| Grant number: | 19/03552-0 |
| Support type: | Regular Research Grants |
| Duration: | April 01, 2020 - March 31, 2022 |
| Field of knowledge: | Physical Sciences and Mathematics - Oceanography - Biological Oceanography |
| Principal Investigator: | Sérgio Nascimento Stampar |
| Grantee: | Sérgio Nascimento Stampar |
| Home Institution: | Faculdade de Ciências e Letras (FCL-ASSIS). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Assis. Assis , SP, Brazil |
| Assoc. researchers: | André Carrara Morandini ; Carlos Camargo Alberts ; Fabian H Acuña ; James Davis REIMER ; Jason Macrander ; Marcelo Visentini Kitahara ; Maximiliano Manuel Maronna ; Renato Mitsuo Nagata |
Abstract
Evolutionary patterns in Metazoa are often very difficult to understand. Largely, lineages are influenced by the several life cycle possibilities and this is especially relevant in marine organisms. Among these, one of the main interest groups is Cnidaria due to the multiple life cycle variations found in the species. Nevertheless, in this phylum the subclass Ceriantharia stands out with quite different standards and some alternatives that are exclusive among the group without jellyfish, Anthozoa. The lack of information related to life cycle possibilities, molecular and behavioral variations of the species in this group end up restricting evolutionary discussions and leading to taxonomy problems in several lineages. Based on the above scenario, the present project focuses on aspects of the life cycle of different Ceriantharia species with a description of the stages of development and their morphological and molecular variations via transcriptome data. Furthermore, describe the microbiota associated with the different stages of the life cycle. Another approach will be the presentation of genomic data of Ceriantharia species using third generation sequencing. Another approach will be the study of feeding behavior via the metagenomic content of stomach and also filming for recognition of eating patterns. Based on the above objectives, the present project should present several results related to the description of life cycles of different species, data on variations in larval development, description and annotation of genomes and information on trophic performance of different species. In this way, the results of this project will be an important contribution to broad discussions on marine evolution. (AU)