Ageing is widely believed to reflect the accumulation of molecular damage due to energetic costs of maintenance, as proposed in disposable soma theory (DST). Here we use agent-based modelling to describe an alternative theory by which ageing could undergo positive selection independent of energetic costs. We suggest that the selective advantage of aberrant cells with fast growth might necessitate a mechanism of counterselection we name selective destruction that specifically removes the faster cells from tissues, preventing the morbidity and mortality risks they pose. The resulting survival advantage of slower mutants could switch the direction of selection, allowing them to outcompete both fast mutants and wildtype cells, causing them to spread and induce ageing in the form of a metabolic slowdown. Selective destruction could therefore provide a proximal cause of ageing that is both consistent with the gene expression hallmarks of ageing, and independent of accumulating damage. Furthermore, negligible senescence would acquire a new meaning of increased basal mortality.

正如一次性躯体理论 (DST) 所提出的那样，人们普遍认为衰老反映了由于能量维护成本而导致的分子损伤的累积。在这里，我们使用基于主体的建模来描述另一种理论，根据该理论，老化可以独立于能量成本进行积极的选择。我们认为，具有快速生长的异常细胞的选择性优势可能需要一种反选择机制，我们将其命名为选择性破坏，专门从组织中去除生长较快的细胞，从而防止它们造成的发病率和死亡率风险。由此产生的较慢突变体的生存优势可能会改变选择的方向，使它们能够在竞争中胜过快速突变体和​​野生型细胞，从而导致它们扩散并以代谢减慢的形式诱导衰老。因此，选择性破坏可以提供衰老的近端原因，既与衰老的基因表达特征一致，又与累积损伤无关。此外，可忽略不计的衰老将获得基础死亡率增加的新含义。