Hit pause: Developmental arrest in annual killifishes and their close relatives

Killifishes survive and persist in extreme environments by exploiting both aquatic and terrestrial habitats for egg deposition, and by adjusting the length of development to match availability of water to support larval growth and maturation. Annual killifishes persist in ephemeral bodies of water through the production of drought‐tolerant embryos. Survival of the environmental stresses associated with their highly variable and seasonal habitat is supported by their ability to enter into at least two states of metabolic and developmental dormancy, diapause or quiescence. There are three stages of diapause in annual killifishes, one occurring prior to gastrulation, one about midway through development, and one in late pre‐hatching embryos. Quiescence may occur at any developmental stage. In addition, delayed hatching is known to occur in close relatives of the annual killifishes, and may be superficially confused with pre‐hatching diapause. These types of developmental delay are induced by different cues and serve different purposes in the life history of the species. Thus, it is likely that the molecular mechanisms that induce dormancy and support survival are unique in each case. It is imperative that we properly define these forms of developmental dormancy in our studies in order to put our results into the proper ecological and evolutionary context. Here the unique characteristics of these distinct categories of developmental delay are reviewed. Developmental Dynamics 246:858–866, 2017. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.