THEORETICAL APPROACH TO BIOLOGICAL AGING

We present a model for biological aging that considers the number of i ndividuals whose (inherited) genotype determines the maximum age for d eath: each individual may die before that age due to some external fac tor, but never after that limit. The genotype of the offspring is inhe rited from the parent with some mutations, described by a transition m atrix. The model can describe different strategies of reproduction and it is exactly soluble. The applied our method to the bit-string model for aging and the results are in perfect agreement with numerical sim ulations. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.