Congratulations to Ivan Blanco who will work in LEAP for the next four years to achieve a PhD thesis on the mangrove rivulus. Ivan just obtained a grant from the FNRS (FRIA) to work on the mating system of the self-fertilizing fish mangrove rivulus. In this species, hermaphrodites can either self-fertilize or outcross with a male but no one knows how and why different populations favour one or the other solution. The mechanisms of temperature-dependent sex-determination will be investigated before field analyses will aim to identify the advantages of such an extraordinary reproduction strategy in a vertebrate.
