Another star undergrad alert! If you’ve ever followed the work that comes out of Dr. Michele Johnson’s lab at Trinity University, you’ll know that she produces some incredible science and some even-more incredible undergraduate researchers. Isabela Carson is no exception!

Isabela’s poster was focused on studying intraspecific variation in lizard sperm and testis morphology- she described differences in the size and shape of different testis and sperm features for 6 different species of anole. A lot of this work was founded on Dr. Ariel Kahrl’s dissertation work on describing sperm evolution in anole lizards, and her collaborations with Dr. Johnson’s lab and students always produce some awesome talks and posters wherever they are presented. Isabela wanted to know if longer sperm are produced from lizard species that have larger seminiferous tubules- the part of the testis where sperm are produced, matured, and transported. She found an inconsistent pattern across anole lizards where larger tubules don’t always produce longer sperm.

In talking with Isabela, she noted that there are some big inconsistencies between the external morphology of testes and the sperm they produce, and that there might be some larger ecological or evolutionary patterns at work that go into describing how sperm evolve in different species. I would bet that one day we are going to have data on testis shape and size and sperm length for all anolis species, and there are going to be some awesome patterns and studies that come out of that work. And we definitely have to give heaps of credit to the awesome biologists who are working towards it!

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