Link to researcherID and Orcid.

Recent highlights:

Kim, KW, Jackson, BC, Zhang, H, Toews, DPL, Taylor, SA, Greig, EI, Lovette, IJ, Liu, MM, Davison, A, Griffith, SC, Zeng, K, and Burke, T (2019). Genetics and evidence for balancing selection of a sex-linked colour polymorphism in a songbird. Nature Communications 10: 1852. blog post.

Davison, A, McDowell, GS, Holden, JM, Johnson, HF, Koutsovoulos, GD, Liu, MM, Hulpiau, P, Van Roy, F, Wade, CM, Banerjee, R, Yang, F, Chiba, S, Davey, JW, Jackson, DJ, Levin M, and Blaxter, ML (2016). Formin is associated with left–right asymmetry in the pond snail and the frog. Current Biology, 26, 654-660. Editorial. Press. Lots more press. Recommendations on F1000.

Richards, PM, Liu, MM, Lowe, N, Davey, JW, Blaxter, ML and Davison, A (2013) RAD-Seq derived markers flank the shell colour and banding loci of the Cepaea nemoralis supergene. Molecular Ecology 22: 3077–3089. Snails also featured on the cover page (photo credit: Lauren Holden).

Science journalism:

Leopard slugs mate in the most beautifully bizarre way – and nobody knows why. The Conversation 11th Dec 2019.

Record for decoding the longest DNA sequence is impressive – here’s what to expect next. The Conversation 28th December 2018.

How #SnailLove led me to the BBC. UoN Vision magazine September 2018.

World's longest DNA sequence decoded. BBC Science News, 31st Oct 2018.

Small height evolved twice on 'Hobbit' island of Flores. BBC Science News, 14th August 2018.

Being human: Big toe clung on longest to primate origins. BBC Science News 14 August 2018. Including two interviews as science correspondent in BBC Newsroom.

Online dating: Aim high, keep it brief, and be patient. BBC Science News 8th August 2018.

Stonehenge: First residents from west Wales. BBC Science News 2nd August 2018.

From Hawaiian snail trail to Broadcasting House. UoN blogs 9th July 2018.

Peer reviewed articles:

* indicates undergraduate member of research team

Davison, A, McDowell, GS, Holden, JM, Johnson, HF, Wade, CM, Chiba, ., Jackson, DJ, Levin, M, and Blaxter, ML (2020). Formin, an opinion. Development 147, dev187427.

Davison, A. (2020). Flipping shells: unwinding LR asymmetry in mirror-image molluscs. Trends in Genetics, in press.

Saadi, AJ, Davison, A, and Wade, CM (2020). Molecular Phylogeny of the Freshwater Snails and Limpets (Panpulmonata: Hygrophila). Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, in press.

Davison, A, Jackson, HJ, *Murphy, EW, and Reader, T (2019). Discrete or indiscrete? Redefining the colour polymorphism of the land snail Cepaea nemoralis. Heredity 123: 162-175.

Gonzalez, DR, Aramendia, AC and Davison, A (2019). Recombination within the Cepaea nemoralis supergene is confounded by incomplete penetrance and epistasis. Heredity. 123: 153-161.

Johnson, HF, and Davison, A. (2019). A new set of endogenous control genes for use in quantitative real-time PCR experiments show that formin Ldia2^dex transcripts are enriched in the early embryo of the pond snail Lymnaea stagnalis (Panpulmonata). Journal of Molluscan Studies.

Dunning, J, Finch, T, Davison, A, and Durrant, KL (2019). Population-specific migratory strategies of Twite Linaria flavirostris in Western Europe. Ibis.

Swart, EM, Davison, A, Ellers, J, Filangieri, RR, Jackson, DJ, Marien, J, van der Ouderaa, IBC, Roelofs, D, and Koene, JM (2019). Temporal expression profile of an accessory-gland protein that is transferred via the seminal fluid of the simultaneous hermaphrodite Lymnaea stagnalis. Journal of Molluscan Studies 85, 177-183.

Gecchele LV, Bremner-Harrison S, Gilbert F, Soultan A, Davison A, and Durrant KL (2017) A pilot study to survey the carnivore community in the hyper-arid environment of South Sinai mountains. Journal of the Arid Environment, 141, 16-24.

Kajtoch Ł, Davison A, Grindon A, Deli T, Sramkó G, Gwardjan M, et al. (2017) Reconstructed historical distribution and phylogeography unravels non-steppic origin of Caucasotachea vindobonensis (Gastropoda: Helicidae). Organisms Diversity & Evolution 17, 679-692.

Davison, A, McDowell, GS, Holden, JM, Johnson, HF, Koutsovoulos, GD, Liu, MM, Hulpiau, P, Van Roy, F, Wade, CM, Banerjee, R, Yang, F, Chiba, S, Davey, JW, Jackson, DJ, Levin M, and Blaxter, ML (2016). Formin is associated with left–right asymmetry in the pond snail and the frog. Current Biology, 26, 654-660.

Mori, Y, Yokoyama, J, Kawata, M, Davison, A, and Chiba, S. (2015) Evidence of introgressive hybridization between the morphologically divergent land snails Ainohelix and Ezohelix. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 115: 77-95.

Liu, MM, Davey, JW, Jackson, DJ, Blaxter, ML and Davison, A (2014) A conserved set of maternal genes? Insights from a molluscan transcriptome. International Journal of Developmental Biology, 58: 501-511.

Dawson, TF, Boone, AN, Senatore, A, Piticaru, J, Thiyagalingam, S, Jackson, D, Davison, A and Spafford, JD (2014) Gene splicing of an invertebrate beta subunit (LCavß) in the N-terminal and HOOK Domains and its Regulation of LCav1 and LCav2 calcium channels. PLOS One 9, e92941.

Armour, JAL, Davison, A and McManus, IC (2014) Genome-wide association study of handedness excludes simple genetic models. Heredity, 112: 221-225..

Liu, MM, Davey, JW, Banerjee, R, Han, J, Yang, F, Aboobaker, A, Blaxter, ML and Davison, A. (2013) Fine mapping of the pond snail left-right asymmetry (chirality) locus using RAD-Seq and fibre-FISH. PLOS ONE 8, e71067.

Grindon, AJ and Davison, A (2013). Irish Cepaea nemoralis land snails have a cryptic Franco-Iberian origin that is most easily explained by the movements of Mesolithic humans. PLOS One 8, e65792.

McManus, IC, Davison, A and Armour, JAL (2013). Multi-locus genetic models of handedness closely resemble single-locus models in explaining family data and are compatible with genome-wide association studies. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1288: 48 - 58.

Richards, PM, Liu, MM, Lowe, N, Davey, JW, Blaxter, ML and Davison, A (2013). RAD-Seq derived markers flank the shell colour and banding loci of the Cepaea nemoralis supergene. Molecular Ecology 22: 3077–3089. Snails also featured on the cover page (photo credit: Lauren Holden).

Bourke, BP, Frantz, AC, Lavers, CP, Davison, A, Dawson, DA and Burke, TA (2010). Genetic signatures of population change in the British golden eagle (Aquila chrysaetos). Conservation Genetics, 11: 1837-1846.

Richards, PM and Davison, A (2010). Adaptive Radiations: Competition Rules for Galápagos Gastropods. Current Biology 20: R28-R29.

Davison, A (2009). Refugia. In: Gillespie, RG, Clague, DA, eds. Encyclopedia of Islands. University of California Press, pp. 785-787.

Davison, A, Barton, NH and Clarke, B (2009). The effect of coil phenotypes and genotypes on the fecundity and viability of Partula suturalis and Lymnaea stagnalis: implications for the evolution of sinistral snails. Journal of Evolutionary Biology 22: 1624 -1635.

Davison, A, *Constant, N, *Tanna, H, Murray, J and Clarke, B (2009). Coil and shape in Partula suturalis; the rules of form revisited. Heredity 103: 268–278.

Davison, A, *Blackie, RLE and *Scothern, GP (2009) DNA barcoding of stylommatophoran land snails: a test of existing sequences. Molecular Ecology Resources 9: 1092-1101.

Preece, T, Mao, Y, Garrahan, JP and Davison, A (2009) Harmful mating tactics in hermaphrodites. American Naturalist 173: 632–639.

Chiba, S and Davison, A (2009) Associations between the shell stable carbon istope and vegetation in modern and fossil land snails Mandarina chichijimana on Chichijima of the Ogasawara Islands. Paleontological Research 13: 151-157.

Davison, A, *Frend, HT, *Moray, C, *Wheatley, H, *Searle, LJ and Eichhorn, MP (2009) Mating behaviour in Lymnaea stagnalis pond snails is a maternally inherited, lateralised trait. Biology Letters 5: 20-22. Featured in Nature 20 November 2008, p285.

Davison, A and Chiba, S (2008) Contrasting response to Pleistocene climate change by ground-living and arboreal Mandarina snails from the oceanic Hahajima archipelago. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B 363: 3391–3400. http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2008.0113 Electronic supplementary information. Cover image:

Chiba, S and Davison, A (2008) Anatomical and molecular studies reveal several cryptic species of the endemic genus Mandarina in the Ogasawara Islands. Journal of Molluscan Studies 74: 373-382.

Wade, CM, Hudelot, C, Davison, A, and Mordan, PB (2007) Molecular phylogeny of the helicoid land snails (Pulmonata: Stylommatophora: Helicoidea). Journal of Molluscan Studies 73: 411-415.

Davison, A and Mordan, P (2007) A literature database on the mating behavior of stylommatophoran land snails and slugs. American Malacological Bulletin 23: 173-181. and database.

Schilthuizen, M, Craze, PG, Cabanban, AS, Davison, A, Stone, J, Gittenberger, E, and Scott, BJ (2007) Sexual selection maintains whole-body chiral dimorphism in snails. Journal of Evolutionary Biology 20: 1941–1949.

Chiba, S and Davison, A (2007) Shell shape and habitat use in the Northwest Pacific land snail Mandarina polita from Hahajima, Ogasawara: current adaptation or ghost of species past? Biological Journal of the Linnean Society 91: 149–159.

Chiba, S, Davison, A and Mori, H (2007) Endemic land snail fauna (Mollusca) on a remote peninsula in the Ogasawara archipelago, Northwestern Pacific. Pacific Science 6, 257-265.

Davison, A and Chiba, S (2006) The recent history and population structure of five Mandarina snail species from sub-tropical Ogasawara (Bonin Islands, Japan). Molecular Ecology 15: 2905-2919.

Davison, A and Chiba, S (2006) Labile ecotypes accompany rapid cladogenesis in an adaptive radiation of Mandarina (Bradybaenidae) land snails. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society 88: 269-282.

Davison, A (2006) The ovotestis: an underdeveloped organ of evolution. Bioessays 28: 642-650.

Schilthuizen, M and Davison, A (2005) The convoluted evolution of snail chirality. Naturwissenschaften 92: 504-515.

Davison, A, Chiba, S, Barton, NH and Clarke, BC (2005) Speciation and gene flow between snails of opposite chirality. PLoS Biology 3(9): e282.

Davison, A, Wade, CM, Mordan, PB and Chiba, S (2005). Sex and darts in slugs and snails (Mollusca: Gastropoda: Stylommatophora). Journal of Zoology (London) 267: 329-338. Mating behaviour database. Cover photo: Reviewed in Trends in Ecology and Evolution 20 (11): 581-584.
Davison, A and Blaxter, ML (2005). Ancient origin of glycosyl hydrolase family 9 cellulase genes. Molecular Biology and Evolution 22: 1273-1284. Nature 'research highlight'. GHF9 alignment.

Davison, A and Blaxter, ML (2005). An expressed sequence tag survey of gene expression in the pond snail Lymnaea stagnalis, an intermediate vector of Fasciola hepatica. Parasitology 130: 539-552.

Michaux, JR, Hardy, OJ, Justy, F, Fournier, P, Kranz, A, Cabria, M, Davison, A, Rosoux, R and Libois, R (2005). Conservation genetics and population history of the threatened European mink Mustela lutreola, with an emphasis on the western European population. Molecular Ecology 14: 2373-2388.

Flanagan, NS, Tobler, A, Davison, A, Pybus, OG, Kapan, DD, Planas, S, Linares, M, Heckel, D and McMillan, WO (2004). Historical demography of Mullerian mimicry in the neotropical Heliconius butterflies. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 101: 9704-9709.

Birks, JDS, Messenger, ME, Braithwaite, TC, Davison, A, Brookes, RC and Strachan, C (2004) Are scat surveys a reliable means of monitoring pine martens? Pages 235-252 in D. J. Harrison, A. K. Fuller, and G. Proulx, editors. Marten and fishers (Martes) in human-altered environments: an international perspective. Kluwer Academic Publishers, Norwell, Massachusetts, USA.

Michaux, JR, Libois R, Davison, A, Chevret, P and Rosoux, R (2004). Are French and Spanish European mink, Mustela lutreola, a distinct Management Unit for conservation? Biological Conservation 115: 357-367.

Teshima, H, Davison, A, Kuwahara, Y, Yokoyama, J, Chiba, S, Fukuda, F, Ogimura, H and Kawata, M (2003). The evolution of an extreme shell polymorphism in the land snail Ainohelix editha: a phylogeny and hybrid zone analysis. Molecular Ecology 12: 1869-1878. Cover photo:

Kyle, CJ, Davison, A, and Strobeck, C (2003). Genetic structure of European pine martens (Martes martes), and evidence for introgression with M. americana in England. Conservation Genetics 4: 179-188.

Davison, A, Birks, JDS, Brookes, RC, Braithwaite, TC and Messenger, JE (2002). On the origin of faeces: morphological versus molecular methods for surveying rare carnivores from their scats. Journal of Zoology (London) 257: 141-143. Cover photo:

Davison, A (2002). Land snails as a model to understand the role of history and selection in the origins of biodiversity. Population Ecology 44: 129-136.

Davison, A, Birks, JDS, Brookes, RC, Messenger, JE and Griffiths, HI (2001). Mitochondrial phylogeography and population history of pine martens Martes martes compared with polecats Mustela putorius. Molecular Ecology 10: 2479- 2488.

Davison, A and Clarke, BC (2000). History or current selection? A molecular analysis of 'area effects' in Cepaea nemoralis. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B 267: 1399-1405.

Davison, A (2000). An East-West cline of divergent mitochondrial types in the land snail, Cepaea nemoralis. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society 70: 697-706.

Davison, A (2000). The inheritance of divergent mitochondria in the land snail, Cepaea nemoralis. Journal of Molluscan Studies 66: 143-147.

Davison, A, Griffiths, HI, Brookes, RC et al. (2000). Mitochondrial DNA and palaeontological evidence for the origins of endangered European mink, Mustela lutreola. Animal Conservation 3: 345-355.

Krystufek, B, Davison, A, and Griffiths, HI (2000). Evolutionary biology and taxonomy of water shrews Neomys in the western Palaearctic. Canadian Journal of Zoology 78: 1616-1625.

Davison, A, Birks, JDS, Maran, T, Macdonald, DW, Sidorovich, V, Griffiths, HI and Butlin, RK (2000). Conservation implications of hybridization between polecats, ferrets and European mink (Mustela sp.). Chapter 10, pp. 153-162 in: Mustelids in a modern world: management and conservation aspects of small carnivore - human interactions (ed. H. I. Griffiths). Backhuys Publishers, Leiden, The Netherlands.

Davison, A, Birks, JDS, Griffiths, HI, Kitchener, AC, Biggins, D, and Butlin, RK (1999). Hybridization and the phylogenetic relationship between polecats and domestic ferrets in Britain. Biological Conservation 87: 155-161.

Davison, A, McMillan, WO, Griffin, AS, Jiggins, C and Mallet, JLB (1999). Behavioral and physiological differences between two parapatric Heliconius species. Biotropica 31: 661-668.

Technical notes and comments:

Davison, A, Chiba, S and Kawata, M (2004). Characterisation of 17 microsatellite loci in the Japanese land snail genera Mandarina, Ainohelix, and Euhadra (Mollusca, Gastropoda, Pulmonata). Molecular Ecology Notes 4: 423-425.

Davison, A and Chiba, S (2003). Laboratory temperature variation is a previously unrecognised source of genotyping error during capillary electrophoresis. Molecular Ecology Notes 3: 321-323. (see also Klein et al. 2003)

Flanagan, NS, Blum, MJ, Davison, A, Alamo, M., Albarrán, R, Faulhaber, K, Peterson, E and McMillan, WO (2002). Characterisation of microsatellite loci in neotropical Heliconius butterflies. Molecular Ecology Notes 2: 398-401.

Davison, A (2001). Collaboration with Japan could be more tempting. Nature 412: 855-855.

Davison, A (1999). Isolation and characterization of long compound microsatellite repeat loci in the land snail, Cepaea nemoralis L. (Mollusca, Gastropoda, Pulmonata). Molecular Ecology 8: 1760-1761.

Griffiths, HI, Davison, A and Birks (1996). Species reintroductions. Conservation Biology 10: 923-930.

PhD publications:

Davison, A (1994). DNA secondary structure in vivo. PhD thesis, University of Edinburgh, 1994.

Davison, A and Leach, DRF (1994). The effects of nucleotide sequence changes on DNA secondary structure formation in E. coli are consistent with cruciform extrusion in vivo. Genetics 137: 361-368.

Davison, A and Leach, DRF (1994). Two-base DNA hairpin-loop structures in vivo. Nucleic Acids Research 22: 4361-4363.

Chalker, AF, Okely, EA, Davison, A and Leach, DRF (1993). The effects of central asymmetry on the propagation of palindromic DNA in bacteriophage lambda are consistent with cruciform extrusion in vivo. Genetics 133: 143-148.

Research reports:

Birks, JDS, Davison, A, Jermyn, DL, Kitchener, AC and Shore RF (2001). Polecat recovery - a multidisciplinary study, pp 25-27 in: The Vincent Wildlife Trust Review of 1997-2000. The Vincent Wildlife Trust, Herefordshire. ISBN 0 946081 45 X.

Birks, JDS, Braithwaite, TC, Brookes, RC, Davison, A, Gough, MC, Messenger, JE and Strachan, C (2001). Detecting pine martens in England and Wales, pp 28-31 in: The Vincent Wildlife Trust Review of 1997-2000. The Vincent Wildlife Trust, Herefordshire. ISBN 0 946081 45 X.

Davison, A (2001). Mustelids in a molecular world. Small Carnivore Conservation 23: 15-16.

Kitchener, AC, Birks, JDS. and Davison, A (1999). Interactions between polecats and ferrets in Britain. pp. 84-110, in: The distribution and status of the polecat Mustela putorius in Britain in the 1990s. Eds. JDS. Birks and AC. Kitchener. The Vincent Wildlife Trust, London.

Birks, JDS, Davison, A, and Jermyn, DL (1997). Studies on the status and ecology of the polecat in Britain, pp 32-38, in: The Vincent Wildlife Trust Review. ISBN 0 946081 37 9 41.

Messenger, JE, Birks, JDS, and Davison, A (1997). The status of the pine marten in England and Wales, pp 24-31, in: The Vincent Wildlife Trust Review. ISBN 0 946081 37 9 41.