Nothobranchius furzeri

Nothobranchius furzeri, the turquoise killifish, is a species of killifish from the family Nothobranchiidae native to Africa where it is only known from Zimbabwe and Mozambique.[2] This annual killifish inhabits ephemeral pools in semi-arid areas with scarce and erratic precipitations and have adapted to the routine drying of their environment by evolving desiccation-resistant eggs that can remain dormant in the dry mud for one and maybe more years by entering into diapause. Due to very short duration of the rain season, the natural lifespan of these animals is limited to a few months and their captive lifespan is likewise short, making them an attractive model system for ageing and disease research.[3] Tandem repeats comprise 21% of the species' genome, an abnormally high proportion, which has been suggested as a factor in its fast ageing.[4] Among vertebrates, the species has the fastest known sexual maturity – only 14 days after hatching,[5][6] and shortest lifespan – ranging 3 to 12 months depending on the environment.[7] More specifically, they are able to live 1–5 months in the wild (with most only living up to 4 months) and 3–16 months in captivity.  They are able to live longer in captivity due to their diet, which is mostly bloodworms; this is due to dietary restrictions and antioxidant resveratrol supplements.[8]

Nothobranchius furzeri
Male Nothobranchius furzeri GRZ
(from Gonarezhou National Park)
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Actinopterygii
Order: Cyprinodontiformes
Family: Nothobranchiidae
Genus: Nothobranchius
Species:
N. furzeri
Binomial name
Nothobranchius furzeri
R. A. Jubb, 1971

This species can reach a total length of 6.5 cm (2.6 in).[2]

The species name is derived from that of the discoverer Richard E. Furzer of Rhodesia.[9]

References
  1. Bills, R.; Engelbrecht, J. & Marshall, B.E. (2007). "Nothobranchius furzeri". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2007: e.T63305A12651421. doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2007.RLTS.T63305A12651421.en.
  2. Froese, Rainer and Pauly, Daniel, eds. (2014). "Nothobranchius furzeri" in FishBase. February 2014 version.
  3. Harel, I.; Benayoun, B. R. N. A.; Machado, B.; Singh, P. P.; Hu, C. K.; Pech, M. F.; Valenzano, D. R.; Zhang, E.; Sharp, S. C.; Artandi, S. E.; Brunet, A. (2015). "A Platform for Rapid Exploration of Aging and Diseases in a Naturally Short-Lived Vertebrate". Cell. 160 (5): 1013–26. doi:10.1016/j.cell.2015.01.038. PMC 4344913. PMID 25684364.
  4. Treangen, T. J.; Salzberg, S. L. (2011). "Repetitive DNA and next-generation sequencing: Computational challenges and solutions". Nature Reviews Genetics. 13 (1): 36–46. doi:10.1038/nrg3117. PMC 3324860. PMID 22124482.
  5. Milius, Susan (2018-08-06). "This killifish can go from egg to sex in two weeks". Science News. Retrieved 2018-08-08.
  6. Vrtílek, Milan; Žák, Jakub; Pšenička, Martin; Reichard, Martin (August 2018). "Extremely rapid maturation of a wild African annual fish". Current Biology. 28 (15): R822–R824. doi:10.1016/j.cub.2018.06.031. ISSN 0960-9822. PMID 30086311.
  7. Dance, Amber (2016). "Live fast, die young". Nature. 535 (7612): 453–455. doi:10.1038/535453a. PMID 27443744.
  8. Žák, Jakub; Dyková, Iva; Reichard, Martin (December 2020). "Good performance of turquoise killifish (Nothobranchius furzeri) on pelleted diet as a step towards husbandry standardization". Scientific Reports. 10 (1): 8986. doi:10.1038/s41598-020-65930-0. ISSN 2045-2322. PMC 7265286. PMID 32488062.
  9. Christopher Scharpf; Kenneth J. Lazara (31 May 2019). "Order CYPRINODONTIFORMES: Families APLOCHEILIDAE and NOTHOBRANCHIIDAE". The ETYFish Project Fish Name Etymology Database. Christopher Scharpf and Kenneth J. Lazara. Retrieved 4 September 2019.
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