The penna model of biological aging

Abstract

This review deals with computer simulation of biological aging, particularly with the Penna model of 1995. They are based on the mutation accumulation theory of half a century ago. The results agree well with demographical reality, and also with the seemingly contradictory influence of predators on the aging of prey.

Keywords: Monte Carlo simulations; death; life; reproduction.

Figure 1.

Mortality function μ versus age for: a) German men (+) and women (×); b) Swedish men.

Figure 2.

Life expectancy at birth for Swedish women over 2.5 centuries, also showing the improved statistical accuracy after the creation of a statistical central bureau in Sweden around 1860, The influenza pandemic in seen in 1918.

Figure 3.

Simulated mortality function for the asexual Penna model with 32 bits and R = 8. From Stauffer et al. (2006).

Figure 4.

Time variation of the advantages in life expectancies of women over men in Sweden. From Stauffer et al. (2006) and www.scb.se.

Figure 5.

Distribution of Hamming distances between the two bit-strings of each diploid genome with low (line) and intermediate (×) recombination probabilities r. From Bo kowska et al. 2007, see also Cebrat and Stauffer 2008.