A review of the reproductive biology of mormyroid fishes: An emerging model for biomedical research

Abstract

Mormyroidea is a superfamily of weakly electric African fishes with great potential as a model in a variety of biomedical research areas including systems neuroscience, muscle cell and craniofacial development, ion channel biophysics, and flagellar/ciliary biology. However, they are currently difficult to breed in the laboratory setting, which is essential for any tractable model organism. As such, there is a need to better understand the reproductive biology of mormyroids to breed them more reliably in the laboratory to effectively use them as a biomedical research model. This review seeks to (1) briefly highlight the biomedically relevant phenotypes of mormyroids and (2) compile information about mormyroid reproduction including sex differences, breeding season, sexual maturity, gonads, gametes, and courtship/spawning behaviors. We also highlight areas of mormyroid reproductive biology that are currently unexplored and/or have the potential for further investigation that may provide insights into more successful mormyroid laboratory breeding methods.

Trawling aquatic life for new models in biomedical research and evolutionary developmental biology

“…Özpolat discusses the exceptional abilities of annelids to regenerate their gonads and germ cells at odds with a strict germsoma separation (Özpolat, 2023). Saunders and Gallant review the reproductive biology of mormyroid fishes and their curious case of aflagellate sperm along with other insights these weakly electric fishes can provide into a whole range of biomedical phenomena (Saunders & Gallant, 2024). Li | 123 killifish (Li et al, 2023), a self-fertilizing "fish out of water" that is developmentally programmed to survive in ephemeral waterbodies.…”