Project description
Butterflies who snub potential suitors may shed light on evolutionary species' divergence
Phylogenetic trees are the stuff of every biology student's curriculum. The branch points delineate where two new species have evolved from one (speciation). Speciation can result from several different things. In geographical isolation, some members are cut off from others and evolve differently. In ecological divergence, some members evolve differently due to natural selection in ecological niches. When it comes to sexual selection, behavioural isolation (choosing not to mate rather than not being able to produce viable offspring) is known to play a role but these mechanisms are not well understood. SpeciationBehaviour plans to study the role of sensory perception and processing in mate choice and how these may be linked to genetic changes, using butterflies as a model system.
Objective
Speciation is a fundamental evolutionary process, which relies on the accumulation of reproductive barriers. These barriers often act before mating, and many taxa remain separate not because they fail to produce viable offspring, but because they ‘choose’ not to mate in the first place. Although the significance of behavioural barriers has long been recognized, an integrated understanding remains elusive: How is behavioural isolation mediated through changes in the sensory systems? Are these changes driven by selection? And what is the genetic and developmental basis of behavioural divergence in natural populations?
My research will address these questions to understand how behavioural barriers are generated, both during development and across evolutionary time. This project will be novel in uniting genomic and neurosensory data, with ecological and behavioural studies across a single radiation. Heliconius butterflies offer an excellent opportunity to achieve this as they are a group of closely related species with well-characterised ecologies, high-quality genomic resources, and are emerging as a model of evolutionary neurobiology.
These attributes will allow me to address the enduring problem of how natural selection and genetics interact to drive divergence in behavioural preferences. I will determine how components of behavioural isolation vary with ecology, both within and between species; and then explicitly test whether changes in sensory perception and processing in the brain are driven by selection imposed by the external environment. Genetic mapping will allow me to test for a link between changes in the sensory systems and mate choice. By combining these data with expression and functional analyses I will identify genes strongly implicated in the divergence of behavioural preferences. This will lead to novel insights into the developmental and neurological bases of behavioural isolation, a process fundamental to biodiversity.
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 neurobiology
- agricultural sciences agricultural biotechnology marker assisted selection
- natural sciences biological sciences ecology ecosystems
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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)
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Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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H2020-EU.1.1. - EXCELLENT SCIENCE - European Research Council (ERC)
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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.
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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.
ERC-STG - Starting Grant
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Call for proposal
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(opens in new window) ERC-2019-STG
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80539 MUNCHEN
Germany
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