Research output per year
Research output per year
To understand evolution we use a range of tools, from computer models to model organisms, with a focus on experimental evolution. With these tools we ask questions at a range of evolutionary scales, from single mutations to comparisons among species.
The probability that an organism’s offspring carry spontaneous changes to their DNA sequence depends on many things, including that organism’s environment. We are looking at environmentally dependent changes in mutation rate, or ‘mutation rate plasticity’. We discovered that microbes in dense populations tend to have lower mutation rates than microbes in spread out populations; that is, DAMP: density-associated mutation-rate plasticity. We want to understand DAMP from its mechanisms via how it evolves to the evolutionary effects that it has.
Key current people: Rok Krašovec, Huw Richards, Guillaume Gomez
Key collaborators: Roman Belavkin, Alastair Channon, Andrew McBain, Daniela Delneri
Key papers:
Anti-microbial landscapes
Organisms that are resistant to antibiotics and other anti-microbials are a major and growing issue in medicine and beyond. How this comes about is a question of evolution and we are looking for evolutionary answers. This involves considering the whole ‘landscape’ of organisms’ possible genetic make-ups and their ability to thrive with or without antibiotics. Collaboratively, we are also looking at complete landscapes of anti-microbial peptides and their ability kill particular organisms.
Key current people: Danna Gifford, Christine Joerres, Sam Clark
Key collaborators: Curtis Dobson, Lynda Harris, Roman Belavkin, Alastair Channon
Key paper:
Microbiome evolution
How the diversity of microbes living together in one place changes over time is an example of evolution. Understanding that evolution by following particular organisms, for instance when their environment is changed experimentally, has the potential for insight in systems as diverse as soil and the mammalian gut.
Key current people: Gurdeep Singh
Key collaborators: Franciska de Vries, Sheena Cruickshank, Andy Brass, Kelly Ramirez
Key paper:
Ramirez KS, Knight CG et al. (2017) Detecting macroecological patterns in bacterial communities across independent studies of global soils. in revision.
Genotype-phenotype map in evolution
How do the individual DNA changes used by evolution (genotype) affect the behaviour of the complex system that is the living cell (phenotype)? How do organisms manage to evolve at all when even a small genetic change may affect many different aspects of the cellular system? How do the changes to genotype and phenotype used by short-term evolution relate to the changes seen across longer-term evolution, within or among species? We want to answer such questions using a combination of wet-lab and computational approaches.
Key current people: Robert Hohan, Chengyang Ji
Key collaborators: Russell Garwood, Rob Sansom
Key papers:
Mariana de la Pena, Sam Farrell, Douglas Kell, Armand Leroi, James McInerney, Ignacio Medina, Gino Poulin, Paul Rainey, Dan Smith, Adriana Vintilla, Feng Xue.
If you’re interested in joining us, see the Opportunities tab
2017 – present
University of Manchester, Faculty of Science and Engineering, Senior Lecturer
2012 – 2017
University of Manchester, Faculty of Life Sciences, Lecturer
2008 – 2013 University of Manchester, Faculty of Life Sciences, Wellcome Trust Research Career Development Fellow
2005 – 2007
University of Manchester, Manchester Interdisciplinary Biocentre, BBSRC Postdoc with Douglas Kell
2002 – 2005
University of Oxford, department of Plant Sciences, NERC Postdoc on the molecular basis of evolution in the bacterium Pseudomonas fluorescens with Paul Rainey and the proteomics lab in the department of Biochemistry.
1997 – 2001
Imperial College London at Silwood Park, PhD on ‘The genetics and evolution of body size in the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans’ funded by NERC, supervised by Armand Leroi
1994 – 1996
Christ's College Cambridge, MA Natural Sciences, finalising in genetics
Experimenting with Evolution
We want to understand the mechanics of evolution. Exactly what molecules change? In what ways are these changes beneficial (or not) to the organism? How does this relate to what happens in populations of organisms? We mostly answer these questions using microbes. This means that our work relates to issues from the rise of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) to the roles of microbiomes – the mixed populations of microbes in particular places, from soil to our guts. Microbes reproduce fast enough that we can watch evolution happening in real time on the lab bench. To make sense of what’s going on we use computational models. Our mixture of wet-lab and computational approaches means that we collaborate both with other biologists, contributing quantitative approaches, as well as computer scientists and theoreticians.
We are always looking for people interested in joining the lab. In the first instance, please send me an email and CV outlining your interests and experience.
Current opportunities I’m involved with, advertised at findaPhD.com, should be listed below. These are mostly via the University of Manchester’s BBSRC, MRC and NERC doctoral training partnerships. If you have access to other sources of funding, get in touch and/or consider the available project outlined below.
If you're interested in applying for a fellowship to work with us, there is a range of possible funding sources, both external (e.g. Wellcome Trust, Royal Society, BBSRC, NERC, HFSP and EU) and internal (e.g. look out for repeats of this).
Spontaneous mutation supplies the raw material for evolution, but we find that the rate at which it occurs can vary with the environment in non-obvious ways. Most of what we know about variation in mutation rates comes from microbes growing in shaken liquid cultures. These environments have little spatial structure. However, in many, ‘real’ environments, from soil to skin, spatial structure really matters. Using a range of techniques for estimating and modifying mutation rates in model microbes, the student will determine how space matters for that fundamental first step of evolution – does mutation rate change with the degree of spatial structure? Does the association of mutation rate with population density hold for spatially structured environments? What genes are required? Training will be provided in necessary skills, but the student would ideally have a background in biology or genetics with computational skills and a keen interest in evolution.
In 2015, UN member states agreed to 17 global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure prosperity for all. This person’s work contributes towards the following SDG(s):
Pool of Experts, Biotechnology & Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC)
1 Jan 2017 → 31 Dec 2022
Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Walton, C., Shultz, S., Sansom, R., Krasovec, R., Knight, C., Gilman, R., Gifford, D., Garwood, R., Chamberlain, A. & Buckley, M.
Project: Research
Bardgett, R., Day, A., De Vries, F., Fletcher, W., Gallois, P., Garwood, R., Knight, C., Johnson, D., Johnson, G., Pittman, J., Semtsenko, M. & Nicolitch, O.
Project: Research