Nature Communications (Jan 2019)

Longevity defined as top 10% survivors and beyond is transmitted as a quantitative genetic trait

  • Niels van den Berg,
  • Mar Rodríguez-Girondo,
  • Ingrid K. van Dijk,
  • Rick J. Mourits,
  • Kees Mandemakers,
  • Angelique A. P. O. Janssens,
  • Marian Beekman,
  • Ken R. Smith,
  • P. Eline Slagboom

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-018-07925-0
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 10, no. 1
pp. 1 – 12

Abstract

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While human lifespan is only moderately heritable, “getting old” runs in families. Here, van den Berg et al. study mortality data from three-generation cohorts to define a threshold for longevity and find that individuals have an increasing survival advantage with each additional relative in the top 10% survivors of their birth cohort.