A single gene speeds growth but shortens lifespan in aging killifish

A Nature Communications study shows the vgll3 gene influences how fast African turquoise killifish grow and reach reproductive age, with CRISPR edits accelerating growth and puberty but increasing late-life tumors and shortening lifespan, providing rare in-vertebrate evidence for antagonistic pleiotropy and suggesting a trade-off between early-life benefits and later-life disease; the findings hint that similar mechanisms could partly explain aging in humans and motivate research to separate growth benefits from cancer risks.