Visual processes in African cichlid fishes

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Cichlid fishes in the East African Rift Valley lakes provide an excellent natural laboratory for the study of sexual selection. Lake Malawi has more than 1,000 endemic species with a striking diversity in trophic adaptations and behaviours. What makes this example of adaptive radiation so exciting is that it evolved in a notably short time. Critical behavioural decisions such as choosing a mate profoundly affect an individual's fitness. Sexual selection can depend heavily on visual cues that must be rapidly translated into appropriate behavioural actions that eventually maximize fitness. Female cichlids are able to visually discriminate between males of their own species and closely related species, using body color and possibly other visual cues. Mate choice based on intraspecific color signaling plays a critical role in maintaining biodiversity when species are sympatric and not ecologically differentiated. Furthermore, successful mate choice in these cichlids necessitates acute visual discrimination in a temporally and spatially dynamic light environment. The role of color in cichlids is thus considered central to cichlid diversification in the great lakes of Africa, yet our understanding of the basis for body color and polarization patterns and the functional characteristics of cichlid visual systems remain quite limited.    Central to the success of all research programs is the recruitment of highly qualified personnel with a suite of skills and talent to tackle cutting-edge research questions. There are several promising young scholars that have expressed a keen interest in working on this research question. My laboratory has the depth of experience in visual neurobiology and behaviour and unique infrastructure to explore the topic of how vision guides mate choice in African cichlids. This is a behaviour that maintains biodiversity in some of the world's most diverse ecosystems. Our research will investigate visual sensitivity, the physical characteristics of and regulatory mechanisms for optical signals in cichlids, and how female cichlids use visual information to choose mates.