Vital rates from the action of mutation accumulation

Vital rates from the action of mutation accumulation

Report Number
762
Authors
Kenneth W. Wachter and David R. Steinsaltz and Steven N. Evans
Abstract

New models for evolutionary processes of mutation accumulation allow hypotheses about the age-specificity of mutational effects to be translated into predictions of heterogeneous population hazard functions. We apply these models to questions in the biodemography of longevity, including proposed explanations of Gompertz hazards and mortality plateaus, and use them to explore the possibility of melding evolutionary and functional models of aging.

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