Maintenance of genome sequence integrity in long and short-lived rodent species.

DNA mutations in somatic cells have been implicated in the causation of aging, with longer-lived species having a higher capacity to maintain genome sequence integrity than shorter-lived species. In an attempt to directly test this hypothesis, we used single-cell whole genome sequencing to analyze spontaneous and bleomycin-induced somatic mutations in lung fibroblasts of four rodent species with distinct maximum lifespans, including mouse, guinea pig, blind mole-rat, and naked mole-rat, as well as humans. All rodent data are deposited under this project. Human data are deposited separately in dbGAP.