C.V.
| Year |
Description |
1979 |
PhD Department of Genetics, University of Liverpool |
1979-1980 |
NATO Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Botany, University of Georgia, USA |
1980-1983 |
Demonstrator, Department of Genetics, University of Newcastle upon Tyne |
1983- 1996 |
Lecturer, Department of Forestry and Natural Resources, University of Edinburgh |
1991 |
CIBA-GEIGY Senior Research Fellow, Department of Forest Genetics, Swedish Agricultural University, Umeå, Sweden |
1996-2001 |
Senior Lecturer, Institute of Ecology and Resource Management, University of Edinburgh
|
2001 - |
Reader, School of Biological Sciences, University of Edinburgh |
2003 - |
Research Associate, Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh |
Research groupings
Molecular Ecology
Biodiversity and Ecology
Teaching
2nd Year Field Biology
Evolutionary and Ecological Genetics 3
Scientific Enquiry 3
Ecology and Zoology 4th year
Plant Taxonomy and Genetic Analysis MSc
Research interests
My primary research interest is in the exploitation of genetic markers to study questions concerned with the ecology, and evolution of plants, with an emphasis on how this knowledge may be applied to develop appropriate plant conservation programmes. In the area of ecology we have focussed on elucidating the postglacial history of native tree and shrub species using organelle markers, quantifying gene flow among current populations via pollen and seed, and understanding the genetic effects of population fragmentation. Much of this work has taken place in Britain and Europe, but we are also studying postglacial history in Patagonia and problems associated with habitat fragmentation in New Caledonian Araucaria (Monkey Puzzle) species. Most recently we have begun to assess patterns of adaptive variation across the landscape in native forest trees, with a view to predicting their genetic responses to future climate change.
Projects on plant evolution and its relationship with conservation have been conducted in close collaboration with Dr. Pete Hollingsworth at RBGE. Here we have been concerned with understanding the generation of recent taxonomic novelty in the British Flora, particularly as a consequence of hybridisation between sexual outbreeders and either apomictic (Sorbus) or inbreeding (Euphrasia) plant taxa. A molecular marker analysis of hybridisation in Geum is currently being used to understand in more detail the consequences of hybridisation between plants with different breeding systems. The results are being used to develop ‘taxonomic’ conservation programmes aimed at conserving the processes generating novel taxa, rather than conserving the individual products of this evolution.
In addition to work on plants, I have a long term interest in using genetic techniques to understand more about the population biology of fungi that interact with plants. These may include pathogens, but also a wide range of endophytes whose ecology is poorly understood. We are presently investigating the taxonomy, population biology and ecological interactions of a complex of ascomycete taxa of the genus Lophodermium which occur as both endophytes and parasites in the needles of native Scots pine.
Representative publications
French, G. C., Hollingsworth, P. M., Silverside, A. J. & Ennos, R. A. (2008) Genetics, taxonomy and the conservation of British Euphrasia. Conservation Genetics, in press.
Kettle, C. J., Hollingsworth, P. M., Jaffre, T., Moran, B. & Ennos, R. A. (2007) Identifying the early genetic consequences of habitat degradation in a highly threatened tropical conifer, Araucaria nemorosa Laubenfels. Molecular Ecology 17: 3581-3591.
Bacles, C. E. F., Lowe, A. J. & Ennos, R. A. (2006) Effective seed dispersal across a fragmented landscape. Science 311: 628.
Ennos, R. A., French, G. C. & Hollingsworth, P. M. (2005) Conserving Taxonomic Complexity. Trends in Ecology and Evolution 20: 164-168.
Bacles, C. F. E. , Burczyk, J., Lowe, A. J. & Ennos, R. A. (2005) Historical and Contemporary Mating Patterns in Remnant Populations of the Forest Tree Fraxinus excelsior L. Evolution 59: 979-990.
Robertson, A. Newton, A. C. & Ennos, R. A. (2004) Breeding systems and continuing evolution in the endemic Sorbus taxa on Arran. Heredity 93: 487-495.
Robertson, A. Newton, A. C. & Ennos, R. A. (2004). Multiple hybrid origins, genetic diversity and population genetic structure of two endemic Sorbus taxa on the Isle of Arran, Scotland. Molecular Ecology 13: 123-134.
Bacles, C. F. E., Lowe A. J. & Ennos, R. A. (2004). Genetic effects of chronic habitat fragmentation on tree species: the case of Sorbus aucuparia in a deforested Scottish landscape. Molecular Ecology 13: 573-584.
Petit, R. J., Aguinagalde, I., de Beaulieu, J.-L., Bittkau, C., Brewer, S., Cheddadi, R., Ennos, R. A., Fineschi, S., Grivet, D., Lascoux, M., Mohanty, A., Muller-Starck, G., Demesure-Musch, B., Palme, A., Martin, J. P., Rendell, S. & Vendramin, G. G. (2003). Glacial Refugia: Hotspots but Not Melting Pots of Genetic Diversity. Science 300: 1563-1565.
Ennos, R. A. & McConnell, K. C. (2003). Variation in host resistance and pathogen selective value in the interaction between Pinus sylvestris and the fungus Crumenulopsis sororia. Heredity 91: 193-201.
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