Sperm competition, sexual conflict, and gamete evolution in mice. The innovative experiments of this project will yield results that are at the forefront of research in evolutionary biology. This project will generate publications in high profile journals, and will foster collaborations between Australian and European researchers, creating a significant international impact and promoting excellence in Australian research. Since European settlement of Australia, sixty percent of the native rodent ....Sperm competition, sexual conflict, and gamete evolution in mice. The innovative experiments of this project will yield results that are at the forefront of research in evolutionary biology. This project will generate publications in high profile journals, and will foster collaborations between Australian and European researchers, creating a significant international impact and promoting excellence in Australian research. Since European settlement of Australia, sixty percent of the native rodent species have become extinct or are threatened with extinction. As there is a significant lack of research on the mating systems of Australian rodents, our investigations on a native mouse will generate information that will be extremely valuable to the national conservation efforts of threatened rodent species.Read moreRead less
Illuminating the evolutionary history of Australia’s most iconic animals. This project aims to pinpoint the nature and timing of key steps in macropod history and to test how these link with major climatic and biotic changes. Macropods (kangaroos and relatives) are widely considered the marsupial equivalents to hoofed mammals on other continents, but we have a weaker understanding of how their evolution was shaped by environmental change. This project will combine palaeontology, anatomy and gene ....Illuminating the evolutionary history of Australia’s most iconic animals. This project aims to pinpoint the nature and timing of key steps in macropod history and to test how these link with major climatic and biotic changes. Macropods (kangaroos and relatives) are widely considered the marsupial equivalents to hoofed mammals on other continents, but we have a weaker understanding of how their evolution was shaped by environmental change. This project will combine palaeontology, anatomy and genetics to address questions such as how and why ancestral macropods descended from the trees and evolved bipedal hopping, and the upper size limits of the kangaroo “body plan”. This should improve our understanding of the long-term effects of climate change on marsupials, and provide a test of key placental-based evolutionary models.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE150101625
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$385,536.00
Summary
The evolutionary significance of ejaculate-female interactions. The way that ejaculates interact with the female reproductive tract is thought to have profound evolutionary implications in internal fertilizers. Yet we currently lack clear insights into these processes in most taxa, precisely because such ejaculate-female interactions are hidden from view inside the female's reproductive tract. In this project an integrated series of experiments on a model vertebrate (the guppy) will overcome the ....The evolutionary significance of ejaculate-female interactions. The way that ejaculates interact with the female reproductive tract is thought to have profound evolutionary implications in internal fertilizers. Yet we currently lack clear insights into these processes in most taxa, precisely because such ejaculate-female interactions are hidden from view inside the female's reproductive tract. In this project an integrated series of experiments on a model vertebrate (the guppy) will overcome the inherent challenges in studying ejaculate-female interactions. The project aims to shed new light on the role that ejaculate-female interactions play in sperm competition, and will explore the consequences of these interactions at different evolutionary levels and across varying social environments.Read moreRead less
Threshold evolution: conceptualising decisions as traits. All organisms make decisions, yet the diversity of decision rules across the spectrum of life can be understood through a few key evolutionary models. This project will test these models and then apply them to understanding topics as diverse as pest outbreaks, human twinning, sex ratio evolution and disease spread as a consequence of climate change.
Alternative reproductive tactics and threshold evolution. This research is focussed at the highest level in the field of evolutionary biology; testing recent theory for the evolution of alternative reproductive tactics and using these species to test hypotheses about adaptation. The proposal involves collaborations with high-profile researchers from three European countries and will increase Australia's standing as a world-leader in evolutionary biology. Australian students will benefit from exp ....Alternative reproductive tactics and threshold evolution. This research is focussed at the highest level in the field of evolutionary biology; testing recent theory for the evolution of alternative reproductive tactics and using these species to test hypotheses about adaptation. The proposal involves collaborations with high-profile researchers from three European countries and will increase Australia's standing as a world-leader in evolutionary biology. Australian students will benefit from exposure to high quality international collaborators. We will also increase our understanding of the biology of the European earwig, a pest species in Australia. Reproductive tactics are exciting topics for media attention and this research will reach a wide and interested Australian and world audience.Read moreRead less
Assessment of the diversity, distribution and uniqueness of subterranean animals from calcrete aquifers in central western Australia. Recently a rich and diverse subterranean invertebrate fauna (stygofauna) was unexpectedly discovered from numerous isolated calcrete aquifers associated with palaeodrainage channels in central Western Australia. Our recent taxonomic and molecular studies have suggested that stygofaunas within each aquifer may be highly endemic. We aim to test this hypothesis by in ....Assessment of the diversity, distribution and uniqueness of subterranean animals from calcrete aquifers in central western Australia. Recently a rich and diverse subterranean invertebrate fauna (stygofauna) was unexpectedly discovered from numerous isolated calcrete aquifers associated with palaeodrainage channels in central Western Australia. Our recent taxonomic and molecular studies have suggested that stygofaunas within each aquifer may be highly endemic. We aim to test this hypothesis by investigating the diversity, distribution and uniqueness of stygofauna from three major calcrete regions. We further aim to document the environmental conditions and variability within the aquifers and to develop rigorous sampling protocols. Such data are essential for the development of appropriate strategies for sustainable management of subterranean water and their ecosystems.Read moreRead less
Safeguarding honeybees: understanding host-parasite interactions at the level of proteins. Parasites are responsible for dramatic declines of honeybee populations resulting in a loss of pollination services and posing a threat to food production and ecosystem stability. This project will study the honeybee immune system and its interactions with bee parasites on the molecular scale, which will be important to guide future bee breeding.
A biological basis for the efficient breeding of native plants for export markets: a case study with the Australian Goodeniaceae. The native plant family Goodeniaceae exhibits enormous potential for the world potted-plant trade. To provide vital biological information for the efficient breeding of these plants, we will (i) determine the molecular evolutionary relationships of species, (ii) assess chromosomal variation within and among species, (iii) characterise mating patterns in natural popul ....A biological basis for the efficient breeding of native plants for export markets: a case study with the Australian Goodeniaceae. The native plant family Goodeniaceae exhibits enormous potential for the world potted-plant trade. To provide vital biological information for the efficient breeding of these plants, we will (i) determine the molecular evolutionary relationships of species, (ii) assess chromosomal variation within and among species, (iii) characterise mating patterns in natural populations using DNA fingerprinting for paternity analysis, (iv) develop techniques to overcome barriers to wide crossing, and (v) use DNA fingerprinting for the rapid identification of artificial hybrids. Expected outcomes are an understanding of evolution and mating in the Goodeniaceae and the efficient development of horticulturally significant materialRead moreRead less
Sexual selection on female phenotypes and maternal effects as adaptations. Recent work has queried the paradigm that female ornamentation is the consequence of a genetic correlation and non-adaptive. Whilst the circumstances under which male choosiness is expected have widened, the benefits to females of investing in ornamentation, rather than offspring, remain prohibitively small. An alternative explanation may be that sexually antagonistic alleles or social competition amongst females maintain ....Sexual selection on female phenotypes and maternal effects as adaptations. Recent work has queried the paradigm that female ornamentation is the consequence of a genetic correlation and non-adaptive. Whilst the circumstances under which male choosiness is expected have widened, the benefits to females of investing in ornamentation, rather than offspring, remain prohibitively small. An alternative explanation may be that sexually antagonistic alleles or social competition amongst females maintain female ornamentation, however prudent males use this ornamentation for adaptive mating decisions. This proposal addresses the selection pressures on female phenotypes, trade-offs in offspring and ornamentation allocation, maternal effects and the extent to which sex determination mechanisms determine the expression of female ornamentation.Read moreRead less
Evolution of the dermomyotome in vertebrates. The project seeks to understand how different muscle populations within the embryo form and have evolved within the vertebrate phylogeny. All amniote muscles, except that of the head, derive from a transient embryonic structure termed the dermomyotome. The formation of muscle from the dermomyotome of amniotes uses a highly conserved mechanism that is distinct from that deployed by bony fish and amphibians. How the dermomyotome evolved to generate th ....Evolution of the dermomyotome in vertebrates. The project seeks to understand how different muscle populations within the embryo form and have evolved within the vertebrate phylogeny. All amniote muscles, except that of the head, derive from a transient embryonic structure termed the dermomyotome. The formation of muscle from the dermomyotome of amniotes uses a highly conserved mechanism that is distinct from that deployed by bony fish and amphibians. How the dermomyotome evolved to generate the distinct types of locomotor systems we see deployed throughout the vertebrate phylogeny remains unresolved. This project aims to contribute to an understanding of how different locomotor strategies deployed at important evolutionary transitions were generated.Read moreRead less