Acknowledgments This work was supported by Guangxi Provin- cial Financial Department, Guangxi, China (GX2009-234) and by China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (20100480837, 201104387). We would like to thank Dr. Fred Bogott at Austin Medical Center, Austin of Minnesota, USA, for his excellent English editing of the manuscript.

located in a region termed ‘‘the main control region’’. This region is the most variable portion of the human mtDNA genome and is the location of the D-loop [30, 31]. Our results showed that there were many variations in this region in the Bama populations, of which the mt146C was strongly associated with the longevity. Moreover, serum total cholesterol, triglyceride, and low density lipoprotein as well as the systolic blood pressure were obviously higher in those with the mt146C genotype than those with the mt146T genotype in the older (90–110 years old) group. Previous study indicated that blood pressure and blood lipids had a biological interrelation and associated with age [32–34].The finding that the mt146C polymor- phism was associated with the Bama longevity was for its first time and was intriguing. It had been reported previ- ously that the mt150T was associated with longevity in four human populations, including Irish, Finnish, Japanese and Italian [8, 23, 35]. The mt150T genotype possibly prolongs the longevity as the mt150T genotype could confer a replication advantage to the mtDNA, thus accounting for the homoplasmic or nearly homoplasmic level mostly found in cells from centenarians. Moreover, the mt150T polymorphism could confer a resistance to oxidative stress and apoptosis [35]. Because the mt146 is located in the D-loop region and near to the mt150 of mtDNA control region, it is logical to speculate that mt146C has a similar function to that at the mt150T and contributes to prolonged lifespan in Guangxi Bama as well. While mt5178A has been shown to be associated with

References

Wallace DC (

) Mitochondrial genetics: a paradigm for aging and degenerative diseases? Science

:

–

Anderson S, Bankier AT, Barrell BG, de Bruijn MH, Coulson AR, Drouin J, Eperon IC, Nierlich DP, Roe BA, Sanger F, Schreier PH, Smith AJ, Staden R, Young IG (

) Sequence and organization of the human mitochondrial genome. Nature

:

–

Korpelainen H (

) Genetic maternal effects on human life span through the inheritance of mitochondrial DNA. Hum Hered

:

–

Abbott MH, Abbey H, Bolling DR, Murphy EA (

) The familial component in longevity–a study of offspring of nona- genarians: III. Intrafamilial studies. Am J Med Genet

:

–

Brand FN, Kiely DK, Kannel WB, Myers RH (

) Family patterns of coronary heart disease mortality: the Framingham longevity study. J Clin Epidemiol

:

–

Sont JK, Vandenbroucke JP (

) Life expectancy and mito- chondrial DNA. Do we inherit longevity from our mother’s mitochondria? J Clin Epidemiol

:

–

Kawahara M, Kono T (

) Longevity in mice without a father. Hum Reprod

:

–

Niemi AK, Hervonen A, Hurme M, Karhunen PJ, Jylha M, Majamaa K (

) Mitochondrial DNA polymorphisms associ- ated with longevity in a Finnish population. Hum Genet

:

–

Meinila M, Finnila S, Majamaa K (

) Evidence for m

NA admixture between the Finns and the Saami. Hum Hered

:

–

Niemi AK, Moilanen JS, Tanaka M, Hervonen A, Hurme M, Lehtimaki T, Arai Y, Hirose N, Majamaa K (

) A combina- tion of three common inherited mitochondrial DNA polymor- phisms promotes longevity in Finnish and Japanese subjects. Eur J Hum Genet

:

–

Wang Y, Michikawa Y, Mallidis C, Bai Y, Woodhouse L, Ya- rasheski KE, Miller CA, Askanas V, Engel WK, Bhasin S, Attardi G (

) Muscle-specific mutations accumulate with aging in

longevity in Japanese and in European [36], our results show that the mt5178A is not significantly associated with Bama longevity. The reason for this discrepancy is unclear. Nevertheless, in our study, we found the mt5178C/ Apolymorphisms are strongly associated with nationality in the Guangxi Bama population, with a much higher rate of mt5178A and a much lower rate of mt5178C in the Yao compared with the Han and Zhuang nationalities.

Aging and longevity are affected by complex factors. The nucleus is involved in ways beyond just mtDNA, in part

critical human m

NA control sites for replication. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA

:

–

Chomyn A, Attardi G (

) M

NA mutations in aging and apoptosis. Biochem Biophys Res Commun

:

–

Lanza IR, Nair KS (

) Mitochondrial function as a determi- nant of life span. Pflugers Arch

:

–

Feng J, Zhang J, Liu M, Wan G, Qi K, Zheng C, Lv Z, Hu C, Zeng Y, Gregory SG, Yang Z (

) Association of m

NA haplogroup F with healthy longevity in the female Chuang pop- ulation, China. Exp Gerontol

:

–

Linnane AW, Marzuki S, Ozawa T, Tanaka M (

) Mito- chondrial DNA mutations as an important contributor to ageing and degenerative diseases. Lancet

:

–

Iwata N, Zhang J, Atzmon G, Leanza S, Cho J, Chomyn A, Burk RD, Barzilai N, Attardi G (

) Aging-related occurrence in Ashkenazi Jews of leukocyte heteroplasmic m

NA mutation adjacent to replication origin frequently remodeled in Italian centenarians. Mitochondrion

:

–

Castri L, Melendez-Obando M, Villegas-Palma R, Barrantes R, Raventos H, Pereira R, Luiselli D, Pettener D, Madrigal L (

) Mitochondrial polymorphisms are associated both with increased and decreased longevity. Hum Hered

:

–

Benn M, Schwartz M, Nordestgaard BG, Tybjaerg-Hansen A (

) Mitochondrial haplogroups: ischemic cardiovascular dis- ease, other diseases, mortality, and longevity in the general population. Circulation

:

–

De Benedictis G, Rose G, Carrieri G, De Luca M, Falcone E, Passarino G, Bonafe M, Monti D, Baggio G, Bertolini S, Mari D, Mattace R, Franceschi C (

) Mitochondrial DNA inherited variants are associated with successful aging and longevity in humans. FASEB J

:

–

Finnila S, Hassinen IE, Ala-Kokko L, Majamaa K (

) Phy- logenetic network of the m