Surviving for around 400 years , the Greenland shark is the world ’s longest - live craniate – but fiddling is know about its telling length of service . Now , an international squad of scientists has mapped its genome for the first time , potentially spill some of itsanti - get on secrets .

The inquiry ( brand as a preprint and yet to be peer - reviewed ) provides a complete view of the shark ’s genetical makeup , which should serve bring to illume some of the factor and physical process behind its extraordinary lifespan .

“ The Greenland Shark ’s genome is a quintessential step for understanding the molecular mechanisms of aging in this exceptionally long - lived metal money , ” study carbon monoxide - generator Steve Hoffmann , from the Fritz Lipmann Institute on Aging , said of the grandness of the team work in astatement .

Based on their findings so far , it seems the problematic shark ’s DNA stamping ground toolkit could at least in part be responsible for extending its aliveness . “ The depth psychology of the data suggests that improved DNA fix could toy an important role in its uttermost length of service , ” Professor Arne Sahm , first writer of the paper , explain .

TheGreenland shark(Somniosus microcephalus ) has a huge genome , with around 6.5 billion DNA basis couplet , or building blockage – for reference , human have around 3 billion base pairs , meanwhile , the bombastic genome of any being belongs to a remarkablytiny fernand has a walloping 160 billion al-Qaida distich .

Still , the Greenland shark has the biggest genome of any other shark sequence to date , the new research revealed , and , amazingly , it ’s pack full of insistent and frequently ego - replicating element . These transposable element move from one location on the genome to another and can interrupt normal gene subprogram – as such , they are sometimes called " jumping " or " selfish " genes .

They make up over 70 percent of the Greenland Shark ’s genome , which you might expect to be prejudicial to their survival – but this does n’t appear to have been the vitrine . In fact , the researcher suggest thatjumping genesmay actually have contributed to the shark ’s extreme life-time by providing other genes the opportunity to commandeer the molecular machinery they use to multiply .

“ We are tempted to speculate that the evolution of the Greenland Shark has found a way to counterbalance the disconfirming effects of transposable elements on DNA stability – by commandeer the very machinery of permutable elements , ” Sahm hypothesized . In doing so , the shark may have evolved a way of duplicating genes involved inDNArepair to help them well correct DNA impairment , a hallmark of aging .

The team also find a specific modification in the protein p53 – an authoritative tumor suppresser that is mutated in around half of human genus Cancer and is a major player in the length of service of many organisms .

“ This work is a cornerstone for a good understanding of the ground of the Greenland Shark ’s extreme physiology . Furthermore , it helps us assess their genomic variety and thus the universe size of this vulnerable species for the first metre , ” notice co - author John Fleng Steffensen from the University of Copenhagen .

It ’s not just the Greenland shark that will profit from this work – the determination could demonstrate revolutionary for a whole legion of organisms , including us .

“ Exploring the genetical underpinnings of the huge lifespan diversity across the tree of spirit offers an alone Modern perspective for investigating the chemical mechanism enable exceptional seniority , ” study co - author Alessandro Cellerino added .

The preprint is available onbioRxiv .