Affiliation:
1. CAS Key Laboratory of Animal Ecology and Conservation Biology Institute of Zoology Beijing China
2. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences Beijing China
3. Jiangsu Key Laboratory for Biodiversity and Biotechnology, College of Life Sciences Nanjing Normal University Nanjing China
4. Division of Life Sciences and Medicine University of Science and Technology of China Hefei China
Abstract
AbstractThe naked mole rat (Heterocephalus glaber), bats (e.g., genus Myotis), and elephants (family Elephantidae) are known as long‐lived mammals and are assumed to be excellent cancer antagonists. However, whether there are common genetic changes underpinning cancer resistance in these long‐lived species is yet to be fully established. Here, we newly generated a high‐quality chromosome‐level Asian elephant (Elephas maximus) genome and identified that the expanded gene families in elephants are involved in Ras‐associated and base excision repair pathways. Moreover, we performed comparative genomic analyses of 12 mammals and examined genes with signatures of positive selection in elephants, naked mole rat, and greater horseshoe bat. Residues at positively selected sites of CDR2L and ALDH6A1 in these long‐lived mammals enhanced the inhibition of tumor cell migration compared to those in short‐lived relatives. Overall, our study provides a new genome resource and a preliminary survey of common genetic changes in long‐lived mammals.