collage of long-lived animals: a fish, a naked mole rat, and a bat in the first row. A parrot and a giant tortoise in the second row, and a fish and a shark in the third and last row.

Some rockfish live over two-hundred years. Some gobies only live sixty days. Humans live roughly eighty-five years. How is this variation regulated, and can these differences inform treatments to delay aging in people? These are defining, heritable traits for species, and the mechanisms underlying the dramatic variation across species must be present in their genomes.

Evolution of Exceptional Longevity in Rockfish and Humans

To resolve the genetic regulation of longevity, we have mined genomic variation in rockfishes, ranging in maximum lifespan from 11 to over 205 years. Multiple shifts in rockfish longevity have occurred independently, and in a short evolutionary time frame, thus empowering convergence analyses. Our analyses reveal a common network of genes under convergent restricted evolution in long-lived lineages, encompassing established aging regulators such as insulin-signaling, yet also identify flavonoid (aryl-hydrocarbon) metabolism as a novel pathway modulating longevity. Further, these genes were used to refine human longevity GWAS, identifying the aryl-hydrocarbon metabolism pathway to be significantly associated with human survival to the 99th percentile. This evolutionary intersection defines and cross-validates a novel, conserved genetic architecture that associates with the evolution of longevity across vertebrates.

decorative image.
Using rockfish evolution as a filter, we identify shared signatures underlying longevity in humans.
dwarf goby almost blending into a coral reef.

Evolution of Fleeting Lifespan in Dwarf Gobies

An extreme example of the evolution of shortened longevity is evident in small coral reef gobies of the genus Eviota. In response to high levels of extrinsic mortality, these Goby species evolved extremely rapid life cycles. The whole species group is characterized by short lifespans of about 100 days with documented extremes of less than 50 days. Outside the genus, other gobies have evolved a diversity of lifespans, up to twelve years. With collaborators at the Unversity of Washington, we have sampled and sequenced the “conservome” of 24 goby lineages, including 12 in the Eviota genus. This is a rich resource to unravel the evolution of dwarf gobies and perform comparative genomics within Gobies, as well as empower meta-analyses across teleosts.

a clam shell.

Population Genetics of the World’s Longest Lived Animal Species

The ocean quahog, Arctica islandica, can survive for over five-hundred years off the coast of Iceland. However, 1000 miles away in the Baltic sea, they survive for only 35 years. With collaborators from the Alfred Wegener Institute, we have generated a high quality reference genome for Arctica islandica and sequenced individuals from the different populations. We are working to identify genomic controls that may be underlying the dramatic reduction in maximum longevity as the species proliferated into the Baltic sea roughly 10,000 years ago.

Key publications

Funding

National Academy of Medicine Healthy Longevity QuickFire Accelerator Award
National Academy of Medicine Healthy Longevity QuickFire Catalyst Award
Harvard Medical School Genetics Climate Change Fellowship
Glenn/AFAR Postdoctoral Fellowship in Aging Research