The Genetics of Aging is divided into several sections in an attempt to provide a logical progression from the level of the genome to the realm of human genetics. The relationship between the genetic material and aging will be thoroughly explored in the initial chapters. These chapters discuss in depth the various theories that have been proposed for the mechanisms of aging at the molecular level and present data which either support or contradict these hypotheses. Subsequent chapters will deal with the genetics of aging in organisms ranging from paramecium to mammals. The largest section of this volume will be devoted to several important areas in human genetics: human genetic disorders which feature premature aging, the effect of human parental aging on the production of genetically abnor mal offspring, the genetics of human longevity, and a review of studies on aging human twins. Over the last few decades genetic technology has provided enormous insight into a number of disciplines. Therefore, in the last few chapters, several genetic approaches to the study of aging are discussed: somatic cell genetics, immunogenetics, and behavioral genetics. As the goal of this volume is to present a comprehensive examination of the genetics of aging, most chapters are oriented toward general review of their respective areas. It is my hope that this volume will encourage clinical, biological, and behavioral investigators to turn their attention to the genetic aspects of aging as well as to employ genetic technology to obtain further insight into aging processes.

The title of any monograph must necessarily be a compromise between brevity and precision, and the needs of this compromise are particularly pressing in a newly emerging area of scientific interest, one that is not only inter- or bidisciplinary, but tridisciplinary, involving as it does psychology, pharmacology, and genetics. The temptation to call this work "psychophar macogenetics" -tout court, if the phrase can be applied to so polysyllabic a construction-was removed by the timely appearance of the book under that title edited by Eleftheriou (1975b). Accordingly, something less novel has been chosen. It might be thought to promise more than it delivers and to delineate a wider field than it covers, but I have sought to add a corrective degree of precision in the subtitle which accurately defines what is intended even at the cost of further polysyllabification. The survey of a disparate field of this kind entrains difficulties that go beyond what to call it. The claims of the parent disciplines for methodological supremacy are strong and difficult to resist. What I have done is to seek to impose a degree of coherence on the chosen area by always inquiring to what extent a particular methodology, derived from one part of one of them only, can be applied to the whole.

Presenting the latest research in the biology of aging, this volume addresses important theoretical issues focusing on the basis for why humans live as long as they do. Expert authors combine three general paradigms of aging research: demographic studies, evolutionary studies, and studies of biological mechanisms. Topics explored include: Why does aging occur? Cellular aging Models in aging research Modern approaches to the mechanisms of aging The genetics of behavioral aging