Project Details
Projekt
Molecular mechanisms and phenotypic consequences of paralog divergence in insects and chelicerates
Applicants
Dr. Mathilde Cordellier; Dr. Matthias Pechmann; Dr. Nico Posnien; Professor Dr. Nikola-Michael Prpic-Schäper; Dr. Natascha Turetzek
Subject Area
Evolutionary Cell and Developmental Biology (Zoology)
Term
since 2022
Project identifier
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 503325252
Widespread retention of duplicated genes across diverse plants, animals, and fungi suggests adaptive advantages and a critical role in the emergence of phenotypic novelties. Gene duplications were found to shape arthropod genome evolution and their phenotypic diversification. With the relatively long divergence time (570 Mya), small body size, and short generation times arthropods are excellent models to study mechanisms and consequences of gene and genome duplications. In the first GEvol phase, we generated high quality genomes for phylogenetically relevant spider species, established curated transposable element libraries and in collaboration with other GEvol members we established homogenous annotations for over 230 arthropod chromosome-level genomes. Using this comprehensive and comparable dataset, we will extend our detailed genomic analysis of gene duplication events to reveal molecular mechanisms underlying duplicate divergence. Subsequently, we will test their contribution to phenotypic innovation across chelicerates, crustaceans and insects and we will time and categorize duplication events that arose in these arthropod groups. We will investigate factors such as intron evolution, alternative splicing, and sequence variation, transposable element activity, gene regulatory changes, and expression patterns to elucidate molecular mechanisms contributing to diversification of duplicated genes. A selected set of strictly single- copy genes, ancient and lineage specific duplications, as well as duplicates identified as undergoing sub- and neofunctionalization will be experimentally tested to examine potential links between gene duplication and phenotypic innovation. Guided by a large-scale analysis of newly generated and available bioinformatic resources (e.g., spatial/temporal transcriptomics and single cell sequencing data), interesting gene expression patterns will be analyzed in detail using modern staining techniques, such as fluorescent chain reaction based in situ hybridization (HCR). We will further validate the function of selected candidate genes by applying RNA interference and CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing, thus assessing their specific contribution to phenotypic evolution. By that we systematically identify molecular mechanisms controlling gene evolution after duplication and evaluate the phenotypic consequences caused by different types of duplication events. Combining the expertise in computational and developmental biology and benefiting from the GEvol collaborations, diverse expertise, and resources from the first phase, we have the unique opportunity to establish novel insights into arthropod genome evolution using a large-scale in-depth genome analysis integrating multi-omics and experimental gene function studies.
DFG Programme
Priority Programmes
