Publications by authors named "Katie Woodhouse"

Article Synopsis
  • The study examines female mating behavior in five species of cichlids from Lake Victoria, focusing on Pundamilia nyererei and Pundamilia pundamilia.
  • Findings reveal that while sympatric species strictly mate assortatively, parapatric species with overlapping habitats interbreed, indicating varying degrees of mating barriers.
  • The results highlight the importance of mating preferences in species distribution and suggest they should be considered in theories about species coexistence, especially in hybridizing taxa like cichlid fish.
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The genetic architecture of mate preferences is likely to affect significant evolutionary processes, including speciation and hybridization. Here, we investigate laboratory hybrids between a pair of sympatric Lake Victoria cichlid fish species that appear to have recently evolved from a hybrid population between similar predecessor species. The species demonstrate strong assortative mating in the laboratory, associated with divergent male breeding coloration (red dorsum versus blue).

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Among the huge radiations of haplochromine cichlid fish in Lakes Malawi and Victoria, closely related species are often reproductively isolated via female mate choice although viable fertile hybrids can be produced when females are confined only with heterospecific males. We generated F(2) hybrid males from a cross between a pair of closely related sympatric cichlid fish from Lake Malawi. Laboratory mate choice experiments using microsatellite paternity analysis demonstrated that F(2) hybrid males differed significantly in their attractiveness to females of the two parental species, indicating heritable variation in traits involved in mate choice that may contribute to reproductive isolation between these species.

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