Record #188087 - GSI Repository

Finch Evo-Devo

Developmental Basis of Beak Shape Variation in Darwin’s Finches

Coordinator	Imperial College of Science Technology and Medicine
Grant period	2016-05-01 - 2018-04-30
Funding body	European Union
Call number	H2020-MSCA-IF-2015
Grant number	702707
Identifier	G:(EU-Grant)702707

Note: Darwin’s finches display an extremely high beak shape diversity associated with occupation of various ecological niches. They are the classic textbook example of adaptive radiation under natural selection. The supervisor of this proposal – Dr. Arkhat Abzhanov and colleagues previously used a combination of morphometrics, comparative developmental genetic and functional tests to reveal basic principles underlying beak shape morphogenesis. They showed that the enormous beak diversity in Darwin’s finches could be reduced to three “group shapes” (A, B, and C) and revealed molecular mechanisms causing the scaling–based variation within group “A”, but not yet the processes underlying the more complex shear-based saltational transformation that produced variation between groups. The main objective of this project is to identify the developmental programs underlying the leaps of beak shape diversification during Darwin’s finches’ adaptive radiation – the variation between “group shapes”. I will employ an extensive whole-transcriptome sequencing (RNAseq) screen to search for novel transcripts whose gene expression is associated with the group shape-specific beak curvatures. This will be complemented with genome-wide association study (GWAS) to identify upstream regulators of the actual effector molecules that cause the phenotype. I will validate the best candidates by gain- and loss-of-function tests using retroviral vectors on developing chicken and zebrafinch embryos to reveal their roles in beak morphogenesis. This project will provide novel insights on intrinsic mechanisms that facilitate adaptive morphological diversity, will offer an opportunity for interdisciplinary research interactions and will generate resources valuable to the entire biological community.

Recent Publications

There are no publications

Record created 2016-06-03, last modified 2023-02-14

Similar records

Add to personal basket
Export as Author List with IDs BibTeX (UTF-8), EndNote XML, EndNote Text, RIS, MARC, Print MARC, MARCXML, DC,
Request correction
Submit fulltext

GSI Homepage \| GSI Library \| English Deutsch \| guest :: login GSI Repository
Search	Submit	Personalize Your alerts Your baskets Your searches	Help