Overview
I am a post-doctoral researcher in Ivana Gudelj’s research group where we use a combination of mathematical modelling, synthetic biology, and eco-evolutionary lab experiments to study how microbial interactions influence the evolution of cooperation, population diversity and disease processes. I obtained a BSc in Biosciences (1st) at Cardiff University (2009) and a PhD at the University of Exeter (2016).
Qualifications
BSc in Biosciences (1st) at Cardiff University (2009). My research project was studying the influence of climate change on the interactions between saprotrophic fungi and mycophagous arthropods, supervised by Dr. Hefin Jones and Prof. Lynne Boddy.
PhD at the University of Exeter (2016). Supervised by Prof. Ivana Gudelj and Prof. Nick Talbot. Thesis: Polymorphic metabolism and the eco-evolutionary influence of social feeding strategies. I studies microbial metabolic interactions with the Rice Blast Fungus Magnaporthe oryzae and the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae.
Career
2019 - present Leverhulme Trust Research Fellow with Prof. Ivana Gudelj (University of Exeter).
2016 - 2019 ERC Research Fellow with Prof. Ivana Gudelj (University of Exeter).
Research group links
Research
Research interests
Interactions between organisms, both cooperative and competitive, occur in creatures from complex humans to simple RNA viruses. I am interested in how these ecological interactions evolved, how they influence the success of individuals and populations, and how they influence disease
Fungi are model organisms for understanding eukaryotic evolution and represent important systems of study for disease management and food security. My current research is examining nutrient acquisition by fungi, how feeding mechanisms evolve and how external digestion can influence the fitness of a pathogen population and the damage that they cause to plants.
Research grants
- 2020 BBSRC
BBSRC-NSF/BIO - The impact of public versus private metabolism on the stability of microbial communities within natural hosts
- 2019 Leverhulme Trust
Quantifying the relationship between parasitic growth and host plant damage
Publications
Key publications | Publications by category | Publications by year
Publications by category
Journal articles
Lindsay RJ, Pawlowska BJ, Gudelj I (2019). Privatization of public goods can cause population decline.
Nat Ecol Evol,
3(8), 1206-1216.
Abstract:
Privatization of public goods can cause population decline.
Microbes commonly deploy a risky strategy to acquire nutrients from their environment, involving the production of costly public goods that can be exploited by neighbouring individuals. Why engage in such a strategy when an exploitation-free alternative is readily available whereby public goods are kept private? We address this by examining metabolism of Saccharomyces cerevisiae in its native form and by creating a new three-strain synthetic community deploying different strategies of sucrose metabolism. Public-metabolizers digest resources externally, private-metabolizers internalize resources before digestion, and cheats avoid the metabolic costs of digestion but exploit external products generated by competitors. A combination of mathematical modelling and ecological experiments reveal that private-metabolizers invade and take over an otherwise stable community of public-metabolizers and cheats. However, owing to the reduced growth rate of private-metabolizers and population bottlenecks that are frequently associated with microbial communities, privatizing public goods can become unsustainable, leading to population decline.
Abstract.
Author URL.
Full text.
Lindsay RJ, Pawlowska BJ, Gudelj I (2018). When increasing population density can promote the evolution of metabolic cooperation.
ISME J,
12(3), 849-859.
Abstract:
When increasing population density can promote the evolution of metabolic cooperation.
Microbial cooperation drives ecological and epidemiological processes and is affected by the ecology and demography of populations. Population density influences the selection for cooperation, with spatial structure and the type of social dilemma, namely public-goods production or self-restraint, shaping the outcome. While existing theories predict that in spatially structured environments increasing population density can select either for or against cooperation, experimental studies with both public-goods production and self-restraint systems have only ever shown that increasing population density favours cheats. We suggest that the disparity between theory and empirical studies results from experimental procedures not capturing environmental conditions predicted by existing theories to influence the outcome. Our study resolves this issue and provides the first experimental evidence that high population density can favour cooperation in spatially structured environments for both self-restraint and public-goods production systems. Moreover, using a multi-trait mathematical model supported by laboratory experiments we extend this result to systems where the self-restraint and public-goods social dilemmas interact. We thus provide a systematic understanding of how the strength of interaction between the two social dilemmas and the degree of spatial structure within an environment affect selection for cooperation. These findings help to close the current gap between theory and experiments.
Abstract.
Author URL.
Full text.
Lindsay RJ, Kershaw MJ, Pawlowska BJ, Talbot NJ, Gudelj I (2016). Harbouring public good mutants within a pathogen population can increase both fitness and virulence.
Elife,
5Abstract:
Harbouring public good mutants within a pathogen population can increase both fitness and virulence.
Existing theory, empirical, clinical and field research all predict that reducing the virulence of individuals within a pathogen population will reduce the overall virulence, rendering disease less severe. Here, we show that this seemingly successful disease management strategy can fail with devastating consequences for infected hosts. We deploy cooperation theory and a novel synthetic system involving the rice blast fungus Magnaporthe oryzae. In vivo infections of rice demonstrate that M. oryzae virulence is enhanced, quite paradoxically, when a public good mutant is present in a population of high-virulence pathogens. We reason that during infection, the fungus engages in multiple cooperative acts to exploit host resources. We establish a multi-trait cooperation model which suggests that the observed failure of the virulence reduction strategy is caused by the interference between different social traits. Multi-trait cooperative interactions are widespread, so we caution against the indiscriminant application of anti-virulence therapy as a disease-management strategy.
Abstract.
Author URL.
Full text.
Publications by year
2019
Lindsay RJ, Pawlowska BJ, Gudelj I (2019). Privatisation of public goods can cause population decline (dataset).
Nature Ecology and Evolution Full text.
Lindsay RJ, Pawlowska BJ, Gudelj I (2019). Privatization of public goods can cause population decline.
Nat Ecol Evol,
3(8), 1206-1216.
Abstract:
Privatization of public goods can cause population decline.
Microbes commonly deploy a risky strategy to acquire nutrients from their environment, involving the production of costly public goods that can be exploited by neighbouring individuals. Why engage in such a strategy when an exploitation-free alternative is readily available whereby public goods are kept private? We address this by examining metabolism of Saccharomyces cerevisiae in its native form and by creating a new three-strain synthetic community deploying different strategies of sucrose metabolism. Public-metabolizers digest resources externally, private-metabolizers internalize resources before digestion, and cheats avoid the metabolic costs of digestion but exploit external products generated by competitors. A combination of mathematical modelling and ecological experiments reveal that private-metabolizers invade and take over an otherwise stable community of public-metabolizers and cheats. However, owing to the reduced growth rate of private-metabolizers and population bottlenecks that are frequently associated with microbial communities, privatizing public goods can become unsustainable, leading to population decline.
Abstract.
Author URL.
Full text.
2018
Lindsay RJ, Pawlowska BJ, Gudelj I (2018). When increasing population density can promote the evolution of metabolic cooperation.
ISME J,
12(3), 849-859.
Abstract:
When increasing population density can promote the evolution of metabolic cooperation.
Microbial cooperation drives ecological and epidemiological processes and is affected by the ecology and demography of populations. Population density influences the selection for cooperation, with spatial structure and the type of social dilemma, namely public-goods production or self-restraint, shaping the outcome. While existing theories predict that in spatially structured environments increasing population density can select either for or against cooperation, experimental studies with both public-goods production and self-restraint systems have only ever shown that increasing population density favours cheats. We suggest that the disparity between theory and empirical studies results from experimental procedures not capturing environmental conditions predicted by existing theories to influence the outcome. Our study resolves this issue and provides the first experimental evidence that high population density can favour cooperation in spatially structured environments for both self-restraint and public-goods production systems. Moreover, using a multi-trait mathematical model supported by laboratory experiments we extend this result to systems where the self-restraint and public-goods social dilemmas interact. We thus provide a systematic understanding of how the strength of interaction between the two social dilemmas and the degree of spatial structure within an environment affect selection for cooperation. These findings help to close the current gap between theory and experiments.
Abstract.
Author URL.
Full text.
2016
Lindsay RJ, Kershaw MJ, Pawlowska BJ, Talbot NJ, Gudelj I (2016). Harbouring public good mutants within a pathogen population can increase both fitness and virulence.
Elife,
5Abstract:
Harbouring public good mutants within a pathogen population can increase both fitness and virulence.
Existing theory, empirical, clinical and field research all predict that reducing the virulence of individuals within a pathogen population will reduce the overall virulence, rendering disease less severe. Here, we show that this seemingly successful disease management strategy can fail with devastating consequences for infected hosts. We deploy cooperation theory and a novel synthetic system involving the rice blast fungus Magnaporthe oryzae. In vivo infections of rice demonstrate that M. oryzae virulence is enhanced, quite paradoxically, when a public good mutant is present in a population of high-virulence pathogens. We reason that during infection, the fungus engages in multiple cooperative acts to exploit host resources. We establish a multi-trait cooperation model which suggests that the observed failure of the virulence reduction strategy is caused by the interference between different social traits. Multi-trait cooperative interactions are widespread, so we caution against the indiscriminant application of anti-virulence therapy as a disease-management strategy.
Abstract.
Author URL.
Full text.
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