Short lifespan and apoptosis in the gobiid fish, Aphia minuta (Perciformes, Gobiidae)

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 trigger a population dynamic process such as natural mortality in a vertebrate.