Search results
The error catastrophe theory of aging was proposed by Leslie Orgel in 1963. This theory is based on the assumption that transcription and translation are inexact processes that will result in a small, but potentially cumulative amount of error.
The error catastrophe theory of aging was proposed by Leslie Orgel in 1963 and it was originally a very popular theory because it made a great deal of sense.
Error catastrophe refers to the cumulative loss of genetic information in a lineage of organisms due to high mutation rates. The mutation rate above which error catastrophe occurs is called the error threshold. Both terms were coined by Manfred Eigen in his mathematical evolutionary theory of the quasispecies.
An example is given by the monistic theory of Orgel (Orgel, 1963). This author based the whole ageing process on the fact that it results from errors in translation of mRNA into protein. There will, then, be more defective proteins, which will increase the number of errors in translation of mRNA, and so on until an error catastrophe occurs."
The error catastrophe. The existence of an error catastrophe is probably the most widely known prediction of the quasispecies theory. An error threshold is the critical error rate beyond which Darwinian selection cannot further maintain the genetic integrity of the quasispecies.
In the 1960s, Leslie Orgel proposed what is now known as the error catastrophe theory of aging, arguing that errors in protein translation that reduce the fidelity of the protein-translating enzymes would lead to a feedback loop of increasingly inaccurate protein synthesis, terminating in the death of the organism.
This discussion attempts to present a simple explanation of the current theory of error catastrophe and why it does not herald a paradigm shift in antiviral strategy. In the main text of the paper, the workings of a simple model of error catastrophe are examined to demonstrate what actually causes error catastrophe.
