Prof. Martin Genner
School of Biological Sciences University of Bristol Life Sciences Building Tyndall Avenue Bristol United Kingdom email: m.genner@bristol.ac.uk For a full list of publications click the button below: |
News
August 2020. In 2013 we found populations of Korogwe tilapia in lakes in the south of Tanzania, hundreds of miles from where we expected them to be in the north of the country. A new paper, accepted in Molecular Ecology, shows that the southern populations are genomically and morphologically distinct from those in the north.
The southern populations fit the criteria to be considered a new species - but they are already hybridizing extensively with introduced large-bodied Nile tilapia. Unique diversity is being lost before it is even recognised. Well done to Tabitha Blackwell and the teams in the UK and Tanzania for their work on this, it's been a big effort. I'm hoping some of these unique southern Korogwe tilapia can be conserved before they are admixed to extinction. July 2020. Well done to Katherine Maltby! Her paper projecting the effects of climate warming on European marine fishes in Journal of Applied Ecology. June 2020. Toby Champneys has been quantifying the competitive behaviour of invasive and native tilapia fishes in laboratory conditions. The paper is in Hydrobiologia. June 2020. Jen Freer has a paper accepted, evaluating the use of 3D species distribution modelling methods for mesopelagic lanternfishes. It's lovely stuff, in Marine Ecology Progress Series May 2020. Felicidades Dr Carlos Gracida Juarez! The thesis contains studies of the freshwater fish communities of Mexico, using behaviour, community ecology and environmental DNA. Thanks to Stefano Mariani and Marian Yallop for being wonderful examiners. May 2020. Congratulations to Dr Hind Alzaylaee, for a great thesis focussed on the use of eDNA for monitoring schistosome prevalance in tropical freshwaters. Bonnie Webster and Jordi Paps were brilliant examiners - many thanks. April 2020. Well done to Henry Watson, who has completed a very nice Masters thesis assessing the diversity of Chiloglanis catfishes in East Africa using RADseq. Many thanks to Dr Martin Taylor and Prof. Gareth Jones for being great examiners. March 2020. Our study of the climate-driven abundance changes in marine species is accepted in Current Biology.... Well done to Reuben Hastings, Lou Rutterford and all involved... See the video abstract here February 2020. Well done Hind Alzaylaee, who has had a second paper accepted. The paper reports our development of new eDNA-based methods for diagnosis of human-infecting schistosomes in African freshwaters. Read in now in PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases. January 2020. Congratulations to Hind Alzaylaee, who has published her first paper on eDNA-based xenomonitoring of schistosome infections in host snails. Read it now in Parasites and Vectors. January 2020. Jack Greenhalgh has done outstanding work leading a review of the use of acoustic methods for monitoring freshwater biodiversity. Read it now in WIREs Water. January 2020. Congratulations Dr Tracey Dornan, for an excellent PhD thesis on active acoustics and mesopelagic fish in the Southern Ocean. Many thanks to Prof. Beth Scott and Dr Marc Holderied for being fantastic examiners. December 2019. Have a look at our new study led by Hannes Svardel showing the hybrid origins of the spectacular radiation of cichlid fishes in Lake Malawi, out now in Molecular Biology and Evolution. September 2019. Welcome to new postgraduate students Harry Layfield and Sophie Ward. Harry will be studying for a PhD on the ecology and evolution of African riverine faunas, while Sophie will be studying for a research Masters focussed on riverine fish morphological diversity. I am also looking forward to co-supervising Costanza Zanghi (predator-prey interactions in a changing world) and Kosta Manser (freshwater electric ecology). September 2019. We are pleased to be starting a new GCRF Translational Award on the eDNA surveillance of invasive tilapia in Tanzania next month. It will be great to continue working with Tanzanian colleagues, and to help the expanding aquaculture sector. July 2019. Well done Rupert Collins et al. - our new paper on the limitations of using COI for fish metabarcoding out now in Methods in Ecology and Evolution. July 2019. Nile tilapia is indigenous to Lake Tanganyika, in all probability. See our new paper in Environmental Biology of Fishes. June 2019. Are mesopelagic fish really rare in polar seas as acoustic surveys suggest? Well, probably not... it's just that that they are less detectable because polar species tend not to have swimbladders. Read all about it in Tracey's new paper in Proc Roy Soc B. May 2019. Our study of Lake Malawi cichlid fish lateral lines using microCT scans is out now in iScience. Well done Duncan Edgely who drove this forward! May 2019. Lovely new paper from Jennifer Freer and colleagues exploring potential influences of climate change on Southern Ocean myctophids - out now in Diversity and Distributions. April 2019. I'm pleased to have contributed to the most complete phylogeny of the tilapia genus Oreochromis. These fish are of immense importance for fisheries and aquaculture, and now we have a clearer idea of their evolutionary history. The work, published in Molecular Phylogeny and Evolution, has been led by Julia Day (UCL) and Antonia Ford (now Roehampton). March 2019. Congratulations to Dr Asilatu Shechonge who successfully defended her PhD thesis at the University of Dar es Salaam. Asilatu has also been awarded a one year Royal Society Africa Award Postdoctoral Fellowship to continue her research on Tanzanian freshwater fishes. February 2019. Congratulations to Ling Lan Hsu for successfully completing her Masters thesis on the phylogeny of East African Astatotilapia. Many thanks to Antonia Ford for being a great external examiner! November 2018. Well done Rupert and the SeaDNA team - a hard-won experimental study on eDNA persistence times in marine systems now published in Communications Biology November 2018. Check out our new paper on "Whole-genome sequences of Malawi cichlids reveal multiple radiations interconnected by gene flow" in Nature Ecology and Evolution. A great job by Milan, Richard and the team. October 2018. Congratulations to Tabitha Richmond on her successfully completing her Masters thesis on the hybridization and population genetic structure of Oreochromis in Tanzania. October 2018. Well done Dr Jennifer Freer, for a fabulous thesis on "Ecological Niches and Geographic Distributions of Lanternfishes" October 2018. Welcome to the new PhD students. Zifang Liu (marine environmental DNA), Duncan Edgley (cichlid fish lateral lines), Toby Champneys (invasive tilapia) and Jack Greenhalgh (freshwater environmental DNA). Looking forward to the new projects! August 2018. Please check out our new (free) guide to the tilapia of Tanzania. Click here. August 2018. NERC have funded a new project testing the "Plasticity first" model of adaptive radiation, in cichlid fishes. Looking forward to working with our partners in Bangor, Cambridge, Malawi and Tanzania. July 2018. How will changes to storminess affect global fisheries? Read Nigel Sainsbury et al. in Nature Climate Change, https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-018-0206-x See the Nigels excellent promo video here:: https://twitter.com/i/status/1011267377303113728 July 2018. Introduced tilapia driving biodiversity loss of indigenous species through hybridization. Read Asilatu Shechonge et al. in Conservation Genetics. March 2018. Asilatu and Steph have papers on Tanzanian tilapia accepted in Hydrobiologia - out now... https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10750-018-3572-5 https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10750-018-3597-9 September 2017. Good news for postgraduate students, the FRESH NERC Centre for Doctoral Training is funded - Cardiff, Bristol, Exeter and Bath (http://www.gw4fresh.co.uk/). 36 studentships will be awarded over the next 3 years. September 2017. Jennifer Freer's new paper "Predicting ecological responses in a changing ocean: The effects of future climate uncertainty" out now in Marine Biology. September 2017. Many thanks to all the wonderful participants of the Newton workshop "Sustainable Aquatic Resource Development Mexico". Our hosts at the Instituto Tecnologico Superior de Felipe Carrillo Puerto were amazing! Great to go cichlid fishing after event too. July 2017. Christophe Hahn's paper highlighting genomic regions undergoing divergent selection in Lake Malawi's "twilight zone" cichlids now out in Evolution Letters July 2017. Paul Parsons' paper on life history evolution in the Lake Malawi cichlid Astatotilapia calliptera now out in Ecology and Evolution. February 2017. A successful application to the Newton fund means we are looking forward to hosting a workshop on Sustainable Development of Aquatic Resources in Mexico later this year. October 2016. It's been great to let people know about about our research on marine environmental DNA. A full week at the NERC "Into the Blue" event (under Concorde at the Runway Park, Manchester). October 2016. Congratulations to Steph Bradbeer on passing her Masters viva, and securing a PhD place studying invasive species in Leeds. Well done Steph! |
