Some of Earth’s longest-lived fish show how to reach extreme ages

"Genomic analysis of Pacific rockfishes, which can survive for more than 200 years, provides insight into the biology of longevity.

Cold-loving creatures known as Pacific Ocean rockfishes have wildly varying lifespans. The species Sebastes minor lasts a mere 11 years; its cousin Sebastes aleutianus can live for more than 2 centuries. Scientists have now pinpointed genes linked to this remarkable range¹.

To understand the variation in longevity, Peter Sudmant at the University of California, Berkeley, and his colleagues examined the genomes of 88 rockfish species, most in the Sebastes genus.

 

They discovered that the longest-lived rockfishes, a group that includes several species that can live for more than 105 years, have more genes linked to DNA maintenance and for sensing nutrients in the body than do their counterparts that live for less than 20 years. Some of those genes seemed to indirectly affect longevity by influencing a fish’s size and ability to adapt to different environments.

 

The long-lived fish also have more copies of genes involved in dialing back the immune system, suggesting that these fish are more protected against the effects of ‘inflammaging’, an increase in inflammation throughout the body that occurs with age in many vertebrates, including humans." [1]

1. Nature 599, 351 (2021)