Evidence for improved DNA repair in the long-lived bowhead whale

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. 2025 Dec;648(8094):717-725.
doi: 10.1038/s41586-025-09694-5.
Epub 2025 Oct 29.

Evidence for improved DNA repair in the long-lived bowhead whale

Denis Firsanov #  1 , Max Zacher #  1 , Xiao Tian  1 , Todd L Sformo  2 , Yang Zhao  1 , Gregory Tombline  1 , J Yuyang Lu  1 , Zhizhong Zheng  1 , Luigi Perelli  3 , Enrico Gurreri  4 , Li Zhang  4 , Jing Guo  1 , Anatoly Korotkov  1 , Valentin Volobaev  1 , Seyed Ali Biashad  1 , Zhihui Zhang  1 , Johanna Heid  5 , Alexander Y Maslov  5 , Shixiang Sun  5 , Zhuoer Wu  1 , Jonathan Gigas  1 , Eric C Hillpot  1 , John C Martinez  1 , Minseon Lee  1 , Alyssa Williams  1 , Abbey Gilman  1 , Nicholas Hamilton  1 , Ekaterina Strelkova  1 , Ena Haseljic  1 , Avnee Patel  1 , Maggie E Straight  1 , Nalani Miller  1 , Julia Ablaeva  1 , Lok Ming Tam  1 , Chloé Couderc  1 , Michael R Hoopmann  6 , Robert L Moritz  6 , Shingo Fujii  7 , Amandine Pelletier  7 , Dan J Hayman  8 , Hongrui Liu  9   10 , Yuxuan Cai  9 , Anthony K L Leung  9   11   12   13 , Zhengdong Zhang  5 , C Bradley Nelson  14 , Lisa M Abegglen  15   16 , Joshua D Schiffman  15   16 , Vadim N Gladyshev  17 , Carlo C Maley  18   19 , Mauro Modesti  7 , Giannicola Genovese  4   20   21   22 , Mirre J P Simons  8 , Jan Vijg  23 , Andrei Seluanov  24   25 , Vera Gorbunova  26   27
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Abstract

At more than 200 years, the maximum lifespan of the bowhead whale exceeds that of all other mammals. The bowhead is also the second-largest animal on Earth1, reaching over 80,000 kg. Despite its very large number of cells and long lifespan, the bowhead is not highly cancer-prone, an incongruity termed Peto's paradox2. Here, to understand the mechanisms that underlie the cancer resistance of the bowhead whale, we examined the number of oncogenic hits required for malignant transformation of whale primary fibroblasts. Unexpectedly, bowhead whale fibroblasts required fewer oncogenic hits to undergo malignant transformation than human fibroblasts. However, bowhead whale cells exhibited enhanced DNA double-strand break repair capacity and fidelity, and lower mutation rates than cells of other mammals. We found the cold-inducible RNA-binding protein CIRBP to be highly expressed in bowhead fibroblasts and tissues. Bowhead whale CIRBP enhanced both non-homologous end joining and homologous recombination repair in human cells, reduced micronuclei formation, promoted DNA end protection, and stimulated end joining in vitro. CIRBP overexpression in Drosophila extended lifespan and improved resistance to irradiation. These findings provide evidence supporting the hypothesis that, rather than relying on additional tumour suppressor genes to prevent oncogenesis3-5, the bowhead whale maintains genome integrity through enhanced DNA repair. This strategy, which does not eliminate damaged cells but faithfully repairs them, may be contributing to the exceptional longevity and low cancer incidence in the bowhead whale.

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