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Mutational clocks tick differently across species

Throughout life, cells accrue mutations. It now emerges that longer-lived animals acquire mutations at a slower rate than do short-lived species, potentially explaining why cancer risk does not increase with lifespan.
  1. Alexander N. Gorelick

    1. Alexander N. Gorelick is in the Department of Radiology and at the Center for Systems Biology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts 02129, USA.

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  2. Kamila Naxerova

    1. Kamila Naxerova is in the Department of Radiology and at the Center for Systems Biology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts 02129, USA.

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The animal kingdom comprises amazing diversity, ranging from small, short-lived animals to large, long-lived species. How does the risk of developing cancer manifest across these different life forms, and what are the molecular underpinnings of this? Writing in Nature, Cagan et al.1 and Vincze et al.2 provide some answers.

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Nature 604, 435-436 (2022)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-022-00976-w

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Competing Interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

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