Dr Thomas Perls, one of the lead authors, said: “Further study of these genetic characteristics may yield a better understanding of the genetic and biological bases of delaying or escaping age-related diseases and achieving longer survival.”
The study by Boston University researchers expands on work in a 2010 paper which was published in the Science journal but later retracted due to problems with the data.
In the new paper, which was independently validated by Yale University experts, an additional sample of extremely old participants, with an average age of 107, was studied.
People who lived beyond 100 are an ideal model for healthy ageing because they generally do not begin to experience disability until their mid-nineties.
While genetic factors are only thought to influence our chance of living to 85 by about 20 to 30 per cent, the study suggests they could play a much greater role in the late eighties and beyond.
Researchers scanned the genomes of 801 centenarians and cross-referenced them with similar samples from 914 normal, healthy people to find DNA characteristics which were concentrated in the older group.
They identified 281 genetic variants which appeared to play a role in ageing, and found that they could be grouped into 26 different “genetic signatures”, which characterised 90 per cent of participants.
Tim Spector, Professor of Genetic Epidemiology at Kings College London, said: “This is an interesting study of rare centenarians – it suggests that genes are much more important in deciding if you live to 100 or beyond than if you live to 85.
“With hundreds of genes contributing, personal prediction is never going to be good.
“The big news is is that there is not one gene for ageing, it is literally hundreds of genes and some might be inherited in clusters but we do not yet know how they work. If we can work it out then there is the possibility of anti-ageing therapies.”
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