WildE · Exploring the evolution of wild microbes using a molecular genomic approach
Horizon 2020 — Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions
- Duration
- 2021-09-01 → 2024-03-21
- EU contribution
- €172,932
- Participants
- 1
- Scheme
- MSCA-IF
Lines connect the coordinator with its partners.
Results in brief
Exploring the evolution of wild microbes using a molecular genomic approach
Marine microbes are the foundation of all life in the oceans, yet our understanding of how they are reacting to global change is limited. These microbes typically exist in large populations and reproduce quickly, which might enable them to rapidly adapt to environmental stressors compared to larger organisms. However, there is limited genetic evidence of contemporary evolution in wild marine microbes. Understanding how marine microbes evolve is crucial for society because they are essential to ocean life. We do not currently know how these microbes will adapt to future global changes and what the potential consequences will be for ocean ecosystems and the food chain. Changes in microbial traits, such as growth rates, cell size, chlorophyll content, and photosynthesis, could lead to shifts in bloom events, primary production, and species composition. This, in turn, could affect the biogeochemical cycles that sustain life in the ocean. The overall objectives are to: - Improve understanding of how marine microbes are evolving in response to global change. - Establish long-term studies (time series) to track changes in ocean microbes.
Data: CORDIS, © European Union
Project objective
During the last two decades, there has been a huge increase in our knowledge of microbial diversity, phylogeny and genomics. However, we have limited knowledge on microbial population genetics and microevolution of wild microbes. Knowing the rate of evolution of wild microbes in the natural environment is crucial if we are to understand and predict how ecologically important marine microbes will cope as the oceans continue to change under global climate change. Laboratory experiment have been been useful for exploring the mechanisms of evolution in microbes. Yet, as a consequence of complex and variable biotic and abiotic interactions, the evolutionary process in ecosystems may be substantially different from what has been observed in lab experiments featuring relatively constant and simple environments. The next step to increase our understanding of microbial evolution is to investigate evolution of wild microbes in the natural environment. WildE aims to quantify the rate of evolution in wild marine microbes, using metagenomic time-series data (monthly samples over 7 years: 2009-2015). In addition, WildE will quantify the rate of evolution in natural assemblages of marine microbes, under selection pressure (elevated temperature) and measure how environmental selection changes population structure using an enclosed mesocosm experiment. Using both field investigations and mesocosm experiments will strengthen our understanding of evolutionary dynamics of wild populations. Exploring wild microbes will most likely reveal novel evolutionary patterns emerging as a consequence of ecosystem complexity, providing hints on the impact of horizontal gene transfer, recombination and viral infections on the genome composition of different species. The data produced here will be of interest to both scientists and policy makers and will increase our understanding of how ecologically important marine microbes will respond to future global change.
Original text from CORDIS.
Participants
- AGENCIA ESTATAL CONSEJO SUPERIOR DE INVESTIGACIONES CIENTIFICAS · MadridCoordinatorSpain
Links
Data: CORDIS, © European Union