Evolution of complex traits: the example of feeding habits in Calliphoridae

• Grant number: 19/07285-7
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Post-Doctorate
• Effective date (Start): September 01, 2019
• Effective date (End): August 31, 2021
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Genetics - Animal Genetics
• Principal Investigator: Tatiana Teixeira Torres
• Grantee: Sophie Hokulani Véronique Jessica Tandonnet
• Host Institution: Instituto de Biociências (IB). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The main objective of this project is to understand the evolution of parasitism in blowflies of the family Calliphoridae, which have a worldwide distribution with representatives classified as livestock pests. Calliphorids have diverse feeding habits, which include necrophagy (decomposing material diet), obligate parasitism (live tissue diet) and facultative parasitism (generalist strategy). We propose to study the evolutionary trajectory of these habits at the genomic, transcriptomic and organismal levels.With genomic and transcriptomic data from eight calliphorids, as well as, from other closely related flies (e.g. the tsetse flies), a global comparison will be carried out, focused on identifying the genes, gene families and gene functions necessary for the different feeding lifestyles (e.g. evolutionary rate, identification of diet-specific genes).In a complementary approach, we will study the biology of a facultative parasite of great sanitary and economical impact: Lucilia cuprina. The larvae of this species can survive feeding either on live tissues (parasitic mode) or on decomposing material (necrophagous mode). By experimentally creating lines of L. cuprina, selected for >10 generations, using either parasitic or necrophagous larval substrate, we propose to identify the genes and polymorphisms necessary for a necrophagous or parasitic lifestyle using bioinformatics (RNA-seq and DNA-seq) and gene editing techniques (CRISPR/Cas9). Moreover, we will document various characteristics of the biology of the species before and after selection (substrate preference, fecundity, viability, development).

Scientific publications

(References retrieved automatically from Web of Science and SciELO through information on FAPESP grants and their corresponding numbers as mentioned in the publications by the authors)

DE LA ROSA, PABLO MANUEL GONZALEZ; THOMSON, MARIAN; TRIVEDI, URMI; TRACEY, ALAN; TANDONNET, SOPHIE; BLAXTER, MARK. A telomere-to-telomere assembly of Oscheius tipulae and the evolution of rhabditid nematode chromosomes. G3-GENES, GENOMES, GENETICS, v. 11, n. 1, JAN 2021. (19/07285-7)