PLoS One. 2009 Jul 29;4(7):e6423. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0006423.

Association of mitochondrial DNA haplogroups with exceptional longevity in a Chinese population.

Cai XY¹, Wang XF, Li SL, Qian J, Qian DG, Chen F, Yang YJ, Yuan ZY, Xu J, Bai Y, Yu SZ, Jin L.

Author information

1: State Key Laboratory of Genetic Engineering, School of Life Sciences and Institutes of Biomedical Sciences, Fudan University, Shanghai, China.

Abstract

BACKGROUND:

Longevity is a multifactorial trait with a genetic contribution, and mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) polymorphisms were found to be involved in the phenomenon of longevity.

METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS:

To explore the effects of mtDNA haplogroups on the prevalence of extreme longevity (EL), a population based case-control study was conducted in Rugao--a prefecture city in Jiangsu, China. Case subjects include 463 individuals aged > or = 95 yr (EL group). Control subjects include 926 individuals aged 60-69 years (elderly group) and 463 individuals aged 40-49 years (middle-aged group) randomly recruited from Rugao. We observed significant reduction of M9 haplogroups in longevity subjects (0.2%) when compared with both elderly subjects (2.2%) and middle-aged subjects (1.7%). Linear-by-linear association test revealed a significant decreasing trend of N9 frequency from middle-aged subjects (8.6%), elderly subjects (7.2%) and longevity subjects (4.8%) (p = 0.018). In subsequent analysis stratified by gender, linear-by-linear association test revealed a significant increasing trend of D4 frequency from middle-aged subjects (15.8%), elderly subjects (16.4%) and longevity subjects (21.7%) in females (p = 0.025). Conversely, a significant decreasing trend of B4a frequency was observed from middle-aged subjects (4.2%), elderly subjects (3.8%) and longevity subjects (1.7%) in females (p = 0.045).