Solvable senescence model with positive mutations

Coe, J. B.; Mao, Y.; Cates, M. E.

Solvable senescence model with positive mutations

Authors

Coe, J. B.

Mao, Y.

Cates, M. E.

Description

We build upon our previous analytical results for the Penna model of senescence to include positive mutations. We investigate whether a small but non-zero positive mutation rate gives qualitatively different results to the traditional Penna model in which no positive mutations are considered. We find that the high-lifespan tail of the distribution is radically changed in structure, but that there is not much effect on the bulk of the population. Th e mortality plateau that we found previously for a stochastic generalization of the Penna model is stable to a small positive mutation rate.
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