This project is the focus of my dissertation. Mormyroid weakly electric fishes have sperm that entirely lack flagella. This is currently the only known case of aflagellate sperm in vertebrates. Furthermore, mormyroids are an up and coming model system in several areas of biological research, but the inability to easily breed these animals within the laboratory setting hinder their use in this capacity. The goals of my research are to 1) investigate a probable genetic basis of sperm flagella loss in mormyroids and 2) better characterize the gametes and gonads of these animals through electron microscopy including the eggs which have never been well described.
My undergraduate thesis research investigated how the sociality of a species (either gregarious or territorial) influences how the same communication signal can be used for different functions. The communication signal I studied was the chirp, a signal made by weakly electric fishes by modifying the frequency of their electricity discharges. I conducted behavioral trials of pairs and groups of fish in an agonistic setting and compared how a gregarious (Adontosternarchus clarkae ) and territorial (Parapternotus hasemani) species used chirps in this context. I found that the territorial species chirps are predictors of aggressive behaviors, but this signal has no apparent function in this context for the gregarious species.