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16 – COSMOS Issue 86Life clock ticking
Study suggests genetics can predict
a species’ maximum lifespan.
Researchers from CSIRO and the University
of Western Australia have figured out a way
to tell how long a species’ life clock will keep
ticking.
“Our method for estimating maximum
natural lifespan is based on DNA,” says Ben
Mayne, a postdoctoral fellow with CSIRO.
“If a species’ genome sequence is known, we
can estimate its lifespan.”
The “lifespan clock” screens 42 selected
genes from short pieces of DNA in 252
vertebrate species. The density of these
genes is correlated with lifespan to predict
how long members of a given vertebrate
species may live.
The authors suggest their findings –
which are published in the journalScientific
Reports – may inform research into the
ecology and evolution of living and extinct
species, the protection of threatened
species, and sustainable fishing.
When studying extinct animals,
researchers used a species’ descendent
as reference. The genome of the modern
African elephant allowed lifespan
estimations for the extinct woolly mammoth
and straight-tusked elephant.