Descripción del proyecto
En busca de una explicación del mutualismo en los genomas del pez payaso y las anémonas de mar
El mutualismo es un tipo de simbiosis en el que ambas partes obtienen un beneficio de la interacción y existen ejemplos de ello en todas partes. Con todo, a pesar de su ubicuidad en la naturaleza, o tal vez debido a ella, no existe una teoría evolutiva unificadora del mutualismo. El pez payaso y las anémonas de mar en las que viven constituyen un ejemplo bien conocido de simbiosis mutualista. Las anémonas de mar proporcionan refugio y restos de comida al pez payaso, que limpia su entorno comiendo los desechos y favorece la circulación del agua gracias a su aleteo. El proyecto ANEMONE, financiado con fondos europeos, estudia este ejemplo clásico de mutualismo mediante la secuenciación del genoma completo para abordar varias hipótesis sobre el desarrollo y la evolución del mutualismo y los organismos implicados.
Objetivo
The importance of mutualism is underscored by its ubiquity- virtually all of life engages in complex multi-level mutualisms that critically impact the formation and distribution of biodiversity around the globe. Although general expectations exist, no unifying evolutionary theory of mutualism has been established. Largely impeding a synthetic framework for mutualism are incomplete understandings of individual case studies. No mutualism is perhaps more representative of this than the iconic clownfish-sea anemone symbioses, a model mutualism regularly used for exploring fundamental biological processes, but one in which our understanding remains wildly incomplete due to a lack of research into the evolution of the host anemones. Here I propose to use full genome sequencing to conduct the first genomic investigation into the clownfish-hosting sea anemones. I will test: 1) if mutualistic benefits of hosting clownfishes has led to multiple adaptive radiations in host sea anemones, and are thus more diverse than currently described. 2) Whether the mutualistic benefits of hosting clownfishes led to significant ecological opportunity for host anemones, and thus, signatures of demographic population expansion that coincide with the onset of the symbiosis. 3) Whether mutualism with clownfishes has driven convergent genome evolution and architecture among host anemones. 4) The Red King Hypothesis, which states that mutualistic lineages should have slower rates of molecular evolution than their free living relatives. The proposed research will provide novel insight into this iconic mutualism that will bear on the interpretation of dozens of prior studies that span scientific disciplines. Fully disentangling the evolutionary implications of mutualism in this symbiosis will provide critical comparative data from the marine environment in order to more fully evaluate the generalities of mutualism across ecosystems.
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MSCA-IF - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowships (IF)Coordinador
1015 LAUSANNE
Suiza