Richard Lindsay&refresh | Biosciences

Dr Richard Lindsay

Research Fellow

R.J.Lindsay@exeter.ac.uk

Living Systems Institute S03

Living Systems Institute, University of Exeter, Stocker Road, Exeter, EX4 4QD

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

2021 - present BBSRC Researcher co-Investigator with Prof. Ivana Gudelj (University of Exeter).

2019 - 2021 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. I am also using the Rice Blast Fungus Magnaporthe oryzae to investigate antifungal resistance evolution and disease transmission

Research grants

2020 BBSRC
BBSRC-NSF/BIO - The impact of public versus private metabolism on the stability of microbial communities within natural hosts (£450,132).
2019 Leverhulme Trust
Quantifying the relationship between parasitic growth and host plant damage (£193,611).

Publications

Journal articles

Butt L, Meyer JR, Lindsay RJ, Beardmore RE, Gudelj I (2024). Bacterial Resistance Response and Resource Availability Mediates Viral Coexistence. J Evol Biol Abstract. Author URL.

Lindsay RJ, Holder PJ, Talbot NJ, Gudelj I (2023). Metabolic efficiency reshapes the seminal relationship between pathogen growth rate and virulence. Ecol Lett, 26(6), 896-907. Abstract. Author URL.

Nev OA, Lindsay RJ, Jepson A, Butt L, Beardmore RE, Gudelj I (2021). Predicting microbial growth dynamics in response to nutrient availability. PLoS Comput Biol, 17(3). Abstract. Author URL.

Lindsay RJ, Jepson A, Butt L, Holder PJ, Smug BJ, Gudelj I (2021). Would that it were so simple: Interactions between multiple traits undermine classical single‐trait‐based predictions of microbial community function and evolution. Ecology Letters, 24(12), 2775-2795. Abstract.

Lindsay RJ, Pawlowska BJ, Gudelj I (2019). Privatization of public goods can cause population decline. Nat Ecol Evol, 3(8), 1206-1216. Abstract. Author URL.

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. Author URL.

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, 5 Abstract. Author URL.

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