日本東京農(nóng)業(yè)大學的科學家團隊發(fā)現(xiàn),，擁有兩個生物學上的母親但沒有父親的老鼠的壽命比普通老鼠長30%，這或許表明,，遺傳自父親的基因可能會縮短其后代的壽命,。相關研究發(fā)表在12月2日出版的《人類生殖學》雜志上。
新研究是東京農(nóng)業(yè)大學河野友宏團隊正在進行的另一項研究的“副產(chǎn)品”。2004年,，該團隊采用一種無需雄性的生殖技術,，成功地用兩枚未受精的卵子培育出一只名為“輝夜姬”（Kaguya，日本童話故事中的人物,，角色相當于“月亮公主”）的單性生殖老鼠,，該老鼠沒有生物學上的父親，是世界上首例單性生殖哺乳動物,。
單性生殖常見于爬行動物和昆蟲,。“輝夜姬”的誕生首次說明，通過單性生殖這一“無配子生殖”現(xiàn)象培育哺乳動物是可能的,。最后,，“輝夜姬”活了793天，而其同系的老鼠僅活了600天到700天,。
為了弄清是否“輝夜姬”獨特的出生方式有助于其長壽,，河野友宏團隊接著培育出了另外13只也是由兩個卵子得到的“雙母親老鼠”，并將其與正常情況下得到的老鼠進行對照研究,。結果顯示,，“雙母親老鼠”比正常老鼠平均多活186天,。但是,，“雙母親老鼠”明顯比正常的老鼠要小、要輕,。
河野友宏認為,，這表明來自于父親精子的某些被印記了的基因可能會抑制壽命，同時增大體型,。
研究人員表示,，到目前為止，該影響是否適用于人類還不得而知,，但是,，該研究可讓人們從新的角度來理解基因對哺乳動物衰老過程的影響。（生物谷Bioon.com）
生物谷推薦原始出處：
Human Reproduction December 1, 2009, doi:10.1093/humrep/dep400
Longevity in mice without a father
Manabu Kawahara1 and Tomohiro Kono2,3
1 Laboratory of Animal Resource Development, Faculty of Agriculture, Saga University, 1 Honjo-machi, Saga 840-8502, Japan 2 Department of BioScience, Tokyo University of Agriculture, Setagaya-ku, Tokyo 156-8502, Japan
BACKGROUND: Females live longer than males in many mammalian species, including humans. It has been observed that women are at an advantage over men with regard to the lifespan; however, the reason for this sex difference in longevity is unclear. Bi-maternal mice (BM), which are produced in a ‘sperm-free’ manner, could provide an opportunity to analyse the longevity of animals lacking paternal genomes.
METHODS AND RESULTS: We studied the longevity of BM, which were generated using two sets of female genomes—one derived from fully grown oocytes from normal adults and the other from non-growing oocytes from newborn pups. These newborn pups were also genetically manipulated in two regions—the imprinting centres of Igf2-H19 and Dlk1-Gtl2—on chromosomes 7 and 12. We determined lifespan of the control (n = 13) and BM (n = 13). Our results revealed that the bi-maternal genotype clearly shifted the entire survival curve to the right, suggesting a delay in the expression of all causes of mortality. BM survived 186 days longer than controls. Furthermore, the body weight was significantly lower in the BM as compared with the controls at 20 months after birth (P < 0.05), and leukocyte composition analysis at 8 weeks revealed that the eosinophil count was significantly increased in the BM as compared with the controls (P < 0.05, n = 6).
CONCLUSIONS: These findings demonstrate that the maternal genome may play a role in ontogenetic longevity. Our results further suggested sex differences in longevity, originating at the genome level, implying that the sperm genome has a detrimental effect on longevity in mammals.
