Understanding diet designs that break life history trade-offs. The aim of this project is to understand the mechanisms by which organisms use nutrition to enhance fitness. Food availability is a key predictor of evolutionary fitness. Surprisingly, recent data shows that some key assumptions informing how these predictions are realised are not strictly correct, thus exposing a lack of important mechanistic knowledge. This project seeks to understand these mechanisms. The project plans to use nove ....Understanding diet designs that break life history trade-offs. The aim of this project is to understand the mechanisms by which organisms use nutrition to enhance fitness. Food availability is a key predictor of evolutionary fitness. Surprisingly, recent data shows that some key assumptions informing how these predictions are realised are not strictly correct, thus exposing a lack of important mechanistic knowledge. This project seeks to understand these mechanisms. The project plans to use novel genomics techniques to develop diets that support or improve fitness under circumstances such as stress or ageing, and to understand the molecular underpinnings of these improvements. Project outcomes may expand academic knowledge of fundamental nutritional biochemistry, and improve predictions of species’ responses to environmental change.Read moreRead less
The birth and death of mammalian sex chromosomes. This project aims to unravel the molecular mechanisms that underlie the transition from autosome to sex chromosome and progressive sex chromosome differentiation in mammals. Monotremes are the only mammalian species with a sex chromosome system that consists of ten sex chromosomes in platypus and nine in echidna. This project will analyse the genetic and epigenetic composition and organisation of the monotreme autosomes that evolved into sex chro ....The birth and death of mammalian sex chromosomes. This project aims to unravel the molecular mechanisms that underlie the transition from autosome to sex chromosome and progressive sex chromosome differentiation in mammals. Monotremes are the only mammalian species with a sex chromosome system that consists of ten sex chromosomes in platypus and nine in echidna. This project will analyse the genetic and epigenetic composition and organisation of the monotreme autosomes that evolved into sex chromosomes in other mammals and compare individual platypus and echidna sex chromosomes to discover how sex chromosomes come to be, differentiate and ultimately are replaced by new sex chromosomes.Read moreRead less
Discovering sex determining genes in a reptile with genetic and environmental sex determination. Reptile sex determination is particularly fascinating because it is triggered either by genes on sex chromosomes or by the nest temperature. This project will identify and characterise candidate sex determining genes in a model reptile to understand how genes control sexual differentiation and how they interact with temperature.
Resolving insect evolution. Our poor understanding of the evolution of insects, life’s most successful group, is a huge gap in our knowledge of nature. By analysing genomic data the project will resolve the insect evolutionary tree and discover what drove insect evolution. This will expand our knowledge of how evolution works - a vital part of conserving our biological diversity.
Development of population-level algorithms for modelling genomic variation and its impact on cellular function in animals and plants. The purpose of this project is to develop mathematical and computational tools which will enable researchers to model high-throughput biological data at the population level. These models will be used to uncover the effect that genetic variation has on the physiology of the cell and the organism.
Coral-associated viruses: pathogens, mutualists and agents of evolution? Corals host numerous organisms, of which viruses are the least studied. The aim of this project is to characterise the viruses associated with corals and to obtain a detailed understanding of the critical roles that viruses play in coral health, coral bleaching and adaptation of corals to climate change.
Defining pathways that establish and maintain reproductive cell identity in plant ovules and seeds. Unlike animals, individual somatic cells in plants have the remarkable ability to regenerate into new plants, depending on the signals they perceive. This developmental plasticity is particularly important during normal plant growth, when mature cells adopt new identities within multicellular environments. Tissue complexity is critical for the utilisation of plants in society as food, fuel and fib ....Defining pathways that establish and maintain reproductive cell identity in plant ovules and seeds. Unlike animals, individual somatic cells in plants have the remarkable ability to regenerate into new plants, depending on the signals they perceive. This developmental plasticity is particularly important during normal plant growth, when mature cells adopt new identities within multicellular environments. Tissue complexity is critical for the utilisation of plants in society as food, fuel and fibre, but how and why plant cells adopt or change identity has been difficult to determine. This project aims to employ next-generation molecular methods to identify pathways driving differentiation of specific ovule and seed cell-types, which directly impact crop quality, yield and end-use.Read moreRead less
Archaeal dark matter and the origin of eukaryotes. This project aims to investigate the highly controversial origin of eukaryotes and thus all multicellular life within Archaea, a domain of single-celled microorganisms. Resolving eukaryotic origins has long been hampered by an inability to cultivate archaea from the environment. This project aims to develop a novel high-throughput single-cell genomics approach to recover archaeal genomes, thus bypassing the cultivation step. The genomes will con ....Archaeal dark matter and the origin of eukaryotes. This project aims to investigate the highly controversial origin of eukaryotes and thus all multicellular life within Archaea, a domain of single-celled microorganisms. Resolving eukaryotic origins has long been hampered by an inability to cultivate archaea from the environment. This project aims to develop a novel high-throughput single-cell genomics approach to recover archaeal genomes, thus bypassing the cultivation step. The genomes will contribute to a comprehensive taxonomic framework which will facilitate the evaluation of evolutionary relationships between the eukaryotic and archaeal domains. This may uncover previously unknown archaea with novel metabolic capabilities.Read moreRead less
MOLECULAR APPROACHES TO OVERCOME SCABIES AND ASSOCIATED DISEASE. Scabies causes childhood pyoderma predisposing to severe disease in later life. It is a major increasing health burden in Indigenous people of Northern Australia. Drug resistance is developing in mites and bacteria. The lack of clinical material has hampered molecular research and this work will use comparative genomics of parasitic and free living mites and microbiome analysis to understand fundamental aspects of mite biology and ....MOLECULAR APPROACHES TO OVERCOME SCABIES AND ASSOCIATED DISEASE. Scabies causes childhood pyoderma predisposing to severe disease in later life. It is a major increasing health burden in Indigenous people of Northern Australia. Drug resistance is developing in mites and bacteria. The lack of clinical material has hampered molecular research and this work will use comparative genomics of parasitic and free living mites and microbiome analysis to understand fundamental aspects of mite biology and pathogenesis. The understanding of proteins that are essential for mite survival and interfere with host defences will allow the informed design of peptide inhibitors as a new strategy to develop alternative treatment options.Read moreRead less
The dynamics of evolution: How horizontal gene transfer drives the diversification and adaptation of complex, bacterial communities. The genetic exchange between populations is a prerequisite for the long-term evolution of bacteria, however its short-term dynamics are largely unexplored. This project aims to define the temporal dynamics of gene transfer and how it shapes the genetic composition of entire bacterial communities. Using innovative DNA sequencing technologies and bioinformatics, This ....The dynamics of evolution: How horizontal gene transfer drives the diversification and adaptation of complex, bacterial communities. The genetic exchange between populations is a prerequisite for the long-term evolution of bacteria, however its short-term dynamics are largely unexplored. This project aims to define the temporal dynamics of gene transfer and how it shapes the genetic composition of entire bacterial communities. Using innovative DNA sequencing technologies and bioinformatics, This project aims to offer a significant new understanding of the short-term diversification of communities and how different evolutionary forces shape bacterial function. It will show how bacterial systems can adapt to new environmental conditions and the effect on essential ecosystem functions.Read moreRead less