Project acronym AMPERE
Project Accounting for Metallicity, Polarization of the Electrolyte, and Redox reactions in computational Electrochemistry
Researcher (PI) Mathieu Eric Salanne
Host Institution (HI) SORBONNE UNIVERSITE
Call Details Consolidator Grant (CoG), PE4, ERC-2017-COG
Summary Applied electrochemistry plays a key role in many technologies, such as batteries, fuel cells, supercapacitors or solar cells. It is therefore at the core of many research programs all over the world. Yet, fundamental electrochemical investigations remain scarce. In particular, electrochemistry is among the fields for which the gap between theory and experiment is the largest. From the computational point of view, there is no molecular dynamics (MD) software devoted to the simulation of electrochemical systems while other fields such as biochemistry (GROMACS) or material science (LAMMPS) have dedicated tools. This is due to the difficulty of accounting for complex effects arising from (i) the degree of metallicity of the electrode (i.e. from semimetals to perfect conductors), (ii) the mutual polarization occurring at the electrode/electrolyte interface and (iii) the redox reactivity through explicit electron transfers. Current understanding therefore relies on standard theories that derive from an inaccurate molecular-scale picture. My objective is to fill this gap by introducing a whole set of new methods for simulating electrochemical systems. They will be provided to the computational electrochemistry community as a cutting-edge MD software adapted to supercomputers. First applications will aim at the discovery of new electrolytes for energy storage. Here I will focus on (1) ‘‘water-in-salts’’ to understand why these revolutionary liquids enable much higher voltage than conventional solutions (2) redox reactions inside a nanoporous electrode to support the development of future capacitive energy storage devices. These selected applications are timely and rely on collaborations with leading experimental partners. The results are expected to shed an unprecedented light on the importance of polarization effects on the structure and the reactivity of electrode/electrolyte interfaces, establishing MD as a prominent tool for solving complex electrochemistry problems.
Summary
Applied electrochemistry plays a key role in many technologies, such as batteries, fuel cells, supercapacitors or solar cells. It is therefore at the core of many research programs all over the world. Yet, fundamental electrochemical investigations remain scarce. In particular, electrochemistry is among the fields for which the gap between theory and experiment is the largest. From the computational point of view, there is no molecular dynamics (MD) software devoted to the simulation of electrochemical systems while other fields such as biochemistry (GROMACS) or material science (LAMMPS) have dedicated tools. This is due to the difficulty of accounting for complex effects arising from (i) the degree of metallicity of the electrode (i.e. from semimetals to perfect conductors), (ii) the mutual polarization occurring at the electrode/electrolyte interface and (iii) the redox reactivity through explicit electron transfers. Current understanding therefore relies on standard theories that derive from an inaccurate molecular-scale picture. My objective is to fill this gap by introducing a whole set of new methods for simulating electrochemical systems. They will be provided to the computational electrochemistry community as a cutting-edge MD software adapted to supercomputers. First applications will aim at the discovery of new electrolytes for energy storage. Here I will focus on (1) ‘‘water-in-salts’’ to understand why these revolutionary liquids enable much higher voltage than conventional solutions (2) redox reactions inside a nanoporous electrode to support the development of future capacitive energy storage devices. These selected applications are timely and rely on collaborations with leading experimental partners. The results are expected to shed an unprecedented light on the importance of polarization effects on the structure and the reactivity of electrode/electrolyte interfaces, establishing MD as a prominent tool for solving complex electrochemistry problems.
Max ERC Funding
1 588 769 €
Duration
Start date: 2018-04-01, End date: 2023-03-31
Project acronym ANGI
Project Adaptive significance of Non Genetic Inheritance
Researcher (PI) Benoit François Pujol
Host Institution (HI) CENTRE NATIONAL DE LA RECHERCHE SCIENTIFIQUE CNRS
Call Details Consolidator Grant (CoG), LS8, ERC-2015-CoG
Summary Our ability to predict adaptation and the response of populations to selection is limited. Solving this issue is a fundamental challenge of evolutionary ecology with implications for applied sciences such as conservation, and agronomy. Non genetic inheritance (NGI; e.g., ecological niche transmission) is suspected to play a foremost role in adaptive evolution but such hypothesis remains untested. Using quantitative genetics in wild plant populations, experimental evolution, and epigenetics, we will assess the role of NGI in the adaptive response to selection of plant populations. The ANGI project will follow the subsequent research program: (1) Using long-term survey data, we will measure natural selection in wild populations of Antirrhinum majus within its heterogeneous array of micro-habitats. We will calculate the fitness gain provided by multiple traits and stem elongation to plants growing in bushes where they compete for light. Stem elongation is known to depend on epigenetic variation. (2) Using a statistical approach that we developed, we will estimate the quantitative genetic and non genetic heritability of traits. (3) We will identify phenotypic changes caused by fitness that are based on genetic variation and NGI and assess their respective roles in adaptive evolution. (4) In controlled conditions, we will artificially select for increased stem elongation in clonal lineages, thereby excluding DNA variation. We will quantify the non genetic response to selection and test for a quantitative epigenetic signature of selection. (5) We will build on our results to generate an inclusive theory of genetic and non genetic natural selection. ANGI builds on a confirmed expertise in selection experiments, quantitative genetics and NGI. In addition, the availability of survey data provides a solid foundation for the achievement of this project. Our ambition is to shed light on original mechanisms underlying adaptation that are an alternative to genetic selection.
Summary
Our ability to predict adaptation and the response of populations to selection is limited. Solving this issue is a fundamental challenge of evolutionary ecology with implications for applied sciences such as conservation, and agronomy. Non genetic inheritance (NGI; e.g., ecological niche transmission) is suspected to play a foremost role in adaptive evolution but such hypothesis remains untested. Using quantitative genetics in wild plant populations, experimental evolution, and epigenetics, we will assess the role of NGI in the adaptive response to selection of plant populations. The ANGI project will follow the subsequent research program: (1) Using long-term survey data, we will measure natural selection in wild populations of Antirrhinum majus within its heterogeneous array of micro-habitats. We will calculate the fitness gain provided by multiple traits and stem elongation to plants growing in bushes where they compete for light. Stem elongation is known to depend on epigenetic variation. (2) Using a statistical approach that we developed, we will estimate the quantitative genetic and non genetic heritability of traits. (3) We will identify phenotypic changes caused by fitness that are based on genetic variation and NGI and assess their respective roles in adaptive evolution. (4) In controlled conditions, we will artificially select for increased stem elongation in clonal lineages, thereby excluding DNA variation. We will quantify the non genetic response to selection and test for a quantitative epigenetic signature of selection. (5) We will build on our results to generate an inclusive theory of genetic and non genetic natural selection. ANGI builds on a confirmed expertise in selection experiments, quantitative genetics and NGI. In addition, the availability of survey data provides a solid foundation for the achievement of this project. Our ambition is to shed light on original mechanisms underlying adaptation that are an alternative to genetic selection.
Max ERC Funding
1 999 970 €
Duration
Start date: 2016-03-01, End date: 2021-02-28
Project acronym ANTSolve
Project A multi-scale perspective into collective problem solving in ants
Researcher (PI) Ofer Feinerman
Host Institution (HI) WEIZMANN INSTITUTE OF SCIENCE
Call Details Consolidator Grant (CoG), LS8, ERC-2017-COG
Summary Cognition improves an animal’s ability to tune its responses to environmental conditions. In group living animals, communication works to form a collective cognition that expands the group’s abilities beyond those of individuals. Despite much research, to date, there is little understanding of how collective cognition emerges within biological ensembles. A major obstacle towards such an understanding is the rarity of comprehensive multi-scale empirical data of these complex systems.
We have demonstrated cooperative load transport by ants to be an ideal system to study the emergence of cognition. Similar to other complex cognitive systems, the ants employ high levels of emergence to achieve efficient problem solving over a large range of scenarios. Unique to this system, is its extreme amenability to experimental measurement and manipulation where internal conflicts map to forces, abstract decision making is reflected in direction changes, and future planning manifested in pheromone trails. This allows for an unprecedentedly detailed, multi-scale empirical description of the moment-to-moment unfolding of sophisticated cognitive processes.
This proposal is aimed at materializing this potential to the full. We will examine the ants’ problem solving capabilities under a variety of environmental challenges. We will expose the underpinning rules on the different organizational scales, the flow of information between them, and their relative contributions to collective performance. This will allow for empirical comparisons between the ‘group’ and the ‘sum of its parts’ from which we will quantify the level of emergence in this system. Using the language of information, we will map the boundaries of this group’s collective cognition and relate them to the range of habitable environmental niches. Moreover, we will generalize these insights to formulate a new paradigm of emergence in biological groups opening new horizons in the study of cognitive processes in general.
Summary
Cognition improves an animal’s ability to tune its responses to environmental conditions. In group living animals, communication works to form a collective cognition that expands the group’s abilities beyond those of individuals. Despite much research, to date, there is little understanding of how collective cognition emerges within biological ensembles. A major obstacle towards such an understanding is the rarity of comprehensive multi-scale empirical data of these complex systems.
We have demonstrated cooperative load transport by ants to be an ideal system to study the emergence of cognition. Similar to other complex cognitive systems, the ants employ high levels of emergence to achieve efficient problem solving over a large range of scenarios. Unique to this system, is its extreme amenability to experimental measurement and manipulation where internal conflicts map to forces, abstract decision making is reflected in direction changes, and future planning manifested in pheromone trails. This allows for an unprecedentedly detailed, multi-scale empirical description of the moment-to-moment unfolding of sophisticated cognitive processes.
This proposal is aimed at materializing this potential to the full. We will examine the ants’ problem solving capabilities under a variety of environmental challenges. We will expose the underpinning rules on the different organizational scales, the flow of information between them, and their relative contributions to collective performance. This will allow for empirical comparisons between the ‘group’ and the ‘sum of its parts’ from which we will quantify the level of emergence in this system. Using the language of information, we will map the boundaries of this group’s collective cognition and relate them to the range of habitable environmental niches. Moreover, we will generalize these insights to formulate a new paradigm of emergence in biological groups opening new horizons in the study of cognitive processes in general.
Max ERC Funding
2 000 000 €
Duration
Start date: 2018-06-01, End date: 2023-05-31
Project acronym chemREPEAT
Project Structure and Dynamics of Low-Complexity Regions in Proteins: The Huntingtin Case
Researcher (PI) Pau Bernado Pereto
Host Institution (HI) INSTITUT NATIONAL DE LA SANTE ET DE LA RECHERCHE MEDICALE
Call Details Consolidator Grant (CoG), PE4, ERC-2014-CoG
Summary Proteins hosting regions highly enriched in one or few amino acids, the so-called Low-Complexity Regions (LCR), are very common in eukaryotes and play crucial roles in biology. Homorepeats, a subfamily of LCR that present stretches of the same amino acid, perform very specialized functions facilitated by the localized enrichment of the same physicochemical property. In contrast, numerous severe pathologies have been associated to abnormally long repetitions. Despite the relevance of homorepeats, their high-resolution characterization by traditional structural biology techniques is hampered by the degeneracy of the amino acid environments and their intrinsic flexibility. In chemREPEAT, I will develop strategies to incorporate isotopically labelled and unnatural amino acids at specific positions within homorepeats that will overcome present limitations. These labelled positions will be unique probes to investigate for first time the structure and dynamics of homorepeats at atomic level using complementary biophysical techniques. Computational tools will be specifically developed to derive three-dimensional conformational ensembles of homorepeats by synergistically integrating experimental data.
chemREPEAT strategies will be developed on huntingtin (Htt), the prototype of repetitive protein. Htt hosts a glutamine tract that is linked with Huntington’s disease (HD), a deadly neuropathology appearing in individuals with more than 35 consecutive Glutamine residues that represent a pathological threshold. The application of the developed approaches to several Htt constructions with different number of Glutamines will reveal the structural bases of the pathological threshold in HD and the role played by the regions flanking the Glutamine tract.
The strategies designed in chemREPEAT will expand present frontiers of structural biology to unveil the structure/function relationships for LCRs. This capacity will pave the way for a rational intervention in associated diseases.
Summary
Proteins hosting regions highly enriched in one or few amino acids, the so-called Low-Complexity Regions (LCR), are very common in eukaryotes and play crucial roles in biology. Homorepeats, a subfamily of LCR that present stretches of the same amino acid, perform very specialized functions facilitated by the localized enrichment of the same physicochemical property. In contrast, numerous severe pathologies have been associated to abnormally long repetitions. Despite the relevance of homorepeats, their high-resolution characterization by traditional structural biology techniques is hampered by the degeneracy of the amino acid environments and their intrinsic flexibility. In chemREPEAT, I will develop strategies to incorporate isotopically labelled and unnatural amino acids at specific positions within homorepeats that will overcome present limitations. These labelled positions will be unique probes to investigate for first time the structure and dynamics of homorepeats at atomic level using complementary biophysical techniques. Computational tools will be specifically developed to derive three-dimensional conformational ensembles of homorepeats by synergistically integrating experimental data.
chemREPEAT strategies will be developed on huntingtin (Htt), the prototype of repetitive protein. Htt hosts a glutamine tract that is linked with Huntington’s disease (HD), a deadly neuropathology appearing in individuals with more than 35 consecutive Glutamine residues that represent a pathological threshold. The application of the developed approaches to several Htt constructions with different number of Glutamines will reveal the structural bases of the pathological threshold in HD and the role played by the regions flanking the Glutamine tract.
The strategies designed in chemREPEAT will expand present frontiers of structural biology to unveil the structure/function relationships for LCRs. This capacity will pave the way for a rational intervention in associated diseases.
Max ERC Funding
1 999 844 €
Duration
Start date: 2015-09-01, End date: 2020-08-31
Project acronym CODOVIREVOL
Project Evolution of viral codon usage preferences:manipulation of translation accuracy and evasion of immune response
Researcher (PI) Ignacio González Bravo
Host Institution (HI) CENTRE NATIONAL DE LA RECHERCHE SCIENTIFIQUE CNRS
Call Details Consolidator Grant (CoG), LS8, ERC-2014-CoG
Summary Fidelity during information transfer is essential for life, but it pays to be unfaithful if it provides an evolutionary advantage. The immune system continuously generates diversity to put up with recurrent pathogen challenges, and many viruses, in its turn, have evolved mechanisms to generate diversity to evade immune restrictions, even at the cost of enduring high mutation rates.
Synonymous codons are not used at random and are not translated with similar efficiency. A large proportion of viruses infecting humans, especially those causing chronic infections, display a poor adaptation to the codon usage preferences of their host. This observation is a paradox, as viral genes completely depend upon the cellular translation machinery for protein synthesis. The poor match between codon usage preferences of virus and host negatively affects speed and accuracy of viral protein translation. We propose here that maladaptation of codon usage preferences in human viruses may have an adaptive value as it decreases translational fidelity, results in the synthesis of an ill-defined population of viral proteins and provides a way to escape immune surveillance.
We will address the fitness effects of codon usage bias at the molecular and cellular levels, and later at the organism level in a rabbit model of papillomavirus infection. We will apply experimental evolution to analyse genotypic changes by means of next generation sequencing and will monitor phenotypic changes through real-time cell monitoring techniques, comparative proteomics, and anatomopathological analysis of virus-induced lesions.
Our results will help solve the evolutionary puzzle of codon usage bias, and will have implications for the development of therapeutic vaccines to guide the immune response towards the identification and targeting of the main protein species, avoiding the chemical noise generated by protein mistranslation.
Summary
Fidelity during information transfer is essential for life, but it pays to be unfaithful if it provides an evolutionary advantage. The immune system continuously generates diversity to put up with recurrent pathogen challenges, and many viruses, in its turn, have evolved mechanisms to generate diversity to evade immune restrictions, even at the cost of enduring high mutation rates.
Synonymous codons are not used at random and are not translated with similar efficiency. A large proportion of viruses infecting humans, especially those causing chronic infections, display a poor adaptation to the codon usage preferences of their host. This observation is a paradox, as viral genes completely depend upon the cellular translation machinery for protein synthesis. The poor match between codon usage preferences of virus and host negatively affects speed and accuracy of viral protein translation. We propose here that maladaptation of codon usage preferences in human viruses may have an adaptive value as it decreases translational fidelity, results in the synthesis of an ill-defined population of viral proteins and provides a way to escape immune surveillance.
We will address the fitness effects of codon usage bias at the molecular and cellular levels, and later at the organism level in a rabbit model of papillomavirus infection. We will apply experimental evolution to analyse genotypic changes by means of next generation sequencing and will monitor phenotypic changes through real-time cell monitoring techniques, comparative proteomics, and anatomopathological analysis of virus-induced lesions.
Our results will help solve the evolutionary puzzle of codon usage bias, and will have implications for the development of therapeutic vaccines to guide the immune response towards the identification and targeting of the main protein species, avoiding the chemical noise generated by protein mistranslation.
Max ERC Funding
1 997 100 €
Duration
Start date: 2016-01-01, End date: 2020-12-31
Project acronym ColloQuantO
Project Colloidal Quantum Dot Quantum Optics
Researcher (PI) Dan Oron
Host Institution (HI) WEIZMANN INSTITUTE OF SCIENCE LTD
Call Details Consolidator Grant (CoG), PE4, ERC-2015-CoG
Summary Colloidal semiconductor nanocrystals have already found significant use in various arenas, including bioimaging, displays, lighting, photovoltaics and catalysis. Here we aim to harness the extremely broad synthetic toolbox of colloidal semiconductor quantum dots in order to utilize them as unique sources of quantum states of light, extending well beyond the present attempts to use them as single photon sources. By tailoring the shape, size, composition and the organic ligand layer of quantum dots, rods and platelets, we propose their use as sources exhibiting a deterministic number of emitted photons upon saturated excitation and as tunable sources of correlated and entangled photon pairs. The versatility afforded in their fabrication by colloidal synthesis, rather than by epitaxial growth, presents a potential pathway to overcome some of the significant limitations of present-day solid state sources of nonclassical light, including color tunability, fidelity and ease of assembly into devices.
This program is a concerted effort both on colloidal synthesis of complex multicomponent semiconductor nanocrystals and on cutting edge photophysical studies at the single nanocrystal level. This should enable new types of emitters of nonclassical light, as well as provide a platform for the implementation of recently suggested schemes in quantum optics which have never been experimentally demonstrated. These include room temperature sources of exactly two (or more) photons, correlated photon pairs from quantum dot molecules and entanglement based on time reordering. Fulfilling the optical and material requirements from this type of system, including photostability, control of carrier-carrier interactions, and a large quantum yield, will inevitably reveal some of the fundamental properties of coupled carriers in strongly confined structures.
Summary
Colloidal semiconductor nanocrystals have already found significant use in various arenas, including bioimaging, displays, lighting, photovoltaics and catalysis. Here we aim to harness the extremely broad synthetic toolbox of colloidal semiconductor quantum dots in order to utilize them as unique sources of quantum states of light, extending well beyond the present attempts to use them as single photon sources. By tailoring the shape, size, composition and the organic ligand layer of quantum dots, rods and platelets, we propose their use as sources exhibiting a deterministic number of emitted photons upon saturated excitation and as tunable sources of correlated and entangled photon pairs. The versatility afforded in their fabrication by colloidal synthesis, rather than by epitaxial growth, presents a potential pathway to overcome some of the significant limitations of present-day solid state sources of nonclassical light, including color tunability, fidelity and ease of assembly into devices.
This program is a concerted effort both on colloidal synthesis of complex multicomponent semiconductor nanocrystals and on cutting edge photophysical studies at the single nanocrystal level. This should enable new types of emitters of nonclassical light, as well as provide a platform for the implementation of recently suggested schemes in quantum optics which have never been experimentally demonstrated. These include room temperature sources of exactly two (or more) photons, correlated photon pairs from quantum dot molecules and entanglement based on time reordering. Fulfilling the optical and material requirements from this type of system, including photostability, control of carrier-carrier interactions, and a large quantum yield, will inevitably reveal some of the fundamental properties of coupled carriers in strongly confined structures.
Max ERC Funding
2 000 000 €
Duration
Start date: 2016-05-01, End date: 2021-04-30
Project acronym ConvergeAnt
Project An Integrative Approach to Understanding Convergent Evolution in Ant-eating Mammals
Researcher (PI) Frederic DELSUC
Host Institution (HI) CENTRE NATIONAL DE LA RECHERCHE SCIENTIFIQUE CNRS
Call Details Consolidator Grant (CoG), LS8, ERC-2015-CoG
Summary Despite its widespread occurrence across the tree of life, many questions still remain unanswered concerning the fascinating phenomenon of convergent evolution. Ant-eating mammals constitute a textbook example of morphological convergence with at least five independent origins in placentals (armadillos, anteaters, aardvarks, pangolins, and aardwolves). The large extent of convergent morphological evolution, the importance of molecular convergence, and the role of the host microbiome in diet adaptation are currently gaining acceptance. However, large-scale comparative studies combining morphology, host genomics, and metagenomics of the associated microbiome are still lacking. In the ConvergeAnt project, we propose taking advantage of the unique set of convergently evolved characters associated with the ant-eating diet to investigate the molecular mechanisms underlying phenotypical adaptation. By using state-of-the art phenotyping methods based on X-ray micro-computed tomography and Illumina sequencing technologies we will combine morphometric, genomic, and metagenomic approaches to evaluate the extent of convergent evolution in the skull of myrmecophagous placentals, in their genomes, and in their associated oral and gut microbiomes. With this ambitious research proposal, we aim at providing answers to longstanding but fundamental evolutionary questions pertaining to the mechanisms of convergent evolution. The ConvergeAnt project will be the first of its kind to apply such an integrative approach to investigate the complex interplay between the mammalian genome and its associated microbiome in a classical case of adaptive convergence driven by a highly specialized diet.
Summary
Despite its widespread occurrence across the tree of life, many questions still remain unanswered concerning the fascinating phenomenon of convergent evolution. Ant-eating mammals constitute a textbook example of morphological convergence with at least five independent origins in placentals (armadillos, anteaters, aardvarks, pangolins, and aardwolves). The large extent of convergent morphological evolution, the importance of molecular convergence, and the role of the host microbiome in diet adaptation are currently gaining acceptance. However, large-scale comparative studies combining morphology, host genomics, and metagenomics of the associated microbiome are still lacking. In the ConvergeAnt project, we propose taking advantage of the unique set of convergently evolved characters associated with the ant-eating diet to investigate the molecular mechanisms underlying phenotypical adaptation. By using state-of-the art phenotyping methods based on X-ray micro-computed tomography and Illumina sequencing technologies we will combine morphometric, genomic, and metagenomic approaches to evaluate the extent of convergent evolution in the skull of myrmecophagous placentals, in their genomes, and in their associated oral and gut microbiomes. With this ambitious research proposal, we aim at providing answers to longstanding but fundamental evolutionary questions pertaining to the mechanisms of convergent evolution. The ConvergeAnt project will be the first of its kind to apply such an integrative approach to investigate the complex interplay between the mammalian genome and its associated microbiome in a classical case of adaptive convergence driven by a highly specialized diet.
Max ERC Funding
1 880 570 €
Duration
Start date: 2016-09-01, End date: 2021-08-31
Project acronym DNAFOLDIMS
Project Advanced mass spectrometry approaches to reveal nucleic acid folding energy landscapes
Researcher (PI) Valérie Gabelica
Host Institution (HI) INSTITUT NATIONAL DE LA SANTE ET DE LA RECHERCHE MEDICALE
Call Details Consolidator Grant (CoG), PE4, ERC-2013-CoG
Summary "50 years after the discovery of the DNA double helix, the variety of structures that nucleic acids can adopt continues to surprise the scientific community. Specific structures and conformational changes are linked to important functions in cell regulation. Understanding the principles that govern how small molecules such as natural metabolites or synthetic drugs modulate the nucleic acid structures is of prime importance for molecular biology and pharmacology. The field however suffers from the lack of suitable experimental tools to monitor all assemblies and structures formed when a small molecule encounters its targets.
The goal of my project is to develop unique mass spectrometry-based approaches to detect, quantify and characterize all these assemblies and structures. Our team’s strength will be to integrate a multidisciplinary approach, from physical and analytical chemistry to molecular biology. We will address the fundamentals of nucleic acid ionization and transfer in the gas phase, develop a unique instrumental setup combining mass spectrometry, ion mobility and circular dichroism ion spectroscopy, and apply these new approaches to biologically important nucleic acids, in order to reveal the mechanisms of ligand-induced conformational changes in important regulatory structures such as G-quadruplex or riboswitches.
This research will also have broader impact, as the approaches and concepts developed here for nucleic acids will contribute fundamental advances in mass spectrometry, and will be transferrable to other supramolecular or biological complexes."
Summary
"50 years after the discovery of the DNA double helix, the variety of structures that nucleic acids can adopt continues to surprise the scientific community. Specific structures and conformational changes are linked to important functions in cell regulation. Understanding the principles that govern how small molecules such as natural metabolites or synthetic drugs modulate the nucleic acid structures is of prime importance for molecular biology and pharmacology. The field however suffers from the lack of suitable experimental tools to monitor all assemblies and structures formed when a small molecule encounters its targets.
The goal of my project is to develop unique mass spectrometry-based approaches to detect, quantify and characterize all these assemblies and structures. Our team’s strength will be to integrate a multidisciplinary approach, from physical and analytical chemistry to molecular biology. We will address the fundamentals of nucleic acid ionization and transfer in the gas phase, develop a unique instrumental setup combining mass spectrometry, ion mobility and circular dichroism ion spectroscopy, and apply these new approaches to biologically important nucleic acids, in order to reveal the mechanisms of ligand-induced conformational changes in important regulatory structures such as G-quadruplex or riboswitches.
This research will also have broader impact, as the approaches and concepts developed here for nucleic acids will contribute fundamental advances in mass spectrometry, and will be transferrable to other supramolecular or biological complexes."
Max ERC Funding
2 021 755 €
Duration
Start date: 2014-06-01, End date: 2019-05-31
Project acronym ECOFEED
Project Altered eco-evolutionary feedbacks in a future climate
Researcher (PI) Julien COTE
Host Institution (HI) CENTRE NATIONAL DE LA RECHERCHE SCIENTIFIQUE CNRS
Call Details Consolidator Grant (CoG), LS8, ERC-2018-COG
Summary Current scenarios predict an accelerated biodiversity erosion with climate change. However, uncertainties in predictions remain large because the multitude of climate change effects from genes to ecosystems and their interdependencies are still overlooked. This incomplete vision hampers the development of effective mitigation strategies to sustain biodiversity.
Climate change can directly modify the phenotype and performance of individuals through phenotypic plasticity and evolution on contemporary time scales. The microevolution of keystone species can spread throughout the whole ecological network due to changes in species interactions and further translate into an altered ecosystem functioning. Conversely, direct impacts on communities and ecosystems can have ripple effects on the phenotypic distribution and evolution of all species of ecological networks.
Climate-driven changes at individual and population levels can shape community composition and ecosystem functioning, and vice versa, altering eco-evolutionary feedbacks, namely the reciprocal interactions between ecological and evolutionary processes. Climate-driven ecological and evolutionary dynamics are yet often investigated separately. The role of eco-evolutionary feedbacks in climate change impacts on biological systems therefore hinges on little concrete empirical evidence contrasting with a profuse theoretical development.
ECOFEED will investigate climate-dependent eco-evolutionary feedbacks using a 6 year-long realistic warming experiment reproducing natural conditions and thus allowing for both evolutionary and ecological dynamics to occur under a predicted climate change scenario. Complementary laboratory experiments will quantify reciprocal impacts of climate-dependent evolutionary and ecological changes on each other. ECOFEED will provide unprecedented insights on the eco-evolutionary feedbacks in a future climate and will ultimately help refine predictions on the future of biodiversity.
Summary
Current scenarios predict an accelerated biodiversity erosion with climate change. However, uncertainties in predictions remain large because the multitude of climate change effects from genes to ecosystems and their interdependencies are still overlooked. This incomplete vision hampers the development of effective mitigation strategies to sustain biodiversity.
Climate change can directly modify the phenotype and performance of individuals through phenotypic plasticity and evolution on contemporary time scales. The microevolution of keystone species can spread throughout the whole ecological network due to changes in species interactions and further translate into an altered ecosystem functioning. Conversely, direct impacts on communities and ecosystems can have ripple effects on the phenotypic distribution and evolution of all species of ecological networks.
Climate-driven changes at individual and population levels can shape community composition and ecosystem functioning, and vice versa, altering eco-evolutionary feedbacks, namely the reciprocal interactions between ecological and evolutionary processes. Climate-driven ecological and evolutionary dynamics are yet often investigated separately. The role of eco-evolutionary feedbacks in climate change impacts on biological systems therefore hinges on little concrete empirical evidence contrasting with a profuse theoretical development.
ECOFEED will investigate climate-dependent eco-evolutionary feedbacks using a 6 year-long realistic warming experiment reproducing natural conditions and thus allowing for both evolutionary and ecological dynamics to occur under a predicted climate change scenario. Complementary laboratory experiments will quantify reciprocal impacts of climate-dependent evolutionary and ecological changes on each other. ECOFEED will provide unprecedented insights on the eco-evolutionary feedbacks in a future climate and will ultimately help refine predictions on the future of biodiversity.
Max ERC Funding
1 983 565 €
Duration
Start date: 2019-04-01, End date: 2024-03-31
Project acronym EE-Dynamics
Project Dynamics of eco-evolutionary systems
Researcher (PI) Patrik NOSIL
Host Institution (HI) CENTRE NATIONAL DE LA RECHERCHE SCIENTIFIQUE CNRS
Call Details Consolidator Grant (CoG), LS8, ERC-2017-COG
Summary Evolutionary and ecological processes can affect one another. For example, adaptation can affect population dynamics or species interactions in communities, and thus ecosystem functioning. Eco-evolutionary systems show periods of both stability and of sudden change, but the following general hypotheses for the causes of these complex dynamics are largely untested in natural settings. First, eco-evolutionary systems are thought to be governed by feedback loops, with positive feedback promoting rapid change and negative feedback stabilising dynamics. However, drivers with one-way effects likely also contribute, such as sudden environmental changes or mutations that do not interact with other genetic loci. Second, the capacity of meta-populations or communities to recover from disturbance (i.e., their resilience) can be affected by connectivity, with high connectivity making a system buffered and resilient to local change, but prone to system-wide change. Our understanding of how eco-evolutionary systems respond to environmental change will remain fundamentally limited until these hypotheses receive focused tests.
This proposal outlines field-based, experimental, genomic, and model-based tests of these hypotheses, and also tests theories for the maintenance of genetic variation and the genetic basis of adaptation. The work uses meta-populations of Timema stick insects on different host plants and their associated arthropod communities. It tests how adaptation within species affects ecological dynamics across levels of biological organisation ranging from populations to ecosystems. It is novel via examining causal associations between ecology and evolution in nature, in light of theoretical predictions concerning feedback and connectivity. The results could help transform our understanding of complex systems in ecology, evolution, and beyond.
Summary
Evolutionary and ecological processes can affect one another. For example, adaptation can affect population dynamics or species interactions in communities, and thus ecosystem functioning. Eco-evolutionary systems show periods of both stability and of sudden change, but the following general hypotheses for the causes of these complex dynamics are largely untested in natural settings. First, eco-evolutionary systems are thought to be governed by feedback loops, with positive feedback promoting rapid change and negative feedback stabilising dynamics. However, drivers with one-way effects likely also contribute, such as sudden environmental changes or mutations that do not interact with other genetic loci. Second, the capacity of meta-populations or communities to recover from disturbance (i.e., their resilience) can be affected by connectivity, with high connectivity making a system buffered and resilient to local change, but prone to system-wide change. Our understanding of how eco-evolutionary systems respond to environmental change will remain fundamentally limited until these hypotheses receive focused tests.
This proposal outlines field-based, experimental, genomic, and model-based tests of these hypotheses, and also tests theories for the maintenance of genetic variation and the genetic basis of adaptation. The work uses meta-populations of Timema stick insects on different host plants and their associated arthropod communities. It tests how adaptation within species affects ecological dynamics across levels of biological organisation ranging from populations to ecosystems. It is novel via examining causal associations between ecology and evolution in nature, in light of theoretical predictions concerning feedback and connectivity. The results could help transform our understanding of complex systems in ecology, evolution, and beyond.
Max ERC Funding
1 990 734 €
Duration
Start date: 2018-10-01, End date: 2023-09-30
