Project Details
Projekt
Genetic and genomic structural evolution underlying feeding ecology transitions in the Hemiptera
Subject Area
Evolutionary Cell and Developmental Biology (Zoology)
General Genetics and Functional Genome Biology
Bioinformatics and Theoretical Biology
General Genetics and Functional Genome Biology
Bioinformatics and Theoretical Biology
Term
since 2025
Project identifier
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 570427173
The Hemiptera are the largest order of hemimetabolous insects, comprising many species of agricultural and medical importance. Their evolutionary history includes repeated, often convergent shifts in feeding strategies, with lineages adapting to plant feeding (phytophagy) or predation, including blood feeding. Within the seed bug family (Lygaeidae), recent dietary adaptations span from monophagous (feeding on a single plant species) to generalist (feeding on many plant types) strategies. Feeding is a key trait for connecting genomic changes to phenotypic outcomes. The recent expansion of genomic resources in Hemiptera presents an opportunity to study the genetic and genomic basis of diversification and convergent feeding strategies at an unprecedented scale. Hemiptera are still underrepresented in comparative genomics and offer distinctive features for study, including high rates of intron gain and turnover, as well as varied feeding ecologies. This project integrates expertise in algorithm development, comparative genomics, and Hemiptera biology to conduct multi-scale, multi-modal analyses of the evolution of metabolic and regulatory pathways related to feeding. We will examine whether species regulate feeding behavior by adjusting gene expression or by deploying different subsets of their gene repertoire. By compiling advanced genomic datasets—including curated gene sets for metabolism—we will identify the global set of feeding-related genes. Tracing orthologs across hundreds of species will reveal their evolutionary trajectories within a broad Hemiptera pan-genomic framework, situating our findings on the model species Oncopeltus fasciatus. Gene expression profiling across species with varying dietary specializations—both in the wild and in experimentally tractable systems—will clarify how regulatory changes underlie dietary adaptation. We will investigate the relative roles of gene duplication and alternative splicing in protein functional diversification. Using innovative approaches linking intron-exon structures to 3D protein folding, we aim to identify structural impacts of transcript diversity. Key candidate genes emerging from these analyses will be functionally tested and integrated into broader metabolic and regulatory networks. We will also trace the taxonomic origin of feeding-related genes to construct a holo-genome perspective on feeding biology. This includes exploring microbial genomic bycatch data to test hypotheses about metabolic complementation between insect hosts and their microbiomes. Ultimately, our work will illuminate how feeding-related genomic strategies have evolved across Hemiptera, and how these strategies compare both within the order and with other insect taxa that have converged on similar diets.
DFG Programme
Priority Programmes
