Itamar Harel

Congratulations to Itamar Harel, Zuckerman Faculty Scholar at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem’s Department of Genetics, on publishing “An antagonistically pleiotropic gene regulates vertebrate growth, maturity, and lifespan” in Nature Communications. The study identifies a gene that can speed up growth and sexual maturation early in life, while increasing vulnerability to tumors and shortening lifespan. The study offers  rare experimental evidence for a long-standing evolutionary theory of aging.

Using the African turquoise killifish, a fast-aging vertebrate model, Dr. Harel and his team  used gene editing and long-term observation to show how one gene can create a biological trade-off: advantages in youth can come at a cost later in life. The findings help explain why evolution may favor early-life success even when it contributes to aging and disease, and   they open new avenues for understanding how development, cancer, and longevity are biologically connected.

Abstract:
The antagonistic pleiotropy theory of aging predicts genetic trade-offs between early-life and late-life fitness. However, empirical evidence for such trade-offs in vertebrates remains scarce, particularly from causal genetic experiments. Here, combining genetic perturbation with longitudinal pheno-typing in the turquoise killifish, we identify vestigial-like 3 (vgll3), previously linked by GWAS to age at maturity in humans and male Atlantic salmon, as a gene with antagonistically pleiotropic effects.