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Moving around without a brain: Evolution of basal cognition in single-celled organisms

Descrizione del progetto

Evoluzione della neuro-segnalazione: lezioni dagli organismi unicellulari

Gli organismi unicellulari, quali le diatomee, le alghe e i protisti, sono in grado di riconoscere i loro confini ambientali, rispondere agli stimoli e cambiare di conseguenza il loro comportamento. Eppure queste forme di vita primitive non sono dotate di sistemi nervosi. Il progetto EvoMotion, finanziato dall’UE, mira a determinare i percorsi sensomotori e i meccanismi di controllo precoce dei movimenti negli organismi unicellulari, dimostrando che non è necessario un sistema nervoso per il loro comportamento complesso. La ricerca prevederà approcci interdisciplinari comprendenti saggi fisiologici, analisi computazionali e ipotesi di test mediante esperimenti di robotica. Questa indagine svilupperà nuovi progetti per studi comportamentali su organismi unicellulari aneurali per sondare la loro capacità di interagire con l’ambiente.

Obiettivo

Even unicellular organisms have a sense of self -- that basal recognition of where their own membranous boundaries end, and where the extracellular environment in which they inhabit begins. Yet unlike the cells in your body, these primitive lifeforms can reproduce, and exist autonomously, most importantly, they can respond to stimuli, and change their behaviour accordingly. Responsive self-movement is a defining characteristic of life, which for simple organisms is essential to enable to them to explore and react to their surroundings, improve their circumstances, and outcompete other cells. In this proposal, I will determine the sensorimotor pathways of unicellular organisms and the physical mechanisms of early movement control, showing that a nervous system is not required for complex behaviour, particularly, 1) motility originating from cell shape changes by cilia and flagella, and 2) the as-yet unexplained surface gliding movement of diatoms which occurs in the complete absence of shape changes. I will develop novel interdisciplinary approaches, merging physiological experiments on diverse unicellular species with unique behavioural features, with theoretical modelling, mathematical/computational analysis of behaviour, as well as robotics-aided hypothesis testing. To highlight the importance of fast, nonequilibrium sensing in unicells and its significance for the evolution of nervous signalling, I will pioneer the integration of high-speed imaging and live-cell perturbations to resolve and understand previously unseen cellular processes and excitable phenomena. These investigations will culminate in novel designs for long-time behavioural assays which will probe the limits of aneural organisms and their capacity to perceive and interact with their surroundings.

Campo scientifico

CORDIS classifica i progetti con EuroSciVoc, una tassonomia multilingue dei campi scientifici, attraverso un processo semi-automatico basato su tecniche NLP.

Meccanismo di finanziamento

ERC-STG - Starting Grant

Istituzione ospitante

THE UNIVERSITY OF EXETER
Contribution nette de l'UE
€ 1 950 430,00
Indirizzo
THE QUEEN'S DRIVE NORTHCOTE HOUSE
EX4 4QJ Exeter
Regno Unito

Mostra sulla mappa

Regione
South West (England) Devon Devon CC
Tipo di attività
Higher or Secondary Education Establishments
Collegamenti
Costo totale
€ 1 950 430,00

Beneficiari (1)