Project description
How plants evolve new colours and traits
In the plant world, novel traits like specialised metabolites can provide fitness advantages, driving evolution. Certain plant groups have completely replaced the red pigment anthocyanin with biochemically distinct betalains, but why and how these changes occur remains a mystery. With this in mind, the ERC-funded ROSE project aims to uncover how plants’ gene regulatory networks might act as switches, allowing one metabolic pathway to replace another without coexistence. Researchers are identifying these regulatory networks, analysing how pathway exchanges affect plant fitness and studying the impact on crop domestication. By exploring the role of gene switches in metabolite evolution, ROSE could unlock new possibilities in crop improvement and bioengineering, with profound implications for evolutionary research.
Objective
Novel traits can provide fitness advantages and drive evolution. New specialised metabolites are traits that arose in different plant lineages, and even replaced existing metabolites. Why, and how almost universal metabolic pathways can be replaced in entire groups of species by biochemically distinct pathways without persistence of any species producing both metabolites remains unknown. Components of gene regulatory networks that control such pathways might act as regulatory switches that flip between pathways.
The replacement of the widely conserved red pigment anthocyanin by the biochemically distinct betalains offers a unique opportunity to understand the integration of novel traits into existing regulatory systems. Notably, no plant species producing both anthocyanins and betalains has yet been identified, but both show similar environmental responses. The unification of systems biology with population and molecular genomics allows to elucidate the role of gene regulatory networks and regulatory switches in metabolite evolution.
Given the great importance of understanding evolutionary innovation and the potential use for metabolic engineering, our work promises to be groundbreaking and have profound impact on many different fields of evolutionary and genetic research.
Specifically, our work plan includes the following aims:
I. Identify regulatory networks and switches that enabled the exchange of metabolic pathways
II. Analyze the fitness consequences of reciprocal pathway exchange and regulatory switching
III. Reveal the short-term selection consequences of metabolites during the domestication of food crops
Understanding how metabolic pathways can be exchanged in plants will provide insights into the important embedding of evolutionary innovation into existing systems with potential practical applications for crop improvement and bio-engineering.
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 genetics
- agricultural sciences agriculture, forestry, and fisheries agriculture
- natural sciences biological sciences molecular biology
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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)
MAIN PROGRAMME
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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-2024-STG
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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.
50931 KOLN
Germany
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.