The short-lived annual fish Nothobranchius furzeri shows extremely short captive 
life span and accelerated expression of age markers, making it an interesting 
model system to investigate the effects of experimental manipulations on 
longevity and age-related pathologies. Here, we tested the effects of dietary 
restriction (DR) on mortality and age-related markers in N. furzeri. DR was 
induced by every other day feeding and the treatment was performed both in an 
inbred laboratory line and a longer-lived wild-derived line. In the inbred 
laboratory line, DR reduced age-related risk and prolonged maximum life span. In 
the wild-derived line, DR induced early mortality, did not reduce general 
age-related risk and caused a small but significant extension of maximum life 
span. Analysis of age-dependent mortality revealed that DR reduced demographic 
rate of aging, but increased baseline mortality in the wild-derived strain. In 
both inbred- and wild-derived lines, DR prevented the expression of the age 
markers lipofuscin in the liver and Fluoro-Jade B (neurodegeneration) in the 
brain. DR also improved performance in a learning test based on conditioning 
(active avoidance in a shuttle box). Finally, DR induced a paradoxical 
up-regulation of glial fibrillary acidic protein in the brain.