Objective
Ants are fascinating organisms well known for their highly organized societies. Their ancestor underwent a major evolutionary transition from solitary life to superorganismal colonies, with obligate reproductive division of labour between queens and workers. Notably, the attine ants pioneered agriculture around 66 million years ago by cultivating fungus for food, predating human farming by tens of millions of years. This partnership gave rise to four agricultural systems, including the leafcutter ants, whose colonies with millions of polymorphic, task-specialized workers dominate Neotropical ecosystems and are major agricultural pests. Fungus-growing ants are a textbook example of symbiosis, their mutualism is so tightly integrated that both partners have lost traits essential for independent survival, illustrating evolutionary trade-offs at the individual level in favour of collective benefits. The overarching goal of this project is to discover the genomic and regulatory principles that transformed attines into agricultural superorganisms. I propose four research packages that will: 1) uncover the genomic changes in ants underlying the origin of fungus farming and the stepwise upscaling of attine agriculture; 2) elucidate the molecular mechanisms, including brain development, by which division of labour and caste determination shaped colony organization in fungus-growing ants; 3) identify reciprocal and complementary genomic adaptations underlying ant–fungus coevolution; 4) elucidate the uncovered gene functions associated with caste differentiation and symbiotic specializations through gene knockdown experiments. By integrating comparative genomics, transcriptomics, co-evolutionary analyses, and functional validations, ATTOMICS will move decisively beyond descriptive studies to establish a novel genomic and functional framework for understanding how agriculture could reshape insect societies, positioning attine ants as a world-leading model for symbiosis.
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
- natural sciences biological sciences microbiology mycology
- natural sciences biological sciences biological behavioural sciences ethology biological interactions
- agricultural sciences agriculture, forestry, and fisheries agriculture
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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-2026-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.
1165 KOBENHAVN
Denmark
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.