Genetics: Key to Survival
BY ANNELIESE MOLL
For the UAS Whalesong
In 2011 a study involving several groups of researchers from the United States, Canada, Germany, and Mexico who had been working on a study replicating ecological speciation the Atlantic molly (Poecilia Mexicana) and in P. sulphuraria (Poeciliidae) was published in the journal of Molecular Biology and Evolution.
These fish usually live within freshwater or brackish waters, but they have also been colonized several sulfidic springs in southern Mexico. These springs are particularly relevant because they are not just slightly sulfidic. They are extremely hypoxic (lacking oxygen) and have high concentrations of hydrogen sulfide, enough to be lethal to most organisms. Continue reading “Genetics: Key to Survival”