Wednesday, November 19, 2014

Human Longevity Could be Linked to Certain Genes

Genome sequencing was conducted on 17 super centenarians (people who live to be over 110 years old) to explore whether certain genes have an impact on human longevity.  It is estimated that only 1 out of 10,000 people born around the early 1900s will live to be 110 years old.  This statistic led researchers to believe that any gene and its variants that is present in all the super centenarians studied would be extremely rare in comparison to the controls.
It was found that a gene, TSHZ3 transcription-factor gene, contained protein altering variants that are were not found in the genomes in the control group.  After further analyzing the genomes of 99 people ages 98-105, this same gene was found to be more prevalent in the older people compared to the controls.


This research does not prove that this gene has any direct link to longevity, however the correlation is significant enough to do further research on the genomes of super centenarians to find any other possible links.  Researching genetic links to human longevity may be helpful in curing ailments that become more prevalent in old age.

1 comment:

  1. It's interesting that longevity could actually be linked to genes and that our lifestyles may not have as big of an impact on how long we live. I know that I thought if I just took care of myself and exercised and ate right, that would be the key to a long life. This research shows that we might have less control over it, and that our genes play a larger role than we thought.

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