ERC FUNDED PROJECTS

All levels of life entail cooperation and conflict. Genes cooperate to build up a functional genome, which can yet be undermined by selfish genetic elements. Humans and animals cooperate to build up societies, which can yet be subverted by cheats. There is a long-standing interest among biologists to comprehend the tug-of-war between cooperation and conflict. Recently, research on bacteria was successful in identifying key factors that can tip the balance in favour or against cooperation. Bacteria cooperate through the formation of protective biofilms, cell-to-cell communication, and the secretion of shareable public goods. However, the advantage of bacteria being fast replicating units, easily cultivatable in high numbers, is also their disadvantage: they are small and imperceptible, such that measures of cooperation typically rely on averaged responses across millions of cells. Thus, we still know very little about bacterial cooperation at the biological relevant scale: the individual cell level. Here, I present research using the secretion of public goods in the opportunistic human pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa, to tackle this issue. I will explore new dimensions of bacterial cooperation by asking whether bacteria engage in collective-decision making to find optimal group-level solutions; whether bacteria show division of labour to split up work efficiently; and whether bacteria can distinguish between trustworthy and cheating partners. The proposed research will make two significant contributions. First, it will reveal whether bacteria engage in complex forms of cooperation (collective decision-making, division of labour, partner recognition), which have traditionally been associated with higher organisms. Second, it will provide insights into the evolutionary stability of cooperation – key knowledge for designing therapies that interfere with virulence-inducing public goods in infections, and the design of stable public-good based remediation processes.

1 994 981 €

Start date: 2016-09-01, End date: 2021-08-31

"More than 150 years after the publication of Charles Darwin’s The Origin of Species, the identification of the processes that govern the emergence of novel species remains a fundamental problem to biology. Why is it that some groups have diversified in a seemingly explosive manner, while others have lingered unvaried over millions of years? What are the external factors and environmental conditions that promote organismal diversity? And what is the molecular basis of adaptation and diversification? A key to these and related questions is the comparative study of exceptionally diverse yet relatively recent species assemblages such as Darwin’s finches, the Caribbean anole lizards, or the hundreds of endemic species of cichlid fishes in the East African Great Lakes, which are at the center of this proposal. More specifically, I intend to conduct the so far most thorough examination of a large adaptive radiation, combining in-depth eco-morphological assessments and whole genome sequencing of all members of a cichlid species flock. To this end, I plan to (i) sequence the genomes and transcriptomes of several specimens of each cichlid species from Lake Tanganyika to examine genetic and transcriptional diversity; (ii) apply stable-isotope and stomach-content analyses in combination with underwater transplant experiments and transect surveys to quantitate feeding performances, habitat preferences and natural-history parameters; (iii) use X-ray computed tomography to study phenotypic variation in 3D; and (iv) examine fossils from existing and forthcoming drilling cores to implement a time line of diversification in a cichlid adaptive radiation. This project, thus, offers the unique opportunity to test recent theory- and data-based predictions on speciation and adaptive radiation within an entire biological system – in this case the adaptive radiation of cichlid fishes in Lake Tanganyika."

1 999 238 €

Start date: 2014-03-01, End date: 2019-02-28

As evolutionary biologists we are of course motivated by the desire to gain further insight in to the evolution of natural populations. The main goals of this proposal are to (i) develop theory and methodology that will enable the identification of adaptively evolving genomic regions using polymorphism data, (ii) develop theory and methodology for the estimation of whole-genome rates of adaptive evolution, and (iii) apply the developed theory in two strategic collaborative applications. Capitalizing on recently available and soon-to-be available whole genome polymorphism data across multiple taxa, these approaches are expected to significantly improve the identification and localization of recent selective events, as well as provide long sought after information regarding the genomic distributions of selective effects. Additionally, through these on-going collaborations with empirical and experimental labs, this methodology will allow for specific hypothesis testing that will further illuminate classical examples of adaptation. Together, this proposal seeks to Describe Evolution with Theoretical, Empirical and Computational Tools (DETECT), seeking to accurately describe the very mode and tempo of Darwinian adaptation.

1 071 729 €

Start date: 2013-01-01, End date: 2017-08-31

In the past few years, there has been a growing popular backlash against international institutions. Examples include the 2015 Greek bailout referendum, the 2016 Brexit referendum, or the 2016 election of a US President seemingly determined to withdraw US support from various international treaties. The implications of these mass-based disintegration efforts reach far beyond the countries in which they originate. First, the disintegration process is shaped by how remaining member states respond to one member’s bid to unilaterally change or terminate the terms of an existing international agreement. Second, mass-based disintegration bids pose considerable political contagion risks by encouraging disintegrative tendencies in other countries. Unfortunately, our theoretical tools to understand such international disintegration processes are underdeveloped. DISINTEGRATION therefore conducts a broad, systematic, and comparative inquiry into the mass politics of disintegration that pays particular attention to reactions in the remaining member states. It explores when and how one country’s mass-based disintegration experience encourages or deters demands for disintegration in other countries, how these contagion effects are transmitted through domestic elites and domestic discourse, and how the remaining member states ultimately respond during disintegration negotiations. It undertakes large-scale multi-method data collection that exploits the research opportunities offered by two ongoing mass-based disintegration processes: the Brexit negotiations and an upcoming Swiss referendum aimed at terminating a Swiss-EU bilateral treaty. DISINTEGRATION’s main objective is to develop a much-needed theory of mass-based disintegration that helps us understand the transnational dynamics that unfold between governments, political elites and the mass public when one member state attempts to unilaterally withdraw from an international agreement on the basis of widespread popular support.

1 998 626 €

Start date: 2019-05-01, End date: 2024-04-30