Identification of evolutionary lineages in Dictyostelium discoideum using comparative phylogenomics

• Grant number: 20/15233-4
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: February 01, 2021
• End date: January 31, 2022
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Genetics - Molecular Genetics and Genetics of Microorganisms
• Principal Investigator: Reinaldo Otávio Alvarenga Alves de Brito
• Grantee: Victor Felipe Lucas
• Host Institution: Centro de Ciências Biológicas e da Saúde (CCBS). Universidade Federal de São Carlos (UFSCAR). São Carlos , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Social amoebae of the genus Dictyostelium, especially Dictyosteliumdiscoideum, are widely used as a model organism for biological studies in population genetics and molecular and cell biology. Although D. discoideum maintains a unicellular and asexual life cycle most of the time, when subjected to food shortages, they aggregate in a multicellular shape and form peduncles with spores that undergo sexual reproduction. It does so by means of an altruistic behavior in the reproductive phase since many cells form the peduncle, on which the spores will be formed, thereby abdicating to reproduce and allowing the fusion of two similar cells that will be consumed in order to generate energy to the zygote by phagocytosis. Considering this peculiar behavior, the understanding of the evolution and differentiation of D.discoideum and closely related species, as well as the phylogenetic relationships among them using a large assemble of genomic data and modern methodologies, are extremely relevant for a better understanding of the evolution and ecology of social cooperation. Therefore, the proposed project intends to analyze genomes of428 strains of D. discoideum and closely related species, mostly sampled in the United States, but with samples from several other locations across the world, whose sequences were previously generated by us and our collaborators, in order to identify evolutionary lineages and infer phylogenetic relationships which promises to be an important endeavor to help in the understanding of their differentiation and the evolution of such relevant characteristics as altruism, cooperation, and multicellularity.