Project acronym ALIENIMPACTS
Project Predicting impacts of alien plant invasions on community diversity
Researcher (PI) Jane Catford
Host Institution (HI) KING'S COLLEGE LONDON
Country United Kingdom
Call Details Consolidator Grant (CoG), LS8, ERC-2020-COG
Summary The Anthropocene, the current geological epoch, is characterised by human-induced ecological changes, which have prompted a global biodiversity crisis. Human-introduced alien plants could help to offset native species loss, augmenting diversity and maintaining the services and capital that humans derive from nature. However, alien species that become invasive are themselves a key threat to biodiversity. Alien species thus presents a huge challenge for biodiversity conservation in the Anthropocene: should their arrival and establishment be inhibited or disregarded as they can potentially both exacerbate and ameliorate biodiversity loss? Coupling empirical and theoretical approaches, ALIENIMPACTS will directly address this challenge by developing an approach for accurately predicting impacts of alien plant invasions on plant community diversity and identifying the circumstances under which negative impacts will occur. Using temperate grasslands as a model system, ALIENIMPACTS will use innovative field experiments and global observations to systematically quantify – for the first time – how often, for how long, to what extent, under what conditions and in what ways alien plants can impact plant community diversity. ALIENIMPACTS will develop mechanistic niche models, validated with empirical data from grasslands in North America, Europe and Australia, that will enable realistic scenarios of invasion biodiversity impacts to be forecast, now and in the future. Developing empirically accurate mechanistic models that predict invasions and their biodiversity impact is a highly ambitious goal. Its achievement will mark a step-change in ecological theory and understanding, will inform environmental policy and management, and address a critical research challenge of the Anthropocene: how to conserve the biodiversity of plants – the dominant life form on earth – under global environmental change.
Summary
The Anthropocene, the current geological epoch, is characterised by human-induced ecological changes, which have prompted a global biodiversity crisis. Human-introduced alien plants could help to offset native species loss, augmenting diversity and maintaining the services and capital that humans derive from nature. However, alien species that become invasive are themselves a key threat to biodiversity. Alien species thus presents a huge challenge for biodiversity conservation in the Anthropocene: should their arrival and establishment be inhibited or disregarded as they can potentially both exacerbate and ameliorate biodiversity loss? Coupling empirical and theoretical approaches, ALIENIMPACTS will directly address this challenge by developing an approach for accurately predicting impacts of alien plant invasions on plant community diversity and identifying the circumstances under which negative impacts will occur. Using temperate grasslands as a model system, ALIENIMPACTS will use innovative field experiments and global observations to systematically quantify – for the first time – how often, for how long, to what extent, under what conditions and in what ways alien plants can impact plant community diversity. ALIENIMPACTS will develop mechanistic niche models, validated with empirical data from grasslands in North America, Europe and Australia, that will enable realistic scenarios of invasion biodiversity impacts to be forecast, now and in the future. Developing empirically accurate mechanistic models that predict invasions and their biodiversity impact is a highly ambitious goal. Its achievement will mark a step-change in ecological theory and understanding, will inform environmental policy and management, and address a critical research challenge of the Anthropocene: how to conserve the biodiversity of plants – the dominant life form on earth – under global environmental change.
Max ERC Funding
1 999 997 €
Duration
Start date: 2021-04-01, End date: 2026-03-31
Project acronym ASymbEL
Project A multilevel approach to address the role of Archaeal Symbionts in the Evolution of Life
Researcher (PI) Anja Spang
Host Institution (HI) STICHTING NEDERLANDSE WETENSCHAPPELIJK ONDERZOEK INSTITUTEN
Country Netherlands
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), LS8, ERC-2020-STG
Summary Microbial symbioses play an essential role in most aspects of life’s evolution and enabled major evolutionary events such as the origin of eukaryotes. But in spite of the importance of symbioses, our knowledge is based on a limited number of microbial host-symbiont systems, few of which include Archaea. Notably, recent cultivation-independent approaches have revealed two hugely diverse microbial groups of putative deep-branching archaeal and bacterial symbionts referred to as DPANN and CPR, respectively.
The major aims of ASymbEL are to test the hypotheses that (a) DPANN, together with CPR, have key positions in the tree of life, requiring to revise our view on the early evolution of cells and (b) that the diverse DPANN substantially shape the evolution of life through symbiont-host interactions. This will be achieved using a unique three-pronged strategy that will integrate knowledge from both micro- and macroevolutionary levels:
I will place the diverse DPANN in a rooted tree of life including CPR, reconcile the history of their genome content evolution and identify novel host-symbiont systems using sophisticated phylogenomic approaches combined with microscopy.
Further, I will elucidate fundamental principles of their genome evolution and interactions, for the first time using experimental evolution approaches to study two cultivated DPANN symbionts in co-culture with their hosts.
Finally, I will determine the dynamics of natural populations of known and newly identified archaeal host-symbiont systems and the influence of symbionts on host population structure and genome evolution using a unique approach combining single-cell, metagenomics and population genomics.
Altogether, this will allow to provide key insights into the global impact of these symbionts in the deep origins and diversification of cellular life on Earth. Thereby, ASymbEL paves the way for a deeper understanding of symbiotic evolutionary theory and the fundamental laws of cellular evolution.
Summary
Microbial symbioses play an essential role in most aspects of life’s evolution and enabled major evolutionary events such as the origin of eukaryotes. But in spite of the importance of symbioses, our knowledge is based on a limited number of microbial host-symbiont systems, few of which include Archaea. Notably, recent cultivation-independent approaches have revealed two hugely diverse microbial groups of putative deep-branching archaeal and bacterial symbionts referred to as DPANN and CPR, respectively.
The major aims of ASymbEL are to test the hypotheses that (a) DPANN, together with CPR, have key positions in the tree of life, requiring to revise our view on the early evolution of cells and (b) that the diverse DPANN substantially shape the evolution of life through symbiont-host interactions. This will be achieved using a unique three-pronged strategy that will integrate knowledge from both micro- and macroevolutionary levels:
I will place the diverse DPANN in a rooted tree of life including CPR, reconcile the history of their genome content evolution and identify novel host-symbiont systems using sophisticated phylogenomic approaches combined with microscopy.
Further, I will elucidate fundamental principles of their genome evolution and interactions, for the first time using experimental evolution approaches to study two cultivated DPANN symbionts in co-culture with their hosts.
Finally, I will determine the dynamics of natural populations of known and newly identified archaeal host-symbiont systems and the influence of symbionts on host population structure and genome evolution using a unique approach combining single-cell, metagenomics and population genomics.
Altogether, this will allow to provide key insights into the global impact of these symbionts in the deep origins and diversification of cellular life on Earth. Thereby, ASymbEL paves the way for a deeper understanding of symbiotic evolutionary theory and the fundamental laws of cellular evolution.
Max ERC Funding
1 869 946 €
Duration
Start date: 2021-02-01, End date: 2026-01-31
Project acronym CARDEVOL
Project Evolutionary consequences of novel plant defences
Researcher (PI) Tobias Zuest
Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSITAT ZURICH
Country Switzerland
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), LS8, ERC-2020-STG
Summary Plant chemical defences play a central role in mediating interactions between plants and their enemies. Phytochemical diversity may be advantageous to reduce herbivore pressure, and plants commonly produce vast numbers of chemicals. However, the diversity of functional classes of defensive chemicals is often more limited and subject to strong phylogenetic constraints. Such functional conservatism may accelerate the evolution of tolerance in specialized herbivores, resulting in plant-herbivore systems dominated by specialists resistant to host plant defences. This presents major challenges for the study of phytochemically-mediated coevolution, as most systems lack the early stages of coevolutionary interactions that are crucially important to predict evolutionary trajectories. Occasionally however, the gain of functionally novel traits allows plants to escape their coevolved herbivores. The genus Erysimum (Brassicaceae) has gained functionally novel cardenolides in addition to ancestral glucosinolate defences, allowing it to escape several glucosinolate-adapted specialists. Making use of the unique natural and emerging molecular resources in this system, CARDEVOL will comprehensively evaluate the ecological, physiological, and evolutionary consequences of novel defences for the plant and its herbivores. CARDEVOL has four main objectives: 1) to characterize the full extent of natural variation in defence of a widespread Erysimum species and to identify environmental drivers; 2) to manipulate both defences and evaluate their contributions to plant fitness in the field; 3) to evaluate tolerance and resistance mechanisms of a community of non-adapted specialist herbivores towards the new defence; and 4), to evolve herbivores under artificial selection for increased resistance. CARDEVOL thus aims at pushing the boundaries of chemical ecology and transforming the field by elucidating the causes and consequences of phytochemical diversification involving gains of function.
Summary
Plant chemical defences play a central role in mediating interactions between plants and their enemies. Phytochemical diversity may be advantageous to reduce herbivore pressure, and plants commonly produce vast numbers of chemicals. However, the diversity of functional classes of defensive chemicals is often more limited and subject to strong phylogenetic constraints. Such functional conservatism may accelerate the evolution of tolerance in specialized herbivores, resulting in plant-herbivore systems dominated by specialists resistant to host plant defences. This presents major challenges for the study of phytochemically-mediated coevolution, as most systems lack the early stages of coevolutionary interactions that are crucially important to predict evolutionary trajectories. Occasionally however, the gain of functionally novel traits allows plants to escape their coevolved herbivores. The genus Erysimum (Brassicaceae) has gained functionally novel cardenolides in addition to ancestral glucosinolate defences, allowing it to escape several glucosinolate-adapted specialists. Making use of the unique natural and emerging molecular resources in this system, CARDEVOL will comprehensively evaluate the ecological, physiological, and evolutionary consequences of novel defences for the plant and its herbivores. CARDEVOL has four main objectives: 1) to characterize the full extent of natural variation in defence of a widespread Erysimum species and to identify environmental drivers; 2) to manipulate both defences and evaluate their contributions to plant fitness in the field; 3) to evaluate tolerance and resistance mechanisms of a community of non-adapted specialist herbivores towards the new defence; and 4), to evolve herbivores under artificial selection for increased resistance. CARDEVOL thus aims at pushing the boundaries of chemical ecology and transforming the field by elucidating the causes and consequences of phytochemical diversification involving gains of function.
Max ERC Funding
1 500 000 €
Duration
Start date: 2021-02-01, End date: 2026-01-31
Project acronym COGNITIVE CONTROL
Project Revolutionizing invasive alien species control using behavioural economics and animal cognition
Researcher (PI) Tomer Czaczkes
Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSITAET REGENSBURG
Country Germany
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), LS8, ERC-2020-STG
Summary The aim of COGNITIVE CONTROL is to gain fundamental insights into collective cognition and apply them to the emerging global challenge of invasive animal control. Invasive ants are ecologically devastating, economically damaging, and almost impossible to control. Ants are protected physically and by social immunity. However, their cognitive abilities are almost universally ignored, and offer novel angles of attack. Applying behavioural economic and psychological concepts, I will open the new field of Cognitive Control of invasive animals.
In Work Package 1 I will use microeconomic tools to gain unprecedented insights into insect preference structures. Individual choice will be steered using behavioural economic and cognitive interventions. Psychological effects, such as conditioned taste aversion, which may cripple current alien species management, will be tested and overcome. Finally, I will use neuroactives (e.g. caffeine) to improve learning and manipulate preference. In WP2 I will take the WP1 manipulations on to the colony level to gain deep insights into collective cognition. By tracing trophallactic networks I will broaden our understanding of social immunity, which protects ant colonies from attack, and learn to disrupt it. Finally, in WP3, I will translate our results into field interventions. These will be tested in buildings with an industrial partner, and in natural environments to combat a damaging invasive ant infestation.
Ignoring cognition has left a critical knowledge gap in invasive species control. This project brings comparative psychology and behavioural economics to conservation, and will establish Europe as a major player in invasive ant control. The interdisciplinary approach will yield innovative insights into decision making in insects, by offering new conceptual frameworks. Introducing cognition to manipulate preferences will revolutionize invasive species control worldwide.
Summary
The aim of COGNITIVE CONTROL is to gain fundamental insights into collective cognition and apply them to the emerging global challenge of invasive animal control. Invasive ants are ecologically devastating, economically damaging, and almost impossible to control. Ants are protected physically and by social immunity. However, their cognitive abilities are almost universally ignored, and offer novel angles of attack. Applying behavioural economic and psychological concepts, I will open the new field of Cognitive Control of invasive animals.
In Work Package 1 I will use microeconomic tools to gain unprecedented insights into insect preference structures. Individual choice will be steered using behavioural economic and cognitive interventions. Psychological effects, such as conditioned taste aversion, which may cripple current alien species management, will be tested and overcome. Finally, I will use neuroactives (e.g. caffeine) to improve learning and manipulate preference. In WP2 I will take the WP1 manipulations on to the colony level to gain deep insights into collective cognition. By tracing trophallactic networks I will broaden our understanding of social immunity, which protects ant colonies from attack, and learn to disrupt it. Finally, in WP3, I will translate our results into field interventions. These will be tested in buildings with an industrial partner, and in natural environments to combat a damaging invasive ant infestation.
Ignoring cognition has left a critical knowledge gap in invasive species control. This project brings comparative psychology and behavioural economics to conservation, and will establish Europe as a major player in invasive ant control. The interdisciplinary approach will yield innovative insights into decision making in insects, by offering new conceptual frameworks. Introducing cognition to manipulate preferences will revolutionize invasive species control worldwide.
Max ERC Funding
1 451 805 €
Duration
Start date: 2021-04-01, End date: 2026-03-31
Project acronym CryoET4Diversity
Project Cryo-electron tomography for microbial ecology and evolution
Researcher (PI) Martin PILHOFER
Host Institution (HI) EIDGENOESSISCHE TECHNISCHE HOCHSCHULE ZUERICH
Country Switzerland
Call Details Consolidator Grant (CoG), LS8, ERC-2020-COG
Summary The cryo-electron microscopy (cryoEM) modalities of single particle analysis and cryo-electron tomography (cryoET) have revolutionized the fields of structural biology and cellular biochemistry, and they enabled groundbreaking insights into primarily hypothesis-driven, mechanistic problems, using well-established model systems. High-throughput sequencing technologies have revolutionized microbial community studies and changed our view of the diversity of life. In order to understand how microbes function and interact with other cells, however, sequencing- and cultivation-based techniques must be complemented with experiments that elucidate phenotypes in situ at the single-cell level.
In Aim 1, we will develop cryoET methods for their application to problems in microbial ecology. We will resolve technical challenges of cryoET application to complex environmental samples, including aspects of sample preparation, data collection, data analysis and data integration.
In Aim 2, we will apply the new methods to outstanding biological questions to advance our understanding of cell-cell interactions. We will study the role of unique bacterial tubulins in a bacterium-ciliate symbiosis, aspects of multicellularity in magnetotactic bacteria, and the diversity and roles of bacterial contractile injection systems.
This project resides at the interface of structural biology/biophysics and environmental/evolutionary biology. We will leverage the power of cryoET to generate three-dimensional images of cells in a frozen-hydrated life-like state, and at macromolecular resolution. The complementation with high-throughput and single-cell approaches from microbial ecology will allow us to make progress on specific biological questions. CryoET offers a new “sense” for the analysis of complex environmental samples. Our efforts will establish cryoET as a discovery tool that enables us to conceive how genetic variations manifest in structural and functional diversity.
Summary
The cryo-electron microscopy (cryoEM) modalities of single particle analysis and cryo-electron tomography (cryoET) have revolutionized the fields of structural biology and cellular biochemistry, and they enabled groundbreaking insights into primarily hypothesis-driven, mechanistic problems, using well-established model systems. High-throughput sequencing technologies have revolutionized microbial community studies and changed our view of the diversity of life. In order to understand how microbes function and interact with other cells, however, sequencing- and cultivation-based techniques must be complemented with experiments that elucidate phenotypes in situ at the single-cell level.
In Aim 1, we will develop cryoET methods for their application to problems in microbial ecology. We will resolve technical challenges of cryoET application to complex environmental samples, including aspects of sample preparation, data collection, data analysis and data integration.
In Aim 2, we will apply the new methods to outstanding biological questions to advance our understanding of cell-cell interactions. We will study the role of unique bacterial tubulins in a bacterium-ciliate symbiosis, aspects of multicellularity in magnetotactic bacteria, and the diversity and roles of bacterial contractile injection systems.
This project resides at the interface of structural biology/biophysics and environmental/evolutionary biology. We will leverage the power of cryoET to generate three-dimensional images of cells in a frozen-hydrated life-like state, and at macromolecular resolution. The complementation with high-throughput and single-cell approaches from microbial ecology will allow us to make progress on specific biological questions. CryoET offers a new “sense” for the analysis of complex environmental samples. Our efforts will establish cryoET as a discovery tool that enables us to conceive how genetic variations manifest in structural and functional diversity.
Max ERC Funding
1 996 102 €
Duration
Start date: 2022-01-01, End date: 2026-12-31
Project acronym DECAF
Project Deciphering adaptive footprints of epiC evolution on different timescales
Researcher (PI) Toni Gossmann
Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSITAET BIELEFELD
Country Germany
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), LS8, ERC-2020-STG
Summary Epigenetics plays a fundamental role in the function and regulation of the genome. From an evolutionary viewpoint, a pressing question is whether epigenetic modifications are a source of adaptive variation. To answer this question substantial attention is being given to the epigenetic marks themselves, but surprisingly little is known about the evolutionary underpinnings of the genomic sites that anchor them. Using novel analytical and technical approaches, I want to address this fundamental knowledge gap. I will use the best understood epigenetic mark, DNA methylation, as a model and advance on recent findings in avian genome evolution, epigenetic inheritance and sequencing technology. This will enable me to pinpoint signatures of epigenetically driven adaptation. I have designed separate approaches at three different levels: (1) At the individual level, to identify stably methylated anchors in the avian germline with focus on a recently discovered germline-specific chromosome, (2) at the population level, to establish the selective forces acting on DNA methylation diversity in natural populations and (3) at the species level, to gain insight into how fast-mutating anchors of DNA methylation act as potential facilitators of species differentiation and barriers. Ultimately, by combining these three levels I will be able to pinpoint epigenetic anchors that are involved in molecular adaptation. The possible research outcomes will not only be valuable to evolutionary biologists and ecologists, but will also make fundamental contributions to molecular biology and possibly medical research, and will deepen our understanding of how epigenetic marks manifest themselves at the sequence level.
Summary
Epigenetics plays a fundamental role in the function and regulation of the genome. From an evolutionary viewpoint, a pressing question is whether epigenetic modifications are a source of adaptive variation. To answer this question substantial attention is being given to the epigenetic marks themselves, but surprisingly little is known about the evolutionary underpinnings of the genomic sites that anchor them. Using novel analytical and technical approaches, I want to address this fundamental knowledge gap. I will use the best understood epigenetic mark, DNA methylation, as a model and advance on recent findings in avian genome evolution, epigenetic inheritance and sequencing technology. This will enable me to pinpoint signatures of epigenetically driven adaptation. I have designed separate approaches at three different levels: (1) At the individual level, to identify stably methylated anchors in the avian germline with focus on a recently discovered germline-specific chromosome, (2) at the population level, to establish the selective forces acting on DNA methylation diversity in natural populations and (3) at the species level, to gain insight into how fast-mutating anchors of DNA methylation act as potential facilitators of species differentiation and barriers. Ultimately, by combining these three levels I will be able to pinpoint epigenetic anchors that are involved in molecular adaptation. The possible research outcomes will not only be valuable to evolutionary biologists and ecologists, but will also make fundamental contributions to molecular biology and possibly medical research, and will deepen our understanding of how epigenetic marks manifest themselves at the sequence level.
Max ERC Funding
1 499 938 €
Duration
Start date: 2021-02-01, End date: 2026-01-31
Project acronym EvoComBac
Project The evolutionary epidemiology of commensal bacteria: the case of Escherichia coli from 1980 to 2025
Researcher (PI) Francois BLANQUART
Host Institution (HI) CENTRE NATIONAL DE LA RECHERCHE SCIENTIFIQUE CNRS
Country France
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), LS8, ERC-2020-STG
Summary Understanding the rapid adaptation of infectious pathogens is crucial to design better management policies and anticipate future changes. Yet, existing models often fail to explain these dynamics. I will address this major challenge of evolutionary biology in the bacterial species Escherichia coli. E. coli is a commensal of the human gut and an opportunistic pathogen causing infections responsible for more than a million deaths worldwide per year. E. coli has rapidly evolved over the last four decades. From the 1980s, starting from an almost fully sensitive population, multiple antibiotic resistances have emerged and stabilised at an intermediate frequency. Concomitantly, virulence, the propensity to cause infections, increased. The evolutionary processes causing these changes are largely unknown. To elucidate the drivers of the evolution of commensal E. coli, I will develop a prospective cohort of 200 longitudinally followed healthy volunteers—the largest cohort of its kind. We will analyse these data in the light of an integrative statistical and mathematical framework describing the ecology of E. coli from the within-host to the population level. These models will generate testable predictions on the evolution of genomic variants determining virulence, resistance, and colonisation ability. These predictions will be validated on an exceptional existing dataset composed of 1000 bacterial genomes sampled from healthy human hosts from 1980 to 2025 encompassing around 100,000 generations of bacterial evolution. This original interdisciplinary framework draws from epidemiology, evolutionary biology and genomics for a better understanding of the evolution of bacteria. This project is a step towards better predictions of evolutionary dynamics and better stewardship policies for infectious pathogens.
Summary
Understanding the rapid adaptation of infectious pathogens is crucial to design better management policies and anticipate future changes. Yet, existing models often fail to explain these dynamics. I will address this major challenge of evolutionary biology in the bacterial species Escherichia coli. E. coli is a commensal of the human gut and an opportunistic pathogen causing infections responsible for more than a million deaths worldwide per year. E. coli has rapidly evolved over the last four decades. From the 1980s, starting from an almost fully sensitive population, multiple antibiotic resistances have emerged and stabilised at an intermediate frequency. Concomitantly, virulence, the propensity to cause infections, increased. The evolutionary processes causing these changes are largely unknown. To elucidate the drivers of the evolution of commensal E. coli, I will develop a prospective cohort of 200 longitudinally followed healthy volunteers—the largest cohort of its kind. We will analyse these data in the light of an integrative statistical and mathematical framework describing the ecology of E. coli from the within-host to the population level. These models will generate testable predictions on the evolution of genomic variants determining virulence, resistance, and colonisation ability. These predictions will be validated on an exceptional existing dataset composed of 1000 bacterial genomes sampled from healthy human hosts from 1980 to 2025 encompassing around 100,000 generations of bacterial evolution. This original interdisciplinary framework draws from epidemiology, evolutionary biology and genomics for a better understanding of the evolution of bacteria. This project is a step towards better predictions of evolutionary dynamics and better stewardship policies for infectious pathogens.
Max ERC Funding
1 499 893 €
Duration
Start date: 2021-06-01, End date: 2026-05-31
Project acronym EvoOnRepeat
Project Unravelling the developmental origins of parallel evolution
Researcher (PI) Nathalie Feiner
Host Institution (HI) LUNDS UNIVERSITET
Country Sweden
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), LS8, ERC-2020-STG
Summary The diversity of life may seem endless. Yet, a closer look reveals that evolution often is on repeat. This is most striking when the same suite of characters evolves over and over again. One explanation for such parallel evolution is that development produces some phenotypes readily and frequently, while others are rare or impossible. Evolution must go where development leads.
I have identified a rare opportunity to put the role of development in adaptive evolution to the test. At least six species of wall lizards have repeatedly evolved a complex syndrome, including striking coloration, stout bodies, large heads, and aggressive behaviour. All these traits develop from the same cell type, neural crest cells. I propose that this developmental coupling allows seemingly unrelated traits – colours, morphologies and behaviours – to vary together. As a result, variation is channelled down particular routes, resulting in parallel evolution. I will test this hypothesis by establishing ‘Evo-Devo 2.0’ – merging evolutionary and developmental biology in a comparative framework. Firstly, I will reveal if independent origins of the syndrome share the same transcriptional and epigenetic modifications of neural crest cells. Secondly, I will identify how parallelism at the phenotypic level is mirrored at the genomic level. Thirdly, I will use gene editing to functionally validate the results and reconstruct the evolutionary steps at the origin of the syndrome.
If my hypothesis is correct, my insights will demonstrate that understanding development enables us to make evolution more predictable. Failure to attend to the arrival of the fittest has left us poorly equipped to predict how invasive species evolve, or if species will adapt to environmental challenges. My research will fill this explanatory gap by showing that it is possible to understand the rules by which individuals vary, and use this insight to explain why evolution proceeds some ways rather than others.
Summary
The diversity of life may seem endless. Yet, a closer look reveals that evolution often is on repeat. This is most striking when the same suite of characters evolves over and over again. One explanation for such parallel evolution is that development produces some phenotypes readily and frequently, while others are rare or impossible. Evolution must go where development leads.
I have identified a rare opportunity to put the role of development in adaptive evolution to the test. At least six species of wall lizards have repeatedly evolved a complex syndrome, including striking coloration, stout bodies, large heads, and aggressive behaviour. All these traits develop from the same cell type, neural crest cells. I propose that this developmental coupling allows seemingly unrelated traits – colours, morphologies and behaviours – to vary together. As a result, variation is channelled down particular routes, resulting in parallel evolution. I will test this hypothesis by establishing ‘Evo-Devo 2.0’ – merging evolutionary and developmental biology in a comparative framework. Firstly, I will reveal if independent origins of the syndrome share the same transcriptional and epigenetic modifications of neural crest cells. Secondly, I will identify how parallelism at the phenotypic level is mirrored at the genomic level. Thirdly, I will use gene editing to functionally validate the results and reconstruct the evolutionary steps at the origin of the syndrome.
If my hypothesis is correct, my insights will demonstrate that understanding development enables us to make evolution more predictable. Failure to attend to the arrival of the fittest has left us poorly equipped to predict how invasive species evolve, or if species will adapt to environmental challenges. My research will fill this explanatory gap by showing that it is possible to understand the rules by which individuals vary, and use this insight to explain why evolution proceeds some ways rather than others.
Max ERC Funding
1 498 199 €
Duration
Start date: 2021-03-01, End date: 2026-02-28
Project acronym GROWCEAN
Project The missing majority: understanding global ocean ecology by revealing the unknown biology of the most abundant marine microbial eukaryotes
Researcher (PI) Daniel RICHTER
Host Institution (HI) AGENCIA ESTATAL CONSEJO SUPERIOR DEINVESTIGACIONES CIENTIFICAS
Country Spain
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), LS8, ERC-2020-STG
Summary Which are the most abundant microbial eukaryotic species in the world’s sunlit oceans, and what roles do they play in global marine ecology? At present, the answers to both of these questions remain largely unknown. Recently, the Tara Oceans expedition conducted a global ribosomal barcode survey of the surface oceans, revealing that, of roughly 500,000 total Operational Taxonomic Units (OTUs), only 89, which were present in every station sampled by Tara, represent half of the total global OTU abundance. Yet, of these 89 OTUs, 81 do not match any known species.
The goal of this project is to characterize the biology, interspecies interactions, and ecosystem relevance of these 81 highly abundant, ubiquitous unknown microbial eukaryotes. We propose three research objectives. First, using a novel isolation approach, we will establish robust laboratory cultures and sequence their transcriptomes to produce gene catalogs. Second, we will apply time-lapse light and fluorescence microscopy to understand their life history and behavior and to build hypotheses about their individual and community metabolic potential. Third, we will characterize their ecosystem relevance by leveraging Tara Oceans metatranscriptomes to explore how their genetic toolkit is expressed across varying oceanic conditions on a global scale, and by performing laboratory manipulations to test hypotheses on a local scale.
Overall, we will provide the first glimpse of the morphological, life history, behavioral and transcriptional features of currently unknown globally abundant protists. Discoveries about their biology will have immediate implications for studies of the ecology and community structure of oceanic ecosystems. Finally, we anticipate that our efforts will lead to the establishment of ecologically relevant microbial eukaryotes as new model systems whose biology can be studied intensively in the laboratory.
Summary
Which are the most abundant microbial eukaryotic species in the world’s sunlit oceans, and what roles do they play in global marine ecology? At present, the answers to both of these questions remain largely unknown. Recently, the Tara Oceans expedition conducted a global ribosomal barcode survey of the surface oceans, revealing that, of roughly 500,000 total Operational Taxonomic Units (OTUs), only 89, which were present in every station sampled by Tara, represent half of the total global OTU abundance. Yet, of these 89 OTUs, 81 do not match any known species.
The goal of this project is to characterize the biology, interspecies interactions, and ecosystem relevance of these 81 highly abundant, ubiquitous unknown microbial eukaryotes. We propose three research objectives. First, using a novel isolation approach, we will establish robust laboratory cultures and sequence their transcriptomes to produce gene catalogs. Second, we will apply time-lapse light and fluorescence microscopy to understand their life history and behavior and to build hypotheses about their individual and community metabolic potential. Third, we will characterize their ecosystem relevance by leveraging Tara Oceans metatranscriptomes to explore how their genetic toolkit is expressed across varying oceanic conditions on a global scale, and by performing laboratory manipulations to test hypotheses on a local scale.
Overall, we will provide the first glimpse of the morphological, life history, behavioral and transcriptional features of currently unknown globally abundant protists. Discoveries about their biology will have immediate implications for studies of the ecology and community structure of oceanic ecosystems. Finally, we anticipate that our efforts will lead to the establishment of ecologically relevant microbial eukaryotes as new model systems whose biology can be studied intensively in the laboratory.
Max ERC Funding
1 500 000 €
Duration
Start date: 2021-09-01, End date: 2026-08-31
Project acronym KleptoSlug
Project Kleptoplasty: The sea slug that got away with stolen chloroplasts
Researcher (PI) Sonia CRUZ
Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSIDADE DE AVEIRO
Country Portugal
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), LS8, ERC-2020-STG
Summary Rationale: Photosynthesis is almost exclusively restricted to algae and plants, with the exception of some protozoans, flatworms and marine slugs that acquire chloroplasts from algae. In metazoans, the capacity to incorporate functional chloroplasts (kleptoplasty) for long periods of time has only been described in sacoglossan sea slugs. Some species retain kleptoplasts photosynthetically active for several months that persist without access to algal gene products and despite the release of potentially dangerous metabolites, including reactive oxygen species (ROS). While kleptoplasty is intriguing from an evolutionary perspective, there are many unresolved questions on how the algal organelle is incorporated into the metabolism of an animal cell and what the host-associated benefits are. Aim: This proposal will unravel the cellular mechanisms supporting the sequestration and maintenance of functional chloroplasts inside metazoan cells and determine the host benefits of harboring kleptoplasts. Approach: The expertise in keeping a variety of species will form the backbone of my state-of-the-art experimental strategy, comparing a wide range of different animal-alga associations in their response to chloroplast incorporation and variable ability to functionally maintain them. Lipidomic and transcriptomic analyses will unravel in a comparative approach the species-specific maintenance strategies underlying kleptoplasty. In addition, the impact of cytotoxic compounds produced by active kleptoplasts and in particular ROS production and scavenging will be explore. Finally, I will determine the fate of inorganic carbon and nitrogen to explore the contribution of photosynthesis-derived compounds to the physiology of the host. Impact: This analysis will resolve some of the long-standing questions regarding the maintenance of photosynthetically active chloroplasts in animal cells and produce crucial insights about long-term kleptoplasty in sacoglossan sea slugs.
Summary
Rationale: Photosynthesis is almost exclusively restricted to algae and plants, with the exception of some protozoans, flatworms and marine slugs that acquire chloroplasts from algae. In metazoans, the capacity to incorporate functional chloroplasts (kleptoplasty) for long periods of time has only been described in sacoglossan sea slugs. Some species retain kleptoplasts photosynthetically active for several months that persist without access to algal gene products and despite the release of potentially dangerous metabolites, including reactive oxygen species (ROS). While kleptoplasty is intriguing from an evolutionary perspective, there are many unresolved questions on how the algal organelle is incorporated into the metabolism of an animal cell and what the host-associated benefits are. Aim: This proposal will unravel the cellular mechanisms supporting the sequestration and maintenance of functional chloroplasts inside metazoan cells and determine the host benefits of harboring kleptoplasts. Approach: The expertise in keeping a variety of species will form the backbone of my state-of-the-art experimental strategy, comparing a wide range of different animal-alga associations in their response to chloroplast incorporation and variable ability to functionally maintain them. Lipidomic and transcriptomic analyses will unravel in a comparative approach the species-specific maintenance strategies underlying kleptoplasty. In addition, the impact of cytotoxic compounds produced by active kleptoplasts and in particular ROS production and scavenging will be explore. Finally, I will determine the fate of inorganic carbon and nitrogen to explore the contribution of photosynthesis-derived compounds to the physiology of the host. Impact: This analysis will resolve some of the long-standing questions regarding the maintenance of photosynthetically active chloroplasts in animal cells and produce crucial insights about long-term kleptoplasty in sacoglossan sea slugs.
Max ERC Funding
2 255 461 €
Duration
Start date: 2021-05-01, End date: 2026-04-30
