Population and Conservation Genetics

Researchers in this group investigate the maintenance and conservation of biodiversity using modern (next-generation sequencing - NGS) and traditional (microsatellite analysis, mitochondrial DNA sequencing) molecular methods.

Professor Mairi Knight and Dr Jonathan Ellis are together working with PhD candidate Victoria Buswell to determine local adaptation in the dark European honeybee. In this NERC-CASE funded project (in collaboration with the organisation B4: Bringing Back Black Bees), Victoria is using a combination of citizen science and NGS to investigate the extent and basis of phenotypic and genotypic basis in native, hybridized bees and other subspecies (Ellis et al 2018). Post-doctoral researcher Dr Vanessa Huml is also working with Mairi and Jon to examine the population genetic consequences of recent UK colonization by the tree bumblebee Bombus hypnorum; specifically, Vanessa seeks to establish the number of founding events, colonization history and evidence for selection at the wave front.

Genetic resilience to infectious disease also forms a major part of work conducted by Dr Rob Puschendorf. In a recent paper (Puschendorf et al 2019) Rob investigated genetic richness and ranavirus infection status of endemic amphibian species (Craugastor ranoides) using extant dry forest populations and historic museum specimens collected from cloud forests. In collaboration with Mairi Knight and Professor Dan Janzen amongst others, the study raises questions about Ranavirus and its potential link to amphibian declines in this system, and suggests a potential for effective translocation and repopulation of extirpated cloud forest populations. Dr Puschendorf is also interested in spatial variation in phylogeographic structure. For example, in collaboration with recently graduated PhD student Felicity Wynne and undergraduate, Jimmy Cryer, Rob found evidence for polyphyletic lineages in Central American populations of Warszewitsch's frog (Lithobates warszewitschii), complicated patterns that could not explained by geographic barriers (Cryer et al 2019).

Selected Publications

Ellis JS, Soland-Reckeweg G, Buswell VG, Huml JV, Brown A, Knight ME (2018) Introgression in native populations of Apis mellifera mellifera L. implications for conservation. Journal of Insect Conservation 22: 377–390.

Puschendorf R,….Wynne F, Knight ME et al (2019) Cryptic diversity and ranavirus infection of a critically endangered Neotropical frog before and after population collapse. Animal Conservation doi.org/10.1111/acv.12498.

Cryer J, Wynne F, Price SJ, Puschendorf R (2019) Cryptic diversity in Lithobates warszewitschii (Amphibia, Anura, Ranidae). ZooKeys 838: 49-69.