Project description
The secrets of Darwin’s Finches
As the world faces rapid environmental and climatic changes, understanding species’ adaptive potential has never been more critical. Supported by the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions programme, the EVOFINCH project tackles this challenge by exploring Darwin’s finches, one of the most iconic examples of adaptive radiation. With 18 species that evolved in just a million years, the finches offer a unique window into evolutionary processes. EVOFINCH combines new sequencing technologies and cutting-edge computational methods to trace their evolutionary history, focusing on their beak and body size adaptations. The project will provide insights into how species adapt and recover from genetic bottlenecks, enhancing our understanding of evolutionary resilience.
Objective
Rapid environmental and climatic changes threaten the world's biodiversity heritage, underscoring the importance of investigating species' adaptive potential. This task is now facilitated by the development of powerful sequencing technologies and advanced computational methods, together enabling a new wave of research into previously unattainable questions. EVOFINCH will focus on Darwin’s finches, where 18 species originated within the last million years from a common ancestor and has become one of the most iconic adaptive radiations. Due to the addition of a new closely related outgroup species to our genomic dataset and the implementation of new sequencing technologies together with cutting-edge computational methods, EVOFINCH will trace the main steps of the evolutionary history of Darwin’s finches with unprecedented resolution - from their origins to the history of their adaptation. With the support of the MSCA programme, I will first determine the phylogenetic relationship and compare long-read alignments between the new outgroup and Darwin's finches using comparative genomics and phylogenomics. Next, I will assess the severity of the bottleneck during the colonization of the Galapagos by quantifying the amount of lost genetic variability and identify mechanisms behind the recovery of such variability. Finally, I will trace the evolutionary history of the adaptive alleles underlying the key traits in Darwin’s finch evolution: their beak and body size. The project will shed new light on how evolutionary forces interplay to give rise to the observed Darwin’s finch diversity, and will enhance our understanding of species’ adaptive potential as well as their ability to recover from a population decline. EVOFINCH will be implemented at Uppsala University under the supervision of Professor Leif Andersson, and represents a springboard for the fellow to become and independent research leader in evolutionary biology.
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
- humanities history and archaeology history
- natural sciences biological sciences ecology ecosystems
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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.1.2 - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA)
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-TMA-MSCA-PF-EF - HORIZON TMA MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
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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) HORIZON-MSCA-2024-PF-01
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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.
751 05 Uppsala
Sweden
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.