WHY STICKLEBACK?

Credit: Brian Stauffer

“As a boy, I had two small aquaria in our backyard in which I watched, each spring, the nest building and other fascinating behaviours of sticklebacks.”

– NIKOLAAS TINBERGEN

Threespined sticklebacks (Gasterosteus aculeatus) are small fish that have proven to be a powerful model system for identifying the genetic mechanisms that underlie adaptive morphological evolution.  But sticklebacks are also famous for their rich behavioral repertoire, which has attracted the attention of biologists since the days of the early ethologists, including Nobel Prize-winner Niko Tinbergen. For example, male sticklebacks aggressively defend nesting territories and are the sole providers of parental care that is necessary for offspring survival. Some individual sticklebacks are more willing to take risks than others, and the way an individual stickleback behaves toward competitors, predators, mates and offspring directly influences fitness and has a heritable component.

Color change2

Many of the axes of natural behavioral variation studied in sticklebacks have parallels with human behavioral variation, e.g. risk taking behavior, sensation seeking, extraversion and aggressiveness. Moreover, the system is tractable: sticklebacks can be readily drawn from the wild and measured in reliable behavioral assays, large sample sizes are feasible and they can be crossed and reared in the lab. In other words, sticklebacks have many of the advantages of traditional model organisms with the added advantage that we can study them in a wild state.

Latest Posts
Congratulations to Dr. Meghan Maciejewski on successfully defending her PhD thesis, “THE NEURAL AND HORMONAL BASIS OF THE LOSS OF PARENTAL CARE IN THREESPINE STICKLEBACK”April 25, 2025Male commons are tending embryos in their nest; male whites have dispersed them! Cupcakes decorated by Victoria Farrar [...] Read more...
Anjali Tibutan presents at the IGB Research SymposiumApril 23, 2025Anjali presenting her poster [...] Read more...
Congratulations to Annika, Victoria and Salvi on their Distinction Projects!April 10, 2025Annika Bagazinski, Victoria Abuja and Salvi Patel gave presentations about their undergaduate distinction projects in Integrative Biology and all three were awarded “High Distinction”! Annika Bagazinski Victoria Abuja Salvi Patel [...] Read more...
Launch of the Kellner Center for Neurogenomics, Behavior and SocietyNovember 12, 2024Today was the launch of the new Kellner Center for Neurogenomics, Behavior and Society! The Kellner Center is dedicated to studying the connection between our genes, brains, and our behavior – and how that impacts our communities. Alison is the inaugural Director of the Center. Thanks to everyone who helped to make the event a success, and stay tuned for Center-related activities! [...] Read more...