Genes for reproductive success have been linked to shorter life expectancy

American scientists analyzed data from the British Biobank and found a strong negative genetic correlation between reproductive success and life expectancy: when people had more alleles associated with successful childbearing, they had a lower chance of living to age 76. The results of the study are published in Science Advances.

Erping Long and his team from the University of Michigan understood reproductive success as the early age of first birth in women and the number of children born in men. To measure longevity, the age of the participants' mother and father at the time of their deaths was taken into account.

The researchers studied the genetic material of 276,406 people and found that 583 genetic variants were associated with the reproductive parameters studied. People with more variants associated with early age of childbirth and more children were significantly less likely to live to age 76 (p = 0.00035).

These data support the antagonistic pleiotropy hypothesis, which posits that natural selection maintains an earlier onset of sexual activity and a longer childbearing period, while shortening the length of the postreproductive life span.