Project acronym Amitochondriates
Project Life without mitochondrion
Researcher (PI) Vladimir HAMPL
Host Institution (HI) UNIVERZITA KARLOVA
Country Czechia
Call Details Consolidator Grant (CoG), LS8, ERC-2017-COG
Summary Mitochondria are often referred to as the “power houses” of eukaryotic cells. All eukaryotes were thought to have mitochondria of some form until 2016, when the first eukaryote thriving without mitochondria was discovered by our laboratory – a flagellate Monocercomonoides. Understanding cellular functions of these cells, which represent a new functional type of eukaryotes, and understanding the circumstances of the unique event of mitochondrial loss are motivations for this proposal. The first objective focuses on the cell physiology. We will perform a metabolomic study revealing major metabolic pathways and concentrate further on elucidating its unique system of iron-sulphur cluster assembly. In the second objective, we will investigate in details the unique case of mitochondrial loss. We will examine two additional potentially amitochondriate lineages by means of genomics and transcriptomics, conduct experiments simulating the moments of mitochondrial loss and try to induce the mitochondrial loss in vitro by knocking out or down genes for mitochondrial biogenesis. We have chosen Giardia intestinalis and Entamoeba histolytica as models for the latter experiments, because their mitochondria are already reduced to minimalistic “mitosomes” and because some genetic tools are already available for them. Successful mitochondrial knock-outs would enable us to study mitochondrial loss in ‘real time’ and in vivo. In the third objective, we will focus on transforming Monocercomonoides into a tractable laboratory model by developing methods of axenic cultivation and genetic manipulation. This will open new possibilities in the studies of this organism and create a cell culture representing an amitochondriate model for cell biological studies enabling the dissection of mitochondrial effects from those of other compartments. The team is composed of the laboratory of PI and eight invited experts and we hope it has the ability to address these challenging questions.
Summary
Mitochondria are often referred to as the “power houses” of eukaryotic cells. All eukaryotes were thought to have mitochondria of some form until 2016, when the first eukaryote thriving without mitochondria was discovered by our laboratory – a flagellate Monocercomonoides. Understanding cellular functions of these cells, which represent a new functional type of eukaryotes, and understanding the circumstances of the unique event of mitochondrial loss are motivations for this proposal. The first objective focuses on the cell physiology. We will perform a metabolomic study revealing major metabolic pathways and concentrate further on elucidating its unique system of iron-sulphur cluster assembly. In the second objective, we will investigate in details the unique case of mitochondrial loss. We will examine two additional potentially amitochondriate lineages by means of genomics and transcriptomics, conduct experiments simulating the moments of mitochondrial loss and try to induce the mitochondrial loss in vitro by knocking out or down genes for mitochondrial biogenesis. We have chosen Giardia intestinalis and Entamoeba histolytica as models for the latter experiments, because their mitochondria are already reduced to minimalistic “mitosomes” and because some genetic tools are already available for them. Successful mitochondrial knock-outs would enable us to study mitochondrial loss in ‘real time’ and in vivo. In the third objective, we will focus on transforming Monocercomonoides into a tractable laboratory model by developing methods of axenic cultivation and genetic manipulation. This will open new possibilities in the studies of this organism and create a cell culture representing an amitochondriate model for cell biological studies enabling the dissection of mitochondrial effects from those of other compartments. The team is composed of the laboratory of PI and eight invited experts and we hope it has the ability to address these challenging questions.
Max ERC Funding
1 935 500 €
Duration
Start date: 2018-05-01, End date: 2023-04-30
Project acronym BABE
Project Why is the world green: testing top-down control of plant-herbivore food webs by experiments with birds, bats and ants
Researcher (PI) Katerina SAM
Host Institution (HI) Biologicke centrum AV CR, v. v. i.
Country Czechia
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), LS8, ERC-2018-STG
Summary Why is the world green? Because predators control herbivores, allowing plants to flourish. This >50 years old answer to the deceptively simple question remains controversial. After all, plants are also protected from herbivores physically and by secondary chemistry. My goal is to test novel aspects of the “green world hypothesis”: ● How the importance of top-down effects varies with forest diversity and productivity along a latitudinal gradient? ● How the key predators, birds, bats and ants, contribute to top-down effects individually and in synergy? I strive to understand this because: ● While there is evidence that predators reduce herbivore abundance and enhance plant growth, the importance of top-down control is poorly understood across a range of forests. ● The importance of key predatory groups, and their antagonistic and synergic interactions, have been rarely studied, despite their potential impact on ecosystem dynamics in changing world. I wish to achieve my goals by: ● Factorial manipulations of key insectivorous predators (birds, bats, ants) to measure their effects on lower trophic levels in forest understories and canopies, accessed by canopy cranes, along latitudinal gradient spanning 75o from Australia to Japan. ● Studying compensatory effects among predatory taxa on herbivore and plant performance. Why this has not been done before: ● Factorial experimental exclusion of predatory groups replicated on a large spatial scale is logistically difficult. ● Canopy crane network along a latitudinal gradient has only recently become available. I am in excellent position to succeed as I have experience with ● foodweb experiments along an elevation gradient in New Guinea rainforests, ● study of bird, bat and arthropod communities. If the project is successful, it will: ● Allow understanding the importance of predators from temperate to tropical forests. ● Establish a network of experimental sites along a network of canopy cranes open for follow-up research.
Summary
Why is the world green? Because predators control herbivores, allowing plants to flourish. This >50 years old answer to the deceptively simple question remains controversial. After all, plants are also protected from herbivores physically and by secondary chemistry. My goal is to test novel aspects of the “green world hypothesis”: ● How the importance of top-down effects varies with forest diversity and productivity along a latitudinal gradient? ● How the key predators, birds, bats and ants, contribute to top-down effects individually and in synergy? I strive to understand this because: ● While there is evidence that predators reduce herbivore abundance and enhance plant growth, the importance of top-down control is poorly understood across a range of forests. ● The importance of key predatory groups, and their antagonistic and synergic interactions, have been rarely studied, despite their potential impact on ecosystem dynamics in changing world. I wish to achieve my goals by: ● Factorial manipulations of key insectivorous predators (birds, bats, ants) to measure their effects on lower trophic levels in forest understories and canopies, accessed by canopy cranes, along latitudinal gradient spanning 75o from Australia to Japan. ● Studying compensatory effects among predatory taxa on herbivore and plant performance. Why this has not been done before: ● Factorial experimental exclusion of predatory groups replicated on a large spatial scale is logistically difficult. ● Canopy crane network along a latitudinal gradient has only recently become available. I am in excellent position to succeed as I have experience with ● foodweb experiments along an elevation gradient in New Guinea rainforests, ● study of bird, bat and arthropod communities. If the project is successful, it will: ● Allow understanding the importance of predators from temperate to tropical forests. ● Establish a network of experimental sites along a network of canopy cranes open for follow-up research.
Max ERC Funding
1 455 032 €
Duration
Start date: 2018-12-01, End date: 2023-11-30
Project acronym Diversity6continents
Project Ecological determinants of tropical-temperate trends in insect diversity
Researcher (PI) Vojtech Novotny
Host Institution (HI) Biologicke centrum AV CR, v. v. i.
Country Czechia
Call Details Advanced Grant (AdG), LS8, ERC-2014-ADG
Summary The study will examine one of the most fundamental, yet poorly understood patterns of global biodiversity distribution: How can so many species coexist in a tropical forest? This key question of current ecology will be studied using quantitative surveys of plant-herbivore-parasitoid food webs within paired sets of tropical and temperate forests from six continents, in Papua New Guinea (PNG), Gabon, Panama, the Czech Republic, Japan, and USA, sampled using canopy cranes, truck-mounted elevated platforms and forest felling. This novel type of data will be analysed using a new rarefaction method, developed to test mechanistic explanations for biodiversity patterns along ecological gradients. It will evaluate competing hypotheses explaining latitudinal trends in insect herbivore diversity by the variation in either phylogenetic or functional diversity of plants, the host specificity of herbivores, or the diversity and specificity of their parasitoids and predators. The study will thus examine the importance of bottom-up (plants) and top-down (enemies) drivers of latitudinal trends in herbivore food webs, central to ecological theory that postulates the role of specialized herbivores as density-dependent agents of mortality involved in maintaining high tropical plant diversity. The project builds upon prior research that produced one of the largest tropical food web data sets to expand it conceptually, methodologically and geographically. It will build a globally important research facility (a canopy crane in PNG) and link researchers and infrastructure from several countries in a major effort to draw together separate lines of tropical and temperate research. Study sites in the ILTER, NEON, CTFS/SIGEO, and Canopy Crane Network will participate. The internationally recognized paraecologist program will be expanded, PhD students from both European and developing countries will be trained, and conservation of rainforests by indigenous rainforest dwellers will be leveraged.
Summary
The study will examine one of the most fundamental, yet poorly understood patterns of global biodiversity distribution: How can so many species coexist in a tropical forest? This key question of current ecology will be studied using quantitative surveys of plant-herbivore-parasitoid food webs within paired sets of tropical and temperate forests from six continents, in Papua New Guinea (PNG), Gabon, Panama, the Czech Republic, Japan, and USA, sampled using canopy cranes, truck-mounted elevated platforms and forest felling. This novel type of data will be analysed using a new rarefaction method, developed to test mechanistic explanations for biodiversity patterns along ecological gradients. It will evaluate competing hypotheses explaining latitudinal trends in insect herbivore diversity by the variation in either phylogenetic or functional diversity of plants, the host specificity of herbivores, or the diversity and specificity of their parasitoids and predators. The study will thus examine the importance of bottom-up (plants) and top-down (enemies) drivers of latitudinal trends in herbivore food webs, central to ecological theory that postulates the role of specialized herbivores as density-dependent agents of mortality involved in maintaining high tropical plant diversity. The project builds upon prior research that produced one of the largest tropical food web data sets to expand it conceptually, methodologically and geographically. It will build a globally important research facility (a canopy crane in PNG) and link researchers and infrastructure from several countries in a major effort to draw together separate lines of tropical and temperate research. Study sites in the ILTER, NEON, CTFS/SIGEO, and Canopy Crane Network will participate. The internationally recognized paraecologist program will be expanded, PhD students from both European and developing countries will be trained, and conservation of rainforests by indigenous rainforest dwellers will be leveraged.
Max ERC Funding
3 349 618 €
Duration
Start date: 2015-10-01, End date: 2021-09-30
Project acronym DOUBLE ADAPT
Project Whole genome duplication – the gateway to adaptation?
Researcher (PI) Filip KOLAR
Host Institution (HI) UNIVERZITA KARLOVA
Country Czechia
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), LS8, ERC-2019-STG
Summary Whole genome duplication (WGD, polyploidization) is arguably the most massive genome-wide mutation whose ubiquity across eukaryotes suggests an adaptive benefit, though no mechanism has been identified. Consequently, a large controversy dominates the field whether WGD represents net benefit or detriment to evolutionary success.
I will test if WGD promotes adaptation in natural populations and address the underlying mechanism by estimating net fitness benefit of WGD vs. the role of post-WGD accumulation of adaptive variation. This question has not been satisfactorily addressed before because experimental studies of WGD were disconnected from field surveys and population genomics avoided complex polyploid genomes. Only recently, we have shown a proof-of-concept that WGD can increase the capacity of populations to accumulate adaptive variation in wild Arabidopsis. Yet the underlying mechanism still remains unknown.
I will address the adaptive consequences of WGD over a hierarchy of levels: genome, phenotype, population and species. In six naturally ploidy-variable plant species I plan to test if
(i) natural polyploid populations accumulate larger adaptive variation than diploids
(ii) WGD per se or post-WGD evolution brings important adaptive novelties
(iii) rates of positive selection increase after WGD
To achieve these goals, I will combine ecological genomics of natural populations with evolve-and-resequence experiments. To move beyond single-species correlative studies, I will manipulate the mutation itself via synthesis of neo-polyploid individuals and populations in six species. Then I will compare adaptation signals in genomes and phenotypes of synthetic polyploids and their natural diploid and tetraploid relatives.
This project will determine the adaptive value of WGD, an important force in evolution and crop domestication, with the ambition to improve our understanding of the role of large genomic mutations in natural selection and adaptation.
Summary
Whole genome duplication (WGD, polyploidization) is arguably the most massive genome-wide mutation whose ubiquity across eukaryotes suggests an adaptive benefit, though no mechanism has been identified. Consequently, a large controversy dominates the field whether WGD represents net benefit or detriment to evolutionary success.
I will test if WGD promotes adaptation in natural populations and address the underlying mechanism by estimating net fitness benefit of WGD vs. the role of post-WGD accumulation of adaptive variation. This question has not been satisfactorily addressed before because experimental studies of WGD were disconnected from field surveys and population genomics avoided complex polyploid genomes. Only recently, we have shown a proof-of-concept that WGD can increase the capacity of populations to accumulate adaptive variation in wild Arabidopsis. Yet the underlying mechanism still remains unknown.
I will address the adaptive consequences of WGD over a hierarchy of levels: genome, phenotype, population and species. In six naturally ploidy-variable plant species I plan to test if
(i) natural polyploid populations accumulate larger adaptive variation than diploids
(ii) WGD per se or post-WGD evolution brings important adaptive novelties
(iii) rates of positive selection increase after WGD
To achieve these goals, I will combine ecological genomics of natural populations with evolve-and-resequence experiments. To move beyond single-species correlative studies, I will manipulate the mutation itself via synthesis of neo-polyploid individuals and populations in six species. Then I will compare adaptation signals in genomes and phenotypes of synthetic polyploids and their natural diploid and tetraploid relatives.
This project will determine the adaptive value of WGD, an important force in evolution and crop domestication, with the ambition to improve our understanding of the role of large genomic mutations in natural selection and adaptation.
Max ERC Funding
1 993 750 €
Duration
Start date: 2021-01-01, End date: 2025-12-31
