To understand the variation in longevity, Peter Sudmant at the University of California, Berkeley, and his colleagues examined the genomes of 88 rockfish species, most in the Sebastes genus. They discovered that the longest- lived rockfishes, a group that includes several species that can live for more than 105 years, have more genes linked to DNA maintenance and for sensing nutrients in the body than do their counterparts that live for less than 20 years. Some of those genes seemed to indirectly affect longevity by influencing a fish’s size and ability to adapt to different environments.