Dr Barbara Mable, Dr Roz Laing, Dr David Bartley
No more applications being accepted
Funded PhD Project (UK Students Only)
About the Project
The purpose of this multidisciplinary studentship is to integrate fundamental and applied perspectives on a research problem with direct societal relevance but which also informs key questions in evolutionary ecology and parasitology. The development of resistance to chemical control measures is a key concern in human and veterinary medicine and in agricultural production systems. To increase the efficiency and effectiveness of control measures in the face of resistance, adaptive management approaches have been proposed that customise control strategies to the biology and ecology of the particular target pathogens and their hosts. However, these would ideally consider the specific mechanisms of the control agent, genetics of resistance, rates of migration between susceptible and resistant populations, and the strength of selection imposed by the control agents, while taking into account other types of environmental variation, such as the type of pasture that hosts feed on, the community of hosts that share pastures, and how isolated hosts are from new infections. This requires integration of ecology, evolution, genetics/genomics, parasitology, veterinary science, quantitative analyses of “big data”, and mathematical modelling, which has not often been achieved.
The overall aim of this studentship is to take a multidisciplinary approach to investigate the nature and consequences of resistance in an important parasite of sheep, the nematode Haemonchus contortus, The project will focus on resistance to ivermectin, which is one of the key classes of anthelmintics in current usage. The project will involve four main elements but there will be flexibility for the student to take the project in different directions: 1) using infection experiments in sheep to test the genetic basis of resistance based on crosses between resistant and susceptible parasites; 2) examining ‘real life’ fitness (e.g. ability to establish infection, competition, mating success) and the influence of mating preferences, by genotyping the adults and progeny resulting from mixed infections; 3) testing the segregation of resistance markers in previously established lines of a free living relative (C. remanei) that was selected for ivermectin resistance to test whether there is a common basis of resistance and similar phenotypic consequences; and 4) using deep sequencing approaches to genotype individuals from agricultural environments that differ in resistance management practices to test predictions about expected rates of resistance evolution.
The student will spend at least 3 months per year with the Industrial CASE partner (Moredun Scientific), to receive specific training in experiments involving animals and in communicating with farmers.
Start date: October 2018
Funding Notes
Natural Environment Research Council Industrial CASE PhD studentship.
The candidate must have been ordinarily resident in the UK throughout the 3-year period preceding the date of application for an award, not wholly or mainly for the purposes of full time education. A 2:1 (B) or equivalent is required at undergraduate level. Students who have not met this but have taken a masters-level course could be considered
Application Process: Please contact Barbara Mable ([Email Address Removed]) with initial enquiries. Please provide a cover letter indicating motives and qualifications for undertaking the project and the full contact details of at least two referees.
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