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Bongolo Falls along the Louetsí River (Lebamba, Gabon) creates a fast-flowing habitat where both short duration and long duration mormyrids reside, capturing food and singing electric courtship songs at night. How their sperm and eggs meet in such environments remains a mystery.

April 26, 2023

Shocking implications of electric fishes' tailless sperm

Tags:

adaptive evolution, electric fish, gene regulation, research

Michigan State University integrative biologist Jason Gallant and colleagues are using nearly $1 million from the National Science Foundation to understand the implications from a small African fish which evolved to have sperm with no tails but an electric-powered mating call. Greater insight into this interesting trait could ultimately shed light on human disease and shake up biology lessons on traditional gender roles.

June 1, 2022

How fish evolved electric organs

Tags:

adaptive evolution, electric fish, faculty, research

Researchers at Michigan State University and the University of Texas at Austin have made a shocking discovery. In a study published June1 in the journal Science Advances, the team explained how small genetic changes enable weakly electric fish to evolve their electric organs. The findings could have broader implications for human health and disease.