2020/06/15 by Andrés Escala, Escala, Andres
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology · Medicine · Neuroscience · #Biological Physics (physics.bio-ph) #Circadian rhythm and melatonin #FOS: Biological sciences #FOS: Physical sciences #Genetics, Aging, and Longevity in Model Organisms #Other Quantitative Biology (q-bio.OT) #Spaceflight effects on biology
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2006.08647
openalex publication_date 2020/06/15 · openalex created_date 2022/07/26 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Metabolic energy consumption has long been thought to play a major role in\nthe aging process ( it 1). Across species, a gram of tissue on average\nexpends about the same amount of energy during life-span ( it 2). Energy\nrestriction has also been shown that increases maximum life-span ( it 3) and\nretards age-associated changes ( it 4). However, there are significant\nexceptions to a universal energy consumption during life-span, mainly coming\nfrom the inter-class comparison ( it 5, 6). Here we present a unique relation\nfor life-span energy consumption, valid for \∼300 species representing all\nclasses of living organisms, from unicellular ones to the largest mammals. The\nrelation has an average scatter of only 0.3 dex, with 95 % ( rm 2-\σ) of\nthe organisms having departures less than a factor of \π from the relation,\ndespite the \∼20 orders of magnitude difference in body mass, reducing any\npossible inter-class variation in the relation to only a geometrical factor.\nThis result can be interpreted as supporting evidence for the existence of an\napproximately constant total number rm Nr \∼ 108 of respiration cycles\nper lifetime for all organisms, effectively predetermining the extension of\nlife by the basic energetics of respiration, being an incentive for future\nstudies that investigate the relation of such constant rm Nr cycles per\nlifetime with the production rates of free radicals and oxidants, which may\ngive definite constraints on the origin of ageing.\n