Gene disruption speeds maturity and shortens life in killifish
Median lifespan was 15% shorter in male killifish carrying a gene mutation than in males without it, alongside faster growth and earlier maturity.
Dose-response
Limit: Early sexual maturity was inferred from tail color
Edited by Boris Djordjevic · AgingResearch.News
In an animal experiment, researchers altered vgll3, a gene that regulates growth and maturation, in African turquoise killifish (Nothobranchius furzeri). They followed the fish through life and assessed male sexual maturity using tail color at 30 days after hatching.
One mutation accelerated male growth and maturation. Older males carrying this mutation developed more melanoma-like tumors than males without it. Transplanting cells from these growths into killifish with weakened immune systems confirmed that they were tumors. Median lifespan was 15% shorter in mutant males and 7% shorter in mutant females than in fish without the mutation. The researchers also found increased cell division, including in intestinal stem cells—cells that produce new intestinal cells. The authors linked the late-life costs to an altered response to DNA damage.
Why it matters
The work provides experimental evidence in a vertebrate for a theory of aging in which genetic benefits early in life come with later costs.
Caveats
Tail color served as a proxy for early sexual maturity, although later measurements also showed greater testis weight relative to body weight. These genetic experiments in killifish do not establish the same trade-off in people.
The paper
An antagonistically pleiotropic gene regulates vertebrate growth, maturity, and lifespan
Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Nature Communications, Jun 2, 2026, Open access
