Structural reorganization of the hymenopteran mitochondrial genome. This study will be the first detailed investigation of the evolution of mt genome reorganization, and as such it will identify the processes that shape the evolution of a molecule widely used to interpret phylogeny. A description of the processes that lead to mt genome reorganization will have a substantial impact on our understanding in two areas of mt biology; (1) the discovery of new molecular phenomena that impact on the or ....Structural reorganization of the hymenopteran mitochondrial genome. This study will be the first detailed investigation of the evolution of mt genome reorganization, and as such it will identify the processes that shape the evolution of a molecule widely used to interpret phylogeny. A description of the processes that lead to mt genome reorganization will have a substantial impact on our understanding in two areas of mt biology; (1) the discovery of new molecular phenomena that impact on the organization and evolution of this genome, and (2) the interpretation of its phylogenetic content. It will establish our research group as a leader in the field of evolutionary genetics. Training of high quality students, with exposure to international researchers, will be a significant component of this program.Read moreRead less
New Molecular Approaches to Comparative Phylogeography. Funds are requested to gather data to test new molecular and analytical approaches in the field of molecular phylogeography. We will generate phylogeographic hypotheses from mitochondrial and microsatellite DNA for six species and evaluate the utility of microsatellite data for the reconstruction of phylogeographic history. We will borrow powerful analytical techniques from the field of evolutionary ecology and use them in a completely nove ....New Molecular Approaches to Comparative Phylogeography. Funds are requested to gather data to test new molecular and analytical approaches in the field of molecular phylogeography. We will generate phylogeographic hypotheses from mitochondrial and microsatellite DNA for six species and evaluate the utility of microsatellite data for the reconstruction of phylogeographic history. We will borrow powerful analytical techniques from the field of evolutionary ecology and use them in a completely novel way to test hypotheses of microsatellite diversity. Our research is inter-disciplinary in that we will bridge the gap between molecular phylogenetics and molecular evolution and in so doing make a major advancement in this emerging field.Read moreRead less
Evolutionary, macroecological and phylogenetic patterns in Australasian freshwater crayfish. This project connects Australian systematists to a worldwide project that involves all of the world's living experts on freshwater crayfish evolution in a coordinated effort to answer some very important evolutionary questions. It involves a group of invertebrate animals that are not only readily recognisable, but which in Australia includes the world's largest and the world's most terrestrial crayfish s ....Evolutionary, macroecological and phylogenetic patterns in Australasian freshwater crayfish. This project connects Australian systematists to a worldwide project that involves all of the world's living experts on freshwater crayfish evolution in a coordinated effort to answer some very important evolutionary questions. It involves a group of invertebrate animals that are not only readily recognisable, but which in Australia includes the world's largest and the world's most terrestrial crayfish species. Information gained from the project will contribute to the management of crayfish biodiversity, identification of threatened species and tools to identify these prominent and important members of Australian freshwater ecosystems.Read moreRead less
Developing biogeographic know-how: Improving species divergence and dispersal estimations to examine geological and climatic evolutionary drivers. Anthropogenic activity over the last 150 years is now dramatically changing our global climate and ecosystems. The impact on biodiversity is already evident, and large-scale floral and faunal extinctions are predicted. This study unites a cohort of international experts in an interdisciplinary team to develop new molecular and mathematical methods to ....Developing biogeographic know-how: Improving species divergence and dispersal estimations to examine geological and climatic evolutionary drivers. Anthropogenic activity over the last 150 years is now dramatically changing our global climate and ecosystems. The impact on biodiversity is already evident, and large-scale floral and faunal extinctions are predicted. This study unites a cohort of international experts in an interdisciplinary team to develop new molecular and mathematical methods to expand our fundamental knowledge on how geological and global climate change have affected our world's species components and ecosystems in the past. This research is of environmental significance and global importance as it will improve our ability to predict how species behave under future predicted climate scenarios.Read moreRead less
Nucleomodulin effectors of the environmental pathogen Legionella. This project aims to examine the evolution of Legionella as an intracellular organism and the mechanisms by which the bacteria evade environmental predation by amoebae. Aside from the advancement of knowledge, expected outcomes of this project include a greater understanding of amoebae. This will provide significant benefits, and this knowledge may be used to develop inhibitors of amoebae growth.
Retracing the Early Evolution of Metazoa using Novel Methods and Strategies. Metazoa is one of the best-characterised groups of species in terms of its morphology, fossil record, development, and genetic make-up, but the phylogeny remains obscure because the fossil record is incomplete and because molecular phylogenetic methods have not yet been developed with the complexity of genomic data in mind. We will develop methods and strategies for the analysis of whole genomes, and use them in studies ....Retracing the Early Evolution of Metazoa using Novel Methods and Strategies. Metazoa is one of the best-characterised groups of species in terms of its morphology, fossil record, development, and genetic make-up, but the phylogeny remains obscure because the fossil record is incomplete and because molecular phylogenetic methods have not yet been developed with the complexity of genomic data in mind. We will develop methods and strategies for the analysis of whole genomes, and use them in studies of the mitochondrial genome. We will infer the animal phylogeny, and use it to chart the evolution of animal morphology and development, and the evolution of mitochondrial genetic codes, gene order, and nucleotide content.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 and ecology of integron gene cassettes: exploring the protein universe. Bacteria rapidly adapt to new conditions by sharing diverse genes via lateral genetic transfer, best illustrated by the spread of antibiotic resistance. This study will characterise mobile genes, discovering new gene families and proteins, and will expand existing knowledge of bacterial evolution.
Refining the timescale of human evolution and dispersal using ancient DNA. Understanding the timescale of human evolution and migration is a key goal of genetic analysis. It provides the foundation for studying our evolutionary and demographic history, our relationships to other hominids and our impact on the natural world. This project aims to use ancient DNA data to improve estimates of our evolutionary timescale.
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE190100544
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$344,682.00
Summary
The drivers of genome evolution and diversification in marsupials. This project aims to investigate the impact of the four basic forces of evolution, mutation, selection, neutral drift, and gene flow, on the genome. Genome-scale data have a signature of these forces and extracting it would greatly improve the quality of evolutionary models fit to the data, but the framework to identify the evolutionary forces has not been developed. This project will develop tests for assessing the impact of the ....The drivers of genome evolution and diversification in marsupials. This project aims to investigate the impact of the four basic forces of evolution, mutation, selection, neutral drift, and gene flow, on the genome. Genome-scale data have a signature of these forces and extracting it would greatly improve the quality of evolutionary models fit to the data, but the framework to identify the evolutionary forces has not been developed. This project will develop tests for assessing the impact of the primary evolutionary forces on the genome, and test these methods using simulations. The new framework of genomic analysis will be disseminated through an intuitive software package, and will be used to estimate with unprecedented confidence the history of diversification and genome evolution of marsupials.Read moreRead less