Brazilian sisters age 316 draw search for longevity secrets

Three sisters in Rio de Janeiro now hold the record for the world’s oldest living trio of siblings, with a combined age of 316 years and 302 days. Levita de Deus Nunes, 109, Zoraide de Deus Mota, 104, and Zulina de Deus Nunes, 103, were named the record holders after their ages were validated through Guinness World Records and LongeviQuest.

The trio has quickly become more than a record-book curiosity. Their case has drawn the attention of the DNA Longevo Project, formally titled Longevidade Saudável: Quais são os segredos?, which is led by scientist Mayana Zatz at the University of São Paulo. The project is studying the genomic, molecular and cellular profiles of Brazilians who aged healthily to 90, 100 and beyond, and it is comparing centenarians and nonagenarians with people who developed frailty, cognitive decline or chronic disease.

Researchers see unusual value in Brazil’s population mix. The project says the country’s high genetic admixture may help identify rare variants and resilience mechanisms that are harder to spot in more genetically uniform datasets. Nature has also noted that the Brazilian longevity cohort already includes more than 160 centenarians who have been sequenced, among them about 20 supercentenarians.

The sisters themselves point to a blend of diet, activity and family life. One has described a childhood spent swimming and fishing in rivers, while another has emphasized breastfeeding as important. Their lives also show how longevity can be wrapped in circumstance, not just biology. The sisters live near one another in Rio, which gives them close daily support, and that kind of network is part of what scientists think can shape old age.

Each sister’s biography adds a different thread. Levita, born on 7 June 1917, never married, had no children and worked at Rede Globo for 12 years. Zoraide, born on 24 November 1921, became a primary school teacher, later trained as a nurse at the Anna Nery School of Nursing, worked in several hospitals and married Enéas Alves da Mota in 1950; she had five children. Zulina, born on 4 March 1923, married José Benvindo dos Santos in 1945, had six children and later moved to Rio de Janeiro to be near her sisters.

The sisters were visited by Iara Souza on 29 May 2026, and their story now sits at the point where family memory meets genomics. Their ages are extraordinary, but the scientific value lies in what researchers can test across larger datasets, and in what a single remarkable family can never answer alone.