An international team of researchers reporting in the journal Current Biology has found evidence that ageing works through a special set of genes that everyone has – the rDNA genes.Studies in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, shown here, over the past two decades have found a connection between rDNA genes and lifespan. “This work is exciting because it shows that rDNA instability is a new factor in ageing,” said study co-author Dr Austen Ganley from Massey University, New Zealand. Dr Ganley and his colleagues from Japan found that by improving the stability of the rDNA genes they could extend the lifespan...