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H2020Individual fellowship2021–2025

NotSOSTRESSED · The Neurobiology of Social Context-Dependent Stress Responses

Horizon 2020 — Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions

Duration
2021-09-01 → 2025-10-13
EU contribution
€170,586
Participants
1
Scheme
MSCA-IF

Lines connect the coordinator with its partners.

Results in brief

The Neurobiology of Social Context-Dependent Stress Responses

Millions of tons of plastics are released into the environment every year. Polystyrene (PS) is one of the top five plastic polluters of the environment, being used for, amongst others, packaging and disposable consumables. Environmental abiotic factors degrade the plastic waste into micro- and nanoplastics (MNP), which consequently exponentially accumulate into the environment. As a result, humans and ecological systems are constantly exposed to MNPs trough ingestion, water and air. In recent years, the ubiquitous environmental presence and hazards of MNPs have been extensively reported, posing significant risks for species health and ecotoxicity. The impact of MNP on biological systems have been documented in various species and modelorganisms. In rodents, studies have shown detrimental toxicity effects of MNPs on various organs e.g. the gut, lungs, liver and the reproductive and CNS (reviewed in Wang et al., Environ. Int., 2024). However, despite emerging research on MNP and health and fitness, our understanding of the MNP ingestion toxicity consequences are limited. Thus far, to the best of our knowledge, studies on the impact of MNPs on social behaviour and CNS genetic alterations have not been conducted. The modelorganism Drosophila melanogaster has become an ecotoxicological model for safety assessment of MNPs and nanoparticles. Due to their smaller size then MPs, NPs (<1 µm) are expected to behave differently to MPs and disperse deeper into tissues, therefor inducing differential health and fitness outcomes in comparison to MPs. In this study, we identified the functional consequences of polystyrene nanoplastics (PS-NP) on social behaviour, locomotion and CNS gene expression. The main objectives of this study were: • WP1: Determine the impact of PS-NP on Drosophila male and female social behaviour • WP2: Analyse locomotion consequences of PS-NP exposure in male and female fruitflies • WP3: Sex dimorphic genetic profiling of the central brain after PS-NP treatment

Data: CORDIS, © European Union

Project objective

Sociability –an individual's tendency to engage in group interactions– is a fundamental property of life. Recently, sociability has been identified as a strong mortality predictor in humans. Although affecting health, we lack an understanding of the biological mechanisms underlying sociability. I here propose that the presence of others modulates an individual's response to an environmental stressor. Being evolutionary conserved, I will investigate the sociability neurocircuitry in the model system Drosophila melanogaster. I will tackle this by focussing on 4 objectives: WP1) Delineation of sensory cues and receptors modulating social context-dependent stress responses through behavioural analysis of candidate receptor gene mutations, targeted RNAi and pheromonal bioassays, WP2) Identification of neurons processing sensory information relevant to stress by functional investigation of the neurocircuitry connecting mechanosensory, pheromonal and temperature stress sensing through connectome, trans-Tango and optogenetic approaches, WP3) Mapping of higher brain stress-responsive foci integrating stressor and social information through Ca2+-imaging, WP4) Dissection of the hormonal pathway effectuating social-regulated stress responses via tissue-targeted genetic knockdown and overexpression of pathway components and stress response assays. Addressing key questions relevant to human health will bring scientific Excellence and Innovative advances to the current knowledge gap in Behavioural, Neuro & translational sciences which will be communicated to the scientific and general public. The fellowship will enhance my personal research potential and career perspectives by acquiring novel scientific and transferable skills, training of myself and others and increase my international mobility, network and interdisciplinary transfer though secondments. This proposal is in line with the Horizon2020 Responsible research & innovation objective 'Science with and for Society’.

Original text from CORDIS.

Participants

  • KATHOLIEKE UNIVERSITEIT LEUVEN · LeuvenCoordinatorBelgium

Links

Data: CORDIS, © European Union