A comparative genomic analysis into the origin of metazoan multicellularity

Objective

The emergence of multicellular organisms from single-celled ancestors is one of the most profound evolutionary steps in life’s history. However, and despite its importance, little is known about this pivotal evolutionary event. Interestingly, the emergence of multicellular organisms has occurred several times independently within the eukaryotes, such as in animals, fungi and plants. In this context, the super-group known as the Opisthokonts offers a unique evolutionary window to investigate the unicell-to-multicell transition because it comprises two multicellular eukaryotic kingdoms (Animals and Fungi) and several single-celled lineages. The goal of this project is to perform a comparative genomic analysis to further investigate into the origin of multicellularity within metazoans. Although genomic and functional studies are currently being performed in basal and derived metazoans, among the animal unicellular ancestors, choanoflagellates remain the only lineage to be extensively studied. This project aims to fill this gap by providing a genomic and molecular investigation into two additional unicellular lineages recently shown to be closely related to animals: Capsaspora owczarzaki and the ichthyosporean Sphaeroforma arctica. Thus, the specific goals of this project are: 1) to analyze the complete genome sequence of the unicellular opisthokonts Capsaspora and Sphaeroforma; and 2) to launch a new functional genomics platform of both Capsaspora and Sphaeroforma, in where to elucidate the “ancestral function” of genes relevant to multicellularity. A broad range of researchers (including the “evo-devo” community, eukaryotic microbiologists and molecular evolutionists) will benefit from the data generated within this project. Surely, this research will not only largely improve our understanding of a major biological question (the origin/s of multicellularity) but will also provide an evolutionary insight into the evolution of key proteins relevant to human health.

Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)

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.

• humanities history and archaeology history
• natural sciences biological sciences biochemistry biomolecules proteins
• natural sciences biological sciences microbiology mycology
• natural sciences biological sciences genetics genomes

Keywords

Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)

• multicellularity

Programme(s)

Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.

• FP7-IDEAS-ERC - Specific programme: "Ideas" implementing the Seventh Framework Programme of the European Community for research, technological development and demonstration activities (2007 to 2013)

Topic(s)

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.

• ERC-SG-LS2 - ERC Starting Grant - Genetics,Genomics,Bioinformatics and Systems Biology

Call for proposal

Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.

ERC-2007-StG
See other projects for this call

Funding Scheme

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ERC-SG - ERC Starting Grant

Host institution

Beneficiaries (1)