which exhibit postponed senescence were compared with five control populations. Comparisons were made with respect to weights of whole bodies, body parts, and water content. Ovaries... more
Five laboratory populations of Drosophila melanogaster which exhibit postponed senescence were compared with five control populations. Comparisons were made with respect to weights of whole bodies, body parts, and water content. Ovaries of young adults from populations exhibiting postponed senescence were approximately half the weight of ovaries of flies from control populations. This result was obtained in two experiments. Whole wet body weight was significantly greater for control populations in one experiment, but not in a second. Males from control populations had significantly less proportional water content than males from populations exhibiting postponed senescence. The reduction in young adult ovary weight in flies from populations with postponed senescence supports the concept of a trade-off between reproductive effort and longevity.
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Theoretical Models in Ecology.- Models Covered Here.- 1. Population Growth.- 1.1 Linear Continuous-Time Models.- The "Malthusian" or Density-Independent Model.- The Logistic Model.- 1.2 Nonlinear Continuous-Time Models.- General... more
Theoretical Models in Ecology.- Models Covered Here.- 1. Population Growth.- 1.1 Linear Continuous-Time Models.- The "Malthusian" or Density-Independent Model.- The Logistic Model.- 1.2 Nonlinear Continuous-Time Models.- General Autonomous Models.- Density-Independent Nonautonomous Models.- 1.3 Discrete-Time Models.- Density-Independent Model.- Discrete-Time Logistic Model.- General Autonomous Models.- Density-Independent Nonautonomous Models.- Time-Lag Models.- 1.4 Models with Age-Structure.- Discrete-Time: The Leslie Matrix.- Continuous-Time Models.- 1.5 Exercises.- 2. Competition.- 2.1 Lotka-Volterra Models: Special Cases.- No Carrying Capacities.- One Carrying Capacity.- 2.2 Classical Lotka-Volterra Model.- 2.3 General Continuous-Time Models.- 2.4 Discrete-Time Models.- General Two-Species Models.- The Hassell-Comins Model.- 2.5 Symbiosis.- Lotka-Volterra Models.- General Continuous-Time Models.- 2.6 Exercises.- 3. Predation.- 3.1 Lotka-Volterra Models.- Original Lotka-Volterra Model.- An Alternative Lotka-Volterra Model.- 3.2 Generalized Predator-Prey Models.- 3.3 Discrete-Time Models.- Lotka-Volterra Model without Density-Dependence.- Lotka-Volterra Model with Density-Dependence.- Other Discrete-Time Predation Models.- 3.4 Parasitoid Models.- A General Model.- Classical Nicholson-Bailey Model.- Nicholson-Bailey Model with Density-Dependence.- Generalized Nicholson-Bailey Model.- 3.5 Exercises.- 4. Simple Ecosystems.- 4.1 Two Predators and One Prey.- Continuous-Time Models.- Discrete-Time Models: Two Parasitoids.- 4.2 One Predator and Two Prey.- Continuous-Time Models.- Discrete-Time Models: Polyphagous Parasitoids.- 4.3 Three-Species Food Chains.- Continuous-Time Models.- Discrete-Time Models: Parasitoid-Hyperparasitoid Systems.- 4.4 Exercises.- 5. Complex Ecosystems.- 5.1 Local Equilibrium Stability.- Time-Structure and Local Asymptotic Stability.- Arbitrary Complexity and Local Stability.- Ecosystem Model Structure and Local Stability.- 5.2 Global Complex Ecosystem Dynamics.- 6. Migration.- 6.1 Population Growth with Migration.- Recipient Peripheral Populations.- Migrant Pool Model.- Two Habitats.- 6.2 Competition with Migration.- Recipient Peripheral Populations.- Migrant Pool Model.- Two Habitats.- 6.3 Predation with Migration.- Recipient Peripheral Populations.- Migrant Pool Model.- Two Habitats.- 6.4 Ecosystems with Migration.- 6.5 Exercises.
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Statistics and Biometrics
Evolutionary theory leads to the general expectation that dietary restriction will often result in increased survival probabilities, and thus increased lifespan. The reaction norm is a basic tool of evolutionary analysis that quantifies... more
Evolutionary theory leads to the general expectation that dietary restriction will often result in increased survival probabilities, and thus increased lifespan. The reaction norm is a basic tool of evolutionary analysis that quantifies the relationship between environmental parameters and functional characters, including reproduction and longevity. In rodents, the reaction norm connecting adult longevity to caloric intake is fairly steep; small changes in intake lead to large changes in longevity. If this strong quantitative relationship were evolutionarily conserved among all mammals, then the prospects for a substantial increase in human lifespan from caloric restriction would be very good. In theory, however, reaction norms are expected to evolve for fitness related characters such as reproduction and survival. It has been shown experimentally in Drosophila that dietary reaction norms readily evolve in the laboratory, suggesting that they can do so among mammals as well, particularly over the millions of years since contemporary rodents and primates last shared a common ancestor. Our previous work crudely estimates that the dietary reaction norms of rodents and humans have diverged substantially, with a very flat dietary reaction norm for human longevity. These general principles and our specific results suggest that the benefits from human caloric restriction would be minor.
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Plasticity, Aging, Biology, Phenotypic Plasticity, Medicine, and 14 moreEvolutionary theory, Longevity, Dietary Restriction, Humans, Biogerontology, Animals, Biological evolution, Eating, Clinical Sciences, Caloric Restriction, Species Specificity, Environment, Environmental Parameter, and Survival Probability
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Abstract We doubt that primary sociopathy is adaptive, for three reasons: First, its prevalence is too low to require an adaptive explanation. Second, a common sequela of damage to the orbito-frontal lobes is “pseudopsychopathy.” Any... more
Abstract We doubt that primary sociopathy is adaptive, for three reasons: First, its prevalence is too low to require an adaptive explanation. Second, a common sequela of damage to the orbito-frontal lobes is “pseudopsychopathy.” Any pattern of behavior that can be produced by brain damage is unlikely to be adaptive. Third, we argue that most human social behavior is not under tight genetic control, but is produced by open-ended calculation of fitness-contingencies.
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The conquest of aging is now within our grasp. It hasn't arrived yet, writes Michael R. Rose, but a scientific juggernaut has started rolling and is picking up speed. A long tomorrow is coming. In The Long Tomorrow, Rose offers us a... more
The conquest of aging is now within our grasp. It hasn't arrived yet, writes Michael R. Rose, but a scientific juggernaut has started rolling and is picking up speed. A long tomorrow is coming. In The Long Tomorrow, Rose offers us a delightfully written account of the modern science of aging, spiced with intriguing stories of his own career and leavened with the author's engaging sense of humor and rare ability to make contemporary research understandable to nonscientists. The book ranges from Rose's first experiments while a ...
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Abstract.—Aging appears to cease at late ages, when mortality rates roughly plateau in large-scale demographic studies. This anomalous plateau in late-life mortality has been explained theoretically in two ways:(1) as a strictly... more
Abstract.—Aging appears to cease at late ages, when mortality rates roughly plateau in large-scale demographic studies. This anomalous plateau in late-life mortality has been explained theoretically in two ways:(1) as a strictly demographic result of heterogeneity in life-long robustness between individuals within cohorts, and (2) as an evolutionary result of the plateau in the force of natural selection after the end of reproduction. Here we test the latter theory using cohorts of Drosophila melanogaster cultured with different ages of ...
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Evolutionary Biology, Genetics, Population Genetics, Aging, Evolution, and 15 moreDrosophila melanogaster, Natural Selection, Evolutionary theory, Longevity, Mutation, Female, Animals, Male, Biological evolution, Time Factors, Genetic Divergence, Large Scale, Mutation Accumulation, Mortality rate, and hybrid vigor
James N. Kezos*ah, Mark A. Phillipsab, Misty D. Thomasc, Akamu J. Ewunkemb, Grant A. Rutledgeaf, Thomas T. Bartera, Marta A. Santosae, Brandon D. Wonga, Kenneth R. Arnolda, Laura A. Humphreya, Albert Yana, Chloe Nouzillea, Isaias... more
James N. Kezos*ah, Mark A. Phillipsab, Misty D. Thomasc, Akamu J. Ewunkemb, Grant A. Rutledgeaf, Thomas T. Bartera, Marta A. Santosae, Brandon D. Wonga, Kenneth R. Arnolda, Laura A. Humphreya, Albert Yana, Chloe Nouzillea, Isaias Sancheza, Larry G. Cabralag, Timothy J. Bradleya, Laurence D. Muellera, Joseph L. Graves Jrc, and Michael R. Rosea a Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, School of Biological Sciences, University of California, Irvine, CA 92697-2525
found in Mendelian crosses. Crossing over, as Garland In “Crossing Over ohne Chiasmatypie?,” published in Allen noted, thus became a foundational assumption the second volume of Genetics, Goldschmidt did not, of in the subsequent... more
found in Mendelian crosses. Crossing over, as Garland In “Crossing Over ohne Chiasmatypie?,” published in Allen noted, thus became a foundational assumption the second volume of Genetics, Goldschmidt did not, of in the subsequent articulation of the Mendelian chrocourse, deny that crossing over or genetic recombinamosome theory of heredity. Morgan and his co-workers tion took place. Rather, he questioned the chiasmatype proposed a “beads-on-a-string” model of the chromohypothesis. While praising the work of the Morgan some, with genes represented as particulate beads school by noting that they had provided, through the strung together linearly like pearls on a necklace. Crosscombined analysis of cytological observations and breeding over was invoked to explain the linked traits in ing experiments, “the most important enrichment of terms of the proximity of these particulate genes along genetics in the last few years,” Goldschmidt nonetheless a chromosome. Genes that were farther apa...
Studies combining experimental evolution and next-generation sequencing have found that adaptation in sexually reproducing populations is primarily fueled by standing genetic variation. Consequently, the response to selection is rapid and... more
Studies combining experimental evolution and next-generation sequencing have found that adaptation in sexually reproducing populations is primarily fueled by standing genetic variation. Consequently, the response to selection is rapid and highly repeatable across replicate populations. Some studies suggest that the response to selection is highly repeatable at both the phenotypic and genomic levels, and that evolutionary history has little impact. Other studies suggest that even when the response to selection is repeatable phenotypically, evolutionary history can have significant impacts at the genomic level. Here we test two hypotheses that may explain this discrepancy. Hypothesis 1: Past intense selection reduces evolutionary repeatability at the genomic and phenotypic levels when conditions change. Hypothesis 2: Previous intense selection does not reduce evolutionary repeatability, but other evolutionary mechanisms may. We test these hypotheses using D. melanogaster populations t...
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Model organisms subjected to sustained experimental evolution often show levels of phenotypic differentiation that dramatically exceed the phenotypic differences observed in natural populations. Genome-wide sequencing of pooled... more
Model organisms subjected to sustained experimental evolution often show levels of phenotypic differentiation that dramatically exceed the phenotypic differences observed in natural populations. Genome-wide sequencing of pooled populations then offers the opportunity to make inferences about the genes that are the cause of these phenotypic differences. We tested, through computer simulations, the efficacy of a statistical learning technique called the "fused lasso additive model" (FLAM). We focused on the ability of FLAM to distinguish between genes which are differentiated and directly affect a phenotype from differentiated genes which have no effect on the phenotype. FLAM can separate these two classes of genes even with relatively small samples (10 populations, in total). The efficacy of FLAM is improved with increased number of populations, reduced environmental phenotypic variation, and increased within-treatment among-replicate variation. FLAM was applied to SNP vari...
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The relative impact of selection, chance and history will determine the predictability of evolution. There is a lack of empirical research on this subject, particularly in sexual organisms. Here we use experimental evolution to test the... more
The relative impact of selection, chance and history will determine the predictability of evolution. There is a lack of empirical research on this subject, particularly in sexual organisms. Here we use experimental evolution to test the predictability of evolution. We analyse the real-time evolution of Drosophila subobscura populations derived from contrasting European latitudes placed in a novel laboratory environment. Each natural population was sampled twice within a three-year interval. We study evolutionary responses at both phenotypic (life-history, morphological and physiological traits) and karyotypic levels for around 30 generations of laboratory culture. Our results show (1) repeatable historical effects between years in the initial state, at both phenotypic and karyotypic levels; (2) predictable phenotypic evolution with general convergence except for body size; and (3) unpredictable karyotypic evolution. We conclude that the predictability of evolution is contingent on t...
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Insects and vertebrates have multiple major physiological systems, each species having a circulatory system, a metabolic system, and a respiratory system that enable locomotion and survival in stressful environments, among other... more
Insects and vertebrates have multiple major physiological systems, each species having a circulatory system, a metabolic system, and a respiratory system that enable locomotion and survival in stressful environments, among other functions. Broadening our understanding of the physiology of Drosophila melanogaster requires the parsing of interrelationships among such major component physiological systems. By combining electrical pacing and flight exhaustion assays with manipulative conditioning, we have started to unpack the interrelationships between cardiac function, locomotor performance, and other functional characters such as starvation and desiccation resistance. Manipulative sequences incorporating these four physiological characters were applied to five D. melanogaster lab populations that share a common origin from the wild and a common history of experimental evolution. While exposure to starvation or desiccation significantly reduced flight duration, exhaustion due to fligh...
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Experimental evolutionary genomics now allows biologists to test fundamental theories concerning the genetic basis of adaptation. We have conducted one of the longest laboratory evolution experiments with any sexually-reproducing... more
Experimental evolutionary genomics now allows biologists to test fundamental theories concerning the genetic basis of adaptation. We have conducted one of the longest laboratory evolution experiments with any sexually-reproducing metazoan, Drosophila melanogaster. We used next-generation resequencing data from this experiment to examine genome-wide patterns of genetic variation over an evolutionary time-scale that approaches 1,000 generations. We also compared measures of variation within and differentiation between our populations to simulations based on a variety of evolutionary scenarios. Our analysis yielded no clear evidence of hard selective sweeps, whereby natural selection acts to increase the frequency of a newly-arising mutation in a population until it becomes fixed. We do find evidence for selection acting on standing genetic variation, as independent replicate populations exhibit similar population-genetic dynamics, without obvious fixation of candidate alleles under se...
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In outbred sexually reproducing populations, age-specific mortality rates reach a plateau in late life following the exponential increase in mortality rates that marks aging. Little is known about what happens to physiology when cohorts... more
In outbred sexually reproducing populations, age-specific mortality rates reach a plateau in late life following the exponential increase in mortality rates that marks aging. Little is known about what happens to physiology when cohorts transition from aging to late life. We measured age-specific values for starvation resistance, desiccation resistance, time-in-motion and geotaxis in ten Drosophila melanogaster populations: five populations selected for rapid development and five control populations. Adulthood was divided into two stages, the aging phase and the late-life phase according to demographic data. Consistent with previous studies, we found that populations selected for rapid development entered the late-life phase at an earlier age than the controls. Age-specific rates of change for all physiological phenotypes showed differences between the aging phase and the late-life phase. This result suggests that late life is physiologically distinct from aging. The ages of transit...