Guppy (Poecilia reticulata)
Guppy males - basically sex machines. Guppy females - so picky. I've fallen in love with this little fish since my undergrad studies, and I still am! Males are an ideal combination of pre- and post-copulatory traits and females exhibit female choice and also have sperm storage. We can artificially inseminate them (yep, as they are internal fertilizers!) to control for pre-copulatory traits. Males have also ARTs (alternative reproductive tactics). What do you want more?? At the moment we are focussing on a new project investigating the effects of heatwaves on fertility, sexual selection, cognition and transgenerational effects. -with Dr Merel Breedveld (winner of Seal of Excellence at UNIPD) and Oliviero Borgheresi (Master project) We run a project on the effects of PFAS on fertility and behaviour, linked to changes in gene expression. -with Dr Marianna Pauletto and Prof Andrea Pilastro, Dr marco Bonato, Dr Mauro Dacasto, PhD student Edoardo Pietropoli 
The giant hissing cockroach (Gromphadorhina portentosa). New project looking at the potentiality of this species for studying pre-and post-copulatory sexual selection. Precious collaborators are Dr Enzo Moretto (Esapolis) and undergraduates students |
Zebrafish (Danio rerio)
Ode to the zebrafish....THE model organism.
So many things and so little time ;) They are external fertilizers (so many advantages!) and there is so much potential working with them for their characteristics and the huge variety of molecular tools available. It's all about females' power and what I call 'the forgotten player in post-copulatory sexual selection' (have you ever heard about female reproductive fluids FRF?) We have two main projects running at the moment: 1) Role of FRF in sperm competition and cryptic female choice - with PhD Student Livia Pinzoni and Prof. Mariella Rasotto 2) sperm selection within ejaculate mediated by FRF. We are looking whether sperm selection mediated by FRF can help selecting the best or most compatible sperm. This, in the long run, can help assisted reproductive techniques. - with Dr Alessandro Devigili 3) female choice and compatibility. - with Dr Maria Santacà but there are other small and/or pilot projects with undergraduate students. and a glimpse of some projects with other species...
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