How Does the Bowhead Whale
Live to Be over 200 Years Old?
Live to Be over 200 Years Old?
A whale
that can live over 200 years with little evidence of age-related disease may
provide untapped insights into how to live a long and
healthy life. In Cell Reports, researchers present the complete bowhead whale
genome and identify key differences compared to other mammals. Alterations in
bowhead genes related to cell division, DNA repair, cancer, and aging may have
helped increase its longevity and cancer resistance.
"Our understanding of species'
differences in longevity is very poor, and thus our findings provide novel
candidate genes for future studies," says senior author Dr. João Pedro de
Magalhães, of the University of Liverpool , in the UK
Dr. Magalhães and his team would
next like to breed mice that will express various bowhead genes, with the hopes
of determining the importance of different genes for longevity and resistance
to diseases.
They also note that because the
bowhead's genome is the first among large whales to be sequenced, the new information may help reveal physiological adaptations
related to size. For example, whale cells have a much lower metabolic
rate than those of smaller mammals, and the researchers found changes in
one specific gene involved in thermoregulation (UCP1) that may be related to
metabolic differences in whale cells.
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