David Wright

• BSc, PhD
• Senior Computational Biologist at Earlham Institute

The prevalence and significance of precopulatory mate choice remains keenly debated. The major histocompatibility complex (MHC) plays a key role in vertebrate adaptive immunity, and variation at the MHC influences individual survival. Although MHC-dependent mate choice has been documented in certain species, many other studies find no such pattern....

The importance of evolutionary conservation – how understanding evolutionary forces can help guide conservation decisions – is widely recognized. However, the historical demography of many endangered species is unknown, despite the fact that this can have important implications for contemporary ecological processes and for extinction risk. Here, we...

In December 2011, 59 adult Seychelles warblers Acrocephalus sechellensis were translocated between two islands in the Seychelles. Birds were captured on Cousin Island and translocated to Frégate Island using a hard release method, with minimum time in captivity. Frégate had been previously identified as a suitable host for a substantial population...

Translocations are an increasingly common tool in conservation. The maintenance of genetic diversity through translocation is critical for both the short and long term persistence of populations and species. However, the relative spatio-temporal impacts of translocations on neutral and functional genetic diversity, and how this affects genetic stru...

The feeding strategy of the Eastern bongo in the wild is unusual, poorly understood, and few captive feeding recommendations are currently available to zoos. To assess the current state of nutritional husbandry of this rare antelope, eight UK zoos were surveyed. A nutritional husbandry questionnaire was completed and bongos at each zoo were visuall...

Kalirin is a multidomain protein with important roles in neurite outgrowth, and synaptic spine formation and remodeling. Genetic and pathophysiological links with various neuropsychiatric disorders associated with synaptic dysfunction and cognitive impairment have sparked interest in its potential as a pharmacological target. Multiple Kalirin prote...

Single-cell approaches have revealed that the haematopoietic hierarchy is a continuum of differentiation, from stem cell to committed progenitor, marked by changes in gene expression. However, many of these approaches neglect isoform-level information and thus do not capture the extent of alternative splicing within the system. Here, we present an...

Alternative splicing (AS) is a key mechanism underlying cellular differentiation and a driver of complexity in mammalian neuronal tissues. However, understanding of which isoforms are differentially used or expressed and how this affects cellular differentiation remains unclear. Long read sequencing allows full-length transcript recovery and quanti...

Genetic bottlenecks can limit the success of populations colonizing new ranges. However, successful colonizations can occur despite bottlenecks, a phenomenon known as the genetic paradox of invasion. Eusocial Hymenoptera such as bumblebees (Bombus spp.) should be particularly vulnerable to genetic bottlenecks, since homozygosity at the sex-determin...

Single-cell approaches have revealed that the haematopoietic hierarchy is a continuum of differentiation, from stem cell to committed progenitor, marked by changes in gene expression. However, many of these approaches neglect isoform level information, and thus do not capture the extent and effect of alternative splicing within the system. Here, we...

Molecular methods have greatly increased our understanding of the previously cryptic spatial ecology of bumble bees (Bombus spp.), with knowledge of the spatial ecology of these bees being central to conserving their essential pollination services. Bombus hypnorum, the Tree Bumble Bee, is unusual in that it has recently rapidly expanded its range,...

The formulation and provision of appropriate diets for zoo animals is important in ensuring the continued health of populations. Inappropriate diets can lead to a number of nutritional deficiencies and increase the risk of disease and obesity. Ruffed lemurs (Varecia spp.) are the most intensely frugivorous of extant lemur species. Captive animals a...

Genetic factors play an important role in the long-term persistence of populations and species, and conservation strategies should take such factors into account. We use neutral molecular markers to assess diversity and divergence between the three remaining island populations of a little-studied endemic passerine, the Cape Verde warbler Acrocephal...

Genetic diversity and divergence in the Cape Verde warbler Acrocephalus brevipennis - summary of the results of the paper with the same name

Figure S1. Results from STRUCTURE analyses on 126 Seychelles warbler individuals from museum (M) and contemporary populations. Table S1. Collection details of 26 museum specimens of Seychelles warbler along with the number of microsatellite loci each sample was genotyped at. Table S2. Primer and multiplex details for all loci tested in museum sampl...

Map of the inner Seychelles archipelago with location, date and number of founding individuals for the four Seychelles warbler translocations.

Graph generated by STRUCTURE HARVESTER (Earl & vonHoldt 2012), displaying the change in ΔK against number of clusters (K) calculated following the method of Evanno et al. (2005), highlighting that K = 2 is the most likely number of genetic clusters across five island populations of Seychelles warbler.

Pairwise FST between each population sample across five island populations of Seychelles warblers. Microsatellites (lower) and major histocompatibility complex (upper) data.

Null allele estimates for each of 30 microsatellite loci across each catch-year sample period for five island populations of Seychelles warblers where CN=Cousin, AR=Aride, CE=Cousine, DS=Denis and FR=Frégate. Estimates >0.1 highlighted in bold type.