Experimental
Evolution at Edinburgh
(sex, death and the apocalypse)
Sinead
Collins
(S.collins@ed.ac.uk)
What I
do.
I am an
evolutionary biologist who uses microbial
experiments, natural microbial populations and computer models to study
adaptation. Specifically, I am interested in factors that complicate
adaptive
walks. Some of these factors are continuous environmental change,
competition,
and interactions between genetic and epigenetic systems. I collaborate
with
biological oceanographers to apply this work to studies of how marine
microbes
respond to global change.
For
more details on specific question follow these links
Environmental change
Recent
publications
Collins, S. and Bell, G. (2004) Phenotypic consequences of 1000
generations of selection at elevated CO2 in a green alga. Nature
431:566-569.
Collins, S. and Bell, G. (2006) Evolution of natural algal populations
at elevated CO2. Ecology Letters 9: 129-135
Collins, S., Sueltemeyer, D., and Bell, G. (2006) Rewinding the tape:
selection of algae adapted to high CO2 at current and pleistocene
levels of CO2. Evolution 60: 1392-1401.
Collins, S., Sueltemeyer, D., and Bell, G. (2006) Changes in carbon
uptake in populations of Chlamydomonas reinhardtii selected at high CO2
Plant, Cell and Environment 29: 1812-1819.
Acquisti, C., Kleffe, J. and Collins, S. (2007) A role for atmospheric
oxygen levels in the evolution of eukaryotic cells. Nature 445:47-52.
Collins, S., de Meaux, J. and Acquisti, C. (2007) Adaptive walks
towards a moving optimum. Genetics 176: 1089-1099.
Colegrave, N. and Collins, S. (2008) Experimental evolution and
evolvability. Invited review for Heredity, special issue on
experimental evolution. doi 10.1038/sj.hdy.6801095
Bell, G. and Collins, S. (2008) Experimental evolution and global
change. Invited review for inaugural issue of Evolutionary Applications
1: 3-16.
Collins, S. and Gardner, A. (2009) Integrating phytoplankton responses
to elevated CO2: a Price equation approach. Ecology Letters 12: 744-757.
Collins, S. and de Meaux, J. (2009) Adaptation to different rates of
environmental change in Chlamydomonas. Evolution 63: 2952-2965.
Links to Collaborators
Andy
Gardner
Bjoern Rost
ECCO
PhD position available