Descrizione del progetto
Il ruolo dell’epigenetica nell’evoluzione
Secondo la teoria dell’evoluzione di Charles Darwin, gli organismi si sviluppano mediante una selezione naturale di piccole variazioni ereditarie. Tuttavia, prove recenti mettono in evidenza il ruolo svolto dai cambiamenti epigenetici nella determinazione dei tratti e del fenotipo medico, il che suggerisce che il fenotipo non è esclusivamente determinato dal nostro genoma. Il progetto MethylRIDE, finanziato dall’UE, intende approfondire il modo in cui i cambiamenti epigenetici influenzano il processo di adattamento biologico. A tal fine, gli scienziati incentreranno la loro ricerca sui cavalli dell’era glaciale impiegando nuove tecniche sperimentali e computazionali allo scopo di esaminare molecole antiche di DNA preservate nel materiale paleontologico. I risultati sveleranno il ruolo generale svolto dall’epigenetica quale forza evolutiva di significativa importanza.
Obiettivo
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.
Campo scientifico
- natural sciencesbiological sciencesgeneticsDNA
- natural sciencesbiological sciencesevolutionary biology
- natural sciencesearth and related environmental sciencesatmospheric sciencesclimatologyclimatic changes
- natural sciencesbiological sciencesgeneticsgenomes
- natural sciencesbiological sciencesgeneticsepigenetics
Parole chiave
Programma(i)
Argomento(i)
Meccanismo di finanziamento
MSCA-IF - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowships (IF)Coordinatore
75794 Paris
Francia