PMID: 9432633Feb 12, 1998Paper

Evolution: the dialogue between life and death

Origins of Life and Evolution of the Biosphere : the Journal of the International Society for the Study of the Origin of Life
R Holliday

Abstract

Organisms have the ability to harness energy from the environment to create order and to reproduce. From early error-prone systems natural selection acted to produce present day organisms with high accuracy in the synthesis of macromolecules. The environment imposes strict limits on reproduction, so evolution is always accompanied by the discarding of a large proportion of the less fit cells, or organisms. Sexual reproduction depends on an immortal germline and a soma which may be immortal or mortal. Higher animals living in hazardous environments have evolved aging and death of the soma for the benefit of the ongoing germline.

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