Descrizione del progetto
Studiare la tossicità delle farfalle per comprendere l’evoluzione
La foresta atlantica brasiliana è un ecosistema incredibilmente importante poiché offre un habitat per una flora e una fauna ricche di biodiversità e ospita, tra le altre specie, grandi comunità di eliconidi-Passiflora tropicali e subtropicali. Le farfalle del genere eliconio sono tossiche perché contengono composti che rilasciano cianuro, noti come glicosidi cianogenici, che possono sia biosintetizzare che assorbire dalle piante di Passiflora, il loro partner coevolutivo, durante l’alimentazione larvale. La base genetica della loro tossicità e il modo in cui varia nelle diverse popolazioni rimangono sconosciuti. Unendo l’ecologia, la genetica, la biochimica e la biologia evoluzionistica, il progetto Cyanide Evolution, finanziato dall’UE, esaminerà il modo in cui la tossicità e le interazioni con le piante di Passiflora hanno modellato l’evoluzione delle farfalle eliconidi.
Obiettivo
The colourful and toxic Heliconius butterflies are well-established models to study evolution of aposematims and mimicry, yet the genetic basis of their toxicity and how this varies in different populations remains unknown. Heliconius are toxic butterflies because they contain cyanide-releasing compounds called cyanogenic glucosides, which they can both biosynthesize or uptake from Passiflora plants, their co-evolutionary partner, during larval feeding. This multidisciplinary project brings together ecology, genetics, biochemistry and evolutionary biology to investigate how toxicity and interactions with Passiflora plants has shaped the evolution of these butterflies. Thus, I will combine the gene-editing technology CRISPR-Cas with different OMICs approaches (metabolomics, transcriptomics and phenomics) to (1) decipher the genetic and phenotipic bases of cyanogenesis in Heliconius butterflies and (2) unravel the evolutionary trajectory of this defence system in the Heliconiine tribe. Moreover, I will also (3) establish how cyanogenesis vary within and between tropical and subtropical heliconiine-Passiflora communities of the Brazilian Atlantic Forest, a biodiversity hotspot endangered by extreme deforestation.
This project will give me the unique opportunity to expand my knowledge and skills repertoire on genetics, ecology, evolutionary biology and bioinformatics. I will be trained in advanced techniques such CRISPR-Cas, gene expression analysis, R programing, statistical methods applied to community ecology and matabolomics, etc. Also, during this fellowship I will excel my teaching/supervision, project management and communication abilities. All these expertise will be extremely valuable for the execution of the project and will bring great progress to my career development, increasing my chance of of reaching a long-term position in academia.
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MSCA-IF - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowships (IF)Coordinatore
CB2 1TN Cambridge
Regno Unito