Biologists have long used demographic approaches to answer questions in ecology and evolution. The utility of these approaches has meant a constant development and refinement of methods. A key milestone has been the development of phenotype structured population models that link ecology and evolution. Moreover, biostatistical research steadily improves methods to coax demographic information from scarce data. In this thesis, I build upon some of the recent advances in the field. My first three studies focus on the consequences of sex differences in life history for population dynamics. Firstly, I test whether males matter for the dynamics of African lion (Panthera leo) populations via a previously unquantified mechanism: the inheritance of phenotype from father to offspring. Secondly, I develop a method to estimate age-specific mortality rates for both sexes in species where one of the sexes disperses around the age of maturity. Thirdly, I apply this method to study variation in mortality between the sexes and between two populations of African lions. After these three chapters, which make contributions to the field of sex-structured population dynamics, I focus on the integration of phenotype structured modelling and quantitative genetics. I illustrate how heritability of a quantitative character that develops with age depends on (i) viability selection, (ii) fertility selection, (iii) the development of the phenotype with age, and (iv) phenotype inheritance from parents to offspring. Our results question the adequacy of quantitative genetics methods to obtain unbiased estimates of heritability for wild populations. This thesis advances our understanding of population development over ecological time scales. This knowledge has applications in conservation and population management, but also contributes to untangling evolutionary processes in wild animals.

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Pancreatic cancer (PC) remains a significant, unresolved issue because of its complex genetic blueprint and lack of reliable detection markers. The purpose of this study was to examine the possible correlation between tobacco use, gender, and age in the etiopathogenesis of PC and other cancer types with a shared-gene association (CTSG-A). The unified paradigm of cancer causation was used to understand the pathopoiesis mechanism of smoking and shared genes in PC. A cross-sectional study was performed using secondary data from the cancer survivorship module of the 2014 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System survey. Results of ordinal logistic regression analyses indicated no correlation between smoking and prevalence of PC and CTSG-A, but gender and age were significant predictors. Gender has a statistically significant effect on the prediction of PC/ CTSG-A induction and promotion. Increased probability of developing the disease was found as the person reach the age between 62 and 69 years of age. Findings may enhance the understanding of environmental, genetic, and biodemographic interactions in disease evolution (induction, promotion, and expression periods). Findings may also be used to promote population health and improve health behaviors for individuals in vulnerable, high-risk groups.

Le vieillissement des populations est une réalité incontournable des sociétés modernes, qui observent une augmentation inexorable de l’espérance de vie. L’un des obstacles à l’analyse de la mortalité chez l’humain tient au fait qu’il faut plus de cent ans pour que tous les individus d’une même génération décèdent. C’est pourquoi la biodémographie, un nouveau champ de recherche alliant la démographie et la biologie, se penche sur l’analyse des données de mortalité des primates, tels le lémurien genre Microcebus murinus. Les données pour cette espèce élevée en captivité proviennent principalement des livrets d’enregistrement des entrées et sorties de tous les individus du laboratoire MMDN du département de biologie de l’Université de Montpellier. L’objectif principal de ce mémoire est de comparer les distributions des décès par âge pour le lémurien par sexe, ainsi que pour des populations humaines de différentes époques. L’approche par P-splines utilisée permet de dériver ces distributions à partir des taux de mortalité lissés. Différents indices sont calculés sur la mortalité : l’espérance de vie à l’âge de la maturité sexuelle, l’espérance de vie aux grands âges, l’âge médian au décès, ainsi que l’âge modal (i.e. le plus fréquent) au décès. Nos résultats indiquent que les femelles lémurien genre Microcebus murinus élevées en captivité vivent plus longtemps que les mâles, et ce pour tous les différents indices utilisés, contrairement à ce qui avait été rapporté dans la littérature. Cela est toutefois cohérent avec les différentes hypothèses qui supposent des durées de vies plus longues chez les femelles primates et chez les humaines. De plus, la comparaison de la mortalité chez les lémuriens et les humains montrent que la distribution des décès du lémurien se rapproche des sociétés pré-industrielles européennes. Cette incursion dans la démographie d’une espèce animale contribuera l’avancement de ce tout nouveau champ de recherche qu’est la biodémographie. L’analyse plus approfondie de la longévité de primates à courtes durées de vie permettra de nous d’améliorer nos connaissances à long terme sur les mécanismes biologiques du vieillissement chez l’humain. / The aging of populations is an inescapable reality of modern societies, which observe an inexorable increase in life expectancy. One of the obstacles to the analysis of human mortality is the fact that it takes more than a hundred years for all individuals in a generation to die. For this reason, biodemography, a new field of research combining demography and biology, is looking at the analysis of mortality data from primates, such as the gray mouse lemur (Microcebus murinus). The data for this captive-bred species come mainly from the logbooks recording the entries and exits of all individuals in the MMDN laboratory of the Biology Department of the University de Montpellier. The main objective of this thesis is to compare the distributions of deaths by age for the lemur by sex, as well as for human populations of different ages. The P-splines approach used makes it possible to derive these distributions from smoothed mortality rates. Different indicators are calculated on mortality: life expectancy at the age of sexual maturity, life expectancy at old age, median age of survival, and modal age at death. Our results indicate that female captive-bred gray mouse lemurs live longer than males for all the different indices used, contrary to what has been reported in the literature. This is however consistent with the different hypotheses that assume longer life spans in primate and human females. Moreover, the comparison of mortality in lemurs and humans shows that the distribution of lemur deaths is close to the European pre-industrial societies. This incursion into the demography of an animal species will allow the advancement of this brand-new field of research that is biodemography. A more in-depth analysis of the longevity of short-lived primates will provide us with long-term information on the biological mechanisms of aging in humans.