To better understand how genomic traits correlate with physiological and ecological parameters, such as body weight, lifespan, temperature, and metabolic rate, the research team compared the whole genomes\u00a0of\u00a084 other species ranging from yeast to humans to the whale shark\u00a0reference genome, which was generated based on\u00a0DNA samples provided by\u00a0the Hanwha Aquarium, Jeju, S. Korea.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n The research team also found that\u00a0introns are longer in the shark genomes than in most other species. Introns are\u00a0the parts of the gene sequence that are not expressed in the protein, but rather they are related to basal metabolic rate (BMR), which\u00a0contributes to species longevity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On average, whale sharks can\u00a0grow to a length of 20 meters and\u00a0weigh up to 42 tons. Besides, they also have an incredibly long lifespan. The estimated lifespan of whale sharks ranges from 70 to 100 years. It has been known that large species live longer because they are better at retaining heat\u00a0for longer periods of time. However, the exact mechanisms underlying the longevity of whale sharks has not been identified.<\/p>\n\n\n\n According to the research team, introns are longer in the shark genomes than in most other species due to the high proportion of repetitive elements. In particular, many of those repetitive elements that show extensive regularity were found in intron regions, which indicates that introns may have an additional feature. The researchers believe that some of these features are linked to aging and longevity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIn the whale shark genome, a striking number of CR1-like long interspersed nuclear elements, and Penelope-like\u00a0repetitive\u00a0elements are located in intronic regions, when compared that of other species,\u201d\u00a0says Dr.\u00a0Seung Gu Park, the first author of the research. \u201cAmong the many functions of introns unveiled, we expect there to be\u00a0functions that affect aging.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n In their study, the researchers sequenced, assembled, and analyzed the genome of the whale shark and compared its genome and biological traits to those of 84 eukaryotic species with a focus on gnathostomes, such as fishes, birds, and mammals. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In particular, they identified scaling relationships between body size, temperature, metabolic rates, and genomic features and found general genetic and physiological correlations that span the animal kingdom. They also examined characteristics unique to the whale shark and its slow-evolving, large genome. During that process, the research team sequenced and assembled its genome de novo, thereby generating a reference genome of whale sharks that spanned almost 3.2 billion base pairs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The research team unexpectedly found that the size of neural genes is strongly correlated with lifespan in most animals. In the whale shark, large gene size and large neural gene size strongly correlate with lifespan and body mass, suggesting longer gene lengths are linked to longer lifespans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cOur comparative genomics approach uncovered multiple genetic features associated with body size, metabolic rate, and lifespan and showed that the whale shark is a promising model for studies of neural architecture and lifespan of different species, including humans,\u201d says Professor Bhak.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This study has been participated by Professor George M. Church of Harvard University and Professor Jeremy S. Edwards of New Mexico University, as corresponding authors.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The findings of this research are expected to help researchers unravel the secrets to human longevity and aging.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":19425,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19424","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-biology"],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/Whale-shark.jpg",865,1024,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/Whale-shark-200x200.jpg",200,200,true],"medium":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/Whale-shark-338x400.jpg",338,400,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/Whale-shark-768x909.jpg",750,888,true],"large":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/Whale-shark-675x799.jpg",675,799,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/Whale-shark.jpg",865,1024,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/Whale-shark.jpg",865,1024,false],"ultp_layout_landscape_large":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/Whale-shark.jpg",676,800,false],"ultp_layout_landscape":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/Whale-shark.jpg",481,570,false],"ultp_layout_portrait":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/Whale-shark.jpg",600,710,false],"ultp_layout_square":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/Whale-shark.jpg",507,600,false],"newspaper-x-single-post":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/Whale-shark-760x490.jpg",760,490,true],"newspaper-x-recent-post-big":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/Whale-shark-550x360.jpg",550,360,true],"newspaper-x-recent-post-list-image":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/Whale-shark-95x65.jpg",95,65,true],"web-stories-poster-portrait":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/Whale-shark.jpg",640,758,false],"web-stories-publisher-logo":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/Whale-shark.jpg",81,96,false],"web-stories-thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/Whale-shark.jpg",150,178,false]},"author_info":{"info":["RevoScience"]},"category_info":"Biology<\/a>","tag_info":"Biology","comment_count":"0","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19424","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19424"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19424\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19425"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19424"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19424"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19424"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/Whale-shark1-1-675x146.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
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