X-Message-Number: 14181 Date: Wed, 26 Jul 2000 20:43:31 -0400 From: Jan Coetzee <> Subject: The secret to a long life Size of Bird Genome Linked to Longevity LONDON (Reuters) - The secret to a long life, in birds at least, is in the size of their genome, Scottish scientists said Wednesday. Birds live much longer than mammals and birds of the same size have very different sized genomes. Researchers at Glasgow University have discovered that birds with the biggest genomes, the amount of DNA in their cells, tend to live the longest. ``Across the animal kingdom there is a huge variation in the amount of DNA different organisms have. People have long been interested in trying to see if they can link that to any feature in the organism,'' Professor Pat Monaghan told Reuters. ``Even though birds tend to have relatively small amounts of DNA, the birds which have a lot for their body size live a long time, so birds with the biggest genomes live the longest,'' she added. Monaghan and her colleague Neil Metcalfe compared the size of the genomes and longevity of 67 bird species. The research is published in the latest issue of the journal Trends in Genetics. ``We were surprised that there was such a good relationship with lifespan, or potential longevity,'' she said, though it was not possible to tell if the finding holds true for other animals. A team of international scientists announced last month that they had mapped 97 percent of the human genome, which is expected to pave the way for breakthroughs in treating and preventing disease. Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=14181