H2020Индивидуална стипендия2022–2024

SPYCAVER · From wrecks of ancient life to natural laboratories: Cave organisms as a testing ground for studying repeatability and predictability in evolution.

„Хоризонт 2020“ — Действия „Мария Склодовска-Кюри“

Период: 2022-05-02 → 2024-05-01
Финансиране от ЕС: 184 708 €
Участници: 1
Схема: MSCA-IF

Линиите свързват координатора с партньорите.

Накратко на български

Генетичните механизми при пещерни организми показват дали различни видове развиват еднакви адаптации към екстремни условия. Разбирането на тези процеси помага за опазването на биоразнообразието и може да допринесе за развитието на медицината и биотехнологиите.

Този кратък обзор е генериран от изкуствен интелект

Кратко обяснение, генерирано от езиков модел по текста на CORDIS. Оригиналът е по-долу.

Резултати накратко

From wrecks of ancient life to natural laboratories: Cave organisms as a testing ground for studying repeatability and predictability in evolution.

The question being addressed in the SPYCAVER project is the investigation of parallel evolution in cave-dwelling organisms. Parallel and convergent evolution have been considered to play contrasting roles in shaping biodiversity patterns. On the one hand, they promote speciation through natural selection, driving optimal solutions to similar problems repeatedly posed by the environment. On the other hand, they constrain ecological and phenotypical diversity and, consequently, homogenize the adaptive outcomes to similar niches. In this project, I specifically focused on understanding the genomic mechanisms behind repeated phenotypic adaptations to extreme environmental conditions. In this context, subterranean environments and cave-dwelling organisms offer peculiarly advantageous experimental conditions to gain insight into the study of convergent evolution and the role of natural selection in speciation. The project aims to explore whether similar environmental pressures lead to predictable genomic responses in different lineages of cave organisms. This research is important for society for several reasons: Conservation and Biodiversity: Understanding how organisms adapt to extreme environments and uncovering the genetic basis of these adaptations can help conserve unique species and fragile ecosystems, particularly in the face of global environmental changes. Medicine and Biotechnology: Insights gained from studying convergent evolution can contribute to the development of medical treatments and technologies. For example, understanding how organisms cope with low oxygen levels or nutrient scarcity in caves could inspire innovations in human health. Evolutionary Biology: Investigating convergent evolution sheds light on fundamental questions about the predictability of evolution and the role of natural selection in shaping biological diversity. This knowledge enhances our understanding of evolutionary processes more broadly. The overall objectives of the SPYCAVER project are: To quantify the extent of convergent evolution at the genomic level among distinct lineages of cave-dwelling organisms. To identify specific genetic mechanisms and pathways associated with repeated adaptations to extreme environmental conditions. To investigate the evolutionary history and divergence patterns of cave-dwelling species to discern between shared ancestral traits and traits that have evolved independently due to convergent evolution. By achieving these objectives, the project aims to contribute significantly to our understanding of evolutionary biology, biodiversity conservation, and the potential applications of evolutionary insights in various fields, from medicine to ecology.

Текст от CORDIS, на английски · Данни: CORDIS, © Европейски съюз

Цел на проекта

Predicting evolution is one of the major aims of evolutionary biologists. Convergent evolution—the independent outcome of similar traits in distinct lineages—occurs frequently in nature at every level of biological organization in distinct evolutionary lineages. In this context, convergence has been considered to play contrasting roles in shaping biodiversity patterns. The success of colonizing and thriving in a new environment strongly depends on the existence, or lack, of specialized traits that ensure survival in it, a phenomenon referred to as environmental filtering. Thus, organisms adapted to extreme environmental conditions provide an ideal framework to study repeatability in evolution and, ultimately, to test for predictability, the ability to match a priori specialized traits to specific environmental conditions. Subterranean extreme environmental conditions exert strong selective pressure on strict cave-dwelling organisms which, respond by evolving a similar suit of phenotypic and physiological traits. The main aim of this project is to investigate whether environmental selective pressures, determine patterns of genomic convergent evolution in obligate cave-dwelling organisms. I will use an interdisciplinary approach, integrating field research, available ecological and phenotypic data, and newly generated genomic information to investigate the genomic bases of convergent evolution in cave-dwelling organisms. For this, I propose to investigate i) the genomic basis of adaptation to different subterranean microhabitats, ii) the speciation mechanisms in subterranean species, and iii) the causes of phylogenetic constrain on microhabitat preference. This project will give an unprecedented understanding of repeated evolution. Additionally, the results obtained may have far-reaching implications for medicine and conservation biology, of great relevance to several H2020 Focus Areas.

Оригинален текст от CORDIS (на английски).

Участници

CENTRE NATIONAL DE LA RECHERCHE SCIENTIFIQUE CNRS · ParisКоординаторФранция