Using the Penna model for biological aging, which is based on the mutation accumulation theory, we show that the number of homozygous loci corresponding to deleterious mutations is higher in small populations than in large ones. This decrease of heterozygosity may drive small populations to...

We combine the Penna Model for biological ageing, which is based on the mutation-accumulation theory, with a sort of antagonistic pleiotropy. We show that depending on how the pleiotropy is introduced, it is possible to reproduce both the humans mortality, which increases exponentially with age,...