Are there genes responsible for ageing? if yes why cant we remove them to make the human species immortal?

Answer 1

Your question is an interesting one and the answer is no longer as simple as we once thought it was. As others have said, aging happens at the cellular level. Aging is also affected by environment and life style. Here is a synopsis of what I found ....

Some researchers in gerontology (specifically biogerontologists) regard aging itself as a "disease" that may be curable, although this view is controversial. To those who accept the view, aging is an accumulation of damage to macromolecules, cells, tissues and organs. Advanced biochemical and molecular repair technologies may be able to fix the damage we call aging (thereby curing the disease and greatly extending maximum lifespan). People who hope to extend human maximum life span through science are called life extensionists.

Researchers have identified genes related to reaching age 90 with preserved brain function. Their study, funded by the National Institutes of Health and reported at a medical conference in Hawaii, is among the first to identify genetic links to long-lived mental powers. The researchers also identified novel "genetic regions" associated with successful aging, including the so-called DYS389 and DYS390 regions, some of which affected men or women, but not both.

Two University of Colorado at Boulder researchers working with GenoPlex Inc. in Denver have identified a biological switch that controls lifespan in tiny worms, a finding that could have applications for mammals, including people.

The switch, known as DAF-16, is a protein that can either lengthen or shorten the lifespan in the eyelash-sized roundworm, C. elegans, said CU-Boulder psychology Professor Thomas Johnson. Johnson, who is a fellow in the university’s Institute for Behavioral Genetics, or IBG, said DAF-16 is a critical part of a complex signaling pathway that involves insulin and glucose.

Seventy years ago scientists first discovered that rodents kept on a carefully balanced but calorie-restricted diet, lived longer, healthier lives on average than control animals on a normal diet. Later research showed the same thing happened to every animal tested. The research has now gotten as far as monkeys. Scientists also know that there are genes that protect us from aging. They suspect these anti-aging genes must have developed in primitive animals millions of years ago, and were activated by stressors, such as food shortages. Researchers isolated a gene called NPT1 and learned that it controls the activity level of a second gene called SIR2. They discovered that artificially stepping up NPT1 activity stimulated SIR2, and caused yeast cells on normal nutrients to live an average of 40 percent longer, just as if they'd been on restricted calories. As research continued, the genes were found in many organisms.

Researchers have identified a series of genes with a bewildering variety of names that have similar structures, even though they're found in many different plants and animals. All seem to control the aging process. However, without exception, these genes have never produced a reversal or arrest of the inexorable increase in mortality rate that is one important hallmark of aging. The apparent effects of such genes on aging therefore appear to be inadvertent consequences of changes in other stages of life, such as growth and development, rather than a modification of underlying aging processes.

If there are genetic links to maintaining cognitive function into old age, and if there seems to be a "genetic switch" that affects some organisms, and if there are genes that possibly can be activated to increase longevity, it is not that great a leap to think there are other genetic links connected to aging that could possibly be manipulated.

Survival beyond the reproductive years and, in some cases raising progeny to independence, is not favored by evolution because limited resources are better spent on strategies that enhance reproductive success to sexual maturity rather than longevity. But it seems quite possible that in the future we may be able to manipulate some genes to some extent so that we have the opportunity to age more successfully, or more gracefully some might say. Immortality? I don't think so.

Interesting question to research .... I hope this compilation fo various findings is of some help to you.

Answer 2

All living beeings are made of different kind of cells
and all have a morphology that is rather complicated
even at the simplest organism.The cells and tissues and everything that make anorganism are submmited to earthly conditions that deteriorate them after some spam of time.
There are some cells that regenerate, others not.Talking in a simple way,aging and finally death is the result of life conditions colapsing at the considered organism.
Of course as the medicine and other sciences progress the life spam mostly of the human beeings increase.
The average man has now a life expectancy higher than
at last century.

Speaking under another point of view, the living
beeings are programmed to follow a cycle: to be born,
to reproduce and to die.
Also this planet we live on, the Earth, is programmed
to support a certain amount of people living together
during a certain number of years.
The Earth conditions are also conditioned and
Earth as a populated planet will also die
some day. Earth has an economy. It is to us to
make and keep Earth safe and healthy to have life
for the longest possible time.
It is up to you Sabi, and your generation to take over
for the next years to come.

Answer 3

No, there are no genes related to aging. What happens is

-failures in cellular replication build up, because mitosis is never a 100% perfect process. This means that after a certain number of replications, your liver cells that were originally brand-new Cadillacs are now 1982 Yugos.
-A portion of the DNA molecule called a "telomere" is at the end of each strand of DNA. During each DNA replication when cells divide, a portion of the telomere is cut off. Before too long, you run out of telomere and start cutting out some pretty important genes, so cells that divide too many times are nonfunctional and die a quick, merciful death.
-Some cells cannot replicate, like nerve cells. Once they die, they are not replaced. That's why you don't learn as quickly today as you did 5 years ago, and why older people almost always have at least some symptoms of mental deterioration.

Answer 4

yes genes are imprortant for aging but we cannot replace the genes because if any sort of addition od delition is done with the genes it will give rise to what we called as mutations and they will be harmfull(most probably)

Answer 5

if there's ne genes responsible for ageing i dont think we know of it...even after completing tha human genome project...if we dont know now that ne gene is responsible for ageing i think chances are slim that there is actually some gene responsible for ageing....although u cant rule out da possibility coz we still dont know da use of junk genes

Answer 6

no, that's not how aging works.

aging is basically programmed cell death. if you don't die, your body will be so riddled with cancers and abnormalities, that you wish you were dead.

it's more complicated than remove one gene. telomeres, genes, various irreplaceable tissues, and other factors influence ageing.

Answer 7

There can be only one.
Conner McCloud of the Clan McCloud

Answer 8

Damn it, BrianL was before me. Give him ten points.

Answer 9

So you're completely uneducated?

Answer 10

If it were that easy!