Biology subjects

Frere, C. H.

Publications and source records attributed to Frere, C. H..

4 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2026

Social Distancing Responses to Fungal Disease in an Australian Wild Lizard Population

Social living often confers substantial fitness benefits; however, close spatial association among individuals can also elevate opportunities for pathogen transmission, especially where the populations are dense. Despite this, the extent to which avoidance behaviours are expressed by wild reptiles facing fungal disease remains unclear. We examined Eastern Water Dragons (Intellagama lesueurii) in Roma Street Parklands, Brisbane, Australia, where a population is affected by the emerging fungal pathogen Nannizziopsis barbatae (Nb). Using a five-year dataset (2018-2023) spanning 146 individuals, we quantified social distance, as the minimum distance to the nearest neighbour, in relation to the number of diseased conspecifics that overlapped each individual seasonal core home area. Social distance was negatively associated with the number of diseased conspecifics, indicating a strong crowding effect; however, this association was weaker for diseased individuals, which were observed at larger distances than healthy individuals even when the number of diseased conspecifics was high. Together, these patterns indicate a context-dependent spacing response associated with disease status and local disease context, suggesting that infection risk constrains density-driven proximity. Our findings provide new insights into how disease pressure shapes social spacing in reptiles and contribute to a broader understanding of behavioural responses to emerging infectious fungal diseases.

animal behavior and cognition↗

bioRxiv2025

The future is faeces: Using faecal genomic sequencing to understand dietary choices of an endangered arboreal marsupial

1. Understanding critical components of habitat use, such as dietary preferences, is crucial for creating and implementing effective conservation plans. This becomes challenging when species exhibit cryptic behaviours, such as arboreality and nocturnality, as seen in the endangered greater glider (Petauroides spp). Existing methods for determining greater glider diet are inadequate, time consuming and prone to human error. Furthermore, current literature lacks specificity, with most research stating simply that greater gliders are dietary eucalypt specialists, without providing additional insight into which species are eaten. 2. Here, we tested a non-invasive technique using targeted sequencing of species-specific single nucleotide polymorphisms from greater glider faecal samples to identify dietary components across multiple locations in Southeast Queensland. 3. Sequencing identified 17 plant species present in the faecal samples, including Angophora, Acacia and Casuarina spp. that were previously unknown to be feed tree taxa, profoundly increasing our understanding of the habitat requirements of this endangered marsupial. Four of these identified species were out of range of their natural occurrence, suggesting limitations to the accuracy of this technique. 4. This study demonstrates the value of using genomic sequencing for analysing diets of arboreal mammals and makes recommendations for improving the accuracy of this methodology for future studies. Our findings highlight key tree species to be considered important for future greater glider conservation plans and raises the question whether there are local drivers behind the differences in dietary choices across the landscape. Such information will be critical for greater glider conservation, particularly when management planning across multiple habitats.

molecular biology↗

bioRxiv2023

Century-old chromatin architecture preserved with formaldehyde

Co-ordinated regulation or dysregulation of chromatin architecture underpins fundamental biological processes, such as embryonic development, disease, cellular programming and response to environmental stress. The dynamic and plastic nature of chromatin accessibility is a major driver of phenotypic diversity, but we know shockingly little about the temporal dynamics of chromatin reorganisation and almost nothing prior to the existence of flash-frozen specimens. Linking two disparate fields by their common use and application of the preservative formaldehyde, we present an approach to characterise chromatin architecture in formaldehyde-preserved specimens up to 117 years old. We characterise how over-fixation modulates but does not eliminate genome-wide patterns of differential chromatin accessibility. Our novel analytical approach identifies promoter regions enriched for gene ontology terms matching the tissue of origin, resulting in sex-specific and environment-dependent genome-wide profiles. Contrary to prevailing dogma, we show that over-fixation is essential for the successful recovery of historical chromatin architecture. Our methodological and analytical advances open the door to the first detailed and comprehensive view of the epigenetic past and reveal a new role for museum collections in understanding chromatin architecture dynamics over the last century.

genomics↗

bioRxiv2022

Changes in Social Position Predict Survival in Bottlenose Dolphins

1Social bonds and social structure are important features of animal systems that impact individual fitness. Few studies have examined how temporal dynamics in individual social bonds predict fitness outcomes. This is critical to understand given the high variation in types of social structures and strategies within populations of social mammals, both across time and among individuals. If individually-differentiated social bonds are important, it might be the change in bonds which has fitness consequences, not the absolute number of bonds nor their strength. We investigated how network dynamics predict survival in a wild population of bottlenose dolphins using a 35-year longitudinal study. In particular, we were interested in two sex-specific measures of the "widowhood effect", as well as a more general investigation into the predictability of mortality from changes in higher-order social network metrics. We used two inferential frameworks to provide complimentary evidence for or against hypotheses; namely, a gradient-boosting predictivist approach with relative importance measures, and an inclusion probabilities approach based on stability-selection. We found evidence of a widowhood effect among males but not females. Surprisingly, the most robust predictor of survival was closeness-centrality, whereby the loss of closeness centrality preceded death. This finding, that absolute network position may not be as relevant to survival as changes in network status, is consistent with a large social-psychological literature in humans on the impacts of loss of social capital, dissolution of close friendships, and loss through death of partners (widowhood effect). This study highlights the critical nature of social connections and how its disruption can be a matter of life and death.

animal behavior and cognition↗