Project description
Identifying agrochemical synergies harming social bees
Evidence shows that exposure to agrochemicals contributes to the decline in pollinator populations, even when pesticides are legally applied. These chemicals can interact synergistically, causing more harm than initially anticipated. Identifying these interactions during the licensing process is challenging due to the complexity of predicting them and the vast number of potential mixtures. Supported by the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions programme, the BEEware project will use transcriptomic profiling to study the effects of individual agrochemicals on social bees. By analysing gene expression, the project will identify impacts and potential synergistic interactions between products. It will also combine transcriptomic data with a database of known agrochemical pairs to explore shared characteristics, such as common metabolic targets.
Objective
Increasing evidence has linked agrochemical exposure to significant declines in pollinator populations, prompting heightened concerns and legislative actions. However, recent studies demonstrate that even legally-applied pesticides continue to adversely affect social bees. A critical challenge in addressing this issue is the co-exposure of pollinators to multiple agrochemicals. In agricultural environments, pollinators are typically exposed to complex mixtures of agrochemicals, rather than the single products upon which risk assessment has been based. This is a problem because recent work has highlighted that agrochemicals often interact synergistically, such that their combined effects are significantly greater than anticipated, and that such synergistic interactions are both larger and more common than expected. Finding a means to identify synergy during the licensing process is difficult because synergistic interactions are hard to predict based on biochemical properties, and because the number of potential mixtures that may be encountered in the real world is too large to allow for untargeted testing of mixtures. I propose a means to overcome this barrier, through transcriptomic profiling of exposure to single products to detect key indicators of synergy for social bees. Gene expression can detect key overriding impacts of individual agrochemicals on bee physiology, and comparison of profiles could potentially predict synergistic partners. Building upon my background in insect transcriptomics and the expertise in agrochemical stress within my proposed research group, I will combine large-scale transcriptomic resources with a comprehensive pre-existing database of synergistic agrochemical pairs to explore the key general shared features of synergistic pairs, such as shared metabolic targets. In doing so, I will identify potential biomarker genes to provide a more sensitive, short-term experimental method for bioassays in pesticide environmental risk assessment.
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.
- natural sciences computer and information sciences databases
- medical and health sciences basic medicine physiology
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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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HORIZON.1.2 - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA)
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Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
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Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
HORIZON-TMA-MSCA-PF-EF - HORIZON TMA MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
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Call for proposal
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(opens in new window) HORIZON-MSCA-2024-PF-01
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WC1E 6BT London
United Kingdom
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