Supplementary material from "Comparative analysis of metabolic and transcriptomic features of Nothobranchius furzeri"

Some species have a longer lifespan than others, but usually the lifespan is correlated with the typical body weight. Here, we study the lifetime evolution of the metabolic behaviour of Nothobranchius furzeri (N. furzeri), a killifish with an extremely short lifespan with respect to other fishes, even when considering a proper rescaling by body weight. Comparison of the gene expression patterns of N. furzeri with those of zebrafish Danio rerio and mouse (Mus musculus), shows that a broad set of metabolic genes and pathways are affected in N. furzeri during ageing in a way that is consistent with a global deregulation of chromatin. Computational analysis of the glycolysis pathway for the three species highlights a much rapid increase in the metabolic activity during lifetime for N. furzeri with respect to the other species. Our results highlight that the unusually short lifespan of N. furzeri is associated to peculiar patterns in the metabolic activities and in chromatin dynamics.