Objective Marine disease outbreaks can devastate populations, alter community structure and affect ecosystem health, which results in biodiversity loses and economic impacts on ecosystem services. Bivalves, which mediate ecosystem processes and functions and provide ecosystem services (e.g. food), harbour a wide variety of protists in their microbiome, including parasites and pathogens. Protist species produce important economic losses on the world’s leading shellfish industries due to parasitic disease outbreaks in bivalve hosts and the transmission of pathogens affecting human health. Although the economic implications of these outbreaks in shellfish aquaculture are significant, very little is known regarding their biology and ecology. In this context, PROPATHIN project is designed to advance our knowledge on marine and food-borne diseases caused by microbial eukaryotes (protists) associated to commercial bivalves, through the multidisciplinary study of protist-bivalve interactions at molecular, cellular and community level. I will employ recently developed molecular (metabarcoding) and ‘omic techniques (single-cell genomics and transcriptomics) coupled with traditional cell biology methods for diagnose of infectious organisms in multicellular hosts. I will assess the diversity, composition and dynamics of oysters and mussels pathobiome in the Ebro Delta aquaculture setting during a year cycle. Environmental parameters will be used to assess the dynamics of such hazardous protists related to seasonal changes. Further, we will sequence the genome and transcriptome of a protist parasite (including different life-cycle stages), from which very little information exists, revealing the genes involved in the infection of bivalve hosts. Overall, PROPATHIN will help us disentangle the nature and dynamics of such host-parasite relationships, crucial to prevent and mitigate their negative economic and societal impacts. Fields of science agricultural sciencesagriculture, forestry, and fisheriesfisheriesnatural sciencesbiological sciencescell biologynatural sciencesbiological sciencesecologyecosystemsnatural sciencesbiological sciencesgeneticsgenomesnatural sciencesbiological sciencesmicrobiology Keywords Microbiome protist-invertebrate interactions parasitism pathogens bivalves molecular ecology genomics transcriptomics Programme(s) HORIZON.1.2 - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) Main Programme Topic(s) HORIZON-MSCA-2022-PF-01-01 - MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships 2022 Call for proposal HORIZON-MSCA-2022-PF-01 See other projects for this call Funding Scheme HORIZON-TMA-MSCA-PF-EF - HORIZON TMA MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships Coordinator AGENCIA ESTATAL CONSEJO SUPERIOR DE INVESTIGACIONES CIENTIFICAS Net EU contribution € 165 312,96 Address Calle serrano 117 28006 Madrid Spain See on map Region Comunidad de Madrid Comunidad de Madrid Madrid Activity type Research Organisations Links Contact the organisation Opens in new window Website Opens in new window Participation in EU R&I programmes Opens in new window HORIZON collaboration network Opens in new window Other funding € 0,00 Partners (1) Sort alphabetically Sort by Net EU contribution Expand all Collapse all INSTITUT DE RECERCA I TECNOLOGIA AGROALIMENTARIES Spain Net EU contribution € 0,00 Address Ctra c-59 km 12 torre marimon 08140 Caldes de montbui barcelona See on map Region Este Cataluña Barcelona Activity type Other Links Contact the organisation Opens in new window Website Opens in new window Participation in EU R&I programmes Opens in new window HORIZON collaboration network Opens in new window Other funding € 0,00