Short lifespan and apoptosis in Aphia minuta

Evidence is presented that apoptosis of intestinal enterocytes is implicated in adult mortality immediately after the breeding season in Aphia minuta, a paedomorphic goby that spends its whole life cycle of < 1 year in the water column as a pelagic and planktophagous fish. This could be the first documented case in which apoptosis triggers a population dynamic process such as natural mortality in a vertebrate.