Description du projet
Aperçu de l’évolution du génome des plasmides
Les plasmides sont des éléments génétiques autonomes et autoréplicatifs présents dans les cellules procaryotes. Ils peuvent être transférés d’une population bactérienne à l’autre, stimulant ainsi l’évolution microbienne et conférant des propriétés acquises telles que la résistance aux antibiotiques. Ils ont également été utilisés comme outils de génie génétique dans les domaines de la biotechnologie, de l’agriculture et de la recherche fondamentale. Financé par le Conseil européen de la recherche, le projet pMolEvol se propose d’étudier l’évolution du génome des plasmides. Les chercheurs étudieront la sélection naturelle de la diversité génétique des plasmides et évalueront comment l’aptitude des plasmides influe sur l’évolution de leur génome. Le projet pMolEvol devrait permettre de déterminer les principes qui régissent l’évolution des éléments génétiques, en étendant la théorie classique de la génétique des populations aux bactéries.
Objectif
Plasmids are autonomously replicating extra-chromosomal elements that play a major role in prokaryote ecology and evolution. The study of plasmid evolution has so far focused mostly on their biodiversity and effect on their host ecology and evolution. Nonetheless, the fundamentals of plasmid genome evolution remain to a large extent uncharted territory. Plasmids reside within a host cell that supplies their environmental, energetic and metabolic requirements. Consequently, natural selection operates on plasmids in two hierarchical levels: one component is the plasmid replication and inheritance within the host cell, and the other is the host fitness within the population. Studying the determinants of plasmid evolutionary success thus requires the expansion of classic population genetics theory to populations of plasmids within bacterial cells. The overarching aim of pMolEvol is to create a novel unified framework for plasmid molecular and genome evolution. This includes: 1) to quantify the effect of multilevel drift and selection on plasmid genetic diversity, 2) supply a framework for quantification of plasmid fitness and its effect on plasmid evolution, 3) characterize patterns and rate of plasmid genome evolution. Our conceptual framework will be based on empirical data from plasmid evolution experiments and reconstruction of past events from genomic information. The conceptually novel measures and approaches developed in pMolEvol open up avenues for the extension of classic population genetic theory to prokaryotic organisms. Across all domains of life, genetic information is stored, replicated and translated by similar mechanisms. Focusing on plasmids, we aim to uncover the general principles that govern the evolution of autonomously replicating genetic elements. Our ultimate goal is to describe plasmid evolution from emergence to extinction.
Champ scientifique
Programme(s)
- HORIZON.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC) Main Programme
Régime de financement
ERC - Support for frontier research (ERC)Institution d’accueil
24118 Kiel
Allemagne