Extremophile Fishes: Ecology, Evolution, Conservation
Tobler Lab at the University of Missouri—St. Louis
We’re excited to share some of Libby’s dissertation research, just published in Molecular Ecology: Host-Microbiome Associations in Livebearing Fishes Adapted to Toxic Environments Rich in Hydrogen Sulfide. In this study, we explored how livebearing fishes from the Poecilia mexicana species…
Erik received a Vern Parish Fund Award from the American Livebearer Association for his proposal “Why had handedness evolved? A remarkable link between gonopodium asymmetry and behavioral laterality in livebearering fishes.” The award will support Erik’s research on Xenophallus umbratilis...
In 2007, we set out across Texas and northern Mexico to collect specimens of the Amazon molly (Poecilia formosa)—a sperm-dependent asexual fish—and its sexual host species. Our goal was to test whether the morphology of the asexuals co-varied with that...
Kara Ryan from the Kelley Lab at UC Santa Cruz led a collaborative effort to assemble six new high-quality, chromosome-level genomes for livebearing fishes in the genera Poecilia (P. mexicana and P. sulphuraria) and Gambusia (G. sexradiata and G. eurystoma),...
In May, we visited Bitter Lake National Wildlife Refuge as part of our ongoing work supported by a Recovery Challenge Grant focused on Gambusia nobilis (the Pecos gambusia). Our team conducted surveys of spring-associated aquatic habitats to monitor population status...
We’re excited to celebrate an exceptional spring semester for Casey Ernest, one of our standout graduate researchers! In April, Casey earned 2nd place in the Math/Computer Science/Natural Sciences Division at the UMSL Graduate Research Fair for her poster, “Are There...
We recently had the opportunity to visit Hazelwood Central High School, where students presented their plans for building a greenhouse—and they were fantastic. Their proposals were thoughtful, creative, and full of ownership and initiative. It was inspiring to see how...
In March, members of our lab traveled to the Huasteca Potosina region of Mexico for a collaborative field trip focused on Astyanax mexicanus, the Mexican tetra. We joined researchers from Suzanne McGaugh’s lab (University of Minnesota), Paty Ornelas’ lab (UNAM),...