MICROBIAL EXPERIMENTAL EVOLUTIONARY
ECOLOGY
Department of
Tel. +44 (0)1865 2813905
Fax. +44
(0)1865 310447
Microbes really matter. Their importance ranges from causing disease to
making ecosystems run smoothly. Our
research attempts to address how the environment (both physical and other
organisms) shapes how they evolve to do what they do. Rather than inferring evolution in natural
populations, we literally follow the evolution of microbes in real time under
defined conditions. This is made
possible by the very short generation times and massive population sizes of
microbes, and the precise experimental control afforded by laboratory conditions.
Our major interest is the evolutionary
ecology of pathogenic microbes and their hosts.
For example, understanding: the causes and consequences of coevolution between bacteria and their parasitic viruses;
the ecological and genetic conditions that results in parasites evolving to
cause severe compared with mild infections; and the conditions that favour
bacteria to cooperate with each other, or otherwise.
Gabriel Guimond-Perron
(DPhil student)
Robert Inglis (DPhil student)
Mike Brockhurst
Sylvain Gandon
PUBLICATIONS
42. Buckling, A., Brockhurst, M., Travisano,
M. & Rainey, P. B. 2007. Experimental adaptation to high and
low quality environments under different scales of temporal variation. Journal of Evolutionary Biology doi:
10.1111/j.1420-9101.2006.01195.x pdf
41. Fleming,
V., Feil, R., Sewell, A. K., Day, N., Buckling,
A. and Massey, R. C. 2006. Agr interference
between clinical Staphylococcus aureus strains in an insect model of virulence. Journal of Bacteriology 188,
7686-7688. pdf
40. Brockhurst, M. A.,
39.
38. Morgan, A.
D. & Buckling, A. 2006. Relative number of generations of hosts
and parasites does not influence parasite local adaptation in coevolving
populations of bacteria and phage. Journal of Evolutionary Biology 19, 1956-1963. pdf
37. Colegrave,
N. & Buckling, A. 2006 Reply to
Edwards' response. Bioessays 28, 442-442.
36. Buckling,
A., Wei, Y., Massey, R.C. Brockhurst, M. A. & Hochberg, M.E. 2006.
Antagonistic coevolution with parasites
increases the cost of host deleterious mutations. Proceedings
of the Royal Society of
35. Brockhurst, M.A., Buckling, A. & Rainey P.B. 2006. Spatial
heterogeneity and the stability of host-parasite coexistence. Journal
of Evolutionary Biology 19,
374-379.pdf
34. Buckling,
A. & Brockhurst, M.A. 2005. RAMP
resistance. Nature 438, 170-171. pdf
33. Harrison, E. F. & Buckling, A. 2005. Hypermutability impedes cooperation in a pathogenic
bacterium. Current Biology 15,
1968-1971 pdf
32. Rainey, P.
B., Brockhurst, M. A., Buckling, A.,
Hodgson, D. J. & Kassen, R. 2005 The use of model Pseudomonas fluorescens
populations to study the causes and consequences of microbial diversity. In Biological diversity and function in soil
(ed. R. Bardgett, M. Usher & D. Hopkins), pp.
83-99.
31. Dillon, R.J., Vennard, C., Buckling,
A. & Charnley, A.K. 2005.
Diversity of locust gut bacteria protects against pathogen invasion. Ecology
Letters 8, 1291-1298. pdf
30.
Buckling, A. & Colegrave, N.
2005. Microbial experiments on adaptive landscapes. BioEssays
27, 1167-1173. pdf
29. Morgan, A.D., Gandon, S. & Buckling,
A. 2005. The effect of migration on local adaptation in a
coevolving host-parasite system. Nature 437, 253-256. pdf
28. McCart, C., Buckling, A. & ffrench-Constant. 2005. DDT resistance in flies carries no cost. Current Biology 15,
R587-R589. pdf
27. Jenkins, A. T. A, Buckling, A., McGhee, M.,
ffrench-Constant, R. H. 2005. surface Plasmon Resonance (SPR) shows that type IV pili are important in surface attachment by Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Journal
of the Royal Society Interface 2,
255-259. pdf
26.
Brockhurst, M. A., Buckling, A.
& Rainey, P. B. 2005. The
effect of a bacteriophage on the diversification of
the opportunistic pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Proceedings of the Royal Society of
25. Buckling, A.,
Neilson, J., Lindsay, J., ffrench-Constant, R., Enright,
M., Day, N. & Massey, R. C. 2005. Clonal distribution and phase variable expression of a
MHC-analogue protein in Staphylococcus aureus. Journal of Bacteriology 187, 2917-2919. pdf
24. Morgan, A. D.
& Buckling, A. 2004. Parasites modulate the relationship between host
diversity and disturbance frequency. Ecology Letters 7, 1029-1034. pdf
23.
22. Jenkins, A. T. A., ffrench-Constant, R, Buckling, A., Clarke, D. J., Jarvis, K.
2004. A study of the attachment of Pseudomonas aeruginosa on gold and
modified gold surfaces using Surface Plasmon
Resonance. Biotechnology Progress
20, 1233-1236. pdf
21.
20. Jessup, C.M., Kassen,
R., Forde, S.E., Kerr, B., Buckling, A.,
Rainey, P.B., Bohannan, B.J.M. 2004. Big questions, small worlds: microbial model systems
in ecology. Trends in Ecology and
Evolution 19, 189-197 pdf
19. Massey, R.C., Buckling,
A. & ffrench-Constant, R.H.
2004. Interference competition and virulence, Proceedings of the
Royal Society of London Series B 271,
785-788. pdf
18. Brockhurst, M.A, Rainey, P. B. & Buckling, A. 2004. The
interaction between exploiters and spatial heterogeneity on host
diversification. Proceedings of
the Royal Society of
17. Buckling, A., Wills, M.A. & Colegrave, N. 2003. Adaptation
constrains diversification in experimental bacterial populations. Science 302, 2107-2109. pdf
16. Brockhurst, M.A, Morgan, A. D., Rainey, P. B. & Buckling, A. 2003. Population mixing accelerates coevolution. Ecology
Letters 6, 975-979. pdf
15. West, S. A. & Buckling, A. 2003. Cooperation, virulence and siderophore production in bacterial parasites. Proceedings
of the Royal Society of
14. Buckling,
A. & Rainey, P. B. 2002. The role of parasites in sympatric
and allopatric host diversification. Nature
420, 496-499. pdf pdf
13. Massey, R. C. & Buckling, A. 2002. Environmental regulation of mutation rates at
specific sites. Trends in Micro
12. Hodgson, D.J., Rainey, P.B. & Buckling, A. 2002 Mechanisms linking
diversity, productivity and invasibility in
experimental bacterial communities. Proceedings
of the Royal Society Series B. 269,
2277-2283. pdf
11. Buckling,
A. & Rainey, P.B. 2002. Antagonistic coevolution between a bacterium and bacteriophage.
Proceedings of the Royal Society of
10. Buckling, A.
& Read, A. F. 2001. The effect of partial host immunity
on the transmission of malaria parasites. Proceedings of the Royal
Society of
9. Massey, R. C., Buckling,
A. & Peacock, S. J. 2001. Phenotypic switching of anti
8. Buckling, A., Kassen, R.,
7. Rainey, P. B., Buckling,
A., Kassen, R. M. & Travisano, M.
2000. The evolution of diversity:
insights from experimental microbial populations. Trends in Ecology and Evolution 15, 243-247. pdf
6. Kassen, R., Buckling, A.,
5. Spiers, A. J., Buckling,
A. & Rainey, P. B. 2000. The causes of Pseudomonas diversity. Microbiology 146, 2345-2350. pdf
4. Buckling, A.,
Ranford-Cartwright, L. C., Miles, A. & Read, A.
F. 1999.
Chloroquine increases Plasmodium falciparum gametocytogenesis in vitro. Parasitology 118,
339-346. pdf
3. Buckling, A.
& Read, A. F. 1999. The effect of chloroquine
treatment on the infectivity of Plasmodium
chabaudi gametocytes. International Journal of Parasitology 29, 619-625.
2. Buckling, A.,
Crooks, L. & Read, A. F. 1999. The effect of chemotherapy on the gametocytogenesis
of Plasmodium chabaudi. Experimental
Parasitology 93,
45-54. pdf
1. Buckling, A.,