Description du projet
Architecture génétique fonctionnelle de tissus complexes in vivo
Le projet DECODE, financé par l’UE, utilisera des méthodes de génétique systémique de pointe pour étudier les déterminants moléculaires de la spécification du devenir cellulaire chez Arabidopsis et Drosophila, en tant que modèles végétaux et animaux, afin de décoder in vivo les réseaux génétiques dépendant du contexte. Les partenaires du projet, experts en génétique des organismes modèles et en phénotypage cellulaire, en génomique des cellules uniques, en statistiques et en biologie computationnelle, créeront des cartes génétiques fonctionnelles en s’appuyant sur les perturbations de knock-out in vivo basées sur le CRISPR/Cas9, combinées au profilage et à l’imagerie de l’expression d’une cellule unique. Les milliers de knock-out conditionnels et les millions de profils de transcriptome unicellulaire avec imagerie à haute résolution permettront de créer la plus grande carte de perturbation unicellulaire de l’organisme modèle et fourniront des informations fondamentales sur l’architecture génétique des tissus complexes.
Objectif
The evolutionary success of multicellular organisms is based on the division of labor between cells. While some of the molecular determinants for cell fate specification have been identified, a fundamental understanding of which genetic activities are required in each cell of a developing tissue is still outstanding. The DECODE project will develop and apply leading-edge system genetics methods to Arabidopsis and Drosophila, two major model systems from the plant and animal kingdoms to decode context-dependent genetic networks in vivo. To achieve this, DECODE will bring together experimental and theoretical groups with complementary expertise in model organism genetics and cellular phenotyping, single-cell genomics, statistics and computational biology. Building on our combined expertise, we will create functional genetic maps using conditional CRISPR/Cas9-based single- and higher order knockout perturbations in vivo combined with single-cell expression profiling and imaging. Coupled with powerful computational analysis, this project will not only define, predict and rigorously test the unique genetic repertoire of each cell, but also unravel how genetic networks adapt their topology and function across cell types and external stimuli. With more than thousand conditional knockouts, characterized by several million single-cell transcriptome profiles and high-resolution imaging this project will create the largest single-cell perturbation map in any model organism and will provide fundamental insights into the genetic architecture of complex tissues. Analyzing two tissues with divergent organization and regulatory repertoire will enable us to uncover general principles in the genetic circuits controlling context
dependent cell behavior. Consequently, we expect that the DECODE project in model organisms will lay the conceptual and methodological foundation for perturbation-based functional atlases in other tissues or species.
Champ scientifique
Programme(s)
Thème(s)
Régime de financement
ERC-SyG - Synergy grantInstitution d’accueil
69120 Heidelberg
Allemagne