The mutation accumulation hypothesis for the evolution of senescence proposes that for late-life traits, selection cannot purge deleterious mutations. What assumptions does this hypothesis make?

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The mutation accumulation hypothesis assumes that population sizes are finite and mutations have small fitness effects, meaning that deleterious mutations will accumulate in the population over time and cannot be purged by selection in late life. If population sizes were very large, selection could still effectively remove these mutations, and if mutations had large fitness effects, they would be quickly eliminated from the population regardless of population size.

The Mutation Accumulation Hypothesis for the Evolution of Senescence Proposes