News and Musings

Last week I traveled back across the sea and down the coast to the beautiful (but very rainy) Cornwall to celebrate the successful PhD viva (aka defense) of my first PhD student, Sean Meaden. A big thanks to external examiner Prof Martha Clokie for insightful comments and for hanging around to celebrate (despite my bailing early … Continue reading Congratulations to DR Sean Meaden! What a great few years it’s been, and best of luck with all of your future sciencing. We will miss you!!

Abstract: Although their diversity greatly exceeds that of plants and animals, microbial organisms have historically received less attention in ecology and evolutionary biology research. This knowledge gap is rapidly closing, owing to recent technological advances and an increasing appreciation for the role microbes play in shaping ecosystems and human health. In this review, we examine … Continue reading New paper in AREES exploring microbial adaptation in nature (collaboration with Dr. Michiel Vos at the University of Exeter, ESI)

Koskella, B., and N. Parr. 2015. The evolution of bacterial resistance against bacteriophages in the horse chestnut phyllosphere is general across both space and time. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London B: Biological Sciences 370. HERE Abstract: Insight to the spatial and temporal scales of coevolution is key to predicting the outcome of host–parasite … Continue reading Britt and Nicole have a new paper out exploring the generality of bacterial resistance to phage across time and space

For the previous two research highlights at Evolutionary Applications, I first examined disease spillover into and from natural populations, and then examine some of the recent work on the CRISPR/Cas system in bacteria: The CRISPR/Cas revolution "The evolution of host defenses against parasites and pathogens has resulted in a wide array of mechanisms conferring resistance … Continue reading Two new Evolutionary Applications research highlights

For this month's research highlights in Evolutionary Applications, I cover a few new papers that demonstrate the importance of thinking about evolution and ecology in fisheries science. "The pressure on both natural and managed fish stocks to keep pace with worldwide consumption presents a number of critical challenges, including the prevention of population collapse, management … Continue reading Applied evolution in fisheries science

Meaden, S., Paszkiewicz, K., & Koskella, B. (2015). The cost of phage resistance in a plant pathogenic bacterium is context‐dependent. Evolution. HERE Abstract: Parasites are ubiquitous features of living systems and many parasites severely reduce the fecundity or longevity of their hosts. This parasite-imposed selection on host populations should strongly favor the evolution of host resistance, but … Continue reading New paper by Sean exploring context-dependent nature of costs of resistance to phage now online in Evolution

For the past two research highlights at Evolutionary Applications, I first covered a great paper summarizing the many way evolutionary theory can be applied to current issues by Scot Carroll and colleagues: "As we highlight each month in this section, the application of evolutionary theory to issues affecting the health and well-being of human, agricultural, and … Continue reading Previous two research highlights for Evolutionary Applications

For this month's Evolutionary Applications research highlight, I discuss recent uses of evolutionary theory in driving agricultural practice: "The earliest application of evolutionary theory, although unknowingly at the time, was artificial selection of crops and animals for food production. Ever increasing technical advances in breeding, genetic engineering and comparative genomics have since led to a … Continue reading The ever-evolving field of agriculture