ERC FUNDED PROJECTS

Speciation is a central process in evolution that involves the origin of barriers to gene flow between populations. Species are typically isolated by several barriers and assembly of multiple barriers separating the same populations seems to be critical to the evolution of strong reproductive isolation. Barriers resulting from direct selection can become coincident through a process of coupling while reinforcement can add barrier traits that are not under direct selection. In the presence of gene flow, these processes are opposed by recombination. While recent research using the latest sequencing technologies has provided much increased knowledge of patterns of differentiation and the genetic basis of local adaptation, it has so far added little to understanding of the coupling and reinforcement processes. In this project, I will focus on the accumulation of barriers to gene exchange and the processes underlying increasing reproductive isolation. I will use the power of natural contact zones, combined with novel manipulative experiments, to separate the processes that underlie patterns of differentiation and introgression. The Littorina saxatilis model system allows me to do this with both local replication and a contrast between distinct spatial contexts on a larger geographic scale. I will use modelling to determine how processes interact and to investigate the conditions most likely to promote coupling and reinforcement. Overall, the project will provide major new insights into the speciation process, particularly revealing the requirements for progress towards complete reproductive isolation.

2 499 927 €

Start date: 2016-09-01, End date: 2022-02-28

" Why do people convert to Islam? The contemporary relevance of this question is immediately apparent.""Becoming Muslim"" will transform our knowledge about Islamisation processes and contexts through archaeological research in Harar, Eastern Ethiopia, and examine this in comparison to other regions in sub-Saharan Africa via publication and a major conference. Assessing genuine belief is difficult, but the impact of trade, Saints, Sufis and Holy men, proselytisation, benefits gained from Arabic literacy and administration systems, enhanced power, prestige, warfare, and belonging to the larger Muslim community have all been suggested. Equally significant is the context of conversion. Why were certain sub-Saharan African cities key points for conversion to Islam, e.g. Gao and Timbuktu in the Western Sahel, and Harar in Ethiopia? Archaeological engagement with Islamisation processes and contexts of conversion in Africa is variable, and in parts of the continent research is static. This exciting 4-year project explores, for the first time, Islamic conversion and Islamisation through focusing on Harar, the most important living Islamic centre in the Horn of Africa, and its surrounding region. Islamic archaeology has been neglected in Ethiopia, and is wholly non-existent in Harar. Excavation at 5 key sites: 2 shrines, 2 abandoned settlements, 1 urban site, will permit evaluation of urban Islam, the veneration of saints, pilgrimage and shrine based practices, rural Islam, architecture and jihad, changes in lifeways, and early and comparative evidence for Islam and long-distance trade, through analysis of, e.g. architecture, epigraphy, burial orientation, imported artifacts, and faunal and botanical remains. Although it is fully acknowledged that conversion to Islam and Islamisation processes are not universal, my project is groundbreaking in developing and applying a transferable methodology for the archaeological explanation of ""Becoming Muslim"" in sub-Saharan Africa."

1 031 105 €

Start date: 2016-09-01, End date: 2021-08-31

Eusociality, in which workers sacrifice their own reproduction to rear the offspring of queens, is a major focus of interest in evolutionary biology. A key aim during recent decades has been to understand the conflicts of interest within eusocial groups. In contrast, however, little is known about the underlying genetic architecture. In this proposal, we will use a mixture of field experiments and transcriptomics to address novel questions about the evolutionary dynamics of queen-worker interactions. Borrowing concepts from the field of sexual conflict, we will investigate a new idea: that the productivity of social groups is limited because castes are constrained by inter-caste genetic correlations from simultaneously reaching their optimal (dimorphic) phenotypes. We will also quantify caste dimorphism across an environmental gradient, and investigate the plasticity of dimorphism using transplants and social manipulations. In addition, we will cross-foster individuals between nests to test for coadaptation between queens and workers. And we will test a long-standing hypothesis experimentally for the first time: that queens manipulate worker phenotype in their own interests. The proposed research will force us to look at eusociality in a completely new way. How caste dimorphism can evolve, the possibility that its evolution could be limited by genetic constraints, and the processes that could resolve those constraints, are topics that have hardly been considered. Recent research has strongly emphasized conflict between queens and workers, but the coadaptation of complementary phenotypes may be just as important. Our approach will be multidisciplinary: we will capitalize on state-of-the-art transcriptomic technology in combination with innovative field methods, and use study systems that allow exceptional sample sizes to be obtained in the wild, where natural selection operates. The overall result will be a new and exciting perspective on queen-worker coevolution.

2 424 263 €

Start date: 2017-01-01, End date: 2021-12-31

"An investigation of the origins and development of a central feature of late-antique, medieval and modern culture: the belief that dead saints can act as mediators between a distant God and humankind, and that they are active on earth in many different ways (such as healing the sick, punishing the irreverent, or even controlling the weather). The project will investigate the emergence of this belief by systematically collecting all the available evidence - across several academic disciplines and six linguistic cultures (Latin, Greek, Syriac, Coptic, Armenian and Georgian), from the first stirrings of the phenomenon in the third century until around the year 700, by which time the cult of saints was fully developed and firmly rooted throughout the Christian world, from Ireland to Iran. The work will be done by a team of researchers (under expert supervision for four of the eastern languages), closely co-ordinated by the PI. The project will operate concurrently at two levels. The individual researchers will produce free-standing regional studies on aspects of the cult of saints that are essential to the wider project, but at present under-researched. While doing this, they will collect the full range of evidence from their regions within a single searchable database. This will provide the basis for a christendom-wide monograph on the emergence of the cult of saints authored by the PI, and also the context essential to give breadth and depth to the regional studies. For the first time it will be possible to tell the history of the emergence of the cult of saints across the full geographical and cultural range of early Christendom. Of great importance in itself, this will also link, and thereby enhance, the many pre-existing works of scholarship on aspects of the cult of saints. The ‘Cult of Saints’ will result in a major summative monograph, a comprehensive international conference, a series of ground-breaking regional studies, and a freely-available database."

2 499 240 €

Start date: 2014-01-01, End date: 2018-12-31