PLEISTOCENE GENETICS · The genetics of climate change in the Late Pleistocene
6РП — Действия „Мария Кюри“
- Период
- 2007-01-01 → 2008-12-31
- Финансиране от ЕС
- 159 613 €
- Участници
- 1
- Схема
- EIF
Линиите свързват координатора с партньорите.
Накратко на български
Генетиката на вълхатите мамути и черните елени разкрива как климатичните промени са повлияли на техния брой и разпределение. Анализът на ДНК помага да се разберат процесите на измиране и повторно заселване на видовете в Европа и Сибир.
Кратко обяснение, генерирано от езиков модел по текста на CORDIS. Оригиналът е по-долу.
Резултати накратко
Final Activity Report Summary - PLEISTOCENE GENETICS (The genetics of climate change in the Late Pleistocene)
During my two years as a Marie Curie Fellow, my research focussed on the investigation of past changes in population size, extinctions and recolonisations in relation to past changes in climate. The research was mainly focussed on two species, namely the woolly mammoth and the red deer. Along with several national and international collaborators, I worked on the following projects: 1. a comparative study on 15 woolly mammoths using sequences from the full mitochondrial genome, in which we estimated the differentiation between two highly differentiated variants of the mitochondrial genome that diverged one to two million years ago. We also showed that the loss of one of the variants, some 40 000 years ago, was most likely the result of random processes rather than natural selection. 2. a population-level study on woolly mammoth, using shorter mitochondrial deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) sequences, via which we analysed a large number of samples in order to identify pas population dynamics. Preliminary results suggested an extinction event in Europe at the end of the last Ice Age, followed by a recolonisation from Siberia a few thousand years later. The last remaining population of the mammoth, on Wrangel Island, did however not go through any dramatic genetic changes. We rather observed a gradual decline in genetic variation as the final extinction event approached. 3. a study on red deer populations in Eurasia using mitochondrial DNA, where we observed contrasting histories in Europe and Siberia. During the coldest stage of the last Ice Age, red deer seemed to have been confined to the southernmost parts of Europe. In Siberia, on the other hand, preliminary results suggested a continuous presence of red deer throughout the late Pleistocene and up until only a few hundred years ago. 4. a study on nuclear genetic diversity in the woolly mammoth. Nuclear DNA was much more difficult to recover from old samples, and has therefore been infrequently used in ancient DNA studies. Here, we performed the first ever population-level study on an Ice Age species using nuclear DNA, by analysing genetic diversity in a sample of particularly well preserved mammoths from northeast Siberia. The results suggested few genetic changes in this geographic region between 60 000 and 12 000 years ago.
Текст от CORDIS, на английски · Данни: CORDIS, © Европейски съюз
Цел на проекта
Two of the fundamental processes to understand biodiversity are extinction, where species die out, and speciation, where new species come into existence. It is particularly important to understand these processes at present, as climate and environment change seem to be having a major effect on organisms throughout the world.The Late Pleistocene (100-10 kya) was a period when many large animal species died out, whereas others flourished. At the same time, we see a complex series of changes in climate, vegetation, sea-levels and glaciers, as well as the arrival of modern humans. It is the relationship between the histories of these large animals and the complexities of environmental change that is the focus of this project.When studying the history of animal populations, common methods include examination of their bones to see when and where different species lived and went extinct, as well as genetic analyses on modern samples to infer speciation events and past changes in geographic range and population size. However, these methods have some problems. Bones are uninformative about fine-scale differences between populations.Modern DNA data is not clear if the changes are very complicated, and are not very easy to relate to a particular time-point. To getaro und this, we will use DNA contained in the bones of animals from the Late Pleistocene, so-called ancient DNA. The project will focus on two particular animals: the woolly mammoth, which went extinct at this time, and the red deer, an extant species which shows a lot of genetic variation between populations.This project will analyse ancient DNA to assess how environmental change affected the distribution and abundance of these two species, including speciation and local extinctions. The aim of the project i s to provide training for Dr. Dalen, who is a promising young researcher. The project is designed both to deepen his current knowledge and to provide him with a number of complementary skills.
Оригинален текст от CORDIS (на английски).
Участници
- ROYAL HOLLOWAY AND BEDFORD NEW COLLEGE · EghamКоординаторОбединеното кралство
Връзки
Данни: CORDIS, © Европейски съюз