Publications

Understanding how a single genome can produce a variety of different phenotypes is of fundamental importance in evolutionary and developmental biology. One of the most striking examples of phenotypic plasticity is the female caste system found in eusocial insects, where variation in reproductive (queens) and non-reproductive (workers) phenotypes results in a broad spectrum of caste types, ranging from behavioural through to morphological castes. ...

Adolescent growth spurts (GSs) in body length seem to be absent in non-human primates and are considered a distinct human trait. However, this distinction between present and absent length-GSs may reflect a mathematical artefact that makes it arbitrary. We first outline how scaling issues and inappropriate comparisons between length (linear) and weight (volume) growth rates result in misleading interpretations like the absence of length-GSs in ...

Breeding programs for endangered species increasingly use molecular genetics to inform their management strategies. Molecular approaches can be useful for investigating relatedness, resolving pedigree uncertainties, and for estimating genetic diversity in captive and wild populations. Genetic data can also be used to evaluate the representation of wild population genomes within captive population gene-pools. Maintaining a captive population that ...

To clarify the role of bats in the ecology of Ebola viruses, we assessed the prevalence of Ebola virus antibodies in a large-scale sample of bats collected during 2015–2017 from countries in Africa that have had previous Ebola outbreaks (Guinea, the Democratic Republic of the Congo) or are at high risk for outbreaks (Cameroon). We analyzed 4,022 blood samples of bats from >12 frugivorous and 27 insectivorous species; 2–37 (0.05%–0.92%) bats ...

Conservation breeding programmes often rely on intensive genetic management of the captive population. However, the relatedness between individuals and individual mean kinship are often estimated based on pedigree records, which are frequently incomplete or unreliable. Depending on the quality of a studbook (e.g. expressed as percentage of pedigree known), molecular information can substantially improve knowledge of a population, and therefore ...

Measuring hunting sustainability across West/Central African forests remains a challenge. Long-term assessment of trends is crucial. Via village-based offtake surveys we collected hunting data from three settlements near the Dja Biosphere Reserve (southeast Cameroon). Over a 13-year period (2003, 2009 and 2016) we collected data on carcasses brought to the three villages during March-June. We calculated the catch per unit effort (CPUE) and the ...