Aging and sexual reproduction

We consider an analytical approach to the Penna model with sexual reproduction. We have written evolution equations for the frequency of diseases acting at different ages and considered the special case where all mutations are deleterious and all disease alleles are dominant. In this case we could predict senescence beginning at the onset of the reproductive age, becoming very marked after the reproduction period is over. A maximum life span is obtained. Numerical simulation results are in good agreement with the analytical calculations.