An international collaboration led by a neurologist and experts in advanced genomics at Vanderbilt Health has coaxed one of the secrets of extreme longevity from a 194-year-old giant tortoise named Jonathan.
Jonathan’s secret involves entropy, the tendency of biological systems to become disordered over time.
One of the hallmarks of aging is mitochondrial dysfunction. It results from increasing entropy, or disorder, in “promoters,” the genetic on-and-off switches that regulate the efficiency of mitochondria, the energy-producing organelles in most animal cells. A reliable supply of cellular energy is essential for many biological processes.
Despite his many years, Jonathan somehow had avoide...
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