Comparative analysis of long noncoding RNAs in long-lived mammals provides insights into natural cancer-resistance

Mouse and rats are staple model organisms that have been traditionally used for oncological studies; however, their short lifespan and highly prone to cancers limit their utilizationsin understanding the mechanisms of cancer resistance. In recent years, several studies of the non-standard long-lived mammalian species like naked mole rat (NMR) have provided new insights of mechanisms in natural anti-cancer. How long-lived species genetically maintain longevity and cancer-resistance remains largely elusive. To better understand the underlying anti-cancer mechanisms in long-lived mammals, we genome widely identified long noncoding RNA (lncRNA) transcripts of two longevous mammals, bowhead whale (BW, <i>Balaena mysticetus</i>) and Brandt’s bat (BB, <i>Myotis brandtii</i>) and featured their sequence traits, expression patterns, and their correlations with cancer-resistance. Similar with naked mole rat (NMR, <i>Heterocephalus glaber</i>), the most long-lived rodent, BW and BB lncRNAs show low sequence conservation and dynamic expressions among tissues and physiological stages. By utilizing k-mers clustering, 75–136 of BW, BB and NMR lncRNAs were found in close relation (Pearson’s <i>r</i> ≥0.9, p r &gt; 0.8 or <i>r</i> <b>Abbreviations:</b> BW: bowhead whale; BB: Brandt’s bat; NMR: naked mole rat; LLM: long-lived mammal; HTS: human tumour-suppressors; PTS: potential tumour suppressor; ARD: ageing related diseases; HAR-Lncs: lncRNAs that related with human ageing diseases; Kmer-lncs: lncRNAs in long-lived mammal species that corelated (Pearson’s<i>r</i> ≥0.9, p &lt; 0.01) with the 10 HAR-Lncs by k-mers clustering; All-lncs: all the lncRNAs in long-lived mammal species; SDE-lncs: significant differentially expressed lncRNAs