Overview
How individuals schedule their investment in growth, reproduction and survival (i.e. their life-history strategies) varies enormously within and between species. I wish to improve our understanding of the factors shaping the evolution of this diversity (e.g. sexual selection, kin selection), and the proximate constraints on life-history evolution (e.g. nutrition).
I usually work in the lab using insect models but am also involved in the COMPADRE and COMADRE databases, which collate demographic data for thousands of species in the form of matrix population models.
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Publications
Key publications | Publications by category | Publications by year
Publications by category
Journal articles
Hosken DJ, Archer CR (In Press). Evolution: Escaping the Inevitability of Ageing.
Full text.
Ruth Archer C, Basellini U, Hunt J, Simpson SJ, Lee KP, Baudisch A (2018). Diet has independent effects on the pace and shape of aging in Drosophila melanogaster.
Biogerontology,
19(1), 1-12.
Abstract:
Diet has independent effects on the pace and shape of aging in Drosophila melanogaster.
Studies examining how diet affects mortality risk over age typically characterise mortality using parameters such as aging rates, which condense how much and how quickly the risk of dying changes over time into a single measure. Demographers have suggested that decoupling the tempo and the magnitude of changing mortality risk may facilitate comparative analyses of mortality trajectories, but it is unclear what biologically meaningful information this approach offers. Here, we determine how the amount and ratio of protein and carbohydrate ingested by female Drosophila melanogaster affects how much mortality risk increases over a time-standardised life-course (the shape of aging) and the tempo at which animals live and die (the pace of aging). We find that pace values increased as flies consumed more carbohydrate but declined with increasing protein consumption. Shape values were independent of protein intake but were lowest in flies consuming ~90 μg of carbohydrate daily. As protein intake only affected the pace of aging, varying protein intake rescaled mortality trajectories (i.e. stretched or compressed survival curves), while varying carbohydrate consumption caused deviation from temporal rescaling (i.e. changed the topography of time-standardised survival curves), by affecting pace and shape. Clearly, the pace and shape of aging may vary independently in response to dietary manipulation. This suggests that there is the potential for pace and shape to evolve independently of one another and respond to different physiological processes. Understanding the mechanisms responsible for independent variation in pace and shape, may offer insight into the factors underlying diverse mortality trajectories.
Abstract.
Author URL.
Archer CR (2017). Lateralisation helps sailfish snatch sardines. Journal of Experimental Biology, 220(11), 1934-1935.
Archer R (2016). Brain wiring explains sex differences in Drosophila behaviour.
J Exp Biol,
219(Pt 23).
Author URL.
Archer CR, Hosken DJ (2016). Peacock flies.
Current Biology,
26(21), R1124-R1126.
Abstract:
Peacock flies
© 2016 Elsevier Ltd a quick guide on peacock flies, a species of insect where, unusually, both males and females perform dances apparently to attract mates.
Abstract.
Full text.
Publications by year
In Press
Hosken DJ, Archer CR (In Press). Evolution: Escaping the Inevitability of Ageing.
Full text.
2018
Ruth Archer C, Basellini U, Hunt J, Simpson SJ, Lee KP, Baudisch A (2018). Diet has independent effects on the pace and shape of aging in Drosophila melanogaster.
Biogerontology,
19(1), 1-12.
Abstract:
Diet has independent effects on the pace and shape of aging in Drosophila melanogaster.
Studies examining how diet affects mortality risk over age typically characterise mortality using parameters such as aging rates, which condense how much and how quickly the risk of dying changes over time into a single measure. Demographers have suggested that decoupling the tempo and the magnitude of changing mortality risk may facilitate comparative analyses of mortality trajectories, but it is unclear what biologically meaningful information this approach offers. Here, we determine how the amount and ratio of protein and carbohydrate ingested by female Drosophila melanogaster affects how much mortality risk increases over a time-standardised life-course (the shape of aging) and the tempo at which animals live and die (the pace of aging). We find that pace values increased as flies consumed more carbohydrate but declined with increasing protein consumption. Shape values were independent of protein intake but were lowest in flies consuming ~90 μg of carbohydrate daily. As protein intake only affected the pace of aging, varying protein intake rescaled mortality trajectories (i.e. stretched or compressed survival curves), while varying carbohydrate consumption caused deviation from temporal rescaling (i.e. changed the topography of time-standardised survival curves), by affecting pace and shape. Clearly, the pace and shape of aging may vary independently in response to dietary manipulation. This suggests that there is the potential for pace and shape to evolve independently of one another and respond to different physiological processes. Understanding the mechanisms responsible for independent variation in pace and shape, may offer insight into the factors underlying diverse mortality trajectories.
Abstract.
Author URL.
2017
Archer CR (2017). Lateralisation helps sailfish snatch sardines. Journal of Experimental Biology, 220(11), 1934-1935.
2016
Archer R (2016). Brain wiring explains sex differences in Drosophila behaviour.
J Exp Biol,
219(Pt 23).
Author URL.
Archer CR, Hosken DJ (2016). Peacock flies.
Current Biology,
26(21), R1124-R1126.
Abstract:
Peacock flies
© 2016 Elsevier Ltd a quick guide on peacock flies, a species of insect where, unusually, both males and females perform dances apparently to attract mates.
Abstract.
Full text.
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