Killi-Data News (Summer)

Over the last three months several interesting and exciting pa- pers have been published. By now most of you have heard the Nothobranchius fish poo news emanating from the Valenzano lab. That paper is reviewed and certainly has repercussions for the health of our captive fish. Polaçik et al have published interesting data with ramifications as to how we breed and incubate annual killifish. The big news in this issue is the paper from the Reznick lab which Jean Huber reviews. The contents of that paper goes to the heart of the question of just what a killifish is. The phylogenies from Reznick et al may fundamentally transform our understanding of the origin and evolutive timing of Cyp- rinodontiformes (including killifish). Once again, there are several papers on Fundulus heteroclitus on topics of genetics, hybrid zones, evolution and environmental toxicology. Again, there are new species of Melanorivulus-group and I think we can expect more species. There are three articles on the embryonic development of South American Annual fish: Austrofundulus, Austrolebias and Millerichthys. Martin & Podrabsky review the concept of developmental arrest and define the terms diapause, delayed hatching etc. . . as well as review the knowledge of diapause learned from Austrofundulus. I hope you enjoy this issue and put the information to some use in your fishrooms and/or research projects.