ArticleProceedings. Biological sciences2019
The deteriorating soma and the indispensable germline: gamete senescence and offspring fitness.
Article in Proceedings. Biological sciences, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 32 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
32 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Parental Age Effects on Offspring Telomere Length Across Vertebrates: A Meta-Analysis.Molecular ecology · 2026Pooled it
- Meta-analysis shows no consistent evidence for senescence in ejaculate traits across animals.Nature communications · 2024Pooled it
- The Effect of Age and Sex on the Rate of Germline Mutations in Barn Owls.Genome biology and evolution · 2026Article
- Fins as a reliable surrogate tissue for age-related changes of telomeres and DNA methylation in gonads of a short-lived fish.Biogerontology · 2025Article
- Reproductive output of old males is limited by seminal fluid, not sperm number.Evolution letters · 2025Article
- Epigenetic variation in light of population genetic practice.Nature communications · 2025Review
- Genetic variation in age-dependent attractiveness in a fish with a mixed mating system.Biology letters · 2025Article
- Hidden Causes of Variation in Offspring Reproductive Value: Negative Effects of Maternal Breeding Age on Offspring Telomere Length Persist Undiminished Across Multiple Generations.Ecology letters · 2025Article
- What does not kill you makes you stronger? Effects of paternal age at conception on fathers and sons.Evolution; international journal of organic evolution · 2024Article
- Coevolution of longevity and female germline maintenance.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2024Article
- Annelids as models of germ cell and gonad regeneration.Journal of experimental zoology. Part B, Molecular and developmental evolution · 2024Review
- Heat stress reveals a fertility debt owing to postcopulatory sexual selection.Evolution letters · 2024Article
- Selectively advantageous instability in biotic and pre-biotic systems and implications for evolution and aging.Frontiers in aging · 2024Review
- The Impact of Hormesis, Neuronal Stress Response, and Reproduction, upon Clinical Aging: A Narrative Review.Journal of clinical medicine · 2023Review
- Fasting increases investment in soma upon refeeding at the cost of gamete quality in zebrafish.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2023Article
- Sex-dependent effects of parental age on offspring fitness in a cooperatively breeding bird.Evolution letters · 2022Article
- Evidence of maternal and paternal age effects on speed in thoroughbred racehorses.Royal Society open science · 2022Article
- Separating the effects of paternal age and mating history: Evidence for sex-specific paternal effect in eastern mosquitofish.Evolution; international journal of organic evolution · 2022Article
- Lack of age-related respiratory changes in Daphnia.Biogerontology · 2022Article
- Mitochondrial DNA content in eggs as a maternal effect.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
2 authors.
Funding
Abstract
The idea that there is an impenetrable barrier that separates the germline and soma has shaped much thinking in evolutionary biology and in many other disciplines. However, recent research has revealed that the so-called 'Weismann Barrier' is leaky, and that information is transferred from soma to germline. Moreover, the germline itself is now known to age, and to be influenced by an age-related deterioration of the soma that houses and protects it. This could reduce the likelihood of successful reproduction by old individuals, but also lead to long-term deleterious consequences for any offspring that they do produce (including a shortened lifespan). Here, we review the evidence from a diverse and multidisciplinary literature for senescence in the germline and its consequences; we also examine the underlying mechanisms responsible, emphasizing changes in mutation rate, telomere loss, and impaired mitochondrial function in gametes. We consider the effect on life-history evolution, particularly reproductive scheduling and mate choice. Throughout, we draw attention to unresolved issues, new questions to consider, and areas where more research is needed. We also highlight the need for a more comparative approach that would reveal the diversity of processes that organisms have evolved to slow or halt age-related germline deterioration.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.