Dynamic energy budget approaches for modelling organismal ageing
Open Access
- 12 November 2010
- journal article
- research article
- Published by The Royal Society in Philosophical Transactions B
- Vol. 365 (1557), 3443-3454
- https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2010.0071
Abstract
Ageing is a complex multifactorial process involving a progressive physiological decline that, ultimately, leads to the death of an organism. It involves multiple changes in many components that play fundamental roles under healthy and pathological conditions. Simultaneously, every organism undergoes accumulative ‘wear and tear’ during its lifespan, which confounds the effects of the ageing process. The scenario is complicated even further by the presence of both age-dependent and age-independent competing causes of death. Various manipulations have been shown to interfere with the ageing process. Calorie restriction, for example, has been reported to increase the lifespan of a wide range of organisms, which suggests a strong relation between energy metabolism and ageing. Such a link is also supported within the main theories for ageing: the free radical hypothesis, for instance, links oxidative damage production directly to energy metabolism. The Dynamic Energy Budgets (DEB) theory, which characterizes the uptake and use of energy by living organisms, therefore constitutes a useful tool for gaining insight into the ageing process. Here we compare the existing DEB-based modelling approaches and, then, discuss how new biological evidence could be incorporated within a DEB framework.Keywords
This publication has 54 references indexed in Scilit:
- Dynamic energy budget theory restores coherence in biologyPhilosophical Transactions B, 2010
- Subcellular metabolic organization in the context of dynamic energy budget and biochemical systems theoriesPhilosophical Transactions B, 2010
- Telomeric chromatin: Roles in aging, cancer and hereditary diseaseMutation research. Reviews in mutation research, 2008
- From empirical patterns to theory: a formal metabolic theory of lifePhilosophical Transactions B, 2008
- A systems‐level approach to mapping the telomere length maintenance gene circuitryMolecular Systems Biology, 2008
- The short-lived fish Nothobranchius furzeri as a new model system for aging studiesExperimental Gerontology, 2007
- A modular network model of agingMolecular Systems Biology, 2007
- Life–history trade–offs and ecological dynamics in the evolution of longevityProceedings. Biological sciences, 2004
- Energy budgets can explain body size relationsJournal of Theoretical Biology, 1986
- The moulding of senescence by natural selectionJournal of Theoretical Biology, 1966