In ecological speciation, reproductive isolation evolves as a consequence of adaptation to different selective environments. A frequent contributor to this process is the evolution of positive assortativemate choice between ecotypes.We tested this expectation for lake and inlet stream threespine stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus) from the Misty system (Vancouver Island, Canada), which show st...

Socially transmitted information can significantly affect the ways in which animals interact with their environments. We used network-based diffusion analysis, a novel and powerful tool for exploring information transmission, to model the rate at which sticklebacks (Gasterosteus aculeatus) discovered prey patches, comparing shoals foraging in open and structured environments. We found that for ...

Negative effects of inbreeding are well documented in a wide range of animal taxa. Hatching success and survival of inbred offspring is reduced in many species and inbred progeny are often less attractive to potential mates. Thus, individuals should avoid mating with close kin. However, experimental evidence for inbreeding avoidance through non-random mating in vertebrates is scarce. Here, we s...

Selective Serotonin Re-uptake Inhibitors (SSRI) are mood-altering, psychotropic drugs commonly used in the treatment of depression and other psychological illnesses. Many of them are poorly degraded in sewage treatment plants and enter the environment unaltered. In laboratory studies, they have been demonstrated to affect a wide range of behaviours in aquatic organisms. In this study we investi...

Ceratonova gasterostea n. gen. n. sp. is described from the intestine of freshwater Gasterosteus aculeatus L. from the Klamath River, California. Myxospores are arcuate, 22.4 ± 2.6 μm thick, 5.2 ± 0.4 μm long, posterior angle 45° ± 24°, with 2 sub-spherical polar capsules, diameter 2.3 ± 0.2 μm, which lie adjacent to the suture. Its ribosomal small subunit sequence was most similar to an intest...

Plerocercoids of the pseudophyllidean cestode Schistocephalus solidus infect the three-spined stickleback Gasterosteus aculeatus, with important consequences for the biology of host fish. Techniques for culturing the parasite in vitro and generating infective stages that can be used to infect sticklebacks experimentally have been developed, and the system is increasingly used as a laboratory mo...

Parental care is critical for fitness, yet little is known about its genetic basis. Here, we estimate the heritability of parenting behaviour in a species famous for its diversity and its behavioural repertoire: three-spined stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus). Male three-spined stickleback are the sole providers of parental care that is necessary for offspring survival; therefore, this system...

Sexual selection theory proposes correlated evolutionary changes in mating preferences and secondary sexual characters based on a positive genetic correlation between preference and the preferred trait. Empirical work has provided support for a genetic covariation between female preference and male attractiveness in several taxa. Here, we study parent and offspring visual traits in threespine s...

Geologic and allozyme evidence suggests that threespine sticklebacks (Gasterosteus aculeatus complex) in low-lying southwestern British Columbia lakes were founded during two incursions of marine sticklebacks after the retreat of the Pleistocene glaciers (the double-invasion hypothesis). We used the salinity tolerance of embryos, measured as hatchability in salt water, to establish the relative...

Retroid agents are genomes that encode a reverse transcriptase (RT) and replicate or transpose by way of an RNA intermediate. The Genome Parsing Suite (GPS) is software created to identify and characterize Retroid agents in any genome database (McClure et al. 2005). The detailed analysis of all Retroid agents found by the GPS in Danio rerio (zebrafish), Oryzias latipes (medaka), Gasterosteus ac...