Demographic senescence as multi-level selection in miniature

Abstract

Multi-level selection and senescence do not at first sight have much in common. Here, we demonstrate that the emergent mortality patterns generated by demographic senescence can be understood as the product of multi-level selection. We formulate a two-level Moran type process and use its scaling limits to illustrate that a simple mathematical framework that models multi-level selection in group-structured populations also models damage accumulation patterns and resultant mortality curves in ageing organisms. To verbally make the connection, observe that defectors spread within a group consisting of cooperators and defectors; when groups compete against each other, defector-rich groups suffer, and between-group selection causes such groups to be systematically under-represented. Exactly analogously, senescing individuals accumulate damage to physiological sub-systems, and `damage begets damage'; individuals who are more damaged are more likely to die, hence damage-rich individuals are systematically under-represented in later age classes. Thus, emergent senescence patterns in complex, integrated organisms are formally equivalent to the patterns generated by a within-generation multi-level selection process in which intra-organismal sub-systems play the role of particles, organisms play the role of collectives, and selective disappearance plays the role of group selection.