Dr Isobel Eyres

School of Biosciences

Research Fellow

i.eyres@sheffield.ac.uk

Alfred Denny Building

Full contact details

Dr Isobel Eyres
School of Biosciences
Alfred Denny Building
Western Bank
Sheffield
S10 2TN

Profile

Royal Society Dorothy Hodgkin Fellow, University of Sheffield (2022-present)
Postdoctoral Research Associate, Butlin Lab, University of Sheffield (2014-2021)
PhD, Imperial College London (2010-2014)
BA Biological Sciences, University of Oxford (2004-2007)

Research interests

The genomics of population divergence and speciation
Speciation in facultative sexuals
Experimental speciation in the lab using monogonont rotifers

I am an evolutionary biologist interested in the evolution of reproductive isolation. My research primarily focusses on the impact of sex and gene flow on the processes of adaptation and speciation.

What makes speciation more or less likely to occur? Each speciation event is unique, taking place with a different set of organisms with a different evolutionary history and a different set of environmental circumstances. The evolutionary forces experienced by populations during the speciation process will influence its outcome. Understanding the impact of these forces helps to explain the patterns of biodiversity we see around us.

A wealth of reproductive modes exist across the tree of life, from complete asexuality to obligate bisexual reproduction. A facultatively sexual reproductive mode, in which species reproduce both sexually and asexually, is common in fungi, plants and animals, and is found in ecologically and economically important groups including disease causing organisms, crop pests and primary producers. However, important questions such as how local adaptation and reproductive isolation evolve in the presence of gene flow, and how this impacts the genome, are yet to be asked of facultative sexuals.

To answer these questions I combine studies of natural populations with experimental speciation and genomics.

Publications

Journal articles

White NJ, Beckerman AP, Snook RR, Brockhurst MA, Butlin RK & Eyres I (2022) Experimental evolution of local adaptation under unidimensional and multidimensional selection. Current Biology, 32(6), 1310-1318.e4.
Stankowski S, Westram AM, Zagrodzka ZB, Eyres I, Broquet T, Johannesson K & Butlin RK (2020) The evolution of strong reproductive isolation between sympatric intertidal snails. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 375(1806). View this article in WRRO
Eyres I, Snook RR & White NJ (2020) The past and future of experimental speciation. Trends in Ecology & Evolution, 35(1), 10-21. View this article in WRRO
Eyres I, Duvaux L, Gharbi K, Tucker R, Hopkins D, Simon JC, Ferrari J, Smadja CM & Butlin RK (2017) Targeted re‐sequencing confirms the importance of chemosensory genes in aphid host race differentiation. Molecular Ecology, 26(1), 43-58. View this article in WRRO
Eyres I, Jaquiéry J, Sugio A, Duvaux L, Gharbi K, Zhou JJ, Legeai F, Nelson M, Simon JC, Smadja CM , Butlin RK et al (2016) Differential gene expression according to race and host plant in the pea aphid. Molecular Ecology, 25(17), 4197-4215. View this article in WRRO
Debortoli N, Li X, Eyres I, Fontaneto D, Hespeels B, Tang CQ, Flot J-F & Van Doninck K (2016) Genetic Exchange among Bdelloid Rotifers Is More Likely Due to Horizontal Gene Transfer Than to Meiotic Sex. Current Biology, 26(6), 723-732.
Eyres I, Boschetti C, Crisp A, Smith TP, Fontaneto D, Tunnacliffe A & Barraclough TG (2015) Horizontal gene transfer in bdelloid rotifers is ancient, ongoing and more frequent in species from desiccating habitats. BMC Biology, 13. View this article in WRRO
Boschetti C, Carr A, Crisp A, Eyres I, Wang-Koh Y, Lubzens E, Barraclough TG, Micklem G & Tunnacliffe A (2012) Biochemical Diversification through Foreign Gene Expression in Bdelloid Rotifers. PLoS Genetics, 8(11), e1003035-e1003035. View this article in WRRO
Eyres I, Frangedakis E, Fontaneto D, Herniou EA, Boschetti C, Carr A, Micklem G, Tunnacliffe A & Barraclough TG (2012) Multiple functionally divergent and conserved copies of alpha tubulin in bdelloid rotifers. BMC Evolutionary Biology, 12(1). View this article in WRRO
Fontaneto D, Iakovenko N, Eyres I, Kaya M, Wyman M & Barraclough TG (2011) Cryptic diversity in the genus Adineta Hudson & Gosse, 1886 (Rotifera: Bdelloidea: Adinetidae): a DNA taxonomy approach. Hydrobiologia, 662(1), 27-33.
Hall J, Guo G, Wray J, Eyres I, Nichols J, Grotewold L, Morfopoulou S, Humphreys P, Mansfield W, Walker R , Tomlinson S et al (2009) Oct4 and LIF/Stat3 Additively Induce Krüppel Factors to Sustain Embryonic Stem Cell Self-Renewal. Cell Stem Cell, 5(6), 597-609.
Guo G, Yang J, Nichols J, Hall JS, Eyres I, Mansfield W & Smith A (2009) Klf4 reverts developmentally programmed restriction of ground state pluripotency. Development, 136(7), 1063-1069.
Jones NG, Nietlispach D, Sharma R, Burke DF, Eyres I, Mues M, Mott HR & Carrington M (2008) Structure of a Glycosylphosphatidylinositol-anchored Domain from a Trypanosome Variant Surface Glycoprotein. Journal of Biological Chemistry, 283(6), 3584-3593.