Animal Sciences Commons^™

The Inheritance Of Morphological And Behavioral Differences In The Mating Signals Of Sailfin And Shortfin Mollies, Stephanie Loveless

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Changes in mating signals often result in the development of new species, thus, understanding the genetic basis of traits that confer pre-mating reproductive isolation can shed light on the speciation process. This study used interspecific hybridization between poeciliid fish, a sailfin molly (Poecilia velifera) and a shortfin molly (P. mexicana), to generate reciprocal F1 and backcross hybrids to investigate patterns of inheritance of traits that contribute to mating signal differences between these two groups of mollies. The first part of my study focused on behavioral differences in the mating system of sailfin and shortfin mollies. I observed mating behaviors of …