Testing the Evolutionary Consequences of Haploid Selection in Animals

Project Information

SELECTHAPLOID

Grant agreement ID: 101001341

DOI

10.3030/101001341

EC signature date 30 September 2021

Start date 1 January 2022

End date 31 December 2026

Funded under

• EXCELLENT SCIENCE - European Research Council (ERC)

Total cost

€ 2 122 476,00

EU contribution

€ 2 122 476,00

Coordinated by

UNIVERSITY OF EAST ANGLIA
United Kingdom

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - SELECTHAPLOID (Testing the Evolutionary Consequences of Haploid Selection in Animals)

Reporting period: 2023-07-01 to 2024-12-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

Our project aims to understand the processes and mechanisms of selection that occur in the male germ line and male gametes (sperm) prior to fertilisation. We want to understand what factors may contribute to maintaining genetic variation at genes that are under selection at these stages. We use a range of organisms to address the different questions and we started with zebrafish and humans, but recently also involved nematodes and mice to be able to address specific questions. We combine experimental work with genomics, transcriptomics and proteomics to understand the link between sperm phenotype and genotype. Key findings include:

- We provide a direct link between sperm phenotype, genotype and ageing-related disease biomarkers in zebrafish and humans
- We developed a novel theoretical and empirical body of evidence for the role of germ line-soma interaction for healthspan and ageing in nematodes and zebrafish


These findings have far-reaching implications in fields from basic biology to medical sciences in the fields of reproduction and ageing.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

We performed a series of projects in zebrafish, humans, nematodes and mice to address the key questions about the importance of haploid selection.

- We identified key genes under haploid selection in humans and zebrafish which show considerable functional overlap
- We identified key proteomic biomarkers of high performance sperm in human ejaculates
- We performed single-cell genome and transcriptome sequencing in zebrafish to provide unequivocal evidence for haploid gene expression in early and late spermatids
- We generated a comprehensive sperm proteome for the model organism zebrafish
- We developed some novel bioinformatic pipelines to functionally link piRNAs and TEs
- We performed large-scale sequencing on zebrafish across three generations subjected to selection in haploid sperm to identify key genes diverging between populations under varying haploid selection using population genomics approaches.
- We sequenced samples from a range of wild zebrafish populations to look for signs of selection in key genes

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

We expanded our research into other organisms including a range of mammals in order to obtain a better understanding of the general patterns of haploid selection across species.

zebrafish-sperm.jpg