Short-term projects

Master's Projects

  • Léa Gillebert, MRES EEB, “Re-wilding of Exmoor ponies” (Supervisor: January 2021-)
  • Joshua Hothersall, MRES EEB “Distinct diet characteristics of a cryptic insectivorous bat in Cameroon” (Co-supervisor : January 2021 -; Supervisor: Luke Powell)
  • Lucy Parker, Msc QMBCE, “Pollinator preference of the common colour phenotype drives the maintenance of a snapdragon (Antirrhinum majus) hybrid zone in the Spanish Pyrenees.” (Supervisor July-October 2021; Co-Supervisor: Jana Jeglinski)
  • Dominik Vinopal, MSc QMBCE, “Pooled Sequencing (Pool-Seq) of mixed-DNA samples for population genetics studies of vectors” (Supervisor July-October 2021; Co-supervisor: Anubhab Khan)
  • Rachel Gray, MSc QMBCE, “Developing pipelines for conservation genomics data” (Supervisor: May 2020-August 2020; Co-supervisor: Umer Ijaz)
  • Conor Hassan, MSc EIDAR, “Costs of resistance to anthelmintics in parasitic nematodes” (Supervisor: May 2020-August 2020)
  • Victoria Mkessa, MSc CMAE, “Immune gene variation and parasite loads in Tanzanian giraffes” (Supervisor: May 2020 – August 2021; Co-Supervisors: Thomas Morrison, Derek Lee)
  • Ainslie McKenzie, MRES EEB, “Developing primers for assessing immune gene variation for conservation genetics studies” (Supervisor: November 2019-August 2020)
  • Koggani Koggani, MSc CMAE, “Diet analysis of Puku in the Serengeti ecosystem” (Co-supervisor: May 2017-August 2019; Supervisors: Grant Hopcraft and Thomas Morrison)
  • Nok Ting Lam, MRES student “Where are the gnats from? Phylogeography research on New Zealand and Australian wood gnats (Diptera, Anisopodidae)” (Supervisor: November 2018-August 2019; Co-supervisors: Jeanne Robinson and Geoff Hancock).
  • Ryan Bird, MRES student, “Amphibians of East Kilbride: Linking Breeding Patterns with Water Quality” (Supervisor: November 2017-August 2018; Co-supervisor: Roger Downie).  Published paper in the Glasgow Naturalist 27 (Supplement) 2018.
  • Ronald Mellya, MSc student, “Genetic diversity of Eastern Black Rhinoceros in Tanzania.” (Supervisor: May 2017-September 2018; Co-supervisor Grant Hopcraft)
  • Bethany Grieg, MRES student, “Is the upland mayfly in hot water?” (May-August 2016)
  • Aaron Westmoreland, MSc student, “Reservoir frogs: Assessing population structure in the common frog, Rana temporaria, across the Scottish Highlands” (May – August 2015)
  • Lynsey Harper,MSc student, “Evaluation of eDNA as a rapid biodiversity monitoring tool for great crested newt (Triturus cristatus): a Scottish case study” (May – August 2015)
  • Ashleigh Hanna, MRes Biomedical Sciences, "Pathogens in natural environments: the effects of mating system and polyploidy on the ability of plants to respond to pathogens in alien environments" (Supervisor: May-August 2013)
  • Lorna McRae, MRes Evolutionary Biology, "The utility of DNA barcoding to investigate biodiversity of craneflies in the UK" (Supervisor: May-August 2013)
  • Katie Strang, MRes student, "Population genetic structure of damselfish" (Supervisor, May-August 2012)
  • Minnie Parmiter, BBSRC PhD mini project (MSc), "Detection of blood parasites in wild Mongolian Swans using Polymerase Chain Reaction and microscopy." (Supervisor, May-August 2012)
  • Mamatha Doreswamy, MRes Biomedical Sciences, "Genetic basis of response to the oomycete pathogen Albugo candidans in Arabidopsis lyrata" (Supervisor, Oct. 2010-April 2011)
  • Vrushali Patil, MRes Biomedical Sciences, "Genetic diversity of aspen trees in Scotland" (Co-Supervisor, Oct. 2010-April 2011, with Mark Bailey)
  • Fiony Savory, MRes Evolutionary Biology, "Mitochondrial DNA variation in Eider ducks" (Co-supervisor, Oct. 2005-April 2006, with Bob Furness)

Undergraduate Research Projects and Summer Students

  • Fatema Al-Ghaithi, Zoology (Honours Project Supervisor 2021-2022) “Genetic variation and origin of Exmoor ponies”
  • Anna Kinghorn, Zoology (Honours Project Supervisor 2020-2021) “Mitochondrial DNA variation in Exmoor ponies”
  • Antonia Popescu, Genetics (Honours Project Supervisor 2019-2020) “Can self-incompatibility genes indicate the location of Brassica oleracea domestication in western Europe?”
  • James Sanders, Genetics (Honours Project Supervisor 2018-2019) “Investigation into the variation of R gene RPP13 copies”
  • Rosalie Dowell, MSci Marine and Freshwater Biology (Honours Project Supervisor 2018-2019) “Investigating genetic variation in the mitochondrial genome of translocated populations of European Whitefish (Coregonus lavaretus)”
  • Anastasia Wlaschin-West, Genetics (Honours project Supervisor 2017-2018) “Investigating variation at CBD103 immune gene in African Wild Dogs (Lycaon pictus)”
  • Ellen Smith, Genetics (Honours project Supervisor 2017-2018) “Investigation of sequence variation within the R-gene RPP13 in Arabidopsis lyrata”
  • Zara Nelson, Zoology (Honours project Supervisor 2017-2018) “Sex Differences in Nestling Eurasian Blue Tits (Cyanistes caeruleus)”
  • Christina Gillian O’Flaherty, Zoology (Honours project Supervisor 2017-2018) “Differences in biological processes between sexes in great tit (Parus major) chicks”
  • Ghayn Khartik, Summer student 2017, British Society for Plant Pathology vacation scholarship, “Exploring pathogenic fungal communities within the rhizosphere of Brassicas“
  • Emily Jamieson, Genetics (Supervisor 2016-2017) “Investigating the rate of natural hybridization between Arabidopsis arenosa and Arabidopsis lyrata and the consequences on offspring viability“
  • Andrey Filipov, Genetics (Supervisor 2015-2016) “Investigating microbial diversity in the rhizosphere of Brassica plants through the cultivation-independent technique of amplicon generation”
  • Zorana Finch, Zoology (Supervisor 2015-2016) “An investigation into morphological and molecular identification of lungworms in marine mammals stranded on Scottish shores”
  • Nicholas Foo, Marine and Freshwater MSci (Supervisor 2015-2016) “Expired `fresh’ Scottish salmon – bacteria species presence and their abundance”
  • Daniel Boyle, Summer student 2015 (two month internship) “Food security in the ‘omics era”
  • Robert Cook, Summer student 2014, Wellcome Trust Vacation Scholarship “Applied evolution: an experimental approach to investigating how the interaction between parasite life history strategies and control measures affects rates of resistance evolution variation in association”
  • Daniel Crabtree, Summer student 2014, Genes and Development Vacation Scholarship “Evolution of resistance to anthelmintics in nematodes”
  • Melissa Bothe, Molecular and Cell Biology (Supervisor 2014-2015) “Investigation of sequence variation of a disease resistance gene, RPP13, in two species of Arabidopsis”
  • Elizabeth Panton, Zoology (Supervisor 2014-2015) “Comparison of PCR-based technique for identification of trypanosome species”
  • Alan McCluskey, Zoology (Supervisor 2013-2014), “Using immune genes for conservation genetics)”
  • Kathryn Duff, Marine and Freshwater Biology (Supervisor 2013-2014), “Using PCR to identify parasitic nematodes in beached cetaceans”.
  • Jennifer Port, Genetics (Supervisor 2012-2013, working with postdoc James Buckley), "Investigating the presence and variation of resistance genes in European populations of Arabidopsis lyrata"
  • Jennifer Freer, Zoology (Supervisor 2012-2013), "Connectivity and diversity of chinstrap penguins in the Antarctic"
  • Nissa Marshall, Zoology (Supervisor 2012-2013; working with PhD student Alan Reynolds), "The effects of anthelmintic drugs on mobility and survival of the non-parasitic nematode Caenorhabditis remanei"
  • Amelia Mordas, Undergraduate Research Assistant, funded by a Genes and Development Summer Student scholarship from the Genetics society (Summer 2012; working with postdoc James Buckley), "FRIGIDA Indel polymorphism in Arabidopsis lyrata: geographical distribution and association with flowering phenology and mating system"
  • Robert Gillespie, Volunteer, Undergraduate Research Assistant (Summer 2012), "Genetic diversity in a feral population of tetraploid Xenopus in Wales"
  • Natalie Sinclair, Volunteer, Undergraduate Research Assistant (Summer 2012; working with postdoc James Buckley), "Diversity of flowering time genes in relation to flowering phenology in European Arabidopsis lyrata."
  • Jessica Fordyce, Zoology (Supervisor 2011-2012), "The effects of climate change on distributions of an invasive sea weed (Sargassum muticum) in Scotland"
  • Robert Gillespie, Zoology (Supervisor 2011-2012; working with PhD student Jared Bakuza), "Using genetic markers to investigate prevalence of Schistosoma mansoni infections in snails, humans and primates in the Gombe ecosystem, Tanzania"
  • Anne Morecroft, Genetics (Supervisor 2011-2012), "Variation of Peronospora parasitica infection and the disease resistance gene, RPP13 in inbreeding and outcrossing populations of Arabidopsis lyrata"
  • Romaine Furston-Evans, Zoology (Supervisor 2010-2011; working with PhD student Anna Muir), "Pathogens of Scottish frogs: Ranavirus screening and micro-habitat effect on strains of Saprolegnia in Rana temporaria"
  • Sarah-Jayne Mackin, Genetics (Supervisor 2010-2011), "Linkage, functionality and dominance of genes at the self-incompatibility locus in North American populations of Arabidopsis lyrata"
  • Kirsi Mari Järvi, Undergraduate Research Assistant, funded by a Genes and Development Summer Student scholarship from the Genetics society and the University of Oulu (Summer 2010), "Genetic diversity of self-incompatibility alleles in relation to inbreeding in Arabidopsis lyrata"
  • Ryan Carter, Undergraduate Research Assistant, Funded by Dobie Smith Prize in Plant Biology (Summer 2010; working with PhD student Andy Tedder), "Segregation of SRK alleles in self-incompatible Arabis alpina"; also hired as a part-time research technician on NERC grant (March 2010-December 2013).
  • Mark Braceland, Zoology (Co-supervisor 2009-2010 with Mike Stear), "Genetic diversity of MHC genes in domestic sheep"
  • Laura Murphy, Genetics, University of Glasgow (Supervisor 2009-2010), "Diversity of SRK alleles in relation to mating system variation in North American populations of Arabidopsis lyrata"
  • Helen Boyle, Zoology (Supervisor 2009-2010, working with PhD student Jared Bakuza). "Diagnostic PCR for identifying host (snails) and parasite (schisostomes) species"
  • Brian Hunter, Undergraduate Research Assistant, funded by a Genes and Development Summer Student scholarship from the Genetics society (was also offered funding from the Nuffield Foundation, and an internal FBLS scholarship) (Summer 2009, working with postdoc Marc Stift), "Mutational load in North American outcrossing populations of Arabidopsis lyrata?"
  • Ben Shaw, Undergraduate Research Assistant (Summer 2009, working with postdoc Marc Stift), "Mutational load in North American outcrossing populations of Arabidopsis lyrata?"
  • Xintian Lao, Chinese exchange student, supported by the International Association for the Exchange of Students for Technical Experience (IASTE) (Summer 2009, working with PhD student Andy Tedder), "Do populations of Arabis alpina with a low Fis have a functional self-incompatibility system?"
  • Ksenia Kourbatskaya, Undergraduate Research Assistant, Funded by Dobie Smith Prize in Plant Biology (Summer 2009), "Variation at WRR4, a candidate gene for resistance to Albugo, in relation to host responses in inbreeding and outcrossing populations of Arabidopsis lyrata"
  • Andrew McBride, Undergraduate Research Assistant, funded by a Genes and Development Summer Student scholarship from the Genetics society (Summer 2008), "Developing species identification tools for Anasakid worms infecting Scottish fish"
  • Kirsty Inglis, Genetics (Supervisor 2007-2008), "Genetic diversity and molecular sexing of Scottish sticklebacks";  Also employed as Undergraduate Research Assistant, funded by the University Federation for Animal Welfare (Summer 2008; working with PhD student Clare Marsden), "Comparison of noninvasive sampling techniques for assessing MHC diversity in canids"
  • Lucia Allen, Summer student (Summer 2007; Co-supervised with Kate Arnold), "Characterising blood parasites in blue tits from Loch Lomond"
  • David Green, Genetics (Supervisor 2006-2007; working with PhD student Peter Hoebe), "Phylogeography of Arabidopsis lyrata in the Great Lakes region"
  • Jenna Greer, Zoology (Supervisor 2006-2007, working with PhD student Clare Marsden), "Comparison of extraction methods for noninvasive sampling techniques in dogs"
  • Lesley Cleathero, Directed Studies, Exchange Student from University of British Columbia (Feb.-June, 2006), "Assessing diversity of self-incompatibility genes in polyploid Arabidopsis lyrata"
  • Victoria McNab, Zoology, University of Glasgow (Co-supervisor 2005-2006 with Willie Yeomans, Clyde River Foundation), "Examining parasite diversity in relation to water quality in Scottish sticklebacks"
  • Michael Perkins, Zoology, University of Glasgow (Co-supervisor 2005-2006 with Willie Yeomans, Clyde River Foundation), "Examining parasite diversity between lake and river populations of Scottish Sticklebacks"
  • Adam Hastie, Zoology, University of Glasgow (Co-supervisor 2005-2006 with Dan Haydon), "Assessing diversity of sphagnum mosses in Scotland"

Papers arising from masters or undergraduate student projects:

  • Mable, B.K.K. Brysting, M.H. Jørgensen, A.K. Z. Carbonell, C. Kiefer, P. Ruiz-Duarte, Karin Lagesen and M.A. Koch. 2018. Adding complexity to complexity: gene family evolution in polyploids. Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution 6:114. https://doi.org/10.3389/fevo.2018.00114
  • Bird, R.J., E. Paterson, J.R. Downie and B.K. Mable. 2018.  Linking water quality with amphibian breeding and development: a case study comparing natural ponds and Sustainable Drainage Systems (SUDS) in East Kilbride, Scotland.  Glasgow Naturalist 27 (Supplement: Proceedings of Amphibian and Reptiles Conference): 49-66.
  • Bakuza, J.S., R. Gillespie, G. Nkwengulila, A. Adam, E. Kilbride and B.K. Mable.  2017. Assessing S. mansoni prevalence in Biomphalaria snails in the Gombe ecosystem of western Tanzania: the importance of DNA sequence data for clarifying species identification. Parasites & Vectors 10(1): 584. 10.1371/journal.pntd.0005937 
  • Freer, J.J., B.K. Mable, G. Clucas, A. Rogers, M. Polito, M. Dunn, R. Naveen, H. Levy and T. Hart.  2015. Limited genetic differentiation among chinstrap penguin (Pygoscelis antarctica) colonies in the Scotia Arc and Western Antarctic Peninsula. Polar Biology 38(9): 1493-1502. IF 1.949
  • Stift, M., B.D. Hunter, B. Shaw, A. Adam, P.N. Hoebe, B. K. Mable. 2013.Inbreeding depression in self-incompatible North-American Arabidopsis lyrata: disentangling genomic and S-locus specific genetic load. Heredity 110:19-28.
  • Furness,R.W.· B.K. Mable, F. Savory, K. Griffiths and M. Heubeck.2010. Subspecies status of common eiders in Shetland based on morphology and DNA. Bird Study 57 (3): 330-335. IF 1.033
  • Mable, B.K., J. Beland and C. DiBerardo. 2004. Inheritance and dominance of self-incompatibility alleles in tetraploid Arabidopsis lyrata.  Heredity 93: 476486
  • Dart, S., P. Kron and B.K. Mable. 2004.  Characterizing polyploidy in Arabidopsis lyrata using chromosome counts and flow cytometry.  Canadian Journal of Botany 82(2): 185-197  IF 0.99
  • Sussmann, A.V., B.K. Mable, R.E. DeWreede and M.L. Berbee. 1999. Identification of green algal endophytes as the alternate phase of Acrosiphonia (Codiolales, Chlorophyta) using ITS1 and ITS2 ribosomal DNA sequence data. Journal of Phycology 35(3):607-614