On Sept. 11, 2024, an international team of scientists led by the Leibniz Institute on Aging announced they had sequenced the genome of the Greenland Shark (Somniosus microcephalus), an elusive dweller of the depths of the northern Atlantic and the Arctic Ocean, and the world’s longest-living vertebrate, with an estimated lifespan of about 400 years.

They published their first results on bioRxiv and made the genome sequence accessible. The data suggest that this animal’s toolbox for repairing its own DNA may explain its extreme longevity – and that of other animals. The team’s work to decode the animal’s genetic makeup will also shed new light on general mechanisms enabling longevity.

The shark’s genome size posed one of the project’s early challenges. With 6.5 billion base pairs, the Greenland Shark’s genetic code is twice as long as that of a human, and it is the largest among shark genome sequenced. Other animals with larger genome sequenced to date include the axolotl and the lungfish.