C. Franceschi, et al., "Do men and women follow different trajectories to reach extreme longevity? Italian Multicenter Study on Centenarians (IMUSCE)," Aging Clin. Exp. Res.
J.E. Remacle, et al., "New mode of DNA binding of multi-zinc finger transcription factors: delta F members bind with two hands to two target sites," EMBO J.
R.K. Patient, J.D. Mchee, "The GATA family (vertebrates and invertebrates)," Curr. Opin. Genet. Dev.
J. Campisi, "Between Scylla and Charybdis: p53 links tumor suppression and aging," Mech. Aging Dev.
J. Luo, et al., "Negative control of p53 by Sir2alpha promotes cell survival under stress," Cell.
H. Vaziri, et al., "SIRT1 (SIRTUIN1) functions as an NAD-dependent p53 deacetylase," Cell.
G. Rose, G. Passarino, C. Franceschi, G. De Benedictis, "The variability of the mitochondrial genome in human aging: a key for life and death?" Int. J. Biochem. Cell Biol.
R. Ivanova, et al., "HLA-DR alleles display sex-dependent effects on survival and discriminate between individual and familial longevity," Hum. Mol. Genet.
M. De Luca, et al., "Sex-specific longevity associations defined by tyrosine hydroxylase-insulin-insulin growth factor 2 haplotypes on the p53 chromosomal region," Exp. Gerontol. (See also erratum in Exp. Gerontol.)
Q. Tan, "Measuring the genetic influence in modulating the human life span: gene-environment interaction and the sex-specific genetic effect," Biogerontology.
J.K. Pritchard, N.A. Rosenberg, "Use of unlinked genetic markers to detect population stratification in association studies," Am. J. Hum. Genet.

Statistical analyses: VNTR allele frequencies in samples 1 and 2 were estimated by counting genes from the observed genotypes after verifying Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium by allele shuffling (5000 random permutations). The null hypothesis of homogeneity between the genotypic (or allelic) pools of samples 1 and 2 was checked by permutation tests (1000 permutations). The statistical significance of the differences among the enhancer activity of different VNTR alleles in transfection experiments was tested by ANOVA and LSD post hoc test. The MATLAB statistical textbook was used for all the statistical analyses, except for linkage disequilibrium analysis between the markers G477T [15] and VNTR, for which the Arlequin software was used; this software utilizes a maximum likelihood estimation procedure using genotypic data from both homozygous and heterozygous subjects.

Acknowledgments: The authors thank the Municipalities of Calabria (southern Italy) and all the persons who participated in the study for their precious collaboration. This work was financed by the EU project European Challenge for Healthy Aging (No. QLRT-2001-00128, Call Identifier QOL-2001-3) and by the Italian Ministry of Instruction, University, and Research (FIRB/2001; project "Identificazione di profili genomici nucleo-mitocondriali nella patogenesi di malattie comuni eta'-associate. Implicazioni diagnostiche e terapeutiche").

References:
L. Partridge, D. Gems, "Ageing: a lethal side-effect," Nature.
L. Guarente, C. Kenyon, "Genetic pathways that regulate ageing in model organisms," Nature.
L. Partridge, D. Gems, "Mechanisms of ageing: public or private?" Nat. Rev. Genet.