Killifish switch towards mammalian-like regeneration upon aging

Rapid and precise genome engineering in a naturally short-lived vertebrate

“…Tools to advance genetic interrogation of the killifish have been developed, including a sequenced genome (Reichwald et al, 2015; Valenzano et al, 2015) and Tol2 transgenesis (Allard et al, 2013; Hartmann and Englert, 2012; Valenzano et al, 2011), as well as CRISPR/Cas9-mediated knock-out (Harel et al, 2015) and CRISPR/Cas13-mediated knock-down (Kushawah et al, 2020). This genetic toolkit has enabled discoveries about the mechanisms of aging (Astre et al, 2022a; Bradshaw et al, 2022; Chen et al, 2022; Harel et al, 2022; Louka et al, 2022; Matsui et al, 2019; Smith et al, 2017; Van Houcke et al, 2021b), regeneration (Vanhunsel et al, 2022a; Vanhunsel et al, 2021; Vanhunsel et al, 2022b; Wang et al, 2020), evolution (Cui et al, 2019; Sahm et al, 2017; Singh et al, 2021; Willemsen et al, 2020), development (Abitua et al, 2021; Dolfi et al, 2019), and ‘suspended animation’ (Hu et al, 2020; Singh et al, 2021).…”

Early life growth and cellular heterogeneity in the short-lived African turquoise killifish telencephalon

“…Research on killifish has been carried out to study the impact of aging on various biological processes and systems such as the immune system (Bradshaw et al ., 2022), circadian rhythm (Barth et al ., 2021), epigenetics (Zupkovitz et al ., 2021), wound healing (Örling et al ., 2023) and the central nervous system (Tozzini et al ., 2012; Van houcke et al ., 2021; Vanhunsel et al ., 2021). This revealed that, in contrast to other highly regenerative species, the brain of this short-lived teleost loses its impressive regeneration capacity upon aging, and even adopts mammalian traits, such as glial scar formation upon injury (Wendler et al ., 2015; Van houcke et al ., 2021; Vanhunsel et al ., 2022). These human-like aging features of the killifish central nervous system have prompted researchers to investigate the occurrence of spontaneous neurodegeneration and other age-related disease hallmarks for diseases like Parkinson’s disease and Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (Valenzano et al ., 2006; Matsui et al ., 2019; Bagnoli et al ., 2022; Louka et al ., 2022; Bergmans et al ., 2023; de Bakker and Valenzano, 2023).…”

Rapid and precise genome engineering in a naturally short-lived vertebrate

“…Tools to advance genetic interrogation of the killifish have been developed, including a sequenced genome ( Reichwald et al, 2015 ; Valenzano et al, 2015 ), Tol2 transgenesis ( Allard et al, 2013 ; Hartmann and Englert, 2012 ; Valenzano et al, 2011 ), CRISPR/Cas9-mediated knock-out ( Harel et al, 2015 ), and CRISPR/Cas13-mediated knock-down ( Kushawah et al, 2020 ). This genetic toolkit has enabled discoveries about the mechanisms of aging ( Astre et al, 2022a ; Bradshaw et al, 2022 ; Chen et al, 2022 ; Harel et al, 2022 ; Louka et al, 2022 ; Matsui et al, 2019 ; Smith et al, 2017 ; Van Houcke et al, 2021b ; Vanhunsel et al, 2021 ), regeneration ( Vanhunsel et al, 2022a ; Vanhunsel et al, 2022b ; Wang et al, 2020 ), evolution ( Cui et al, 2019 ; Sahm et al, 2017 ; Singh et al, 2021 ; Willemsen et al, 2020 ), development ( Abitua et al, 2021 ; Dolfi et al, 2019 ), and embryonic diapause – a state of ‘suspended animation’ ( Hu et al, 2020 ; Singh et al, 2021 ).…”