S. Pawar

Climatic limits to Atlantic salmon population fitness at continental scales

This paper models the thermal niche of Atlantic salmon to predict how climate and resource changes affect population fitness.

Deciphering fitness trade-offs in metabolite exchange at the origin of a bacterial cross-feeding community

The paper uses computational models to show that optimal metabolite exchange intensities in bacterial cross-feeding communities depend on glucose availability and shared metabolite access, enhancing community fitness.

No model to rule them all: a systematic comparison of 83 thermal performance curve models across traits and taxonomic groups

The paper compares 83 thermal performance curve models across traits and taxa to identify which models perform best under different conditions.

Cryptococcosis, tuberculosis, and a kidney cancer fail to fit the atherosclerosis paradigm for foam cell lipid content

The paper investigates lipid accumulation in foam cells across different diseases and finds that lipid content varies by disease and microenvironment.

Bacterial responses to complex mixtures of chemical pollutants

The paper examines bacterial responses to complex chemical mixtures and finds that interactions between pollutants influence growth in ways not predictable from individual chemical effects.

Variation in temperature of peak trait performance will constrain adaptation of arthropod populations to climatic warming.

This study shows that arthropod adaptation to warming is constrained by trait performance temperature shifts and trade-offs, using a global dataset of 61 species.

Variation in thermal physiology can drive the temperature-dependence of microbial community richness

The paper develops a theory explaining microbial community richness temperature dependence by linking it to variation in thermal performance curves of metabolic traits across species.

Thermodynamic constraints on the assembly and diversity of microbial ecosystems are different near to and far from equilibrium

This paper develops a thermodynamic microbial community model to study how free-energy availability and reaction reversibility affect community diversity and interaction types.

Less is worse than none: ineffective adaptive foraging can destabilise food webs

This study shows that ineffective adaptive foraging can destabilize food webs, with less-effective diet adjustment leading to higher extinction rates than no adjustment at all.

The role of competition versus cooperation in microbial community coalescence

This study uses a consumer-resource model to show that less competitive and more cooperative microbial communities dominate coalescence outcomes and evolve to be more species-rich and efficient.

A shift from competition to facilitation amplifies the temperature-dependence of microbial community respiration

The paper develops a mathematical model predicting increased thermal sensitivity of microbial respiration with shifts from competition to facilitation, validated experimentally in bacterial communities.

Latent functional diversity may accelerate microbial community responses to temperature fluctuations

The paper shows microbial communities can rapidly adapt to temperature changes by resuscitating pre-adapted strains, leading to distinct communities at different temperatures.

The effect of resource depletion on the thermal response of mosquito population fitness

This study shows that resource depletion in juvenile mosquito habitats reduces population growth rate and narrows thermal niche width across temperatures.

rTPC and nls.multstart: a new pipeline to fit thermal performance curves in R.

The paper introduces an R pipeline for fitting thermal performance curves using nonlinear least squares regression, enabling reproducible and robust model fitting for biological rate data.

Higher temperatures worsen the effects of mutations on protein stability

This study shows that higher temperatures amplify the destabilizing effects of mutations on protein stability in prokaryotes, leading to decreased mutation rates with increasing temperature.

Systematic variation in the temperature dependence of bacterial carbon use efficiency

The paper experimentally characterizes the temperature dependence of bacterial carbon use efficiency (CUE) across diverse isolates, finding that CUE often increases or shows no response with temperature, challenging the common assumption of a negative relationship.

The effect of resource limitation on the temperature-dependence of mosquito population fitness

This study shows that resource limitation reduces mosquito population growth rates across temperatures and shifts the optimal temperature for growth, affecting disease transmission predictions.

Adaptive evolution shapes the present-day distribution of the thermal sensitivity of population growth rate

The paper investigates how adaptive evolution shapes the thermal sensitivity of population growth rate across microbial and plant species, finding that thermal sensitivity evolves rapidly and shows convergence across clades.

Therapeutic efficacy of an immune stimulatory gene therapy strategy in a mouse model of high grade brainstem glioma

This paper tests an immune-stimulatory gene therapy in a mouse model of DIPG, showing increased survival and anti-tumor immunity through adenoviral delivery of TK and Flt3L.

Phytoplankton thermal responses adapt in the absence of hard thermodynamic constraints

This study analyzes phytoplankton thermal performance curves to assess the role of thermodynamic constraints in their evolution, finding weak constraints and significant phylogenetic adaptation.

More than a flying syringe: Using functional traits in vector borne disease research

This paper presents a framework for incorporating vector functional trait variation into disease transmission models to better understand and predict vector-borne disease dynamics.

Metabolic rates of prokaryotic microbes may inevitably rise with global warming

The paper finds that mesophilic prokaryotes' maximal growth rates increase with temperature, while thermophiles do not, and shows that microbial metabolic rates will rise with global warming.

Metabolic traits predict the effects of warming on phytoplankton competition

The paper develops a model linking metabolic traits to phytoplankton competition outcomes under temperature changes, correctly predicting 71% of pairwise competition results.