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How killifish embryos use suspended animation to survive over 8 months of drought - EurekAlert


The African turquoise killifish lives in ephemeral ponds in Zimbabwe and Mozambique. To survive the annual dry season, the fish’s embryos enter a state of extreme suspended animation or “diapause” for approximately 8 months. Now, researchers have uncovered the mechanisms that enabled the killifish to evolve this extreme survival state. They report May 30 in the journal Cell that although killifish evolved diapause less than 18 million years ago, they did so by co-opting ancient genes that originated more than 473 million years ago. Through comparative analysis, the team showed that similar specialized gene expression patterns are also employed by other animals—including the house mouse—during diapause.

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