Sex and bottlenecks: understanding the evolutionary dynamics of bacterial adaptation. Bacteria can rapidly adapt to changing environments, often with devastating consequences for humans. However, this adaptive evolution is often limited by strong reductions in population size, in particular during transmission from one host to another. This project aims to investigate whether recombination in bacteria can overcome the limits that such bottlenecks impose on the rate of adaptation. To this end, it ....Sex and bottlenecks: understanding the evolutionary dynamics of bacterial adaptation. Bacteria can rapidly adapt to changing environments, often with devastating consequences for humans. However, this adaptive evolution is often limited by strong reductions in population size, in particular during transmission from one host to another. This project aims to investigate whether recombination in bacteria can overcome the limits that such bottlenecks impose on the rate of adaptation. To this end, it will construct mathematical models and complement them with evolution experiments in bacterial populations. Results from this research aim to generate fundamental insights into the role of recombination in bacterial evolution and will provide guidance for developing management strategies for bacterial pathogens.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE170100354
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$372,000.00
Summary
How adaptation increases the intensity of sexual conflict. This project aims to test a theory that a species’ adaptation to its environment may cause sexual conflicts where gene variants increase the fitness of one sex but decrease it in the other. When populations harbour large numbers of these sexually antagonistic genes, adaptation is hampered and extinction becomes more likely. This project will fuse experimental evolution with quantitative genetic approaches to test this theory. Understandi ....How adaptation increases the intensity of sexual conflict. This project aims to test a theory that a species’ adaptation to its environment may cause sexual conflicts where gene variants increase the fitness of one sex but decrease it in the other. When populations harbour large numbers of these sexually antagonistic genes, adaptation is hampered and extinction becomes more likely. This project will fuse experimental evolution with quantitative genetic approaches to test this theory. Understanding sex differences in adaptation and the evolution of sexual dimorphism could enable scientists to predict levels of sexually deleterious variation under changing environmental conditions. Its findings are expected to provide new insights into sex differences in adaptation.Read moreRead less
Detecting sex differences in natural selection. This project aims to develop new genomic approaches for understanding how genetic mutations can differentially affect reproductive success in males and females. Applying novel tests, this project aims to uncover previously hidden genetic conflicts between the sexes. This will provide significant benefits, such as new tools that will be broadly applicable to the wider research community, and help to answer key questions in genetics and evolutionary ....Detecting sex differences in natural selection. This project aims to develop new genomic approaches for understanding how genetic mutations can differentially affect reproductive success in males and females. Applying novel tests, this project aims to uncover previously hidden genetic conflicts between the sexes. This will provide significant benefits, such as new tools that will be broadly applicable to the wider research community, and help to answer key questions in genetics and evolutionary biology in the current genomic era.Read moreRead less
Understanding rapid adaptation to new environments. This project aims to improve understanding of the process of rapid adaptation. Through both in situ changes and movement of individuals, populations are increasingly encountering new environments, where they risk extinction or become invasive. The fate of populations is determined by how rapidly they adapt to their new environmental conditions. Recent theory predicts adaptation to novel environments is fastest when selection acts on environment ....Understanding rapid adaptation to new environments. This project aims to improve understanding of the process of rapid adaptation. Through both in situ changes and movement of individuals, populations are increasingly encountering new environments, where they risk extinction or become invasive. The fate of populations is determined by how rapidly they adapt to their new environmental conditions. Recent theory predicts adaptation to novel environments is fastest when selection acts on environment-specific genetic variation. This project will test this prediction using novel manipulations. Better understanding of adaptation will allow better prediction of the risks of both extinction and invasiveness of natural populations.Read moreRead less
Exposing the complex and flexible genetic basis to polygenic adaptation: integrating population and quantitative genomic approaches. Using leading-edge genomic approaches, the project will dissect the genetic basis to adaptation across an entire species range. The results will highlight the complex nature of adaptation to environmental change and will deliver new approaches to study it in natural populations.
Understanding the ecological effects of genetic diversity: causes, consequences and relative importance. This project will examine the effect of genetic diversity on key demographic parameters (for example, population growth rates) for organisms from three groups, including a commercially important oyster. This project provides valuable information that can be used by managers of wild and cultivated populations to minimise impacts of human activities and maximise yields.
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