BBC News | SCI/TECH | Size matters to birds

Birds with the greatest amount of DNA in their cells tend to live longest, scientists in Scotland have found.

Their work, published in the Trends in Genetics journal and reported in New Scientist, found a relationship between the size of birds' genomes and longevity.

Part of the research at the University of Glasgow involved studying 67 species.

Professor Pat Monaghan said: "We were surprised that there was such a good relationship with lifespan, or potential longevity."

University of Glasgow sign
The work was carried out in Scotland
It was not possible to tell if the finding holds true for other animals.

"Across the animal kingdom there is a huge variation in the amount of DNA different organisms have," Professor Monaghan went on.

"People have long been interested in trying to see if they can link that to any feature in the organism.

"Even though birds tend to have relatively small amounts of DNA, the birds which have a lot for their body size live a long time, so birds with the biggest genomes live the longest," she added.

A team of international scientists announced last month that they had sequenced 97% of the human genome, which is expected to pave the way for breakthroughs in treating and preventing disease.


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