Overview
- Researchers report bowhead whales express unusually high levels of the cold-shock protein CIRBP, which promotes repair of DNA double-strand breaks.
- In genotoxic stress tests, bowhead fibroblasts accumulated fewer oncogenic mutations than human cells despite requiring fewer hits to transform.
- Adding CIRBP increased DNA repair in human and fruit-fly cell cultures, and overexpression lengthened fruit-fly lifespan.
- Modest temperature drops boosted CIRBP production in cells, though the cold-exposure threshold relevant for people remains unknown.
- The peer-reviewed study, led by Jan Vijg and Vera Gorbunova of Albert Einstein and the University of Rochester, appears in Nature and situates the findings within Peto's paradox.