Honours student receives grant for plant systematics
Honours student Charles Foster has been awarded the 2012 Hansjorg Eichler Research Grant from the Australasian Systematic Botany Society. “Being selected to receive the grant has been a great confidence booster,” said Charles. “It has felt like the first steps away from being an undergraduate student to being a part of the broader scientific community.” …
ARC funding to study ancient human DNA
Dr Simon Ho has been awarded a Discovery Project grant from the Australian Research Council to conduct research on ancient mitochondrial DNA from humans. The work will be led jointly with Dr Wolfgang Haak and Dr Bastien Llamas from the Australian Centre for Ancient DNA at the University of Adelaide. The work will generate ~200 …
Deep-sea isopods confirmed to be ancient
Evolution, extinction and recolonisation. These processes formed the core of Luana Lins’s exploration into the isopods of the deep sea. This environment was once thought to be lifeless, but four decades ago the abyss was discovered to be teeming with extremely diverse life forms. The discoveries continue today with Luana’s research, which asks the question …
Genome-invading retroviruses are a nasty surprise
An international team of scientists, including Dr Simon Ho from the University of Sydney, has found that the koala genome is slowly being invaded by a retrovirus associated with Chlamydia infection and leukaemia. Unlike other viruses, retroviruses must actually copy their genetic material into the host genome as part of their life cycle. On occasion, …
Zoo polar bear killed by zebra virus
Zoos bring together different animal species that would never encounter each other in the wild. This can have unforeseen consequences. When in 2010 one polar bear died and another fell severely ill in a German zoo, veterinarians were at a loss as to the cause of the symptoms. It has now been shown that the …
Termite collecting in the Top End
Four MEEP lab members recently went on a field trip to the Northern Territory with other termite scientists from Queensland, Japan, and Belgium. We collected the giant Australian termite Mastotermes darwiniensis and other species. M. darwiniensis represents the most primitive termite lineage and is only found in the top end of Australia, where it is …
Modern dogs have little in common with ancient breeds
Interbreeding of dogs over thousands of years has made it extremely difficult to trace the ancient genetic roots of today’s pets, according to a new study by an international team of scientists, including Dr Simon Ho. The team analysed data of the genetic make-up of modern dogs, alongside an assessment of the archaeological record of …
PhD student wins Australian Biological Resources Study grant
MEEP PhD student Tim Lee has won a 3-year, $33,000 grant from the Australian Biological Resources Study to study the systematics of the Australian pest termite genus Coptotermes, and to write up two papers from his Honours project on the systematics and evolution of the Australian endemic isopod Spherillo grossus. The termite work will be …
Iconic Southern Hemisphere trees 13-113 million years old
A new study of southern beeches shows that estimates of their evolutionary timescale can vary drastically, depending on the way we calculate the rate of evolution. Unfortunately, not every species that once lived has left a trace in the fossil record. This makes it difficult to estimate evolutionary timescales. But this information can often be …
Star Wars bacterium provides glimpse into the evolution of life
Fans of Star Wars would know of Midi-chlorians as helpful microbes that live inside cells granting the mystical power known as “The Force”, but a bacterium of the same name has provided new clues into the evolution of our own cells and how they came to possess the vital energy-producing units called mitochondria. University of …