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H2020Individual fellowship2015–2018

MicroEcoEvol · Ecological and evolutionary forces shaping microbial diversity in freshwater blooms

Horizon 2020 — Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions

Duration
2015-06-01 → 2018-05-31
EU contribution
€255,350
Participants
2
Scheme
MSCA-IF-GF

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Results in brief

Ecological and evolutionary forces shaping microbial diversity in freshwater blooms

Cyanobacterial bloom is a worldwide issue, resulting from human activities (e.g agriculture) and one of its major consequences: climate change. These blooms are a threat to freshwater ecosystems, human health (e.g consumption of fish from aquaculture) and tourism as cyanobacteria produce cyanotoxins leading to the death of many organisms or even ecosystems. The cyanobacterial genus Microcystis is often the dominant member of bloom, especially in eutrophic lakes, producing potentially an hepatoxin that is toxic to animals including humans. Predicting toxin production and bloom severity is still an unsolved problem, due in part to our lack of knowledge about population diversity among cyanobacteria taxa, particularly Microcystis. Evolutionary dynamics of Microcystis populations are poorly understood – specifically how genetic diversity is selected and maintained by natural selection in the population according to environmental and ecological factors. In this project we attempted to (i) characterize the evolutionary dynamics of natural Microcystis populations by investigating both ecological and evolutionary responses to selective pressure and (ii) dissect the impact of the different selective pressures (environmental and biological factors) that may shape Microcystis populations. The aims of this project will be achieved using a unique multidisciplinary approach mixing ecology and evolution, and combining observations from natural time-courses in lakes, in situ experiments in microcosms within lakes, and in vitro experiments in the lab. This project will be the first to comprehensively and simultaneously quantify both ecological and evolutionary responses of a bacterial population in real time, and in a natural setting.

Data: CORDIS, © European Union

Project objective

Bacterial communities dominate the living biomass on Earth and contribute significantly to all global cycles of matter and energy. However, due to the high genetic heterogeneity of the ecosystems and their richness in diverse microbial species, our knowledge of bacterial communities remains limited. Therefore, in order to understand any bacterial community's ecology and predict how these communities and their respective ecosystems will respond to environmental changes, we need (i) to identify the different ecologically distinct microbial populations (or ""clusters"") that compose it, and (ii) to determine the interactions between clusters, and how they evolve. To address these challenging goals, this study will use the model system of Microcystis, the cyanobacterium that is mainly responsible for toxic algal bloom in lakes worldwide. The goal of this project is to (i) determine how (and if) Microcystis is specialized into different ecologically and genetically distinct clusters, (ii) to track how the Microcystis populations (or clusters) respond to environmental changes (pH, temperature, pollution from fertilizer runoff) and biological factors (viruses that prey on bacteria). This will allow us to understand how Microcystis populations change and adapt over time, helping us to predict and prevent harmful blooms. Using a unique multidisciplinary approach mixing ecology and evolution, and combining observations from natural time-courses in lakes, in situ experiments in microcosms within lakes, and in vitro experiments, this project will provide an unprecedented understanding of how changing regimes of natural selection, imposed by environmental and biological factors, shape microbial communities on the scales of populations, genomes and genes. This project will provide major advances in bloom understanding, in prediction by the identification new genetic biomarkers and in prevention by defining the conditions under which phage therapy might be a practical strategy.""

Original text from CORDIS.

Participants

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Data: CORDIS, © European Union