For the turquoise killifish, ‘live fast, die young’ is no cliché. The little African freshwater fish reach sexual maturity 3 weeks after hatching and die of old age a few months later. A pair of studies now hints at the genetic basis for this abbreviated existence, providing precious information for a small but growing cadre of labs that hope the species will help to unlock the secrets of human ageing.
Turquoise killifish (Nothobranchius furzeri) eke out an improbable existence. They inhabit transient ponds that fill up during the rainy season in Mozambique and Zimbabwe, but dry out for the rest of the year. During the brief wet period, the fish rapidly develop, mate and lay eggs that go into suspended animation during the dry season, to hatch when the rains return the following year.
A favourite of fish hobbyists since the 1970s, killifish are gaining popularity among scientists who study ageing, and dozens of labs now house them. Elderly killifish — a couple of months old — show hallmarks of ageing. Their bright scales fade and their cognition wavers; many develop tumours. Lifespan-altering experiments that take years in mice and decades in primates can be over in months in killifish, which are also more closely related to humans than are fruit flies, nematodes and other short-lived lab organisms popular in ageing research.
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