Objective
Interactions between cells and mobile elements such as viruses and plasmids (the mobilome) have played a major role in life evolution. However, up to now, evolutionary studies have mainly focused on cellular genomes (building species trees). My project is to reconstruct the history of interaction between cells, plasmids and viruses (PVs) at the domain level to answer questions such as: to which extent PVs co-evolved with their hosts? How was cellular history influenced by PVs? What is the main directionality of gene fluxes between PVs and cells? The project will focus on Archaea, the third domains of life, because we only have a robust species phylogeny for this domain. We will perform an exhaustive description of PV families in all available archaeal genomes, as well as free PVs, using a combination of in silico methods and expert analyses. Phylogenetic and network analyses will be used to reconstruct the history of PVs with the objective to quantify horizontal versus vertical evolution and to sort out the web and tree-like components of archaeal history. Preliminary analyses have revealed the importance of horizontal gene transfer (HGT) in archaeal evolution. However, the processes behind these HGT remain mysterious, especially for hyperthermophiles. In parallel to our in silico analyses, we will explore the possible role of membrane vesicles (MV) in HGT. We have shown that archaeal MVs can transfer DNA and that some of them harbour plasmid or viral genomes. We want tackle questions such as: can these MVs transfer DNA between different species, different orders or even different domains? We will also study MV formation and fusion in comparison to those involved in viral infection to better understand possible evolutionary and physiological connections between MV and PV. Production of MV is a universal process and their role in life evolution could have been largely underestimated up to now.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: https://op.europa.eu/en/web/eu-vocabularies/euroscivoc.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: https://op.europa.eu/en/web/eu-vocabularies/euroscivoc.
- natural sciences biological sciences biological morphology comparative morphology
- natural sciences biological sciences microbiology virology
- natural sciences biological sciences genetics DNA
- natural sciences biological sciences evolutionary biology
- natural sciences biological sciences genetics genomes viral genomes
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Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Topic(s)
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
ERC-2013-ADG
See other projects for this call
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Host institution
75724 Paris
France
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.