"Twenty participants are 'supercentenarians' - those who reached the age of 110. Early data show that the supercentenarians did not have especially healthy diets or exercise routines or access to high-end medicine for most of their lives. The secret to their long lives might instead lie in their genomes. In a preliminary report published this month, researchers hypothesize that the participants' genetic diversity could have a role in their resilience."
"Long-lived diversity Many of the participants have ancestries that are some mixture of European, African and Native American heritage. By contrast, most studies investigating the health of centenarians have focused on populations that are more genetically homogeneous, so the current work helps to fill a gap in the field, notes Paola Sebastiani, a biostatistician at Tufts University in Boston, Massachusetts, who has worked on several other longevity studies."
The DNA Longevo study in Brazil has sequenced genomes from more than 160 centenarians, including 20 supercentenarians aged 110 or older. Many participants did not follow notably healthy diets or exercise routines, nor did they have extensive access to high-end medicine for most of their lives. Preliminary data suggest that genetic diversity from mixed European, African and Native American ancestries may underlie resilience and exceptional lifespan. The cohort broadens longevity research beyond genetically homogeneous groups and offers genomic clues about how diverse ancestry profiles could influence survival to extreme ages despite socioeconomic and healthcare constraints.
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