Publications

Pike, V., Ford, S. A.,King, K. C. & Rafaluk-Mohr, C. Fecundity compensation is dependent on the generalized stress response in a nematode host. Ecology and Evolution, (2019). doi: 10.1002/ece3.5704

We find that an organism’s stress response is involved in fecundity compensation, thus life-history and immune responses to infection aren’t always traded-off as predicted. This may explain why evidence for this trade-off is rare and alters predictions for host evolution.

Ford, S. A.,Allen, S. L., Ohm, J. R., Sebastian, A., Albert, I., Chenoweth, S. F., McGraw, E. A. Selection
on Aedes aegypti alters Wolbachia-mediated dengue virus blocking and fitness. Nature Microbiology, (2019). doi: 10.1038/s41564-019-0533-3.

We revealed genetic variation associated with Wolbachia-mediated blocking of the dengue virus in mosquitoes and demonstrated that strong protection could be maintained by natural selection. Our findings have significant implications for the use of Wolbachia as a biocontrol agent.

Ford, S. A.,Williams, D., Paterson, S. & King, K. C. Co-evolutionary dynamics between a defensive microbe and a pathogen driven by fluctuating selection. Molecular Ecology 26, 1778-1789, (2017). Doi: 10.1111/mec.13906

We demonstrated for the first time experimentally that protective symbionts can undergo coevolutionary interactions with a pathogen inside a host organism. This changes how we understand pathogen adaptation and is important for us to consider when designing disease control strategies.

Ford, S. A.,Kao, D., Williams, D. & King, K. C. Microbe-mediated host defence drives the evolution of reduced pathogen virulence. Nature Communications 7, 13430, (2016). doi: 10.1038/ncomms13430

We drew parallels from the pathogen co-infection literature to hypothesise and show, for the first time, that microbes that protect hosts from infection can drive pathogen virulence evolution. This has major implications for strategies that manipulate microbes to control infectious disease.

Ford, S. A. & King, K. C. Harnessing the Power of Defensive Microbes: Evolutionary Implications in Nature and Disease Control. PLOS Pathogens 12, e1005465, (2016). doi: 10.1371/journal.ppat.1005465

We outline alternative hypotheses for what selection pressures drive the origin and maintenance of defensive microbes along with the potential consequences for host and pathogen evolution. We make both general and specific predictions.

King, K. C., Brockhurst, M. A., Vasieva, O., Paterson, S., Betts, A., Ford, S. A.,Frost, C. L., Horsburgh, M. J., Haldenby, S. & Hurst, G. D. Rapid evolution of microbe-mediated protection against pathogens in a worm host. ISME Journal 10, 1915-1924, (2016). doi: 10.1038/ismej.2015.259

This paper experimentally demonstrates the evolutionary origin of a microbe that defends a host organism against a pathogen. The information learned here is vital for the generation and maintenance of disease control strategies that rely on microbial interactions.

Maiden, M. C., Jansen van Rensburg, M. J., Bray, J. E., Earle S. G., Ford, S. A.,Jolley, K. A. & McCarthy, N. D. MLST revisited: the gene-by-gene approach to bacterial genomics. Nature Reviews Microbiology 11, 728-736, (2013). Doi: 10.1038/nrmicro3093

This paper reviews sequencing analysis methods that identify bacterial relationships and proposes a structured way of describing diversity that captures both functional and evolutionary information in the era of whole genome sequencing.

Pending Patents

Ford, S.A. & McGraw, E.A. Compositions and methods for use in controlling mosquito-borne viruses (Pending patent. Filing date: 29/8/2018. Patent Application No: 62/724,468).