Project description
How fruit flies adapt to environmental perturbations
Environmentally sensitive interactions between the epigenome and transposable elements (TEs) are underpinned by dynamic chromatin states regulating gene expression. Understanding how chromatin varies across populations and how responsive it is to environmental changes is key to evaluating the role of epigenome-TE interactions in adaptation. The EU-funded InterChromaTE project will measure natural variation in chromatin accessibility in different populations of common fruit flies (D. melanogaster) and identify associations between chromatin accessibility and polymorphic TEs. Proximate mechanisms (RNA and chromatin responses to stress) and phenotypic outcomes (life history traits) will also be measured over multiple generations. Longer-term evolutionary consequences will be measured in invasive and native populations of D. melanogaster and the recent invasive pest species D. suzukii.
Objective
Understanding how organisms adapt to the environmental perturbations, including those caused by human activity, is a key question in evolutionary biology. Some organisms appear to adapt more rapidly than expected, and two factors predicted to contribute to this are environmentally sensitive epigenome regulation and transposable element (TE) activity under stress. Recent molecular studies have shown how interactions between the epigenome and TEs can affect genome evolution in the fruitfly Drosophila melanogaster. However, little is known about how these processes interact in natural populations, limiting our understanding of their role in population adaptation under environmental change.
Environmentally sensitive interactions between the epigenome and TEs are underpinned by dynamic chromatin states regulating gene expression. Understanding how chromatin varies across populations and how responsive it is to environmental change is key to evaluating the role of epigenome-TE interactions in adaptation. Here we will measure natural variation in chromatin accessibility in different populations of D. melanogaster and look for associations between chromatin accessibility and polymorphic TEs. Proximate mechanisms (RNA and chromatin responses to stress) and phenotypic outcomes (life history traits) will be measured over multiple generations. Longer term evolutionary consequences will be measured in invasive and native populations of D. melanogaster and the more recently invading D. suzukii, and TEs associated with differential chromatin regulation in invasive populations will be validated using functional genomics techniques including CRISPR-Cas9.
These data will reveal how interactions between chromatin states and TEs can shape adaptation over different organisational scales, from the molecular to the population-level, and across different temporal scales, including within-generation acclimation, transgenerational epigenetic change and long-term evolutionary change.
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: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- humanities history and archaeology history
- natural sciences biological sciences evolutionary biology
- natural sciences biological sciences genetics RNA
- natural sciences biological sciences genetics epigenetics epigenomes
- natural sciences biological sciences genetics genomes
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Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
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.
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H2020-EU.1.3. - EXCELLENT SCIENCE - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions
MAIN PROGRAMME
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H2020-EU.1.3.2. - Nurturing excellence by means of cross-border and cross-sector mobility
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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.
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.
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.
MSCA-IF - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowships (IF)
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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.
(opens in new window) H2020-MSCA-IF-2020
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Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
28006 MADRID
Spain
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.