The naked mole rat genome: understanding aging through genome analysis

Comparative genetics of longevity and cancer: insights from long-lived rodents

“…Analyses of rodent genomes and the associated biology, such as unique and common traits of the examined species, may proceed at several levels and utilize diverse approaches (Figure 3) 56, 57 . Genome alignments, such as the UCSC genome browser, that include both closely related and distant species are helpful for comparative studies as they provide both genome-wide and gene-centric views.…”

Adaptation of theSpalax galilitranscriptome to life under hypoxia may hold a key to a complex phenotype including longevity and cancer resistance

“…Comparative genomics and molecular analyses in recent years have provided evidence that both positively selected sequence changes in coding genes and mutations in gene regulatory elements have contributed to adaptation in the subterranean rodents (Gladyshev et al, 2011) (Fang et al, 2014) (Malik et al, 2016) (Schmidt et al, 2017) (Davies et al, 2018). In Spalax, for example, fixed amino acid replacements in the crucial tumour suppressor p53 render the protein unable to activate some of its apoptosis-regulating target genes (Ashur-Fabian et al, 2004).…”

Skin Aging in Long-Lived Naked Mole-Rats Is Accompanied by Increased Expression of Longevity-Associated and Tumor Suppressor Genes

“…Naked mole rats (NMRs, Heterocephalus glaber) are long-lived rodents possessing remarkable resistance to spontaneous carcinogenesis, certain noxious stimuli and hypoxia and maintain sustained healthy life-span span for over 30 years (Buffenstein, 2005, Gorbunova et al, 2014, Seluanov et al, 2018, Smith et al, 2020. Comparative genome analyses have revealed that the NMR genome shows higher similarity (93% synteny) to the human genome compared to that of mice (83%) or rats (80%) (Gladyshev et al, 2011, Kim et al, 2011. Many aspects of the NMR biology have recently been extensively discussed (Braude et al, 2021, Buffenstein et al, 2021 leading to the conclusion that exceptional resistance of NMRs to aging-associated pathologies is mediated by several mechanisms, including more robust DNA repair and genome stability compared to mice, a unique organization of the tumor suppressor Ink4a/b locus, production of large amounts of higher molecular weight hyaluronic acid with unusual properties, altered IGF receptor signaling and increased proteasome activity and protein stability (Brohus et al, 2015, Del Marmol et al, 2021, Evdokimov et al, 2018, Gorbunova et al, 2014, Keyes et al, 2013, Kulaberoglu et al, 2019, MacRae et al, 2015, Rodriguez et al, 2016, Seluanov et al, 2018, Takasugi et al, 2020.…”