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Updated: Jun 10, 2025

A Suppressor Screen for the Characterization of Genetic Links Regulating Chronological Lifespan in Saccharomyces cerevisiae
Published on: September 17, 2020
The ageing virus hypothesis: Epigenetic ageing beyond the Tree of Life
1Institut de Systématique, Évolution, Biodiversité (ISYEB), Sorbonne Université, CNRS, Museum National d'Histoire Naturelle, EPHE, Université Des Antilles, Paris, France.
Abstract:
A recent thought-provoking theory argues that complex organisms using epigenetic information for their normal development and functioning must irreversibly age as a result of epigenetic signal loss. Importantly, the scope of this theory could be considerably expanded, with scientific benefits, by analyzing epigenetic ageing beyond the borders of the Tree of Life. Viruses that use epigenetic signals for their normal functioning may also age, that is, present an increasing risk of failing to complete their individual life cycle and to disappear with time. As viruses are ancient, abundant, and infect a considerable diversity of hosts, the ageing virus hypothesis, if verified, would have important consequences for many fields of the Life sciences. Uncovering ageing viruses would integrate the most abundant and biologically central entities on Earth into theories of ageing, enhance virology, gerontology, evolutionary biology, molecular ecology, genomics, and possibly medicine through the development of new therapies manipulating viral ageing.
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