Professor Richard Ffrench-Constant is part of a €3 million Europe-wide research collaboration to pioneer research into safer, more effective antibacterial plastics and coatings which could be used in items such as food packaging, medical devices to wound dressings and nappies.
Evolutionary Genetics
Research group leader
Group members
Professor Richard ffrench-Constant, Professor Allen Moore, Dr John Hunt, Professor David Hosken, Dr Trish Moore, Dr Tom Richards, Dr Jamie Stevens, Dr Mark van der Giezen, Dr Bryony Williams, Dr Christopher Wheat
At the University of Exeter, we have a highly interactive group of evolutionary biologists who study how genes, genomes, phenotypes, populations, and species change in response to natural selection. We use theoretical, comparative, and experimental approaches to examine the origins, maintenance, and loss of the diversity of life on Earth. Befitting our subject, we are inclusive in our questions and employ all available methods, from field studies of selection to computer modelling and analysis to laboratory studies using the most modern advances in molecular and cell biology. A common theme among the researchers at Exeter is an emphasis on collecting genetic and genomic information regarding adaptive evolution, and this is explored in appropriately diverse organisms and at all levels. Our population genetic studies focus the molecular genetic basis of adaptive traits, while quantitative genetic studies address selection, inheritance, phenotypic change and evolutionary constraints. Much of this work is conducted in a variety of insect species. We use biochemical and molecular information to inform phylogenetic and comparative studies examining higher-level patterns of diversity and change. These studies span investigations of ancient cell evolution to investigations of the diversity of the eukaryotes.
Research funding
Substantial research income is present in the group from BBSRC, Leverhulme, NERC, Royal Society, Wellcome, DEFRA and the EU.
Research highlights
Published the definitive review of the role of sexual conflict in monogamous mating systems (Annual Review of Entomology 54:361-378)
Uncovered evolutionary constraints imposed by the distribution of resources between current and future reproductive events in the ability to maintain high quality oocytes over time (American Naturalist 169:311-322)
Found novel trade-offs between reproduction and survival by showing that adaptations to stress depend on experiencing typical combinations (Journal of Evolutionary Biology 22:571-581)
Measured quantitative genetic variation underlying the initiation of apoptosis in ovaries due to food stress (Heredity, in press)
Demonstrated that attractive males sire attractive sons (Current Biology 17: R959-R960)
Uncovered clear linking of pre- and post-copulatory male reproductive success (Current Biology 18: R553-554)
Produced the first book on the evolutionary biology of sperm (2009): See the book.
Discovered that differences in male and female parental care behaviour reflect divergence in genetic architecture (Proceedings of the National Academy of Science USA 105:18430-18435)
Showed that intersexual genetic correlations and selection for high levels of mating in males leads to non-adaptive evolution of high levels of promiscuity by females (Evolution 62:2004-2014)
Found coadaptation between prenatal and postnatal maternal effects (American Naturalist 170:709-718)
Demonstrated differences in genome architecture between distantly related species of microsporidia and unusual mRNA transcription patterns in their compacted genomes (BMC genomics 9:200: Proceedings of the National Academy of Science USA 102:10936-10941)
Showed evidence for mitochondria in the once textbook amintochondriate group microsporidia (Nature 418:865-869; Journal of Eukaryotic Microbiology 55:388-92)
Discovered that mitochondria encompass a much larger variety of forms than generally assumed (Current Biology 18: 580-585)
Identified the link between the chloroplast and nuclear genome (Proceedings of the National Academy of Science USA 105:10061-10066)
Identified the molecular diversity of fungi in deep-sea environments (Proceedings of the Royal Society B 274:3069-3077)
Demonstrated that nuclear myosin function evolved early in the animals (Journal of Cell Science 122:636-643)
Demonstrated that horizontal gene transfer between plants and fungi is incredibly rare after many millions of years of co-evolution
Invented new whole genome gain of function screens for bacterial virulence factor identification (Proceedings of the National Academy of Science USA 105:15967-15972)
Identified the genetic basis of convergent Mullerian mimicry in Heliconius butterflies (Genetics 180:1567-1577)
Showed that the 'out-cold' mutants of Drosophila are linked to the voltage gated sodium channel and also confer resistance to DDT (Genetics 180:873-884)
