Elmer Lab

Can colour affect ecology and evolution, even within species? A recent publication of Kathryn Elmer with colleagues in University of Konstanz and the International Max Planck Research School found significant consequences of a colour dimorphism across ten populations of neotropical cichlid fishes. Named for King Midas, these Midas cichlid fishes are found in only two colour forms — all fishes start their life dark but in many species 5-20% of individuals lose their melanophores before adulthood and then become completely 'gold'. We found sympatric black- or gold-coloured individuals differed consistently in their ecology and morphology. Gold fishes were more typically ’snail-eaters’ and inhabit a lower trophic level, and this has some genetic basis. H Kusche, KR Elmer & A Meyer, "S ympatric ecological divergence associated with a colour polymorphism ” is published in the open access journal BMC Biology. doi:10.1186/s12915-015-0192-7 This was led by Ph...

A new PhD position is available in our group starting October 2016, which would be awarded through the competitive MVLS-Doctoral Training Programme . Please see our " Opportunities " page.  Project: Comparative ecological genomics of environmental heterogeneity PhD Project Summary: Intrinsic factors such as genetics and extrinsic factors such as environment both influence a population’s contemporary patterns of diversity and adaptive potential. Quantifying the relative influence of those various factors is a major effort in biology,; it is fundamental to the mechanisms behind, the speed of, and the potential for evolution. Such patterns and processes have major implications for a range of issues in biomedical and biodiversity sciences. This project will use advanced ecological and evolutionary genomics approaches in a rigorous comparative framework to assess the historical and contemporary patterns of diversity in Britain’s salmonid fishes. Based on new fiel...