The role of the gut microbiome in host responses to environmental variation: within and across generations and species (MiMeRe)
Main funder
Funder's project number: 101124827
Funds granted by main funder (€)
- 1 999 943,00
Funding program
Project timetable
Project start date: 01/05/2024
Project end date: 30/04/2029
Summary
All organisms carry microbes. Humans and animal models have shown that gut microbiome is strongly linked to health and sickness. A current key challenge is to understand how the microbiome helps the host adapt to environmental variation. However, the vast majority of research has been conducted in few laboratory animal models and therefore misses large parts of environmental, physiological and life-history variation. while empirical data from wild populations and species is needed to address this question. Thus, the overarching aim is to study how the microbiome affects host responses to environmental variation..We focus on understanding how gut microbiome helps hosts to cope with temperature variation, given the pervasiveness of temperature as an environmental challenge across taxa, and the increasing thermal challenges in the light of the climate crisis. We aim for a comprehensive assessment covering molecular to evolutionary scales, using wild birds as study system The objectives:
(O1) To study the role of microbiome in mediating host’s (adaptive) reversible thermal plasticity in adulthood
(O2)To examine the role of microbiome in mediating host’s (adaptive) developmental and transgenerational thermal plasticity, and explore the underlying epigenetic changes
(O3) To quantify the contribution of host genetic variation to temperature-microbiome associations
(O4) To explore the macroevolutionary patterns of temperature-microbiome associations
(O5) To examine the underlying molecular mediators of host-microbiome interactions
We use experimental approaches to study causal effects of microbiome (transplants) within and across populations, pedigree and selection line data to infer and cutting-edge molecular methods in eco-evolutionary research. Vice versa, we apply eco-evolutionary concepts and tools (reaction norms, selection lines) to host-microbiome research. The project’s findings on the mechanisms of phenotypic variation within and across generations can help us to predict how organisms respond to novel anthropogenic environmental challenges, and contribute to our understanding of host evolution, where microbiome is suggested to play a complex role.
(O1) To study the role of microbiome in mediating host’s (adaptive) reversible thermal plasticity in adulthood
(O2)To examine the role of microbiome in mediating host’s (adaptive) developmental and transgenerational thermal plasticity, and explore the underlying epigenetic changes
(O3) To quantify the contribution of host genetic variation to temperature-microbiome associations
(O4) To explore the macroevolutionary patterns of temperature-microbiome associations
(O5) To examine the underlying molecular mediators of host-microbiome interactions
We use experimental approaches to study causal effects of microbiome (transplants) within and across populations, pedigree and selection line data to infer and cutting-edge molecular methods in eco-evolutionary research. Vice versa, we apply eco-evolutionary concepts and tools (reaction norms, selection lines) to host-microbiome research. The project’s findings on the mechanisms of phenotypic variation within and across generations can help us to predict how organisms respond to novel anthropogenic environmental challenges, and contribute to our understanding of host evolution, where microbiome is suggested to play a complex role.
