Project description
Exploring transposon-host interaction in insects
The ongoing arms race between transposable elements and their host organisms drives genetic innovation and biological diversity. However, the principles underlying transposon-host interactions remain poorly understood. The ERC-funded ERVolution project uses the Drosophila ovary ecosystem to study this conflict. Specifically, it will investigate how transposon-host interactions create biological diversity through molecular innovations. It aims to understand how infectious insect endogenous retroviruses (ERVs) exploit host gonad cell processes for transmission, how ERVs adapt their expression to the host, and how the host’s transposon defence system silences genome invaders using ERV nucleotide composition. The results are expected to have implications for retrovirology, transposon cis-regulatory sequences, and eukaryotic cell RNA recognition.
Objective
The ongoing arms race between transposable elements and their host organisms is a central driver of genetic innovation and biological diversity. Yet, despite this crucial role, the underlying principles that govern transposon-host interactions remain poorly understood. The ERVolution project aims to gain critical insights into the evolutionary dynamics and rules of the ancient transposon-host conflict. The project focuses on the Drosophila ovary ecosystem and the diversification of insect endogenous retroviruses (ERVs), a highly successful group of genome parasites that have acquired the ability to invade germ cells from surrounding somatic cells as viral particles to multiply in the germline genome.
Through a multidisciplinary approach that combines host and transposon genetics, single-cell genomics, machine learning, and controlled transposon invasion experiments, we will investigate how transposon-host interactions create biological diversity by driving molecular innovations on both sides. Specifically, the project aims to uncover (i) how infectious ERVs exploit cell biological processes in the host gonad for their soma-to-germline transmission, (ii) how ERVs diversify their compact cis-regulatory elements to optimally adapt their expression to the host, and (iii) how the host transposon defence system exploits an Achilles' heel of ERVs, their unusual nucleotide composition, to silence both old and new genome invaders.
The ERVolution project provides a unique opportunity to uncover general principles of transposon-host interactions by studying the molecular and evolutionary processes of a major battle between multiple transposons and an experimentally accessible host model organism. The projects results are expected to have far-reaching implications beyond Drosophila, particularly in the fields of retrovirology, the evolution of cis-regulatory sequences of transposons, and the fundamental question of how eukaryotic cells distinguish their own from foreign RNA.
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.
- natural sciences biological sciences ecology ecosystems
- natural sciences biological sciences biological behavioural sciences ethology biological interactions
- natural sciences biological sciences zoology entomology
- natural sciences biological sciences genetics RNA
- 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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HORIZON.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC)
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Topic(s)
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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.
HORIZON-ERC - HORIZON ERC Grants
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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) ERC-2023-ADG
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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.
1030 WIEN
Austria
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.