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Genomic Signatures of Selection In Structured Populations: Detecting Temporal Shifts and Local Adaptation

Project description

The role of selection in species adaptation and genetic diversity

Species distribution is shaped by demographic and selective processes, yet their interaction remains underexplored, limiting our understanding of evolution and conservation. These processes influence genetic diversity in both time and space, with important implications for species adaptation. Supported by the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions programme, the GENESIS project explores how different modes of linked selection, such as adaptive introgression and divergent selection, affect genetic variation in spatially structured populations. The project will combine theoretical models, statistical tools, and case studies of Iberian chubs and North American sawflies to explore selection dynamics. By bridging evolutionary biology, bioinformatics, and experimental evolution, GENESIS will enhance our understanding of adaptation, with broad applications in ecology, conservation, and agriculture.

Objective

Demographic and selective processes jointly influence the distribution of species in space and time. However, their interaction remains poorly studied despite its potential to formulate evolutionary and conservation hypotheses. GENESIS aims to characterize how temporal changes in different modes of linked selection – such as positive, negative, divergent, and adaptive introgression – impact genetic diversity in spatially structured populations. To that end, the action will be organized around four key objectives. I will first develop theoretical models (1) and statistical software (2) to detect genomic signatures of selection and their temporal variation. These tools will then be applied to Iberian chubs that display temperature-driven local adaptation and a mito-nuclear discordance (3), and to hybridizing North American pest sawflies to examine how selection shifted over time due to host-jumping (4). By integrating mathematics, bioinformatics, population genetics, evolutionary theory and experimental evolution, this multidisciplinary action aims to fill critical gaps in our understanding of the demography-selection interplay in spatially structured populations. GENESIS will be carried out with leading experts from the University of Lisbon and the University of Kentucky, enabling me to cultivate my network of collaborators. This action will provide me a unique opportunity to further my training in evolutionary biology. I will notably acquire novel skills, expanding my expertise in field and experimental work, and in bioinformatic method development, crucial for my development as an independent researcher. GENESIS will make a bridge between empirical and theoretical evolutionary biology to tackle fundamental questions in adaptation and speciation, with direct implications to ecology and conservation fields, and transferable to address agriculture and global change challenges.

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Keywords

Programme(s)

Topic(s)

Funding Scheme

HORIZON-TMA-MSCA-PF-EF - HORIZON TMA MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships

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Call for proposal

(opens in new window) HORIZON-MSCA-2024-PF-01

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Coordinator

FCIENCIAS.ID - ASSOCIACAO PARA A INVESTIGACAO E DESENVOLVIMENTO DE CIENCIAS
Net EU contribution
€ 191 343,12
Total cost
No data

Partners (1)