Life History-Dependent Brain Transcriptomic Signatures in Nothobranchids: Insights into Aging, Neurogenesis, and Life History Evolution

The African turquoise killifish <i>Nothobranchius furzeri</i> is a powerful model organism in aging research. Within the family Nothobranchiidae, a wide range of lifespan is observed in annual, semi-annual, and non-annual life histories. In this study, we examined the brain transcriptomic signatures of adult nothobranchids across life history variations. Our results show that the brain gene expression profiles exhibit strong life history signatures compared to the liver tissue. Semi-annual <i>Fundulopanchax</i> species shows upregulation in cell division and mitosis compared to non-annual <i>Aphyosemion</i> species. We identified genes related to neurogenesis such as <i>DNMT3A</i>, <i>SOX2</i>, and <i>FGF10</i> that show downregulation in the short-lived annual species compared to other life histories. The Notch signaling pathway is enriched in the non-annual species suggesting the importance of this pathway in longer-lived killifish. Our study demonstrates that other non-model nothobranchids can be used as comparative species to <i>N</i> <i>.</i> <i>furzeri</i> in the study of aging, neurogenesis, and life history.