Projektbeschreibung
Die Rolle der Epigenetik in der Evolution
Laut der Evolutionstheorie von Charles Darwin entwickeln sich Organismen durch die natürliche Selektion geringfügiger, geerbter Variationen weiter. Allerdings unterstreichen jüngste Belege die Rolle epigenetischer Veränderungen bei der Bestimmung von Merkmalen und medizinischer Phänotypen, was nahe legt, dass Phänotypen nicht ausschließlich von unserem Erbgut bestimmt werden. Das EU-finanzierte Projekt MethylRIDE soll untersuchen, wie epigenetische Veränderungen sich auf den Vorgang der biologischen Adaptation auswirken. Zu diesem Zweck wird das Forschungsteam sich auf Pferde aus der Eiszeit konzentrieren und neuartige experimentelle und computergestützte Verfahren einsetzen, um historische DNS-Moleküle zu untersuchen, die in paläontologischem Material erhalten wurden. Die Ergebnisse werden die allgemeine Rolle der Epigenetik als erhebliche evolutionäre Kraft offenbaren.
Ziel
MethylRIDE: Charting DNA methylation reprogramming of Ice Age horses in the face of global climate change and extinction
Adaptation is one of the most essential processes in biology, by which species become fit to their environment. Following Charles Darwin, adaptation appears as the result of natural selection acting upon heritable variation. However, recent epigenetic discoveries have established the capacity of non-genetic changes in the regulatory layers of gene expression to shape our traits, including our medical phenotype. As such, our realized phenotype can no longer be considered as the sole product of our genome, but more as the combinatory by-product of our genome and epigenomes. The outcome of natural selection, which favors phenotypes associated to a higher reproductive success in a given environment, might, thus, be at least partly influenced by epigenetic changes. Yet, the possible participation of epigenetic changes in the process of biological adaptation is generally overlooked. MethylRIDE will take advantage of the preservation of ancient DNA molecules in paleontological material to track the changes in DNA methylation profiles of Ice Age horses, as they faced changing climatic conditions and selection pressures and, ultimately, became extinct. The unique combination of novel experimental and computational techniques developed will help assess, for the first time, the role of epigenetics in long-term adaptive strategies of large vertebrates in response to rapid climate change, and more generally the role of epigenetic change as a significant evolutionary force.
Wissenschaftliches Gebiet
- natural sciencesbiological sciencesgeneticsDNA
- natural sciencesbiological sciencesevolutionary biology
- natural sciencesearth and related environmental sciencesatmospheric sciencesclimatologyclimatic changes
- natural sciencesbiological sciencesgeneticsgenomes
- natural sciencesbiological sciencesgeneticsepigenetics
Schlüsselbegriffe
Programm/Programme
Thema/Themen
Aufforderung zur Vorschlagseinreichung
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MSCA-IF - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowships (IF)Koordinator
75794 Paris
Frankreich