Sex and Death in Protozoa
The History of Obsession

Graham Bell (Author)

9780521056700, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 24 March 2008

216 pages
22.8 x 15.2 x 1.3 cm, 0.336 kg

"...Bell has clearly shown that a senescent body of data can be rejuvenated when it is mixed with fresh new ideas." Science

Is ageing inevitable, or can senescence and death be evaded? Large animals and plants always age if they live long enough; even individual cells from their bodies cannot continue living and dividing indefinitely. Whether or not single-celled organisms also age and die, and what relation sex bore to the process of senescence, was the subject of vigorous debate and experimentation early in the last century. In this book, Dr Bell disinters and reanalyzes these forgotten experiments, and argues that protozoan lineages do indeed senesce, as the result of an accumulated load of mutations that can be shed only through sexual reproduction. This unexpected connection between sex and death is the central theme of a book that will interest all students of evolutionary biology, sexuality and senescence.

List of illustrations
List of tables
Preface
1. The question of protozoan immortality
2. Sex and reproduction in ciliates and others
3. Isolation cultures
4. The fate of isolate cultures
5. The culture environment
6. Does sex rejuvenate?
7. Germinal senescence in multicellular organisms
8. The ratchet
9. Soma and germ
10. Mortality and immmortality in the germ line
11. The function of sex
References
Index of first authors
Index of genera
Index of subjects.

Subject Areas: Protozoa [PSGN]