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Cichlid Sex Determination Research at the University of Michigan By Ronald George Oldfield with photos by the author University of Michigan Museum of Zoology, 1109 Geddes Ave.,Ann Arbor, MI 48109, [email protected] When I was first notified that I had received the Guy Jordan Award, I was immediately excited about an opportunity to write an article for the Buntbarsche Bulletin. In addition to describing the research that I accomplished with the funds, I would also like to take the opportunity to describe how the cichlid hobby has affected both my professional and personal development. My passion for fishes began when I won several goldfish in the ‘ping-pong ball toss’ game at the Lenawee County Fair in Adrian, Michigan when I was 6 years old. I have kept fish as pets ever since that time except for two intervals, each lasting a couple of years, where I kept reptiles and amphibians instead. By the time I was in my early teens I had become fascinated with cichlids, especially Amphilophus citrinellus, Lake Nicaragua 14 | August 2005 | Buntbarsche Bulletin Central Americans. I didn’t buy many fish books, but I bought and memorized the available books by David Sands (Sands 1983) and Ad Konings (Konings 1989). I even gave a presentation with a live ‘Cichlasoma’ trimaculatum for a public speaking course in high school. It was hard to get very deep into the hobby, as there were no hobbyist clubs in the area where I grew up. However, I was always heavily involved in keeping fish, and before I had finished high school I had secured a job in a pet shop, Brentwood’s Pet Ranch, in Adrian, Michigan. Soon after I graduated from high school I landed a job managing the aquarium room at another pet shop, the Aquarium Center, in Toledo, Ohio. Having this job and living in a larger city allowed me to dive deeper into the hobby, but there were still no local clubs, and I had little idea what was going on in the worlds of hard-core cichlid keeping or professional study. Dismayed by the financial outlook of my retail position, I moved into other fields and spent the next six years working a number of diverse jobs. Although I enjoyed most of the positions I held, each one of them left me with an empty feeling, as though something were missing. When I was 24 I took on student loans and enrolled at the University of Toledo. This school had virtually no ichthyological component. However, it did open doors for me to gain experience working with various aspects of aquatic biology of Lake Erie, as well as experience at the Toledo Zoo aquarium and the Bowling Green State University Marine Biology Lab. While I was in college I put forth serious effort and earned a good grade point average. By this time I was attending conventions held by the Ohio Cichlid Association and the American Cichlid Association. My good GPA and GRE scores, combined with my enthusiasm, landed me a position in the Master’s program in Biology at the University of Michigan. I knew that Dr. Robert Rush Miller had worked there and that he had a history with Central American cichlids, and it was nearby. It seemed fitting that I enroll there. The following year I transferred into the Ph.D. program, and then was on a path to doing some real cichlid research. When I had established my position in the Fish Division in the Museum of Zoology I was in cichlid heaven! The resources were staggering. I dove into the nearly complete collection of cichlid literature. I had access to a specimen collection that included most species of Central American cichlids. In addition, there was a huge aquarium room at my disposal. Phylogenetics (the study of evolutionary relationships) is the central focus of the Museum. I had always been intrigued by the diversity of Central American cichlids, and although I had had little training in evolutionary biology, I had pondered their possible histories. I considered going down this road of study. I found it very interesting, but I liked live fishes! How do they develop? How do they communicate? Why are they so aggressive in small aquaria? These questions hounded me. I had read the article by Ron Coleman in Cichlid News (1997) that described the finding by Francis and Barlow (1993) that Midas cichlids, Amphilophus citrinellus, have sex determined not by genetics but by behavioral interactions and I felt compelled to know more about it. Buntbarsche Bulletin | August 2005 | 15 At this point my literature investigations began to take focus. I found other reports of sexual lability in cichlids. Interestingly, some cichlids have sex determined genetically, some have sex determined by temperature and/or pH, and at least one is apparently capable of changing sex as an adult (reviewed by Leibel 2002). To me, this co-occurrence of different expressions of sexual development all in one family of fishes seemed to provide a hint as to how sexual lability might evolve. Sequential hermaphroditism, which is adult transformation from a functional male or female to the opposite sex, is not unusual in coral reef fishes and has been the subject of much research. Early on it was noticed that even many non-hermaphroditic fishes actually undergo sex changes when very young. In these species all individuals initially differentiate as females, then at an early stage of development the ovaries of presumably genetic males begin to transform into testes. This is really not as strange as it may seem. Something similar happens in humans. All humans begin differentiating as females. Male development begins later, hence the presence of nipples on men. These observations suggested that a change in developmental timing – a delay of this sex change from the larval stage to adulthood – might make sequential hermaphroditism possible (Atz 1964). In the late 1980’s and early 1990’s investigations of development in sequential hermaphrodites provided evidence that supported this hypothesis (Shapiro 1987, Francis 1992). The diversity of developmental patterns in cichlids is consistent with these findings. Cichlids are the only family of fishes known to undergo sex determination at four distinct life stages: some undergo genetic sex determination and are not labile, some have sex determined by pH or temperature at the fry stage, the Midas cichlid has sex determined by behavioral interactions at the juvenile stage, and Crenicara punctulata undergoes behaviorally controlled sequential hermaphroditism. This continuum indicates that sequential hermaphroditism, as well as the other forms of sexual lability, evolves by a change in developmental timing. This interpretation led to a review paper that eventually became my first scientific publication (Oldfield 2005). I convinced the University of Michigan faculty that sex determination in cichlids was an interesting topic, and that it may lead to a better understanding of the evolution of sexual lability in other fishes, but there were still other hurdles to overcome. Since Dr. Miller retired, the condition of the aquarium room had steadily declined, and a year after I took residence in the Museum it failed to pass inspection and was decommissioned by the University Committee on Use and Care of Animals. Unfortunately, although Dr. Miller was still alive when I came to the Museum, his health had deteriorated to the point that he could no longer come in. Bob was in a nursing home and although my advisor, Dr. Gerald Smith, expressed desire to introduce us, he wouldn’t do it in the condition Bob was in. Bob passed away about a year later. He was the driving force behind the aquarium room, and without his involvement it had slowly degenerated. When I got there it was in terrible shape. Now I had another problem. In addition to getting money to cover the costs of field work in Nicaragua and laboratory expenses, I also had to somehow find the money and time to renovate this room—a daunting task. I am not one that believes in fate, but I sure am lucky I study cichlids. The money provided by the ACA allowed me to pay for the aquarium room renovation. If a graduate student in cell or molecular biology accepted a position in a lab and was told that he had to paint the floor before he could begin research he would laugh in their faces and walk out. Well, that’s not the way it works in zoology. 16 | August 2005 | Buntbarsche Bulletin Dedicated hobbyists and the well-organized state of the cichlid hobby made it possible to obtain live Amphilophus specimens of known localities. Top: A. citrinellus ‘red head’, Costa Rica. Right: A. zaliosus, Lake Apoyo. After two years of painting aquarium racks and the floor, updating light fixtures, and throwing away dozens of ancient metal-rimmed and granite aquaria, Heetmaster heaters, and other artifacts, I was finally able to purchase new supplies and got the room re-commissioned. The result is a laboratory ideal for maintaining fishes and other aquatic organisms. The room contains over 200 aquaria ranging in size from 1 to 250 gallons. Suspended from the ceiling and plumbed into the building’s water supply there is a 500 gallon reservoir that is used to age tap water. Lines from the reservoir run above the aquarium racks so there is easy access to freshwater for water changes, and several floor drains throughout the room allow easy draining of aquaria. The room is on the top floor of the Museum, and several skylights allow illumination with natural sunlight. Surprisingly, the preliminary experiment that I ran in a smaller lab failed to corroborate the results of Francis and Barlow (1993). Their experiments had concluded that individuals that are large relative to their group-mates develop as males, and those smaller as females. My first experiment Buntbarsche Bulletin | August 2005 | 17 Four aisles, each two or three shelves deep with aquaria, hold over 200 small aquaria, most of which are 5, 10, 20, 29, or 50 gallons. Airlines and waterlines from the reservoir run above the aisles. failed to find a strong association between size and sex in sub-adult fish. However, with the large space newly available in the renovated aquarium room, I am now replicating the experiment while manipulating factors like group size, which can profoundly influence social structure in juvenile Midas cichlids (Oldfield, unpublished data), and locality of origin, which is especially important now that Midas cichlids are thought to consist of up to 20 different species in the different crater lakes of Nicaragua (McKaye et al. 2002). In addition, the large space provided by the aquarium room has allowed for a detailed investigation of gonadal development in the Midas cichlid. In this experiment 105 aquaria were used to raise fish under different social conditions. Juveniles were sampled once per week for three months. This will provide a streaming picture of the changes that occur in the gonads as the fish mature. If the experiments corroborate the findings of Francis and Barlow (1993), then the hypothesis proposed in my review paper will be supported. If Midas cichlids turn out not to be sexually labile, then behavioral interactions may still influence timing of sexual development (this has been reported in other cichlids). If this is the case, it may explain how processes in behavior and physiology can evolve to control sex change in sequential hermaphrodites: they already exist! Behaviors likely control proportions of male and female gonadal tissue, even in non-sex-changing fishes. These processes may then be co-opted to control sex change when a mutation results in an extended period of gonad lability. It has been a privilege to work in the lab of such a famous ichthyologist as Bob Miller. His legacy 18 | August 2005 | Buntbarsche Bulletin There are also larger aquaria, up to 100, 110, and 250 gallons. lives on in the Museum. The literature and specimen resources that he left behind continue to draw cichlid biologists to the institution. In 2002 the Fish Division graduated Dr. John Sparks who combined morphological and molecular characters to hypothesize a phylogenetic and geographic history of the cichlid fishes, with a focus on Madagascar and Indian species (Sparks 2004). His evidence indicated that these two groups are more closely related to each other than either was to other cichlid groups, and that together they are sister to all of the other cichlids. The African and Neotropical species, also, were each more similar to others from the same continent than they were to species from other continents. The relationships indicated that cichlids attained their current geographical distributions because they originally existed on one ancient landmass, Gondwana, and were separated when it broke apart into today’s continents, rather than by ‘island hopping,’ or swimming through the ocean, as had been proposed previously. The following year Dr. Josh Trapani graduated. Josh studied body shape and the development of pharyngeal teeth in an attempt to better understand the dimorphisms present in the Cuatro Cinégas cichlid Herichthys minckleyi (Trapani 2003). He found that fish with papilliform teeth do not differ significantly in size or shape from those with morariform teeth, but that they exhibit different patterns of body-form variability. Within each dental morph, body shapes include ‘piscivores’ and ‘deeper-bodied dietary generalists.’ However, fish with papilliform teeth show a continuous distribution between the two shapes, whereas molariform fish lack individuals with intermediate body shapes. Last year we were privileged to host the president of the Mexican Ichythological Society, Dr. Buntbarsche Bulletin | August 2005 | 19 Above left: The lab houses a wide range of aquaria. Above right: A reservoir of approximately 500 gallons suspended from the ceiling is used to age tap water. Juan Schmitter-Soto, for a year-long sabbatical as he worked on a revision of the genus Archocentrus. He identified many previously unrecognized strains of convicts and Jack Dempseys (Schmitter-Soto 2005). My fellow Ph.D. student and officemate, Prosanta Chakrabarty, has been taking an approach similar to John Sparks to understand the evolutionary history and geography of the Antillean cichlids of the genus Nandopsis. He also recently published results of a body shape analysis that found that there is more variability in shape among Tanganyika cichlids than Malawi cichlids, more variability among piscivorous cichlids than cichlids with other diets, and that disparity of the head region was greater than that of the rest of the body (Chakrabarty 2005). Finally, Peter Esselman has developed a proposal for a large-scale ecological model that will predict the consequences of future tilapia introductions on the cichlids and other fishes native to Belize, Honduras, and northeastern Mexico. No setting could have been better for me and my cichlid fascination than the University of Michigan Museum of Zoology, but I have also remained active in the hobby. The resources of the University helped me to found the Aquarium Society of Ann Arbor, which has now been functioning for two years. This organization provides a forum that facilitates interactions among people in different fields who are all interested in fish. Evolutionary biologists from the museum, fisheries biologists from University of Michigan’s School of Natural Resources and government agencies, and public aquarists and hobbyists all meet to discuss fish. The club has also hosted many high-profile speakers in a setting that is accessible to the public as well as the University community. The state of the cichlid hobby is ultimately responsible for facilitating the accomplishments that I am currently making. In addition to the aid of the American Cichlid Association, the dedication and organization of advanced cichlid hobbyists has enabled a more complete approach to my research. I was presented with a particular problem when trying to obtain live Midas cichlids from diverse local- 22 | August 2005 | Buntbarsche Bulletin ities, a task that would entail an impractical amount of field collecting. Museums only maintain preserved specimens. Knowing that one of the stated primary goals of zoos and public aquaria is conservation, I contacted many that I knew maintained Amphilophus spp. To my dismay some didn’t even respond to my inquiries. Those that did informed me that the specimens they maintained were either hybrids or pond-raised fish from the pet trade. Not exactly what you would expect from institutions dedicated to conservation and research. Luckily, because of my connections in the cichlid hobby, I was able to obtain Amphilophus spp. from Jeff Rapps at “Tangled Up in Cichlids” that were offspring of fish collected by hobbyists such as Willem Heijns and Bob Rawlings who had recorded the locations of their collections. Long live the cichlid hobby! Literature Cited Atz, J.A. (1964) Intersexuality in fishes. In: Intersexuality (eds. C.N. Armstrong and A.J. Marshall). Academic Press, London, pp. 145-232. Chakrabarty, P. (2005) Testing conjectures about morphological diversity in cichlids of Lakes Malawi and Tanganyika. Copeia. 2005: 259-273. Coleman, R. (1997) Cichlids and science: Sex determination. Cichlid News. 6: 20-21. Francis, R.C. (1992) Sexual lability in teleosts: developmental factors. The Quarterly Review of Biology. 67: 1-18. Francis, R.C. and Barlow, G.W. (1993) Social control of primary sex differentiation in the Midas cichlid. Proceedings of the National Academy of Science USA. 90: 10673 – 10675. Konings, A. (1989) Cichlids from Central America. TFH Publications. Neptune, NJ. Leibel, W. (2002) Cichlidist’s library. Buntbarsche Bulletin. 4: 24-28. McKaye, K.R., Stauffer, J.R. Jr., van den Berghe, E.P., Vivas, R., Lopez Perez, L.J., McCrary, J.K, Waid, R., Konings, A., Lee, W., and Kocher, T.D. (2002) Behavioral, morphological, and genetic evidence of divergence of the Midas cichlid species complex in two Nicaraguan crater lakes. Cuadernos de Investigacion de la U.C.A. 12: 19-47. Oldfield, R.G. (2005) Genetic, abiotic and social influences on sex differentiation in cichlid fishes and the evolution of sequential hermaphroditism. Fish and Fisheries. 6: 93-110. Sands, D. (1987) Fishkeepers Guide to Central American Cichlids. Tetra Press. Blacksburg, VA. Schmitter-Soto, J.J. (2005) A systematic revision of the genus Archocentrus (Teleostei: Cichlidae), with the description of two new genera and six new species. Zootaxa. In press. Shapiro, D.Y. (1987) Differentiation and evolution of sex change in fishes. Bioscience. 37: 490-497. Sparks, J.S. (2004) Molecular phylogeny and biogeography of the Malagasy and South Asian cichlids (Teleostei: Perciformes: Cichlidae). Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution. 30: 599-614. Trapani, J. (2004) Geometric morphometric analysis of body-form variability in Cichlasoma minckleyi, the Cuatro Ciénegas cichlid. Environmental Biology of Fishes. 68: 357-369. Buntbarsche Bulletin | August 2005 | 23