Research Topics
| William AmosSummaryAffiliation: University of Cambridge Country: UK Publications
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Detail Information
Publications
Homozygosity and risk of childhood death due to invasive bacterial diseaseEmily J Lyons
The Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics, University of Oxford, Roosevelt Drive, Oxford OX3 7BN, UK
BMC Med Genet 10:55. 2009..Consequently, we performed a case-control study of fatal invasive bacterial disease in Kenyan children using a genome-wide screen with microsatellite markers...- Sexual selection does not influence minisatellite mutation rateWilliam Amos
Department of Zoology, Cambridge University, Cambridge, UK
BMC Evol Biol 9:5. 2009..I therefore attempted to replicate their results using both their data and an independent data set based on papers they failed to locate... - Heterozygosity increases microsatellite mutation rate, linking it to demographic historyWilliam Amos
Department of Zoology, Downing Street, Cambridge, CB4 3DB, UK
BMC Genet 9:72. 2008..Here we test this hypothesis using both direct counting of microsatellite mutations in human pedigrees and an analysis of the relationship between microsatellite length and patterns of demographically-induced variation in heterozygosity... - Evidence that two main bottleneck events shaped modern human genetic diversityW Amos
Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge CB2 3EJ, UK
Proc Biol Sci 277:131-7. 2010.... 
Heterozygosity and mutation rate: evidence for an interaction and its implications: the potential for meiotic gene conversions to influence both mutation rate and distributionWilliam Amos
Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, UK
Bioessays 32:82-90. 2010..I then consider the likely implications, focusing particularly on how these processes might affect microsatellites, concluding that heterozygosity does impact on the rate and distribution of mutations...- Global genetic positioning: evidence for early human population centers in coastal habitatsWilliam Amos
Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge CB2 3EJ, United Kingdom
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 103:820-4. 2006..Our approach is flexible, and developments should prove useful both for exploring historical demography and for the identification of likely origin for unknown forensic samples... 
When does conservation genetics matter?W Amos
Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge CB2 3EJ, UK
Heredity (Edinb) 87:257-65. 2001..Such findings call into question the validity of simple models based on random mating, and emphasize the need for more empirical data aimed at elucidating precisely what happens in natural populations...- The influence of parental relatedness on reproductive successW Amos
Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge CB2 3EJ, UK
Proc Biol Sci 268:2021-7. 2001..Our results thus uncover a selective pressure that favours not only inbreeding avoidance, but also the selection of maximally dissimilar mates... - Factors affecting levels of genetic diversity in natural populationsW Amos
School of Environmental and Evolutionary Biology, University of St Andrews, Fife, UK
Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 353:177-86. 1998..Circumstances can even be envisioned in which the process could provide intrinsic impetus to speciation... - Mix and match - hybridization reveals hidden complexity in seal breeding behaviourWilliam Amos
Department of Zoology, Downing Street, Cambridge CB2 3EJ, UK
Mol Ecol 16:3066-8. 2007..Hybrid males seem physically fit but sexually unattractive!.. - Population-specific links between heterozygosity and the rate human microsatellite evolutionWilliam Amos
Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge CB2 3EJ, UK
J Mol Evol 72:215-21. 2011..Such patterns have the potential to provide a new window onto historical demography... - Body temperature predicts maximum microsatellite length in mammalsWilliam Amos
Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
Biol Lett 4:399-401. 2008..Our results support a model of microsatellite evolution in which maximum length is limited by a temperature-dependent stability threshold... - Using human demographic history to infer natural selection reveals contrasting patterns on different families of immune genesWilliam Amos
Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge CB2 3EJ, UK
Proc Biol Sci 278:1587-94. 2011..We hope our approach will provide a useful tool with which to infer where selection has acted to shape the human genome... - Candidate genes versus genome-wide associations: which are better for detecting genetic susceptibility to infectious disease?W Amos
Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB2 3EJ, UK
Proc Biol Sci 278:1183-8. 2011..We conclude that the power of any genotype-phenotype association test will be improved if the sampling strategy takes account of exposure heterogeneity, though this is not necessarily easy to do... - Mutation biases and mutation rate variation around very short human microsatellites revealed by human-chimpanzee-orangutan genomic sequence alignmentsWilliam Amos
Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge, CB2 3EJ, UK
J Mol Evol 71:192-201. 2010..Inferences about longer repeat tracts are hampered by uncertainties about the proportion of multi-species alignments that fail due to multi-repeat mutations and other rearrangements... - Exploring the relationship between parental relatedness and male reproductive success in the Antarctic fur seal Arctocephalus gazellaJoseph I Hoffman
Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge CB2 3EJ, United Kingdom
Evolution 58:2087-99. 2004..Since the relationship remained significant in all cases, we favor a multilocus explanation for the effects we report... - Distance from Africa, not climate, explains within-population phenotypic diversity in humansLia Betti
Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge CB2 3EJ, UK
Proc Biol Sci 276:809-14. 2009..These results mirror those previously obtained for genetic markers and show that 'bones and molecules' are in perfect agreement for humans... - Genetic resistance to bovine tuberculosis in the Iberian wild boarKarina Acevedo-Whitehouse
Laboratory of Molecular Ecology, Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge CB2 3EJ, UK
Mol Ecol 14:3209-17. 2005..Our results may prove to be crucial for understanding outbreaks of bTB in wildlife that could potentially affect domestic livestock and humans... - Contrasting effects of heterozygosity on survival and hookworm resistance in California sea lion pupsKarina Acevedo-Whitehouse
Laboratory of Molecular Ecology, Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge CB2 3EJ, UK
Mol Ecol 15:1973-82. 2006..Our study could have important implications for the conservation of small, isolated or threatened populations, particularly when they are at a risk of facing pathogenic challenges... - Exploring the mechanisms underlying a heterozygosity-fitness correlation for canine size in the Antarctic fur seal Arctocephalus gazellaJoseph I Hoffman
Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB2 3EJ, UK
J Hered 101:539-52. 2010..These findings contribute to a growing body of evidence suggesting that general effects are likely to be uncommon in natural populations... - Getting long in the tooth: a strong positive correlation between canine size and heterozygosity in Antarctic fur seals Arctocephalus gazellaJoseph I Hoffman
Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB2 3EJ, UK
J Hered 101:527-38. 2010.... - Quantifying ascertainment bias and species-specific length differences in human and chimpanzee microsatellites using genome sequencesEdward J Vowles
Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom
Mol Biol Evol 23:598-607. 2006..The differences we find can only be explained if microsatellites are both evolving directionally under a biased mutation process and are doing so at different rates in different closely related species... - Patterns of parental relatedness and pup survival in the grey seal (Halichoerus grypus)K Bean
Sea Mammal Research Unit, St Andrews University, St Andrews, Fife, KY16 8LB, Scotland, UK
Mol Ecol 13:2365-70. 2004..These results provide evidence that parental relatedness is an important determinant of pre-weaning pup survival in the grey seal and that this may vary with cause of mortality given a larger sample size... - Mutational bias provides a model for the evolution of Huntington's disease and predicts a general increase in disease prevalenceD C Rubinsztein
East Anglian Regional Genetics Service Molecular Genetics Laboratory, Addenbrooke s NHS Trust, Cambridge, UK
Nat Genet 7:525-30. 1994..The key element is a simple length-dependent mutational bias towards longer alleles. Our model can explain a number of empirical observations, and predicts an ever-increasing incidence of HD... - Does kin selection influence fostering behaviour in Antarctic fur seals (Arctocephalus gazella)?Joseph I Hoffman
Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge CB2 3EJ, UK
Proc Biol Sci 272:2017-22. 2005..Our study emphasizes the need for caution when interpreting rare events that occur at a rate approaching that expected for normal genotyping errors... - Evidence for nonindependent evolution of adjacent microsatellites in the human genomeMiguel A Varela
Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
J Mol Evol 68:160-70. 2009..The result is convergent evolution. We suggest that, although their exact nature remains unclear, these biases are likely attributable to structural features, such as the propensity of AC tracts to form Z-DNA... - A preliminary study of genetic factors that influence susceptibility to bovine tuberculosis in the British cattle herdErin E Driscoll
Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom
PLoS ONE 6:e18806. 2011.... - Directional evolution of size coupled with ascertainment bias for variation in Drosophila microsatellitesWilliam Amos
Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, England
Mol Biol Evol 20:660-2. 2003..We apply this approach to a reciprocal-isolation microsatellite study and show contributions of both ascertainment bias and a true longer average microsatellite length in Drosophila melanogaster compared with D. simulans... - Heterogeneous distribution of SNPs in the human genome: microsatellites as predictors of nucleotide diversity and divergenceMiguel A Varela
Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB2 3EJ, UK
Genomics 95:151-9. 2010..Our results help to explain the mixed picture that emerges from other studies and have important implications for the way in which genetic diversity is distributed in our genomes... 
Evidence for widespread convergent evolution around human microsatellitesEdward J Vowles
Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom
PLoS Biol 2:E199. 2004....- Male heterozygosity predicts territory size, song structure and reproductive success in a cooperatively breeding birdNathalie Seddon
Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge CB2 3EJ, UK
Proc Biol Sci 271:1823-9. 2004.... - Even small SNP clusters are non-randomly distributed: is this evidence of mutational non-independence?William Amos
Department of Zoology, Cambridge University, Downing Street, Cambridge CB2 3EJ, UK
Proc Biol Sci 277:1443-9. 2010..Mutational non-independence therefore provides an interesting new hypothesis that appears capable of explaining the distribution of SNPs in the human genome... - The effect of ancient population bottlenecks on human phenotypic variationAndrea Manica
Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge CB2 3EJ, UK
Nature 448:346-8. 2007..Distance from Africa accounts for an average 19-25% of heritable variation in craniometric measurements-a remarkably strong effect for phenotypic measurements known to be under selection... - An enigmatic satelliteWilliam Amos
Department of Zoology, Downing Street, Cambridge CB2 3EJ, UK
Genome Biol 12:110. 2011..McLaughlin and Chadwick describe an X-linked tandem repeat that is transcribed, conserved and defies X inactivation. Is it selfish, functional or just an oddity?.. - Inbreeding depression and multiple regions showing heterozygote advantage in Drosophila melanogaster exposed to stressAlvaro G A Ferreira
Department of Zoology Downing Street Cambridge CB2 3EJ, UK
Mol Ecol 15:3885-93. 2006..Thus, balancing selection is widespread and is likely to play an important role in maintaining genetic variability... - Contrasting patterns of genetic diversity at three different genetic markers in a marine mammal metapopulationJ I Hoffman
Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge CB2 3EJ, UK
Mol Ecol 18:2961-78. 2009.... - Female fur seals show active choice for males that are heterozygous and unrelatedJ I Hoffman
Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge, CB2 3EJ, UK
Nature 445:912-4. 2007.... - An investigation of inbreeding depression and purging in captive pedigreed populationsE H Boakes
Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
Heredity (Edinb) 98:172-82. 2007..The study re-emphasises the necessity to avoid inbreeding in captive breeding programmes and shows that purging cannot be relied upon to remove deleterious alleles from zoo populations... - Genetic tagging reveals extreme site fidelity in territorial male Antarctic fur seals Arctocephalus gazellaJ I Hoffman
Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge CB2 3EJ, UK
Mol Ecol 15:3841-7. 2006..The discovery of such extreme site faithfulness has implications for the population structure and mating system of fur seals and potentially other colonially breeding species... - Maladaptive mate choice maintained by heterozygote advantageO Kruger
Department of Animal Behaviour, University of Bielefeld, Germany
Evolution 55:1207-14. 2001..Modeling different patterns of mate choice shows that random mating and preference for own morph fit our data poorly, whereas preference for mother's morph yields a good fit... - Low reproductive success in territorial male Antarctic fur seals (Arctocephalus gazella) suggests the existence of alternative mating strategiesN J Gemmell
Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge CB2 3EJ, UK
Mol Ecol 10:451-60. 2001..To explain this discrepancy we suggest that female choice is an integral component of the Antarctic fur seal mating system and that aquatic mating may play a much larger role in the Antarctic fur seal than previously thought... - Population structure of long-finned pilot whales in the North Atlantic: a correlation with sea surface temperature?K J Fullard
Department of Zoology, Cambridge University, Cambridge CB2 3EJ, UK
Mol Ecol 9:949-58. 2000..Such a mechanism is supported by the observation that temperature is a primary factor determining the relative distributions of two short-finned pilot whale (G. macrorhynchus) populations off the Pacific coast of Japan... - Does heterozygosity estimate inbreeding in real populations?F Balloux
Department of Genetics, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge CB2 3EH, UK
Mol Ecol 13:3021-31. 2004..Conversely, if heterosis provides the answer, there need to be many more polymorphisms with major fitness effects and higher levels of linkage disequilibrium than are generally assumed... - Where have all the fathers gone? An extensive microsatellite analysis of paternity in the grey seal (Halichoerus grypus)J Worthington Wilmer
Department of Zoology, Unviersity of Cambridge, UK
Mol Ecol 8:1417-29. 1999..We conclude that aquatic mating may play a much larger role in the grey seal than has previously been thought... - Microsatellite genotyping errors: detection approaches, common sources and consequences for paternal exclusionJ I Hoffman
Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge, CB2 3EJ, UK
Mol Ecol 14:599-612. 2005..Because even modest error rates can be strongly influential, we recommend that error rates should be routinely published and that researchers make an attempt to calculate how robust their analyses are to errors... - Ascertainment bias cannot entirely account for human microsatellites being longer than their chimpanzee homologuesG Cooper
University of Cambridge, Department of Zoology, Downing Street, Cambridge CB2 3EJ, UK
Hum Mol Genet 7:1425-9. 1998..2 repeat units longer in humans than in chimpanzees, implying a mutational bias in favour of microsatellite expansions and a higher average genome-wide microsatellite mutation rate in the human lineage... - Mating system, philopatry and patterns of kinship in the cooperatively breeding subdesert mesite Monias benschiN Seddon
Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, CB2 3EJ, UK
Mol Ecol 14:3573-83. 2005.... - No relationship between microsatellite variation and neonatal fitness in Antarctic fur seals, Arctocephalus gazellaJ I Hoffman
Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge, CB2 3EJ, UK
Mol Ecol 15:1995-2005. 2006.... - Microsatellite markers for the study of cetacean populationsE Valsecchi
Department of Genetics, Cambridge, UK
Mol Ecol 5:151-6. 1996..No relationship was found between microsatellite repeat length and proportion of species which gave polymorphic products... - Molecular scatology: the use of molecular genetic analysis to assign species, sex and individual identity to seal faecesJ Z Reed
University of Cambridge, Department of Genetics, UK
Mol Ecol 6:225-34. 1997..Approximately 200 scat samples have been examined for species identity and individual matches. This study will provide essential information for the assessment of interactions between seals and commercial or recreational fisheries... - Deep genetic subdivision within a continuously distributed and highly vagile marine mammal, the Steller's sea lion (Eumetopias jubatus)J I Hoffman
Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge CB2 3EJ, UK
Mol Ecol 15:2821-32. 2006.... - Dispersal, philopatry and intergroup relatedness: fine-scale genetic structure in the white-breasted thrasher, Ramphocinclus brachyurusH J Temple
Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge CB2 3EJ, UK
Mol Ecol 15:3449-58. 2006..This should be taken into account when designating protected areas or selecting sites for habitat restoration... - The evolution of sex-specific immune defencesOlivier Restif
Department of Veterinary Medicine, University of Cambridge, Madingley Road, Cambridge CB3 0ES, UK
Proc Biol Sci 277:2247-55. 2010..While this study focuses on sex-specific natural selection, it could easily be extended to include sexual selection and thus help to understand the interplay between the two processes... - Widespread translocation from autosomes to sex chromosomes preserves genetic variability in an endangered larkM De L Brooke
Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, UK
J Mol Evol 70:242-6. 2010..Sex-linkage might plausibly allow some level of heterozygosity to be maintained, even in the face of persistently small population sizes... - Male reproductive strategy and the importance of maternal status in the Antarctic fur seal Arctocephalus gazellaJoseph I Hoffman
Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge CB2 3EJ, United Kingdom
Evolution 57:1917-30. 2003..Thus, from a territorial male's perspective, not all females offer equal opportunities for fertilization... - Inbreeding: Disease susceptibility in California sea lionsKarina Acevedo-Whitehouse
Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge CB2 3EJ, UK
Nature 422:35. 2003 - Reproductive performance links to fine-scale spatial patterns of female grey seal relatednessP P Pomeroy
Sea Mammal Research Unit, University of St Andrews, Gatty Marine Laboratory, Fife, UK
Proc Biol Sci 268:711-7. 2001..Mothers occupying such sites achieved higher than average pup growth rates, suggesting a founder fitness benefit... - Host isolation and patterns of genetic variability in three populations of Teladorsagia from sheepTamsin L Braisher
Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge CB2 3EJ, UK
Int J Parasitol 34:1197-204. 2004..Such diversity may be caused by high effective population size, coupled with an increased mutation rate for mtDNA, which has important implications for the spread of anthelmintic resistance in nematode populations... - A new test for genotype-fitness associations reveals a single microsatellite allele that strongly predicts the nature of tuberculosis infections in wild boarWilliam Amos
Department of Zoology, Downing Street, Cambridge CB2 3EJ, UK, Institute of Zoology, Regent s Park, London NW1 4RY, UK
Mol Ecol Resour 9:1102-11. 2009..We further suggest a simple method for dealing with the problem of population structure, and believe this approach will help to identify genomic regions associated with fitness... - Clonal mixing in the soldier-producing aphid Pemphigus spyrothecae (Hemiptera: Aphididae)Paul C D Johnson
Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, UK
Mol Ecol 11:1525-31. 2002.... - Patterns of colonization in a metapopulation of grey sealsOscar E Gaggiotti
University of Cambridge, Department of Zoology, Downing Street, Cambridge CB2 3EJ, UK
Nature 416:424-7. 2002..Our method reveals differential recruitment to three newly founded colonies and implicates density-dependent dispersal in metapopulation dynamics by using genetic data... - Social structure in migrating humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae)Elena Valsecchi
School of Biological Science, University of New South Wales, Sydney NSW-2052, Australia
Mol Ecol 11:507-18. 2002..These findings suggest that, if any social organization does exist, it is formed transiently when needed rather than being a constant feature of the population, and hence is more likely based on reciprocal altruism than kin selection... - Microsatellite length differences between humans and chimpanzees at autosomal Loci are not found at equivalent haploid Y chromosomal LociManfred Kayser
Department of Forensic Molecular Biology, Erasmus University Medical Centre, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
Genetics 173:2179-86. 2006..Such a pattern is consistent with predictions from the heterozygote instability model and is not expected under models of microsatellite evolution that do not include interchromosomal events such as the enzyme evolution model... - The hidden value of missing genotypesWilliam Amos
Mol Biol Evol 23:1995-6. 2006..Remarkably, the gaps appear to carry as strong a phylogenetic signal as the actual data themselves... - Captivity selects for smaller eyesShengjiang Tan
Curr Biol 15:R540-2. 2005