Project description
Insight into protective symbiosis
Symbiosis, the long-term biological interaction between two different organisms, is a frequent phenomenon in nature. Symbiont species offer certain advantages to hosts including improved immune responses against potential infection. The working hypothesis of the EU-funded COEVOPRO project is that microbes can mediate immune defences against parasites irrespective of the host to protect it. Using nematode–microbe symbiosis as a model, researchers will undertake an experimental evolutionary approach to decipher the mechanisms underlying such protective phenomena. Insight into the dynamics of co-evolution will help understand host resistance and parasite infectivity in symbiotic relationships.
Objective
All organisms in nature are targets for parasite attack. Over a century ago, it was first observed that symbiotic species living in hosts can provide a strong barrier against infection, beyond the host’s own defence responses. We now know that ‘protective’ microbial symbiont species are key components of plant, animal, and human microbiota, shaping host health in the face of parasite infection. I have shown that microbes can evolve within days to protect, providing the possibility that microbe-mediated defences can take-over from hosts in fighting with parasites over evolutionary time. This new discovery of an evolvable microbe-mediated defence challenges our fundamental understanding of the host-parasite relationship. Here, I will use a novel nematode-microbe interaction, an experimental evolution approach, and assays of phenotypic and genomic changes (the latter using state-of-the-art sequencing and CRISPR-Cas9 technologies) to generate new insights into the drivers and consequences of coevolving protective symbioses. Specifically, the objectives are to test: (i) the ability of microbe-mediated protection to evolve more rapidly than host-encoded resistance, (ii) the impacts of evolvable protective microbes on host-parasite coevolution, and the effect of community complexity, in the form of (iii) parasite and (iv) within-host microbial heterogeneity, in shaping host-protective microbe coevolution from scratch. Together, these objectives will generate a new, synthetic understanding of how protective symbioses evolve and influence host resistance and parasite infectivity, with far-reaching implications for tackling coevolution in communities.
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: https://op.europa.eu/en/web/eu-vocabularies/euroscivoc.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: https://op.europa.eu/en/web/eu-vocabularies/euroscivoc.
- natural sciences biological sciences evolutionary biology
- natural sciences biological sciences biological behavioural sciences ethology biological interactions
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Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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)
MAIN PROGRAMME
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Topic(s)
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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.
Funding Scheme
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.
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.
ERC-STG - Starting Grant
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Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) ERC-2018-STG
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Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
OX1 2JD Oxford
United Kingdom
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