{"id":15,"date":"2023-10-17T09:12:37","date_gmt":"2023-10-17T09:12:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/wilson-group\/?page_id=15"},"modified":"2023-10-26T14:06:26","modified_gmt":"2023-10-26T14:06:26","slug":"research","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/wilson-group\/research\/","title":{"rendered":"Research"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Current projects range from investigations of &#8216;personality&#8217; in guppies to dissecting the genetic basis of speed improvement in racehorses. Although diverse, the central theme running through our projects is that we try to understand how phenotypes respond to selection and why &#8211; sometimes &#8211; they don&#8217;t.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:30px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><mark style=\"background-color:#ffffff\" class=\"has-inline-color has-vivid-green-cyan-color\">Specific areas of interest<\/mark><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li>Constraints on adaptive evolution<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Social plasticity and indirect genetic effects<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Genetics of cognition and learning<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Divergent and parallel evolution across populations<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Quantitative genetics of animal &#8216;personality&#8217;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:30px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><mark style=\"background-color:#ffffff\" class=\"has-inline-color has-vivid-green-cyan-color\">Study systems &amp; approaches<\/mark><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p><mark style=\"background-color:#ffffff\" class=\"has-inline-color has-black-color\"><strong>We use a range of laboratory systems in our empirical work<\/strong> <\/mark><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><mark style=\"background-color:#ffffff\" class=\"has-inline-color has-black-color\">These include <\/mark>wild-type guppies and swordtails, as well as red cherry shrimp which we are developing as an aquatic invertebrate model. In these animals we study morphology, life history, physiology and colour traits. However, we are particularly focusing on the evolution of animal personality traits such as boldness and aggression. We use video tracking to measure behavioural traits, allowing for high throughput data collection. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:30px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<h6 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Some of our recent work on guppies<\/h6>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-gallery has-nested-images columns-default is-cropped wp-block-gallery-1 is-layout-flex wp-block-gallery-is-layout-flex\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"600\" height=\"353\" data-id=\"93\" src=\"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/wilson-group\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/337\/2023\/10\/Slide6-3118108856-1697544795725-e1697545512727.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-93\" srcset=\"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/wilson-group\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/337\/2023\/10\/Slide6-3118108856-1697544795725-e1697545512727.jpg 600w, https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/wilson-group\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/337\/2023\/10\/Slide6-3118108856-1697544795725-e1697545512727-300x177.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Predator response<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"960\" height=\"720\" data-id=\"91\" src=\"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/wilson-group\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/337\/2023\/10\/Slide5.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-91\" srcset=\"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/wilson-group\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/337\/2023\/10\/Slide5.jpg 960w, https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/wilson-group\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/337\/2023\/10\/Slide5-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/wilson-group\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/337\/2023\/10\/Slide5-768x576.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 960px) 100vw, 960px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Boldness and stress<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"960\" height=\"720\" data-id=\"89\" src=\"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/wilson-group\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/337\/2023\/10\/Slide4.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-89\" srcset=\"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/wilson-group\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/337\/2023\/10\/Slide4.jpg 960w, https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/wilson-group\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/337\/2023\/10\/Slide4-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/wilson-group\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/337\/2023\/10\/Slide4-768x576.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 960px) 100vw, 960px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Divergence among populations<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:30px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p><mark style=\"background-color:#ffffff\" class=\"has-inline-color has-black-color\"><strong>We also work with field data<\/strong><\/mark> <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Usually this is done through collaborations with ecologists working on long-term individual based studies of vertebrates. Current projects include collaborations with <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/samanthacpatrick.wixsite.com\/home\" target=\"_blank\">Sam Patrick<\/a> (Liverpool) to understand the costs of reproduction in albatrosses the Southern Ocean, and work with Jocelyn Poissant (Calgary) and Phil McLoughlin (Saskatchewan) on <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/SableIslandHorseProject\/\" target=\"_blank\">wild horses<\/a> living on Sable Island, Nova Scotia. In the past I have worked with on a lot of wild mammal (e.g. sheep, deer, badgers) and bird (e.g. great tits, blue tits, flycatchers, sparrow weavers) systems. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:30px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><mark style=\"background-color:#ffffff\" class=\"has-inline-color has-black-color\">We use quantitative genetics as a framework for studying phenotypic evolution<\/mark><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Although we often use theory from <mark style=\"background-color:#ffffff\" class=\"has-inline-color has-vivid-green-cyan-color\"><strong>behavioural ecology<\/strong> <\/mark><mark style=\"background-color:#ffffff\" class=\"has-inline-color has-black-color\">to guide us, most of our projects are rooted in a more<\/mark><mark style=\"background-color:#ffffff\" class=\"has-inline-color has-vivid-green-cyan-color\"> <strong>quantitative genetic<\/strong><\/mark> approach that emphasises the important of inheritance &#8211; as well as selection &#8211; for understanding adaptive evolution. We use statistical models that rely on knowing pedigrees or relatedness to investigate inheritance . However, we also use<mark style=\"background-color:#ffffff\" class=\"has-inline-color has-vivid-green-cyan-color\"> <strong>molecular genetic<\/strong> <\/mark>and <mark style=\"background-color:#ffffff\" class=\"has-inline-color has-vivid-green-cyan-color\"><strong>genomic<\/strong><\/mark> techniques when we think these are the best tools for the job. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you are interested in learning more about quantitative genetic genetic methods then the &#8216;wild animal model&#8217; community has compiled <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/wildanimalmodels.org\/\" target=\"_blank\">WamWIKI <\/a>as a useful resource. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Current projects range from investigations of &#8216;personality&#8217; in guppies to dissecting the genetic basis of speed improvement in racehorses. Although diverse, the central theme running through our projects is that we try to understand how phenotypes respond to selection and why &#8211; sometimes &#8211; they don&#8217;t. Specific areas of interest Study systems &amp; approaches We [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1251,"featured_media":335,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"page-boxed-feature-img.php","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Research - Wilson Group - Evolution, behaviour, genetics<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/wilson-group\/research\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Research - Wilson Group - Evolution, behaviour, genetics\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Current projects range from investigations of &#8216;personality&#8217; in guppies to dissecting the genetic basis of speed improvement in racehorses. Although diverse, the central theme running through our projects is that we try to understand how phenotypes respond to selection and why &#8211; sometimes &#8211; they don&#8217;t. Specific areas of interest Study systems &amp; approaches We [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/wilson-group\/research\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Wilson Group - Evolution, behaviour, genetics\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-10-26T14:06:26+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/wilson-group\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/337\/2023\/10\/Slide1-1.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1280\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/wilson-group\/research\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/wilson-group\/research\/\",\"name\":\"Research - Wilson Group - Evolution, behaviour, genetics\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/wilson-group\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/wilson-group\/research\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/wilson-group\/research\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/wilson-group\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/337\/2023\/10\/Slide1-1.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-10-17T09:12:37+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-10-26T14:06:26+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/wilson-group\/research\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/wilson-group\/research\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/wilson-group\/research\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/wilson-group\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/337\/2023\/10\/Slide1-1.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/wilson-group\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/337\/2023\/10\/Slide1-1.jpg\",\"width\":1280,\"height\":720},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/wilson-group\/research\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/wilson-group\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Research\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/wilson-group\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/wilson-group\/\",\"name\":\"Wilson Group - Evolution, behaviour, genetics\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/wilson-group\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Research - Wilson Group - Evolution, behaviour, genetics","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/wilson-group\/research\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Research - Wilson Group - Evolution, behaviour, genetics","og_description":"Current projects range from investigations of &#8216;personality&#8217; in guppies to dissecting the genetic basis of speed improvement in racehorses. Although diverse, the central theme running through our projects is that we try to understand how phenotypes respond to selection and why &#8211; sometimes &#8211; they don&#8217;t. Specific areas of interest Study systems &amp; approaches We [&hellip;]","og_url":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/wilson-group\/research\/","og_site_name":"Wilson Group - Evolution, behaviour, genetics","article_modified_time":"2023-10-26T14:06:26+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1280,"height":720,"url":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/wilson-group\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/337\/2023\/10\/Slide1-1.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/wilson-group\/research\/","url":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/wilson-group\/research\/","name":"Research - Wilson Group - Evolution, behaviour, genetics","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/wilson-group\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/wilson-group\/research\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/wilson-group\/research\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/wilson-group\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/337\/2023\/10\/Slide1-1.jpg","datePublished":"2023-10-17T09:12:37+00:00","dateModified":"2023-10-26T14:06:26+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/wilson-group\/research\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/wilson-group\/research\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/wilson-group\/research\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/wilson-group\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/337\/2023\/10\/Slide1-1.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/wilson-group\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/337\/2023\/10\/Slide1-1.jpg","width":1280,"height":720},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/wilson-group\/research\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/wilson-group\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Research"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/wilson-group\/#website","url":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/wilson-group\/","name":"Wilson Group - Evolution, behaviour, genetics","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/wilson-group\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"}]}},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/wilson-group\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/15"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/wilson-group\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/wilson-group\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/wilson-group\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1251"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/wilson-group\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15"}],"version-history":[{"count":26,"href":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/wilson-group\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/15\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":493,"href":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/wilson-group\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/15\/revisions\/493"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/wilson-group\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/335"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/wilson-group\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/wilson-group\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/wilson-group\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}