I think this is how most of us see longevity as connected to heredity:
ScienceDaily (July 2, 2010) — While environment and family history are factors in healthy aging,
genetic variants play a critical and complex role in conferring exceptional longevity, according to a new study by a team of researchers from the Boston University Schools of Public Health and Medicine and the Boston Medical Center.
In a study released July 1 online by the journal Science, the research team identified a group of genetic variants that can predict exceptional longevity in humans with 77 percent accuracy -- a breakthrough in understanding the role of genes in determining human lifespan.
Based upon the hypothesis that exceptionally old individuals are carriers of multiple genetic variants that influence their remarkable survival, the team conducted a genome-wide association study of centenarians. Centenarians are a model of healthy aging, as the onset of disability in these individuals is generally delayed until they are well into their mid-nineties.
Researchers led by Paola Sebastiani, PhD, a professor of biostatistics at the BU School of Public Health and Thomas Perls, MD, MPH, associate professor of medicine at the BU School of Medicine and a geriatrician at Boston Medical Center, built a unique genetic model that includes 150 genetic variants, known as single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). They found that these 150 variants could be used to predict if a person survived to very old ages (late 90s and older) with a high rate of accuracy.
In addition, the team's analysis
identified 19 genetic clusters or "genetic signatures" of exceptional longevity that characterized 90 percent of the centenarians studied. The different signatures correlated with differences in the prevalence and age-of-onset of diseases such as dementia and hypertension, and may help identify key subgroups of healthy aging, the authors said.
Notably, the team found that 45 percent of the oldest centenarians -- those 110 years and older -- had a genetic signature with the highest proportion of longevity-associated genetic variants....."
Genetic signatures of human exceptional longevity discovered