Philosophy
Science is a blast: we aim to have fun. Operating within a supportive research environment our lab provides a place for interdisciplinary thinkers interested in an independent and creative approach to doing science.
Our lab is comprised of scientists and researchers from a variety of disciplines:
- Evolution
- Microbiology
- Genetics
- Ecology
- Parasitology
- Plant-microbe interactions
- Biochemistry
Research
Reverse evolution
In 2004 Bertus Beaumont joined our lab on a Marsden-funded programme to explore the fitness and genetic consequences of repeated bouts of reverse evolution. This whole project has turned into a real gas thanks to Bertus' fine efforts. Sadly Bertus is back in the Netherlands (doing just fine and no longer needing to shade from the sun), but the project roars ahead thanks to the dedicated efforts of Jenna Gallie and Christian Kost.
In a nut shell: Bertus performed a large-scale selection experiment in which he favoured genotypes that changed their phenotype rapidly (a consequence of selection in two contrasting evnironments). The outcome of this experiment was surprising in several regards. Arguably the most exciting finding was a genotype (actually three genotypes from a total of 12 replicate lines) capable of rapid switching between two phenotypic states. Jenna, aided by careful genetics and genome re-sequencing, has been working hard to crack the mechanistic basis. James Sneyd has been helping us to apply some math to the problem of bistability. Gayle Ferguson is thinking about the subsequent evolution of the 'switcher' genotypes
Christian has been doing some very laborious strain reconstructions involving many mutations so that he can explore questions relating to epistasis, contingency and evolutionary history. He is nearly at the fun part. He is being aided in this by Gayle Ferguson, who having just joined the lab, figured there was no better way to get to understand wrinkly spreaders and their extraordinary capabilities than by the hands-on manipulation of their genomes.