Is living to 100 a question of the Mediterranean diet, good genes or simply luck? A team from the University of Bologna has just reopened the debate by looking not only at our modern chromosomes, but at the imprint left by peoples who disappeared thousands of years ago.
In a study published in December 2025 in the journal GeroScience, these researchers compared the genome of 333
Italian centenarians to that of 690 younger adults. Their verdict is surprising: people who reach 100 in Italy wear moreHunter-gatherer DNA prehistoric than the rest of the population. An ancestral signature that intrigues specialists.
Why Italian centenarians have more hunter-gatherer DNA
The team compared the genomes of centenarians and witnesses to 103 ancient genomes spanning 20,000 years, representative of four major ancestries: Western European Mesolithic hunter-gatherers (WHG), early Anatolian farmers, Bronze Age steppe pastoralists and Neolithic Caucasian/Iranian groups. Statistical analyzes show that centenarians are systematically closer, genetically, to hunter-gatherers of the West (or West Hunter-Gatherers – WHG) than other ancient genomes from prehistoric groups, including Bronze Age herders and Neolithic farmers of the Middle East – compared to the control group.
Statistical models thus show that the WHG component is associated with an increase in the chances of being a centenarian. No other ancient ancestry displays a comparable effect, even if, in women, the portion of DNA originating from Yamnaya pastoralists (a people of nomadic herders from the steppes of the Bronze Age) seems on the contrary linked to a slightly lower probability of reaching 100 years of age. By specifically examining 15 so-called pro-longevity variants, the researchers also noted more alleles of WHG origin in centenarians. “Our analyzes showed for the first time that individuals with exceptional longevity have a stronger affinity with ancestry linked to Western hunter-gatherers. In particular, we highlighted a greater contribution of this ancestry in Italian centenarians, suggesting that this pre-Neolithic genetic component could be beneficial for longevity today.“, explain the authors of the study in the journal GeroScience.
Western Hunter-Gatherers: these hunter-gatherers who still live within us
Western hunter-gatherers were Mesolithic hunter-gatherers who settled in Europe after the last ice age, approximately 9,000 to 14,000 years ago. Archaeogenetic data describes them with dark skin, light eyes and a robust build, living by hunting deer or aurochs, fishing and gathering nuts, seeds and berries. Famous remains such as the “Cheddar Man”, dated to around 10,000 years ago in Britain, belong to this group.
© Mark Richards/ANL/Shutterstock
The “Cheddar man”, the first known British man of our era, who lived around 10,000 years ago Mandatory Credit: Photo by Mark Richards/ANL/Shutterstock (10126050a)
The authors recall that this particular ancestry, illustrated by the skeleton of Villabruna in northern Italy (around 14,000 years), spread during rapid climate warming. Later, the arrival of the first farmers from the Near East and pastoralists from the steppes introduced new genes, particularly linked to immunity and inflammation. The researchers hypothesize that these variants, once useful for surviving infections in denser societies, could today promote “inflammaging”, this chronic inflammation associated with age-related diseases.
Ancestral DNA, lifestyle and secrets of longevity
The study concerns only Italians, and the authors insist: genetics only explains part of the
longevity. In the United Kingdom, for example, more than 16,600 people will be aged 100 or over in 2024, more than double the number in 2004, with a strong majority being women. The Frenchwoman Jeanne Calment, absolute record with 122 years, summed up her philosophy with a formula that remains famous: “I never argue with anyone. I listen and do what I like“. Longevity researchers also highlight the weight of the lifestyle observed in the “Blue Zones”. Among the factors often found:
- Daily physical activity, even moderate;
- Simple diet, rich in plants;
- Dense social network and family support;
- Faith or clear sense of life mission;
- Low level of chronic stress.
The authors of the Italian study finally recall that this association between the DNA of Western hunter-gatherers and old age remains statistical and population-based. It does not allow, at this stage, to individually predict who will reach 100 years of age or to draw personalized medical recommendations. They argue for extending these approaches to paleogenomic to other countries and other ancestral groups, in order to better understand how the evolutionary history of our genes intertwines with our modern environments and shapes the probability, for some, of celebrating their hundredth birthday.