An extremely old giant tortoise named Jonathan may hold the secret to a long, healthy life

An international team of scientists, led by a neurologist and genomics experts from Vanderbilt Health, has discovered a potential key to longevity in Jonathan, a 194-year-old giant tortoise. Jonathan's secret lies in the low methylation entropy of promoters involved in mitochondrial function and RNA processing. Mitochondrial dysfunction, caused by increasing entropy or disorder, is a hallmark of aging.

Despite Jonathan's age, his genes regulating mitochondrial energy production retained a youthful orderliness. This finding, published in Science Advances, suggests that protecting mitochondria from disordered gene expression could extend a healthy human lifespan, also known as healthspan. The research, funded by the Kallel Foundation, a nonprofit focused on longevity research, may pave the way for future clinical trials of anti-aging drugs that currently lack patent protection.

Jonathan, hatched in 1832 on the Seychelles, has lived on St. Helena for over a century. Blind from cataracts but with excellent hearing, he has been visited by numerous British royals. The study, conducted by a team of experts including Steve Horvath, known for developing a methylation-based aging clock, found that Jonathan's high-fidelity gene expression in critical pathways protected him from age-related decline. Further studies using blood samples will be required to validate these findings.