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Adaptive Radiation in Aquatic MIcrobial Species

Project description

Taking an eco-evolutionary look at the management of aquatic species

Adaptive radiation is the process in which the number of species with a common ancestor is driven by the adaptation of organisms to new ecological contexts. The EU-funded ARAMIS project will bring an eco-evolutionary perspective to the management of aquatic species. Specifically, it will research this process in freshwater microbial communities. Specifically, it hypothesises that the environmental forces driving the unique evolution of every freshwater clade are the same, both in nature and in relative importance. The project will test this hypothesis by combining metagenomics, metatranscriptomics and enrichment cultures over a set of more than 200 lake samples. If validated, this paradigm will allow the development of powerful conceptual models. In addition to the high academic potential, the project will also have an impact on social and public policy.

Objective

Adaptive Radiation of Aquatic MIcrobial Species (ARAMIS).

The action aims to understand the causes, mechanisms and consequences of adaptive radiation (i.e. the process in which organisms diversify rapidly to occupy ecological niches) in freshwater microbial communities. This will help solve several of the outstanding questions in the field of microbial ecology, such as how shifts in environmental conditions impact the trajectory of microbial evolution, the relative importance of horizontal versus vertical gene transfer in microbial ecosystems, or the definition of microbial ‘species’. As diversity is linked with stability, elucidating the factors driving diversification in freshwater taxa will also help us predict how such ecosystems may respond to future change.

ARAMIS proposes the novel hypothesis that, while every freshwater clade has a unique evolutionary history, the environmental forces driving such evolution are fundamentally the same, both in nature and in relative importance. If validated, this simple paradigm would push the state of the art and allow the development of powerful conceptual models integrating environmental constraints, microbial diversification, and community stability.

The hypothesis will be tested by combining metagenomics, metatranscriptomics and enrichment cultures over a set of more than 200 lake samples. This will contribute to a conceptual synthesis between community ecology and evolutionary biology by closing the gap between theoretical work and data-driven studies. ARAMIS has a high academic potential but, since it deals with the stability of freswater microbial populations, can also have social and public policy impact by bringing an ecoevolutionary perspective to the management of aquatic resources.

Coordinator

SVERIGES LANTBRUKSUNIVERSITET
Net EU contribution
€ 203 852,16
Address
Almas alle 8
750 07 Uppsala
Sweden

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Region
Östra Sverige Östra Mellansverige Uppsala län
Activity type
Higher or Secondary Education Establishments
Links
Total cost
€ 203 852,16