Published in Biological reviews of the Cambridge Philosophical Society
Microbes colonise all multicellular life, and the gut microbiome has been shown to influence a range of host physiological and behavioural phenotypes. One of the most intriguing and least understood of these influences lies in the domain of the microbiome's interactions with host social behaviour, with new evidence revealing that the gut microbiome...
Published in Biological reviews of the Cambridge Philosophical Society
Camouflage - adaptations that prevent detection and/or recognition - is a key example of evolution by natural selection, making it a primary focus in evolutionary ecology and animal behaviour. Most work has focused on camouflage as an anti-predator adaptation. However, predators also display specific colours, patterns and behaviours that reduce vis...
Published in Biological reviews of the Cambridge Philosophical Society
The seahorses, pipefishes and seadragons (Syngnathidae) are among the few vertebrates in which pregnant males incubate developing embryos. Syngnathids are popular in studies of sexual selection, sex-role reversal, and reproductive trade-offs, and are now emerging as valuable comparative models for the study of the biology and evolution of reproduct...
Published in Biological reviews of the Cambridge Philosophical Society
The study of innovation in non-human animals (henceforth: animals) has recently gained momentum across fields including primatology, animal behaviour and cultural evolution. Examining the rate of innovations, and the cognitive mechanisms driving these innovations across species, can provide insights into the evolution of human culture. Especially r...
Published in Biological reviews of the Cambridge Philosophical Society
The question of how phenotypic and genomic complexity are inter-related and how they are shaped through evolution is a central question in biology that historically has been approached from the perspective of animals and plants. In recent years, however, fungi have emerged as a promising alternative system to address such questions. Key to their ec...
Published in Biological reviews of the Cambridge Philosophical Society
Biomineralized skeletons are widespread in animals, and their origins can be traced to the latest Ediacaran or early Cambrian fossil record, in virtually all animal groups. The origin of animal skeletons is inextricably linked with the diversification of animal body plans and the dramatic changes in ecology and geosphere-biosphere interactions acro...
Published in Biological reviews of the Cambridge Philosophical Society
Gut mucosal barriers, including chemical and physical barriers, spatially separate the gut microbiota from the host immune system to prevent unwanted immune responses that could lead to intestinal inflammation. In inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), there is mucosal barrier dysfunction coupled with immune dysregulation and dysbiosis. The discovery of...
Published in Biological reviews of the Cambridge Philosophical Society
Several parasite species have the ability to modify their host's phenotype to their own advantage thereby increasing the probability of transmission from one host to another. This phenomenon of host manipulation is interpreted as the expression of a parasite extended phenotype. Manipulative parasites generally affect multiple phenotypic traits in t...
Published in Biological reviews of the Cambridge Philosophical Society
The European eel (Anguilla anguilla) is a catadromous fish that spawns in the Sargasso Sea. As larvae, eels cross the Atlantic Ocean and reach the continental slope of Europe, where they metamorphose into post-larval glass eels. These reach the continent, where some enter fresh water, some remain in marine waters, and others move between fresh and ...
Published in Biological reviews of the Cambridge Philosophical Society
Given one conception of biological individuality (evolutionary, physiological, etc.), can a holobiont - that is the host + its symbiotic (mutualistic, commensalist and parasitic) microbiome - be simultaneously a biological individual and an ecological community? Herein, we support this possibility by arguing that the notion of biological individual...
