Genetic drift does not sufficiently explain patterns of electric signal variation among populations of the mormyrid electric fish Paramormyrops kingsleyae

Communication signals serve crucial survival and reproductive functions. In Gabon, the widely distributed mormyrid fish Paramormyrops kingsleyae emits an electric organ discharge (EOD) signal with a dual role in communication and electrolocation that exhibits remarkable variation: populations of P. kingsleyae have either biphasic or triphasic EODs, a feature which characterizes interspecific signal diversity among the Paramormyrops genus. We quantified variation in EODs of 327 P. kingsleyae from 9 populations and compared it to genetic variation estimated from microsatellite loci. We found no correlation between electric signal and genetic distances, suggesting that EOD divergence cannot be explained by drift alone. An alternative hypothesis is that EOD differences are used for mate discrimination, which would require P. kingsleyae be capable of differentiating between divergent EOD waveforms. Using a habituation-dishabituation assay, we found that P. kingsleyae can discriminate between biphasic and triphasic EOD types. Nonetheless, patterns of genetic and electric organ morphology divergence provide evidence for hybridization between these signal types. Although reproductive isolation with respect to signal type is incomplete, our results suggest that EOD variation in P. kingsleaye could be a cue for assortative mating. This dataset contains: Response data for behavioral dishabituation paradigms conducted in the field and laboratory (Behavior Directory) Raw fragement sizes and microsatellite bins (Genotyping) Output tables for EOD landmarks, and MDS scaling results (EOD_Analysis) Tables of observed penetration counts for histological analysis (Histology) The README.md files in the subfolders describe the data in more detail.  See Picq et al. (2020) Genetic drift does not sufficiently explain patterns of electric signal variation among populations of the mormyrid electric fish Paramormyrops kingsleyae for a full description of methods utilized.   This repositiory includes instructions raw data, or instructions for obtaining, all data utilized in Picq et al. (2020) Genetic drift does not sufficiently explain patterns of electric signal variation among populations of the mormyrid electric fish Paramormyrops kingsleyae. A companion repositiory for all code for data analysis is located at: github.com