Project description
Ancient population genomics to reconstruct general evolutionary circumstances
How did evolutionary processes during the agricultural transition differ among regions? Which genomic adaptations were associated with the agricultural transition some 10 000 years ago? Did adaptation to hunter-gatherer and agricultural lifestyles act on similar genetic architecture in different instances? To which extent did adaptation in domestic dogs — the only species domesticated prior to the agricultural transition — occur in convergence with humans? The EU-funded AGRICON project will answer these questions. It will study ancient population genomics to reconstruct the general evolutionary circumstances that characterise human populations living on different continents. The project will develop new computational methods to identify adaptive admixture, analyse copy number variation, test continuous population models, and statistically assess convergence in the genomic architecture of adaptation.
Objective
As global climates warmed ca. 10,000 years ago came a remarkable convergent transformation of human lifestyles that occurred independently in multiple continents and human populations. This transition from hunter-gatherer subsistence to food-production catalysed large-scale population growth, offering the opportunity for increased rates of adaptation, but also rapidly presented a large number of independent human populations with a new evolutionary challenge. This project will use ancient population genomics—the only way to directly reconstruct human genetic evolution—to study whether evolutionary processes during the agricultural transition differed in differed regions. Which genomic adaptations were associated with the agricultural transition? Did adaptation to hunter-gatherer and agricultural lifestyles act on similar genetic architecture in different instances? To which extent did adaptation in domestic dogs—the only species domesticated prior to the agricultural transition—occur in convergence with humans? To answer these questions, the project will generate ancient genomic data from pre-agricultural and early agricultural populations from multiple human- and domestic dog populations from Africa, Central America, and Southeast Asia. This will be achieved with direct sequencing as well as a new human ~850,000 SNP capture panel designed to avoid bias towards Eurasian ancestry. We will also develop new computational methods robust to the challenges posed by ancient genomes to identify adaptive admixture, analyse copy number variation, test continuous population models, and statistically assess convergence in the genomic architecture of adaptation. Leveraging cutting-edge ancient genomics and two model organisms for the genomic basis of phenotypic variation, this project aims to reconstruct the universal evolutionary phenomena underpinning a watershed evolutionary episode that shapes global biodiversity and the human condition to this day.
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.
- agricultural sciences animal and dairy science domestic animals
- natural sciences biological sciences ecology ecosystems
- agricultural sciences agriculture, forestry, and fisheries agriculture
- natural sciences biological sciences genetics genomes
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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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H2020-EU.1.1. - EXCELLENT SCIENCE - 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
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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
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-2019-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.
NW1 1AT London
United Kingdom
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.