Department of Bioinspired Science, Ewha Womans University, Seoul, 120-750, Korea.
Nature. 2011 Oct 12;479(7372):223-7. doi: 10.1038/nature10533.
The naked mole rat (Heterocephalus glaber) is a strictly subterranean, extraordinarily long-lived eusocial mammal. Although it is the size of a mouse, its maximum lifespan exceeds 30 years, making this animal the longest-living rodent. Naked mole rats show negligible senescence, no age-related increase in mortality, and high fecundity until death. In addition to delayed ageing, they are resistant to both spontaneous cancer and experimentally induced tumorigenesis. Naked mole rats pose a challenge to the theories that link ageing, cancer and redox homeostasis. Although characterized by significant oxidative stress, the naked mole rat proteome does not show age-related susceptibility to oxidative damage or increased ubiquitination. Naked mole rats naturally reside in large colonies with a single breeding female, the 'queen', who suppresses the sexual maturity of her subordinates. They also live in full darkness, at low oxygen and high carbon dioxide concentrations, and are unable to sustain thermogenesis nor feel certain types of pain. Here we report the sequencing and analysis of the naked mole rat genome, which reveals unique genome features and molecular adaptations consistent with cancer resistance, poikilothermy, hairlessness and insensitivity to low oxygen, and altered visual function, circadian rythms and taste sensing. This information provides insights into the naked mole rat's exceptional longevity and ability to live in hostile conditions, in the dark and at low oxygen. The extreme traits of the naked mole rat, together with the reported genome and transcriptome information, offer opportunities for understanding ageing and advancing other areas of biological and biomedical research.
裸鼹鼠（Heterocephalus glaber）是一种严格的穴居、异常长寿的真社会性哺乳动物。虽然它的体型只有老鼠大小，但最长寿命超过 30 年，是最长寿的啮齿动物。裸鼹鼠衰老速度极慢，死亡率不会随年龄增长而增加，并且在死亡前具有很高的繁殖力。除了衰老延迟外，它们还能抵抗自发性癌症和实验性肿瘤发生。裸鼹鼠对衰老、癌症和氧化还原平衡相关理论提出了挑战。尽管裸鼹鼠的蛋白质组表现出显著的氧化应激，但它并没有表现出与年龄相关的易受氧化损伤或泛素化增加的敏感性。裸鼹鼠自然生活在大型群体中，其中只有一只繁殖的雌性，即“女王”，她会抑制下属的性成熟。它们还生活在完全黑暗、低氧和高二氧化碳浓度的环境中，无法进行体温调节，也无法感受到某些类型的疼痛。在这里，我们报告了裸鼹鼠基因组的测序和分析，结果显示了与癌症抗性、变温性、无毛和对低氧不敏感以及视觉功能、昼夜节律和味觉感知改变一致的独特基因组特征和分子适应。这些信息为了解裸鼹鼠的非凡长寿和在恶劣条件下生活的能力提供了线索，包括在黑暗中和低氧环境中。裸鼹鼠的极端特征，加上报告的基因组和转录组信息，为理解衰老和推进其他生物学和生物医学研究领域提供了机会。
