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Content archived on 2024-05-27

Species Identity and SYmbiosis Formally and Experimentally explored

Objective

Symbiosis is described as a close relationship between different biological species. It is a pervasive phenomenon, often of a long term nature. It has been estimated that 50% of all known species are parasites, i.e. maintain a symbiotic relation with another species from which they benefit while the partner in the relation is harmed, and that close to a 100% of all plants and animals are parasitised as individuals. Indeed, there are thought to be 10 times more bacterial cells in a human body than human cells. There is growing recognition that symbiosis has a profound impact on the origin and maintenance of the biome and of its ecosystems, on the health of living organisms, and even on sex! Symbiosis thus appears essential to understand some of the most fundamental evolutionary and functional questions related to living organisms. Nevertheless, although symbiotic relationships have been studied by biologists since the early 19th century, they remain little explored by computational biologists. Yet, investigating the enormous variety of such relationships raises formidable mathematical and computational issues. By a highly pluri-disciplinary approach that blends mathematics, algorithmics and wet-lab experiments, we propose to do an intensive, large-scale exploration of the huge variety of genomic and biochemical landscapes observed in the symbiont world, at the interface between symbionts and hosts, and of both with their environment. Our objective is to arrive at a clear view of the importance of symbiosis. This could have far-fetched theoretical and practical implications, notably on our notions of health, our relation with our environment, and our idea of what is species identity, including our idea of what is an individual .

Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)

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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.

Call for proposal

Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.

ERC-2009-AdG
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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.

ERC-AG - ERC Advanced Grant

Host institution

INSTITUT NATIONAL DE RECHERCHE EN INFORMATIQUE ET AUTOMATIQUE
EU contribution
€ 2 333 272,00
Address
DOMAINE DE VOLUCEAU ROCQUENCOURT
78153 Le Chesnay Cedex
France

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Activity type
Research Organisations
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Total cost

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Beneficiaries (1)

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