All Outputs (10)

Sex ratio distorting microbes exacerbate arthropod extinction risk in variable environments (2024)
Journal Article
Fisher, A. M., Knell, R. J., Price, T. A., & Bonsall, M. B. (2024). Sex ratio distorting microbes exacerbate arthropod extinction risk in variable environments. Ecology and Evolution, 14(4), Article e11216. https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.11216

Maternally-inherited sex ratio distorting microbes (SRDMs) are common among arthropod species. Typically, these microbes cause female-biased sex ratios in host broods, either by; killing male offspring, feminising male offspring, or inducing partheno... Read More about Sex ratio distorting microbes exacerbate arthropod extinction risk in variable environments.

Alternative reproductive tactics and evolutionary rescue (2024)
Journal Article
Knell, R. J., & Parrett, J. M. (in press). Alternative reproductive tactics and evolutionary rescue. Evolution Letters, Article qrae010. https://doi.org/10.1093/evlett/qrae010

Almost all life on earth is facing environmental change, and understanding how populations will respond to these changes is of urgent importance. One factor that is known to affect the speed by which a population can evolve when faced with changes in... Read More about Alternative reproductive tactics and evolutionary rescue.

Island colonisation leads to rapid behavioural and morphological divergence in Anolis lizards (2023)
Journal Article
Nicholson, D. J., Knell, R. J., Folfas, E., Neel, L. K., Degon, Z., DuBois, M., …Logan, M. L. (2023). Island colonisation leads to rapid behavioural and morphological divergence in Anolis lizards. Evolutionary Ecology, 37, 779-795. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10682-023-10248-2

Islands are hotspots of endemism and often function as engines of adaptive radiation. Nevertheless, we lack a deep understanding of the processes that generate phenotypic divergence when populations first colonise islands. Important questions include... Read More about Island colonisation leads to rapid behavioural and morphological divergence in Anolis lizards.

Climate anomalies and competition reduce establishment success during island colonization (2022)
Journal Article
Nicholson, D. J., Knell, R. J., McCrea, R. S., Neel, L. K., Curlis, J. D., Williams, C. E., …Logan, M. L. (2022). Climate anomalies and competition reduce establishment success during island colonization. Ecology and Evolution, 12(10), Article e9402. https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.9402

Understanding the factors that facilitate or constrain establishment of populations in novel environments is crucial for conservation biology and the study of adaptive radiation. Important questions include: (1) Does the timing of colonization relati... Read More about Climate anomalies and competition reduce establishment success during island colonization.

The impact of intrinsic and extrinsic factors on the epidemiology of male-killing bacteria (2022)
Journal Article
Fisher, A. M., Knell, R. J., Price, T. A., & Bonsall, M. B. (2022). The impact of intrinsic and extrinsic factors on the epidemiology of male-killing bacteria. Oikos, 2022(12), Article e09392. https://doi.org/10.1111/oik.09392

Many arthropod species are vulnerable to infection by bacteria that kill the male offspring of their female hosts. These male-killing bacteria (MKB) can greatly impact the ecology and evolution of their hosts, particularly when MKB prevalence is high... Read More about The impact of intrinsic and extrinsic factors on the epidemiology of male-killing bacteria.

Morph-specific investment in testes mass in a trimorphic beetle, Proagoderus watanabei (2021)
Journal Article
Parrett, J. M., Slade, E. M., & Knell, R. J. (2022). Morph-specific investment in testes mass in a trimorphic beetle, Proagoderus watanabei. Journal of Zoology, 316(3), 169-177. https://doi.org/10.1111/jzo.12941

When competition between males for mates is intense, it is common to find that some males will adopt alternative tactics for acquiring fertilizations, often involving the use of ‘sneak’ tactics whereby males avoid precopulatory contests. These altern... Read More about Morph-specific investment in testes mass in a trimorphic beetle, Proagoderus watanabei.

Modeling of Temporal Exposure to the Ambient Environment and Eczema Severity (2021)
Journal Article
Thomas, B. R., Tan, X. L., Javadzadeh, S., Robinson, E. J., McDonald, B. S., Krupiczojc, M. A., …O’Toole, E. A. (2021). Modeling of Temporal Exposure to the Ambient Environment and Eczema Severity. JID Innovations, 2(1), Article 100062. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.xjidi.2021.100062

Atopic eczema is a common and complex disease. Missing genetic hereditability and increasing prevalence in industrializing nations point toward an environmental driver. We investigated the temporal association of weather and pollution parameters with... Read More about Modeling of Temporal Exposure to the Ambient Environment and Eczema Severity.

Strong sexual selection fails to protect against inbreeding-driven extinction in a moth (2021)
Journal Article
Parrett, J. M., Ghobert, V., Cullen, F. S., & Knell, R. J. (2021). Strong sexual selection fails to protect against inbreeding-driven extinction in a moth. Behavioral ecology, 32(5), 875-882. https://doi.org/10.1093/beheco/arab056

Sexual selection is predicted to influence population persistence because skew in male reproductive success may facilitate the purging of mutation load. We manipulated the strength of sexual selection in populations of Indian meal moths, Plodia inter... Read More about Strong sexual selection fails to protect against inbreeding-driven extinction in a moth.

Regulation of photosynthetic electron flow on dark to light transition by ferredoxin:Nadp(h) oxidoreductase interactions (2021)
Journal Article
Kramer, M., Rodriguez-Heredia, M., Saccon, F., Mosebach, L., Twachtmann, M., Krieger-Liszkay, A., …Hanke, G. T. (2021). Regulation of photosynthetic electron flow on dark to light transition by ferredoxin:Nadp(h) oxidoreductase interactions. eLife, 10, Article e56088. https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.56088

During photosynthesis, electron transport is necessary for carbon assimilation and must be regulated to minimize free radical damage. There is a longstanding controversy over the role of a critical enzyme in this process (ferredoxin:NADP(H) oxidoredu... Read More about Regulation of photosynthetic electron flow on dark to light transition by ferredoxin:Nadp(h) oxidoreductase interactions.

Three-dimensional geometric morphometric analysis of the skull of Protoceratops andrewsi supports a socio-sexual signalling role for the ceratopsian frill (2021)
Journal Article
Knapp, A., Knell, R. J., & Hone, D. W. (2021). Three-dimensional geometric morphometric analysis of the skull of Protoceratops andrewsi supports a socio-sexual signalling role for the ceratopsian frill. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 288(1944), Article 20202938. https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2020.2938

Socio-sexual selection is predicted to be an important driver of evolution, influencing speciation, extinction and adaptation. The fossil record provides a means of testing these predictions, but detecting its signature from morphological data alone... Read More about Three-dimensional geometric morphometric analysis of the skull of Protoceratops andrewsi supports a socio-sexual signalling role for the ceratopsian frill.