HEИндивидуална стипендия2024–2026

SYMBIOLOSS · Mutualism abandonment in land plants and the origin of novel adaptations

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

Период: 2024-02-01 → 2026-01-31
Финансиране от ЕС: 211 755 €
Участници: 1
Схема: HORIZON-TMA-MSCA-PF-EF

Линиите свързват координатора с партньорите.

Накратко на български

Генетичните промени при растения, които са загубили симбиозата с гъби (като някои видове от семейство Кръстоцветни), се анализират, за да се открият нови начини за усвояване на хранителни вещества. Това помага за по-доброто разбиране на растителната физиология и може да бъде полезно при създаването на нови сортове.

Този кратък обзор е генериран от изкуствен интелект

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

Резултати накратко

Mutualism abandonment in land plants and the origin of novel adaptations

The ability to perform symbiotic associations with arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi is an ancient and highly conserved trait in land plants that evolved half a billion years ago. Around 80% of species benefit from the improved access to soil nutrients provided by AM fungi, while delivering in exchange carbohydrates and lipids to the fungi. However, plants from several lineages are not able to perform AM symbiosis. These include aquatic, parasitic and carnivorous plants, as well as some plants with atypical root morphologies (e.g. proteoid roots) or that engage in derived forms of symbiosis (e.g. ectomycorrhiza, orchid mycorrhiza). Some vascular and non-vascular plant species that have lost the AM symbiosis, however, are not associated with any of such alternative nutrient acquisition strategies, including the Brassicaceae, Caryophyllaceae, Amaranthaceae, most mosses and other bryophyte lineages in liverworts and hornworts. It is not known if such nonmycorrhizal (NM) plants bear novel adaptations that compensate for the loss of symbiosis, nor to what extent similar adaptations might have evolved in unrelated NM lineages. In this project, I investigated this problem using comparative genomic analyses coupled with ecological and genetic approaches. The main objective was to identify genetic changes correlated with the loss of AM symbiosis, which could reveal unknown mechanisms of nutrient uptake and/or defence against pathogens that are unique to NM plants. Therefore, while addressing an evolutionary question, such an achievement could have important implications for the understanding of plant ecology and physiology, and be a valuable contribution to inform plant breeding efforts.

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

Цел на проекта

Evolutionary outcomes are constrained by lineage history. Episodes of drastic shifts in selection, as in cases of radical environmental change, often lead to the loss of traits that were once essential. While the loss of such traits may narrow niche breadth, it also creates opportunities for adaptive innovations. Whether trait losses are compensated by novel adaptations, and the extent to which similar outcomes evolved independently in unrelated lineages is largely unknown. In this project, I will investigate this problem by capitalizing on the recurrent loss of mutualism in land plants. Mutualism with soil microorganisms is ancestral in land plants, and provides plants with facilitated access to nutrients. Instances of secondary loss of mutualism are often linked to novel resource acquisition strategies, such as carnivory or parasitism. Some lineages, however, including vascular and non-vascular plants, have not undergone drastic niche shifts, and yet have largely diversified across the ecological space over time after losing mutualism. In this project, I will use comparative genomics and experimental approaches to test the hypothesis that mutualism abandonment was associated with adaptive genetic changes that compensated for the loss of mutualism. To determine whether the loss of mutualism operated as a source of selection on functions formerly facilitated by the mutualistic association, I will identify gene family expansions and genomic signatures of adaptive evolution that preceded and followed mutualism abandonment. I will then experimentally test this hypothesis in a comparative framework using closely related mutualists and non-mutualists of the liverwort genus Marchantia in conditions expected to differentially affect fitness according to mutualism status. This work will determine how novel adaptations evolve following the loss of a widely conserved trait, and reveal the extent to which similar outcomes originate in lineages with widely different histories.

Оригинален текст от CORDIS (на английски).

Участници

UNIVERSITE DE TOULOUSE · ToulouseКоординаторФранция