Testing the Evolutionary Consequences of Haploid Selection in Animals

Informazioni relative al progetto

SELECTHAPLOID

ID dell’accordo di sovvenzione: 101001341

DOI

10.3030/101001341

Data della firma CE 30 Settembre 2021

Data di avvio 1 Gennaio 2022

Data di completamento 31 Dicembre 2026

Finanziato da

• EXCELLENT SCIENCE - European Research Council (ERC)

Costo totale

€ 2 122 476,00

Contributo UE

€ 2 122 476,00

Coordinato da

UNIVERSITY OF EAST ANGLIA
United Kingdom

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

Periodo di rendicontazione: 2023-07-01 al 2024-12-31

Sintesi del contesto e degli obiettivi generali del progetto

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.

Lavoro eseguito dall’inizio del progetto fino alla fine del periodo coperto dalla relazione e principali risultati finora ottenuti

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

Progressi oltre lo stato dell’arte e potenziale impatto previsto (incluso l’impatto socioeconomico e le implicazioni sociali più ampie del progetto fino ad ora)

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.

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