Giant tortoise genomes provide insights into longevity and age-related disease.

Authors: Quesada, Víctor and Freitas-Rodríguez, Sandra and Miller, Joshua and Pérez-Silva, José G and Jiang, Zi-Feng and Tapia, Washington and Santiago-Fernández, Olaya and Campos-Iglesias, Diana and Kuderna, Lukas F K and Quinzin, Maud and Álvarez, Miguel G and Carrero, Dido and Beheregaray, Luciano B and Gibbs, James P and Chiari, Ylenia and Glaberman, Scott and Ciofi, Claudio and Araujo-Voces, Miguel and Mayoral, Pablo and Arango, Javier R and Tamargo-Gómez, Isaac and Roiz-Valle, David and Pascual-Torner, María and Evans, Benjamin R and Edwards, Danielle L and Garrick, Ryan C and Russello, Michael A and Poulakakis, Nikos and Gaughran, Stephen J and Rueda, Danny O and Bretones, Gabriel and Marquès-Bonet, Tomàs and White, Kevin P and Caccone, Adalgisa and López-Otín, Carlos

Giant tortoises are among the longest-lived vertebrate animals and, as such, provide an excellent model to study traits like longevity and age-related diseases. However, genomic and molecular evolutionary information on giant tortoises is scarce. Here, we describe a global analysis of the genomes of Lonesome George-the iconic last member of Chelonoidis abingdonii-and the Aldabra giant tortoise (Aldabrachelys gigantea). Comparison of these genomes with those of related species, using both unsupervised and supervised analyses, led us to detect lineage-specific variants affecting DNA repair genes, inflammatory mediators and genes related to cancer development. Our study also hints at specific evolutionary strategies linked to increased lifespan, and expands our understanding of the genomic determinants of ageing. These new genome sequences also provide important resources to help the efforts for restoration of giant tortoise populations.

Journal: Nature ecology & evolution
DOI: 10.1038/s41559-018-0733-x
Year: 2019

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