Project description
Innovative research ensures we do not naturally jump to conclusions about adaptive variation
'Jumping genes', also known as transposable elements or transposons, are sequences of DNA that can 'jump' from one location on a genome to another. Originally identified in the 1940s, we now know they are found in almost all organisms and make up about 50 % of the human genome. What these jumping genes do, if they do decide to jump, depends largely on where they land. They play an important role in genetic diversity and potential adaptation in response to environmental changes. However, studying natural jumping is difficult. The EU-funded GENTE_Pop project is exploiting the power of numbers. Evaluating large populations of experimental and wild-type plants will enable the analysis of jumping gene movements, elucidating their potential cause (environmental pressures) and effect (heritable changes leading to adaptive variation).
Objective
Transposable elements (TEs) are powerful engines of genome evolution, as illustrated by their implication in the rewiring of regulatory networks and the creation of new cellular functions. Short-term consequences of TE mobilization can also be particularly dramatic given that TE insertions are a unique source of large effect mutations. However, there is a lack of knowledge about the contribution of ongoing transposition to within-species variation. This situation stems in large part from the repetitive nature of TEs, which complicates their analysis. Moreover, TE mobilization is typically rare and therefore new TE insertions tend to be missed in small-scale population studies. Hence, a major challenge in genomics is to determine the conditions leading to transposition in nature and the range of effects it generates. While most TE insertions are likely to be deleterious or neutral, it is widely proposed that because TE activity can be sensitive to the environment, transposition may in fact act as a major adaptive response of the genome to environmental changes.
Here, using large experimental and wild populations of the plant A. thaliana, I propose to leverage innovative genomic, molecular genetics and eco-evolutionary approaches to determine the Genetic x Environmental (GxE) map of heritable transposition and its contribution to the creation of adaptive variation.
Aim 1 is to identify the genetic and environmental factors that underpin TE mobilization by quantifying newly generated heritable insertions in thousands of genetically diverse individuals subjected to a range of environmental stressors. Aim 2 is to determine the fitness effects of these heritable TE insertions using multigenerational competition experiments and highly complex environments.
This project will greatly increase our understanding of the nature of the genetic variation TEs contribute to and our ability to predict the impact of ongoing transposition, notably in the context of climate change.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
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CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
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Keywords
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Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
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Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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H2020-EU.1.1. - EXCELLENT SCIENCE - European Research Council (ERC)
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75794 PARIS
France
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