DPhil. Student

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Sarah Knowles

Sarah Knowles

Details

Name: Sarah Knowles
Position: DPhil. Student
Email: sarah.knowles@zoo.ox.ac.uk

Autobiography

I graduated from Oxford in 2004 with a BSc in Biological Sciences. During this time I became interested in evolutionary and ecological aspects of disease, particularly as a result of a research project on avian malaria in the EGI. After graduating I worked as a field assistant in South Africa studying the social behaviour of cooperatively breeding Pied babblers Turdoides bicolor, and subsequently as a research assistant for the EGI's ongoing study of blue tits Cyanistes caeruleus in Wytham Woods.

Research Activities

In my DPhil (supervised by Ben Sheldon) I use a molecular approach to study avian malaria (Plasmodium) infections in the blue tit population of Wytham Woods, using both observational and experimental approaches. Plasmodium infections detected within this single host population vary in several interesting respects. Two of the most notable are (1) the level of chronic parasitaemia and (2) the number of co-infecting Plasmodium (cyt b) lineages. At present, very little is known about the potential significance of variation in these key parasitological traits.

My research questions include:

  • What factors underlie variation in Plasmodium infection status and chronic parasitaemia? How do these traits arise and change over time within individuals?
  • Does chronic Plasmodium parasitaemia have significant fitness consequences?
  • How do hosts acquire mixed-lineage infections, and is multiplicity of infection important in terms of host fitness?
  • What can the relative parasitaemias of Plasmodium lineages within mixed infections tell us about parasite-parasite interactions within the host?

Selected Recent Papers

Knowles, S.C.L., Nakagawa, S. & Sheldon, B. C. (in press) Elevated reproductive effort increases blood parasitaemia and decreases immune function in birds: a meta-regression approach Functional Ecology | Read abstract/paper online

Knowles, S. C. L. & Sheldon, B.C. (2008) Evolutionary biology: parasite, know thyself. Current Biology 18: R655-R657. | Read abstract/paper online

Raihani, N. J., Ridley A. R., Browning, L. E., Nelson-Flower M. J. & Knowles, S. 2008. Juvenile female aggression in cooperatively breeding pied babblers: causes and contexts. Ethology 114, 452–458. | Read abstract/paper online

Knowles, S. & Sheldon, B. C. 2007. Sex Ratios: Human Twins and Fraternal Effects. Current Biology 17, R801-804. | Read abstract/paper online

Wood, M.J., Cosgrove, C.L., Wilkin, T.A., Knowles, S.C.L., Day, K.P., & Sheldon, B.C. 2007. Within-population variation in prevalence and lineage distribution of avian malaria in blue tits Cyanistes caeruleus. Molecular Ecology 16, 3263-3273.| Read abstract/paper online

Cosgrove C. L., Knowles S. C. L., Day K. P. & Sheldon, B. C. 2006. No evidence for malaria infection during the nestling phase in a passerine bird. Journal of Parasitology 96 (6): 1302-1304. | Read abstract/paper online

Collins J., Goward M., Cole C., Smink L., Huckle E., Knowles S., Bye J., Beare D. & Dunham I. 2003. Reevaluating human gene annotation: a second-generation analysis of chromosome 22. Genome Research 13(1): 27-36. | Read abstract/paper online