Publish at February 11 2026 Updated February 11 2026
Of all the countries in the world, Japan has the most centenarians, with over 100,000 (1), but Italy is also well placed. Between 2009 and 2025, the number of people reaching this venerable age doubled (2), and there are now officially 23,500 nationwide. Certain geographical areas tend to concentrate centenarians; a multi-factorial phenomenon that can be attributed to the environment, social organization, but also genetics.
We're going to take a closer look at the latter factor, as a team from the University of Bologna (Italy) has studied the ancestral genomic organization of these individuals. By comparing the genomes of 333 centenarians with those of 690 younger adults, the researchers discovered that the doyens have an abnormally high concentration of genetic variants inherited from Western hunter-gatherers.
These DNA segments date back to the Tardiglacial era, the last phase of the Pleistocene (3), around 14,000 years ago, well before the invention of agriculture (4). Their work was published in the journal GeroScience (5), in December 2025, and demonstrates that natural selection (6) has endowed these lineages with a genetic plasticity that enables them to age without suffering the wreckage of degenerative diseases.
To isolate this genetic imprint, the team mobilized paleogenomics, a discipline that involves sequencing DNA extracted from archaeological remains for comparison with contemporary genomes. The researchers used reference genomes dating from the Tardiglacial period to break down the DNA of the Italian centenarians into four major ancestral strata: Neolithic farmers, steppe pastoralists, Caucasian-Iranian populations and, finally, Western hunter-gatherers.
In this way, they were able to isolate a statistical correspondence: hunter-gatherer ancestry is the only ancestral component systematically over-represented in centenarians compared to the control group. The greater the proportion of DNA inherited from hunter-gatherers relative to the rest of the population, the greater the probability of reaching the age of 100.
According to the team's calculations, the simple fact of having a more marked filiation with these prehistoric ancestors (one standard deviation higher than the mean) increases the probability of becoming a centenarian by 38%.
A genetic influence linked to a lineage known as the "Villabruna cluster". This group takes its name from an archaeological site in the Italian Alps, where the skeleton of a 14,000-year-old hunter-gatherer was discovered (7). This genetic profile is fundamental, as it marks the moment when, at the end of the Ice Age, a new population repopulated Europe, replacing the previous groups.
A very important cluster for understanding this impact, because unlike other extinct lineages, this one has maintained itself with a rare resilience within the European gene pool. The genomes of the centenarians analyzed in this study contain more DNA fragments from this genetic profile than those of the average Italian.
Where the intermingling of populations should have attenuated, or "diluted" this heritage over the millennia, these centenarians have retained a high number of genetic variants from this cluster. These individuals have therefore remained closer, genetically speaking, to the populations of the end of the Ice Age than to the waves of migrants who arrived later.
As the researchers reported in Futurity (8)
"this discovery provides a historical-genomic perspective that reframes the concept of healthy aging - not as a static state, but as a dynamic shaped by the history of our populations and their past adaptations".
The exceptional persistence of the Villabruna group's genetic heritage suggests that these genes have survived the millennia, conserved by natural selection for their unique ability to halt cellular decline over the very long term.
These genes are thought to help regulate "inflammaging", also known as "age-related inflammation", which is defined as a chronic, systemic, low-intensity inflammatory state that develops in the absence of overt infection. This biological process, considered one of the main factors in aging, results from an accumulation of cellular damage and depletion of the immune system, which ends up producing inflammatory molecules on a continuous basis, degrading healthy tissue.
The history of our survival has left contradictory traces in our blood to explain this phenomenon. Genes inherited from the first farmers of the Neolithic period have left us with a hyper-reactive immunity, because at the time, this ardour was vital: to avoid succumbing to infection at the age of twenty, in the midst of the promiscuity of the first villages and livestock, the organism had to be capable of unleashing a lightning response to the slightest infection. A counter-attack manifested mainly by the triggering of an inflammatory process to neutralize pathogens.
Such a vigilant immune system, optimized for the survival of young adults, became less and less useful for the rare individuals who reached advanced age. What was once an asset became, over time, a burden, as this propensity for reactivity did not subside. By remaining constantly mobilized when no external threat justifies it, the organism ends up exhausted: the immune system never returns to its resting state and maintains a basal secretion of its defense molecules (mainly pro-inflammatory cytokines).
Instead of destroying a virus or bacteria, they can attack the body's healthy cells and accelerate tissue ageing. A sterile inflammation, since there is no enemy to fight, which wears down the body: this is exactly what "inflammaging" is, an ancient protection which is prolonged uselessly and becomes, in the long run, self-destructive.
Conversely, the centenarians in the study have retained the immune phenotype of the Villabruna hunter-gatherers. As long as no danger is detected, the "immune machine" idles, limiting the production of toxic molecules.
"Biodemographic history and genetic ancestry are not simply confounding variables in genome-wide association or precision medicine studies; they are determinants of actual phenotypic variability"
explain the authors in their study.
A way of putting genetics and biology back at the heart of this issue, even if some intellectual circles consider that these biological determinants should be relegated to the background.
We don't all age in the same way, and while environment and lifestyle also influence our life expectancy, our genetic make-up is a major factor. The findings of the University of Bologna leave no room for doubt: inequality in the face of death is also rooted in the legacy of our ancestors.
Illustration: Shuttersock - 1115760380
References
1. Japan's secret to long life: why are so many women there over 100?
https://www.bbc.com/afrique/articles/crrjqddn0lzo
2. Italy's centenarians grow in number as another 2,000 reach the milestone
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/nov/07/italy-centenarians-amount-milestone
3 . Tardiglacial - https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tardiglaciaire
4. The invention of agriculture - https://www.histoirealacarte.com/prehistoire/l-invention-de-l-agriculture
5. Western Hunter-Gatherer genetic ancestry contributes to human longevity in the Italian population https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11357-025-02043-4
6. From bacteria to the human species, how to easily understand Darwin's theory of evolution https://www.presse-citron.net/de-la-bacterie-a-lespece-humaine-comment-comprendre-facilement-la-theorie-de-levolution-de-darwin/
7. A man buried in Italy in the Pleistocene era- https://www.dnagenics.com/ancestry/sample/view/profile/id/villabruna
8. DNA From Ancient Hunter-Gatherers May Boost Your Odds of Living Past 100 - https://www.sciencealert.com/dna-from-ancient-hunter-gatherers-may-boost-your-odds-of-living-past-100
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