| microgeographic socio-genetic structure of an african cooperative breeding passerine revealed: integrating behavioural and genetic data. | dispersal can be motivated by multiple factors including sociality. dispersal behaviour affects population genetic structure that in turn reinforces social organization. we combined observational information with individual-based genetic data in the karoo scrub-robin, a facultative cooperatively breeding bird, to understand how social bonds within familial groups affect mating patterns, cause sex asymmetry in dispersal behaviour and ultimately influence the evolution of dispersal. our results re ... | 2012 | 21883586 |
| historical demographic dynamics underlying local adaptation in the presence of gene flow. | the range of a species is the result of the relative contribution of spatial tracking of environmental requirements and adaptation to ecological conditions outside the ancestral niche. the appearance of novel habitats caused by climatic oscillation can promote range expansion and accompanying demographic growth. the demographic dynamics of populations leave a signal in \ patterns. we modeled three competing scenarios pertaining to the circumstance of a range expansion by the karoo scrub-robin in ... | 2012 | 23170207 |
| microsatellites in the karoo scrub-robin, cercotrichas coryphaeus (passeriformes: muscicapinae): isolation and characterization of 13 autosomal and two sex-linked loci. | fifteen polymorphic microsatellites were developed for the karoo scrub-robin, cercotrichas coryphaeus. here we describe and characterize microsatellite variation of 13 autosomal loci and two z-linked loci in 42 individuals from two distinct south african populations. the number of alleles per locus varied from three to 13 and values of observed heterozygosity ranged from 0.318 to 0.900. these loci will be used to test hypotheses relating to fine-scale social structure and mating strategies in th ... | 2009 | 21564714 |
| 31° south: the physiology of adaptation to arid conditions in a passerine bird. | arid environments provide ideal ground for investigating the mechanisms of adaptive evolution. high temperatures and low water availability are relentless stressors for many endotherms, including birds; yet birds persist in deserts. while physiological adaptation probably involves metabolic phenotypes, the underlying mechanisms (plasticity, genetics) are largely uncharacterized. to explore this, we took an intraspecific approach that focused on a species that is resident over a mesic to arid gra ... | 2019 | 31291502 |