Using phylogenomics to record the impacts of climate change, extinction and population fragmentation. This project will use ancient DNA from permafrost-preserved Steppe bison bones and bovid exome capture systems to build a detailed record of the genomic impacts of rapid climate and environmental change at the end of the Pleistocene (30 to 11 kyr). The project will analyse how ancestral genetic diversity is distributed amongst surviving bison populations, and the role of nuclear loci under selec ....Using phylogenomics to record the impacts of climate change, extinction and population fragmentation. This project will use ancient DNA from permafrost-preserved Steppe bison bones and bovid exome capture systems to build a detailed record of the genomic impacts of rapid climate and environmental change at the end of the Pleistocene (30 to 11 kyr). The project will analyse how ancestral genetic diversity is distributed amongst surviving bison populations, and the role of nuclear loci under selection and drift. It will create a novel temporal dataset of genomic adaptation and evolution, and will generate critical data for studies of evolutionary processes such as extinctions, speciation and conservation biology and management.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE150100542
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$355,000.00
Summary
Understanding adaptation of plants along environmental clines. This project aims to address a key debate on the relative roles of dispersal and selection on adaptation, testing how life history traits determine the magnitude of adaptation. Since dispersal should override selection, this project endeavours to show that plants that strongly disperse will display weaker signals of adaptation but a higher capacity to adapt. The project aims to test these predictions with ecological genomics and func ....Understanding adaptation of plants along environmental clines. This project aims to address a key debate on the relative roles of dispersal and selection on adaptation, testing how life history traits determine the magnitude of adaptation. Since dispersal should override selection, this project endeavours to show that plants that strongly disperse will display weaker signals of adaptation but a higher capacity to adapt. The project aims to test these predictions with ecological genomics and functional genetics at a multi-species scale across climate gradients in South Australia, using a novel design that separates dispersal (isolation-by-distance) from selection (isolation-by-ecology). This understanding will provide improved conservation planning that seeks to restore resilience to biological communities that are under increasing environmental pressures.Read moreRead less
Understanding adaptation to improve conservation of Australian flora. Using the Australian flora as our model, this project aims to tackle a central issue of evolution and conservation - what drives species adaptation? Since dispersal should override selection in populations, we predict that plants that are good dispersers will display weak signals of adaptation, but a higher capacity to adapt, than poorer dispersers. From these expectations we plan to develop a new adaptation guild classificati ....Understanding adaptation to improve conservation of Australian flora. Using the Australian flora as our model, this project aims to tackle a central issue of evolution and conservation - what drives species adaptation? Since dispersal should override selection in populations, we predict that plants that are good dispersers will display weak signals of adaptation, but a higher capacity to adapt, than poorer dispersers. From these expectations we plan to develop a new adaptation guild classification, and test predictions using ecological genomics and functional genetics at a continental and multi-species scale. In addition to progressing a central tenet of evolutionary biology, this project aims to improve seed sourcing and biodiversity management, readily applicable to plants that can be quickly classified by life history traits.Read moreRead less
Adaptation to life in the dark: genomic analyses of blind beetles. This project aims to utilise a unique Australian model system based on multiple, independently-evolved subterranean water beetles to explore the adaptive and regressive changes in the genome that occur when surface species colonise subterranean habitats. This project focuses on the evolution of Heat Shock protein (Hsp) genes that play critical roles in adaptation to environmental stress and the process of de-canalisation, the rel ....Adaptation to life in the dark: genomic analyses of blind beetles. This project aims to utilise a unique Australian model system based on multiple, independently-evolved subterranean water beetles to explore the adaptive and regressive changes in the genome that occur when surface species colonise subterranean habitats. This project focuses on the evolution of Heat Shock protein (Hsp) genes that play critical roles in adaptation to environmental stress and the process of de-canalisation, the release of cryptic genetic variation that can allow novel morphologies to evolve in new environments. The project expects to provide further understanding of how species may potentially adapt to environmental stresses in the future, including climate change.Read moreRead less
Is regressive evolution associated with loss of gene function in subterranean animals? This project aims to investigate a fundamental biological process: the evolutionary basis for how non-functional characters, such as eyes in subterranean animals, are lost. It will use a unique model system based on eyeless water beetles, and utilise novel new genomic tools to test whether loss of characters results from gene inactivation.
Evolution of sensory systems in the dark biosphere. This project utilises a unique Australian model system based on multiple, independently-evolved subterranean water beetles to explore the adaptive and regressive changes in the genome that occur when surface species colonise subterranean habitats. We aim to characterise and investigate the evolution of chemosensory and circadian rhythm genes, which play critical roles in the fitness of animals, including the ability to find food and mates in a ....Evolution of sensory systems in the dark biosphere. This project utilises a unique Australian model system based on multiple, independently-evolved subterranean water beetles to explore the adaptive and regressive changes in the genome that occur when surface species colonise subterranean habitats. We aim to characterise and investigate the evolution of chemosensory and circadian rhythm genes, which play critical roles in the fitness of animals, including the ability to find food and mates in a dark, thermally stable environment. Knowledge of chemosensory and circadian genetic systems and how they dynamically evolve is fundamental to a variety of fields, including the process of speciation and biological adaptation (for example, to permanent darkness, pollutants and insecticides).Read moreRead less
Identifying the diversity and evolution of loci associated with adaptation to aridity/heat and salinity in ancient cereal crops. This project will use ancient grains of wheat, barley and rye to find 'lost' genetic diversity at key genes associated with resistance to aridity, salt and disease. This project will make the proteins of key genes, and study their interaction with the environment over time by measuring ions in the grains to reveal the ancient environmental conditions.
Genomics for persistence of Australian freshwater fish. Biodiversity faces an unpredictable cocktail of impacts and global environmental change, against which the best insurance is genetic diversity. We will develop genomic measures of ecological-genetic functions and evolutionary potential for managing Australian freshwater fish.
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE190101069
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$390,000.00
Summary
Adaptation and diversification of the first peoples of Sahul. This project aims to further advance work on the genetic history of Indigenous Australians and Papuans that has revealed that Aboriginal Australians have inhabited a variety of diverse and challenging environments for approximately 50,000 years. Using novel techniques for extraction of human DNA from soil and the use of cutting-edge graph-based methods, hundreds of Indigenous Australian and Papuan genomes will be analysed. This projec ....Adaptation and diversification of the first peoples of Sahul. This project aims to further advance work on the genetic history of Indigenous Australians and Papuans that has revealed that Aboriginal Australians have inhabited a variety of diverse and challenging environments for approximately 50,000 years. Using novel techniques for extraction of human DNA from soil and the use of cutting-edge graph-based methods, hundreds of Indigenous Australian and Papuan genomes will be analysed. This project expects to generate new knowledge by filling in the gaps in the Australian genetic record via ancient human DNA from sediments. Expected outcomes from this project are producing a detailed picture of genomic adaptation in Indigenous Australians and Papuans and creating a comprehensive genetic history of the First Peoples of Sahul.Read moreRead less
Exploring genetic diversity to identify new heat tolerance genes in wheat. This project aims to improve the selection and development of heat-tolerant wheat varieties. Heatwaves seriously reduce wheat yields worldwide, and the situation will worsen with climate variation. This project aims to apply a broad genetic scan to identify the main chromosome regions controlling heat tolerance at the sensitive flowering stage in Australian and European wheat varieties. It is expected that this knowledge ....Exploring genetic diversity to identify new heat tolerance genes in wheat. This project aims to improve the selection and development of heat-tolerant wheat varieties. Heatwaves seriously reduce wheat yields worldwide, and the situation will worsen with climate variation. This project aims to apply a broad genetic scan to identify the main chromosome regions controlling heat tolerance at the sensitive flowering stage in Australian and European wheat varieties. It is expected that this knowledge will deliver crucial breeders’ tools to select heat-tolerant varieties. The project also aims to identify genes most likely to control tolerance at these chromosome locations using gene expression profiling data, trait associations and knowledge of heat-tolerance genes from other species. It is expected that these genes will reveal molecular mechanisms of heat tolerance and create new opportunities to engineer superior levels of tolerance in cereals.Read moreRead less