Project acronym Multicellularity
Project The genetic basis of the convergent evolution of fungal multicellularity
Researcher (PI) Laszlo NAGY
Host Institution (HI) MAGYAR TUDOMANYOS AKADEMIA SZEGEDIBIOLOGIAI KUTATOKOZPONT
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), LS8, ERC-2017-STG
Summary The evolution of multicellularity (MC) has been one of the major transitions in the history of life. Despite immense interest in its evolutionary origins, the genomic changes leading to the emergence of MC, especially that of complex MC (differentiated 3-dimensional structures) are poorly known. Previous comparative genomics projects aiming to understand the genetic bases of MC in one way or another relied on gene content-based analyses. However, a pattern emerging from these studies is that gene content provides only an incomplete explanation for the evolution of MC even at ancient timescales. We hypothesize that besides gene duplications, changes to cis-regulatory elements and gene expression patterns (including protein isoforms) have significantly contributed to the evolution of MC. To test this hypothesis, we will deploy a combination of computational methods, phylogenomics, comparative transcriptomics and genome-wide assays of regulatory elements. Our research focuses on fungi as a model system, where complex MC evolved convergently and in subsequent two steps. Fungi are ideal models to tackle this question for several reasons: a) multicellularity in fungi evolved multiple times, b) there are rich genomic resources (>500 complete genomes), c) complex multicellular structures can be routinely grown in the lab and d) genetic manipulations are feasible for several cornerstone species. We set out to examine which genes participate in the building of simple and complex multicellular structures and whether the evolution of regulome complexity and gene expression patterns can explain the evolution of MC better than can traditionally assayed sources of genetic innovations (e.g. gene duplications). Ultimately, our goal is to reach a general synthesis on the genetic bases of the evolution of MC and that of organismal complexity.
Summary
The evolution of multicellularity (MC) has been one of the major transitions in the history of life. Despite immense interest in its evolutionary origins, the genomic changes leading to the emergence of MC, especially that of complex MC (differentiated 3-dimensional structures) are poorly known. Previous comparative genomics projects aiming to understand the genetic bases of MC in one way or another relied on gene content-based analyses. However, a pattern emerging from these studies is that gene content provides only an incomplete explanation for the evolution of MC even at ancient timescales. We hypothesize that besides gene duplications, changes to cis-regulatory elements and gene expression patterns (including protein isoforms) have significantly contributed to the evolution of MC. To test this hypothesis, we will deploy a combination of computational methods, phylogenomics, comparative transcriptomics and genome-wide assays of regulatory elements. Our research focuses on fungi as a model system, where complex MC evolved convergently and in subsequent two steps. Fungi are ideal models to tackle this question for several reasons: a) multicellularity in fungi evolved multiple times, b) there are rich genomic resources (>500 complete genomes), c) complex multicellular structures can be routinely grown in the lab and d) genetic manipulations are feasible for several cornerstone species. We set out to examine which genes participate in the building of simple and complex multicellular structures and whether the evolution of regulome complexity and gene expression patterns can explain the evolution of MC better than can traditionally assayed sources of genetic innovations (e.g. gene duplications). Ultimately, our goal is to reach a general synthesis on the genetic bases of the evolution of MC and that of organismal complexity.
Max ERC Funding
1 486 500 €
Duration
Start date: 2018-01-01, End date: 2022-12-31
Project acronym NEPOSTRANS
Project Negotiating post-imperial transitions: from remobilization to nation-state consolidation. A comparative study of local and regional transitions in post-Habsburg East and Central Europe
Researcher (PI) Gábor EGRY
Host Institution (HI) POLITIKATORTENETI INTEZET KOZHASZNU NONPROFIT KFT
Call Details Consolidator Grant (CoG), SH6, ERC-2017-COG
Summary The project’s goal is to provide a new, overall narrative of how the Habsburg Empire was replaced by nation states at the end of WWI and reconsider in the light of its results categories and concepts like state and statehood, local, regional and national, transition and transformation. A novel combination of historical comparison and histoire croisée enables the in-depth analyses of a set of local transitions in diverse regions (agrarian, industrial, commercial, urban, rural, multi-and mono-ethnic, borderland and mainland, litoral) and the combination of these results with the existing literature on other localities.
The team addresses four main themes: state, elites, identities and discourses. The focus is always local, the question is how these societies faced the momentous changes and found their place within empire and nation-state(s). It will look at interactions, cultures and especially rupture and continuity of people, norms, practices, institutional cultures in order to discover patterns of transitions and the social factors influencing them. Besides a typology of transitions, it also aims at gaining a new perspective on empire and nation state from this crucial moment of collapse and state-building.
The project is informed by New Imperial history, the idea of phantom boundaries, everyday ethnicity, integrated urban history. At the methodological level it builds on a symmetrical comparison of the selected cases and on an asymmetrical one with the existing literature, while the object of comparison is the transition that we conceptualize as an “intercrossing”. Through analysing this ‘transformation from below’ and connecting for the first time what has remained scattered both in historiography and in the social representations, the project aims to write a new history of modern Eastern Europe as a common legacy for an integrated European history.
Summary
The project’s goal is to provide a new, overall narrative of how the Habsburg Empire was replaced by nation states at the end of WWI and reconsider in the light of its results categories and concepts like state and statehood, local, regional and national, transition and transformation. A novel combination of historical comparison and histoire croisée enables the in-depth analyses of a set of local transitions in diverse regions (agrarian, industrial, commercial, urban, rural, multi-and mono-ethnic, borderland and mainland, litoral) and the combination of these results with the existing literature on other localities.
The team addresses four main themes: state, elites, identities and discourses. The focus is always local, the question is how these societies faced the momentous changes and found their place within empire and nation-state(s). It will look at interactions, cultures and especially rupture and continuity of people, norms, practices, institutional cultures in order to discover patterns of transitions and the social factors influencing them. Besides a typology of transitions, it also aims at gaining a new perspective on empire and nation state from this crucial moment of collapse and state-building.
The project is informed by New Imperial history, the idea of phantom boundaries, everyday ethnicity, integrated urban history. At the methodological level it builds on a symmetrical comparison of the selected cases and on an asymmetrical one with the existing literature, while the object of comparison is the transition that we conceptualize as an “intercrossing”. Through analysing this ‘transformation from below’ and connecting for the first time what has remained scattered both in historiography and in the social representations, the project aims to write a new history of modern Eastern Europe as a common legacy for an integrated European history.
Max ERC Funding
1 963 075 €
Duration
Start date: 2018-03-01, End date: 2023-02-28
Project acronym Topics in Behavioral
Project Topics in Behavioral-Economics Theory
Researcher (PI) Botond KOSZEGI
Host Institution (HI) KOZEP-EUROPAI EGYETEM
Call Details Advanced Grant (AdG), SH1, ERC-2017-ADG
Summary This proposal outlines projects that span a diverse set of specific topics in both the foundational and the more
applied parts of behavioral-economics theory.
In the foundational projects, I will develop broadly applicable models of individual decisionmaking that
incorporate psychologically realistic assumptions about individuals, and that can be used by myself and
others to study the implications of psychological phenomena for economic outcomes. I will (i) provide an
attention-based theory of several central and hitherto unmodeled aspects of mental accounting; (ii) analyze
the implications of overconfidence about one’s ability or prospects for learning about other economically
important variables; and (iii) incorporate into economic settings, and explore some consequences of, the
idea that self-esteem— our feelings about ourselves—may be exceedingly fragile.
In the more applied projects, I will use psychologically realistic models to shed light on important economic
issues regarding markets and organizations. I will (i) identify market outcomes and especially welfareincreasing
regulations when consumers with limited attention make tradeoffs between “browsing” more
products superficially and “studying” fewer products in detail; (ii) use a contract-theoretic approach to help
understand and possibly undermine organizations that pursue goals its members oppose; (iii) analyze the nature
and consequences of procrastination when a person’s alternative choices are supplied by the market; (iv)
explore the potential for a policy framework centered around informed consent to address privacy concerns
in a market where some consumers are naive about product offers; and (v) investigate the implications of
financial choice and financial information in a market for retail securities when investors do not understand
that issuers are utilizing superior information in designing offers.
Summary
This proposal outlines projects that span a diverse set of specific topics in both the foundational and the more
applied parts of behavioral-economics theory.
In the foundational projects, I will develop broadly applicable models of individual decisionmaking that
incorporate psychologically realistic assumptions about individuals, and that can be used by myself and
others to study the implications of psychological phenomena for economic outcomes. I will (i) provide an
attention-based theory of several central and hitherto unmodeled aspects of mental accounting; (ii) analyze
the implications of overconfidence about one’s ability or prospects for learning about other economically
important variables; and (iii) incorporate into economic settings, and explore some consequences of, the
idea that self-esteem— our feelings about ourselves—may be exceedingly fragile.
In the more applied projects, I will use psychologically realistic models to shed light on important economic
issues regarding markets and organizations. I will (i) identify market outcomes and especially welfareincreasing
regulations when consumers with limited attention make tradeoffs between “browsing” more
products superficially and “studying” fewer products in detail; (ii) use a contract-theoretic approach to help
understand and possibly undermine organizations that pursue goals its members oppose; (iii) analyze the nature
and consequences of procrastination when a person’s alternative choices are supplied by the market; (iv)
explore the potential for a policy framework centered around informed consent to address privacy concerns
in a market where some consumers are naive about product offers; and (v) investigate the implications of
financial choice and financial information in a market for retail securities when investors do not understand
that issuers are utilizing superior information in designing offers.
Max ERC Funding
1 656 145 €
Duration
Start date: 2018-11-01, End date: 2023-10-31
