Van Oers Group
Animal Personality & Ecological Genomics
'Personality' describes the phenomenon that individuals consistently differ in their behaviour and have limited flexibility to respond to environmental challenges. Our interest lies in describing the causes of these differences and the consequences for individual fitness and population processes in order to better understand the existence and maintenance of individual variation in behaviour.
We study the behavioural, genetic and physiological mechanisms underlying personality expression, their role during development and the consequences for fitness. The ultimate goal is to take these processes that take place on an individual level and measure the consequences on a population level. We do this by combining experiments in our aviary facilities and in phenotyped wild populations. In our studies we make use of long-term data from natural populations, controlled experiments, both in lab and field populations and our genomic toolbox developed in the Songbird Genomics Project. We have a strong collaboration with the Behavioural Ecology group and Animal Breeding and Genomics both at the WUR.
If you are interesting in joining the group please contact Kees van Oers, together with a motivation why you would be interested in conducting your research in our group. If we don't have any open positions in the group, that means you should either bring your own money for your project, or that we seek possibilities for applying for external funding. We are especially interested in people wanting to apply for EU or VENI-VIDI fundung.
Van Oers group "in the news"
Omroep Gelderland: Heeft een brutale koolmees ook de halve wereld LINK
De Volkskrant: Vetbollen en pindaslingers voor de vogels in de tuin: u heeft er vooral zélf plezier van LINK
Vroege Vogels Radio: Muzikale repertoire van koolmezen. LINK
RTL nieuws: The great tit as our savior against the oak procession caterpillar (Dutch). LINK
RTL nieuws: Why one should care about individual difference sin behaviour (Dutch). LINK
Vroege Vogels radio: Kees explains about animal personality in the field studio in Naarden (Dutch). LINK
Bernice bij RTL nieuws - Susanne Uilenbroek (Dutch). LINK
NRC Column van Yoep van 't Hek - Pandaporno (Dutch). LINK
De Telegraaf - Dierentuinendieren privacy - Marcel Vink (Dutch). LINK
NatureToday - Beleef de lente en persoonlijkheid (Dutch). LINK
Radio 5 interview in "Je dag is goed" - Ruthger Radstaake (Dutch). LINK
Achter het masker: 'Beleef de Lente' en de persoonlijkheid van koolmezen met Bernice en Kees (Dutch). LINK
NRC interview by Gemma Venhuizen (Dutch). LINK
Resource - WUR magazine by Roelof Klijs (Dutch/ENG). LINK
Buitendienst NPO Zapp - De brutale duif en andere dieren in de stad (Dutch). LINK
NatureToday - Beleef de Lente with Bernice Sepers (Dutch). LINK
Wat wil het vrouwtje: Stukje in Resource (WUR) over onderzoek van Nina Bircher. LINK
Populaire koolmees is niet socialer: Stukje in Resource (WUR) over onderzoek van Lysanne Snijders. LINK
The smart great tit: Volkskrant article by Cor Speksnijders on the Nature communications great tit genome paper. LINK
Radio 1 interview (in Dutch): Koolmees geeft meer inzicht in persoonlijkheid. LINK
Anxiuous chicken: Kees commented on a paper for a Volkskrant article by Cor Speksnijders [LINK]
Beleef de Lente: Lies Zandberg, Lysanne Snijders and Peter de Vruies report about what is happening around a great tit nest box [LINK]
Networking with Songbirds: A nice video impression about our work on social networks [LINK]
Epigenetic variations in the great tit genome: a report on avian ecological epigenetics on the WUR news page [LINK]
Current Projects
DNA Methylation in great tits (PhD project Berncie Sepers; 2018-2022)
Behavioural traits have a stable and a labile component indicating both ian influence of genetic and environmental effects on the expression of these traits. Methylation of cytosines in CpG contexts, particularly within CpG islands, is known to affect gene expression, and is therefore an intersting candidate linking these two aspects of behaviorual traits. Via candidate gene and whole genome appraoches we are unraveling the influences of DNA methylation on the expression of behavioural traits in the great tit.
Main PI and promotor: Kees van Oers, in Collaboration with Koen Verhoeven (Co-promotor - Department of Terrestrial ecology, NIOO-KNAW)
Ecological epigenetics and the brain: the evolutionary consequences of epigenomic modifications in a songbird (PhD project Krista van den Heuvel; 2018-2022)
This unique inter-disciplinary collaboration between three of the larger institutes of the KNAW aims to elucidate the function of epigenetic regulation in the great tit brain to be able to study its role for the evolution of behaviour. Epigenetic mechanisms, such as DNA methylation and histone modification, are key epigenetic mechanisms that can alter gene expression, thereby affecting behavioural variation, both short- and long-term. While we know that epigenetic mechanisms act on different time scales and may be expressed in different tissues or brain regions, an essential gap in our knowledge is: how do epigenomic alterations contribute to fitness variation and what is their role in the evolution of behavioural traits?
Main PI and promotor: Kees van Oers, in Collaboration with Alexander Kotrschal (Co-promotor - Behavioural Ecology Group, WUR) and Christ de Zeeuw and Ingo Willuhn (NIN-KNAW) and Menno Creyghton (Hubrecht)
MSc thesis projects
There are currently openings for student projects (major/minor or research thesis). Contact Kees van Oers
At the moment we are searching one or two students for the following project(s):
At the moment we are searching one or two students for the following project(s):
- The relationship between innovation and habitat quality
- Cognition in the wild: do species and individuals differ in how smart they are?
- Epigenetic mechanisms underlying personality variation
- Long-term fitness consequences of great tit personality
- The possible role for great tits in managing Oak processionary caterpillars.
MSc, PhD or Postdoc opportunities
If you have an intriguing question that can be answered with our system, and you want to apply for a Marie-Curie Fellowship or a VENI? There are several possibilities for PhDs and postdocs to join the group.
Current group-members
Former group-members
Postdocs
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Veronika Laine (KNAW grant; 2019--2020) -
Veronika is now Postdoc at the Museum of natural history in Helsinki, Finland. -
Eveline Verhulst - The role of epigenetic variation in personality expression (NIOO - Strategic Funds 2013)
Eveline is now Assistent professor in the Entomology Department at Wageningen University & Research (WUR)
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Alex Baugh - Physiological background of personality (In collaboration with Michaela Hau 2009-2013)
Alex is now Assistent Professor in Animal Behaviour at Swarthmore College, USA
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Nikkie van Bers - High throughput SNP genotyping as a tool for GWAS and QTL studies on personality in an F2 cross population. (2005-2010)
Nikkie is now Head of Innovation and Application at Genetwister Technologies BV
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Camilla Hinde (Royal Society grant to CH, 2007)
Camilla is now Senior Lecturer - Anglia Ruskin University
