Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE190100483
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$410,176.00
Summary
The effect of apparent stabilising selection on genetic architecture. This project aims to improve our understanding of the cause of evolutionary limits. It will test the prediction that trait combinations with high genetic variation are highly correlated with other traits, and therefore are more evolutionary limited than they appear. This project will develop and implement novel evolutionary and statistical manipulations and methods to test this prediction, and is expected to provide new method ....The effect of apparent stabilising selection on genetic architecture. This project aims to improve our understanding of the cause of evolutionary limits. It will test the prediction that trait combinations with high genetic variation are highly correlated with other traits, and therefore are more evolutionary limited than they appear. This project will develop and implement novel evolutionary and statistical manipulations and methods to test this prediction, and is expected to provide new methods for the study of selection. A better understanding of evolutionary limits will provide a significant benefit, enabling better predictions of how natural populations will evolve over short and long time-scales, and their risks of extinction.Read moreRead less
Australian Laureate Fellowships - Grant ID: FL200100068
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$3,328,974.00
Summary
Australian wild animals: environmental change and quantitative genomics. This project aims to determine the effects of changing environments on wild animal populations across Australia. By combining recent advances in genomic technology with a consortium of fourteen long-term studies of mammals, birds and reptiles, it aims to quantify the genetic basis of life-history variation and the potential for evolutionary adaptation in the wild. The project will generate a comprehensive understanding of t ....Australian wild animals: environmental change and quantitative genomics. This project aims to determine the effects of changing environments on wild animal populations across Australia. By combining recent advances in genomic technology with a consortium of fourteen long-term studies of mammals, birds and reptiles, it aims to quantify the genetic basis of life-history variation and the potential for evolutionary adaptation in the wild. The project will generate a comprehensive understanding of the genetic consequences of environmental change, population decline, inbreeding and disease in natural environments. The expected benefits include a coordinated network for long-term wild animal studies in Australia, advanced quantitative skills training, and knowledge transfer for wildlife management and conservation.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE210100549
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$417,328.00
Summary
Adaptive evolution and its demographic consequences today. This project aims to provide the first test of whether the rate of adaptative genetic evolution has changed in the recent decades, to quantify how much recent genetic evolution helps animal populations survive, and to increase the ability to study on-going genetic evolution in Australian wildlife. The project is of major significance as many species are currently threatened, or invading, due to rapid environmental changes, in particular ....Adaptive evolution and its demographic consequences today. This project aims to provide the first test of whether the rate of adaptative genetic evolution has changed in the recent decades, to quantify how much recent genetic evolution helps animal populations survive, and to increase the ability to study on-going genetic evolution in Australian wildlife. The project is of major significance as many species are currently threatened, or invading, due to rapid environmental changes, in particular climate change. The anticipated outcome of the project is to deliver new methods, establish a network of international and national collaborators and improve the ability to measure and to forecast how Australian animals adapt to rapidly changing environments.Read moreRead less
Transitions between modes of sex-determination in a changing world. Sex-determination controls the largest variation within animals—the division into males and females. While the different systems of sex-determination—involving genetic or environmental control—are fairly well understood, transitions between these systems remain enigmatic in evolutionary biology. This project aims to address this gap by revealing the molecular change required to transition between systems, using one of only two k ....Transitions between modes of sex-determination in a changing world. Sex-determination controls the largest variation within animals—the division into males and females. While the different systems of sex-determination—involving genetic or environmental control—are fairly well understood, transitions between these systems remain enigmatic in evolutionary biology. This project aims to address this gap by revealing the molecular change required to transition between systems, using one of only two known lizard species exhibiting both genetic and temperature control of sex. This knowledge will have important implications for species conservation, facilitating predictions of highly biased sex ratios under climate change, plus potential commercial applications for species where production of one sex is favoured.Read moreRead less
Why does the genetic nearly-null subspace exist? This project aims to determine why nearly-null genetic subspaces exist by simultaneously measuring the input of new mutational variance in these nearly-null subspaces and the selection that acts on these new mutations to result in the observed low levels of standing genetic variance. The ability of organisms to evolve in response to human disturbance, translocation to new environments, or climate variation is governed by the availability of geneti ....Why does the genetic nearly-null subspace exist? This project aims to determine why nearly-null genetic subspaces exist by simultaneously measuring the input of new mutational variance in these nearly-null subspaces and the selection that acts on these new mutations to result in the observed low levels of standing genetic variance. The ability of organisms to evolve in response to human disturbance, translocation to new environments, or climate variation is governed by the availability of genetic variation. Recent advances in multivariate genetic analysis have demonstrated that a substantial proportion of a phenotype described by quantitative traits has very little genetic variance associated with it, and will therefore tend to be subjected to evolutionary limitsRead moreRead less
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.
Do hotter and drier regions harbour adaptive variation for climate change? This project aims to improve our understanding of the capacity of trees to respond to climate change. This is essential for the maintenance of biodiversity, forest health and productivity. In south-west Australia, climate variation has increased the frequency and intensity of droughts, which has resulted in tree death and negatively affected essential ecosystem services. Adaptive land management is urgently needed to miti ....Do hotter and drier regions harbour adaptive variation for climate change? This project aims to improve our understanding of the capacity of trees to respond to climate change. This is essential for the maintenance of biodiversity, forest health and productivity. In south-west Australia, climate variation has increased the frequency and intensity of droughts, which has resulted in tree death and negatively affected essential ecosystem services. Adaptive land management is urgently needed to mitigate the risk of large-scale drought mortality in a rapidly changing climate. This project seeks to deliver a scientific basis for the adoption of assisted gene migration in south-west forests, through a detailed understanding of genetic adaptation and physiological tolerance, to improve drought-resilience under future hotter and drier climates.Read moreRead less
Genomic signatures of adaptive diversification in woodland Eucalyptus. This project aims to map the sources of adaptive alleles underlying diversification is to reveal insights into the mechanisms of speciation. The source of the raw material for evolution can have significant impacts on the speed with which populations can adapt. An emerging pattern in speciation research is the importance of ancient alleles and introgressed genes, which differ in the genomic signatures left by selection. Eucal ....Genomic signatures of adaptive diversification in woodland Eucalyptus. This project aims to map the sources of adaptive alleles underlying diversification is to reveal insights into the mechanisms of speciation. The source of the raw material for evolution can have significant impacts on the speed with which populations can adapt. An emerging pattern in speciation research is the importance of ancient alleles and introgressed genes, which differ in the genomic signatures left by selection. Eucalyptus offers a unique opportunity to explore these modes of evolution using the latest genomic tools. Improving our understanding of adaptation and genetic variation in woodland eucalypts is expected to make a significant contribution to their conservation, management and restoration.Read moreRead less
Sex determination in dragons: Genetics, epigenetics and environment. This project aims to discover the master sex-determining gene in a reptile, how that gene is differentially regulated in males and females and by temperature, and to identify evolutionary drivers of transitions between genetic and environmental sex determination. In many reptiles, like mammals, chromosomes determine sex. In others, the temperature at which their eggs are incubated determines sex. This project will study how tem ....Sex determination in dragons: Genetics, epigenetics and environment. This project aims to discover the master sex-determining gene in a reptile, how that gene is differentially regulated in males and females and by temperature, and to identify evolutionary drivers of transitions between genetic and environmental sex determination. In many reptiles, like mammals, chromosomes determine sex. In others, the temperature at which their eggs are incubated determines sex. This project will study how temperature reverses chromosomal sex determination in dragon lizards. This could show how climatic extremes affect the biology of climate sensitive reptiles, and understand their vulnerability to climate change.Read moreRead less
Genetics of species differentiation and hybridisation in Eucalyptus. This project aims to use state-of-the-art genomic technologies to characterise genes and genomic regions important for speciation and adaptation in Australia’s iconic eucalypts, and study the importance of hybridisation between species, especially during range expansion and contraction. A major international effort has seen a eucalypt become the second forest tree genome sequenced. This project aims to link the expanding intern ....Genetics of species differentiation and hybridisation in Eucalyptus. This project aims to use state-of-the-art genomic technologies to characterise genes and genomic regions important for speciation and adaptation in Australia’s iconic eucalypts, and study the importance of hybridisation between species, especially during range expansion and contraction. A major international effort has seen a eucalypt become the second forest tree genome sequenced. This project aims to link the expanding international knowledge on the eucalypt genome to the evolutionary dynamics of wild populations in Australia to provide unprecedented insights into the nature of species and processes which have shaped their evolution. These insights may inform their breeding as well as their conservation and management in Australia.Read moreRead less