How to live in a mosaic of stressors - an ecological genomics approach on the water flea Daphnia

STRESSFLEA将开发和使用基因组学工具，以水蚤Daphnia magna为模型系统，揭示自然种群对人为和自然压力的适应模式和机制。水蚤是生态学、进化生物学和生态毒理学研究的重要模式生物，并迅速发展成为生态基因组学研究的主要模式无脊椎动物。水蚤作为生态基因组学模型具有明显的优势，因为它的生态重要性和生命周期特征（短世代时间，克隆谱系，分层休眠卵库）。STRESSFLEA旨在（1）深入了解遗传适应特定压力源的基因组基础（捕食，寄生，栖息地的不可预测性，金属污染）;（2）通过将基因表达与性状值联系起来来识别基因功能;（3）深入了解适应多种压力的基因组学;以及（4）通过使用分层卵子库中的基因组标记和候选基因来重建延长的时间轴上的进化过程。STRESSFLEA汇集了欧洲主要研究小组，开发基因组资源以研究天然水蚤种群对压力源的反应（由美国的一个关键研究小组补充），并结合转录组分析，靶向基因组扫描，QTL分析和基因定位，微阵列，蛋白质组学和甲基化组分析，以确定候选基因座和相关的SNP标记，分析基因功能，并将这些知识应用于古基因组学方法中重建进化动力学，并分析局部适应的动力学和特征。STRESSFLEA的遗产将包括对局部适应单一和多种压力源的基因组基础的坚定见解，对延长时间尺度的微进化适应动态的洞察，使用模型系统水蚤的生态基因组学的精心制作的基因组学和转录组学工具箱，以及在自然种群的生态和功能基因组学方面合作的欧洲研究小组的牢固建立的网络，以水蚤为模型。

STRESSFLEA will develop and use genomics tools to unravel patterns and mechanisms of adaptation to anthropogenic and natural stressors in natural populations, using the water flea Daphnia magna as a model system. Daphnia is a key model organism in ecology, evolutionary biology and ecotoxicology, and rapidly develops to become a leading model invertebrate in ecological genomics. Daphnia has clear assets as an ecogenomic model because of its ecological importance and life cycle features (short generation time, clonal lineages, layered dormant egg banks). STRESSFLEA aims to (1) obtain insight into the genomic underpinning of genetic adaptation to specific stressors (predation, parasitism, habitat unpredictability, metal pollution); (2) identify gene function by linking gene expression to trait values; (3) obtain insight into the genomics of adaptation to multiple stressors; and (4) reconstruct evolutionary processes over an extended time axis through the use of genomic markers and candidate genes in layered egg banks. STRESSFLEA brings together the key European research groups developing genomic resources for studying responses to stressors in natural Daphnia populations (supplemented with a pivotal research group from the US), and combines transcriptome analysis, targeted genome scans, QTL analysis and gene mapping, microarrays, proteomics and methylome analysis to identify candidate loci and associated SNP markers, analyse gene function, and apply this knowledge to reconstruct evolutionary dynamics in a paleogenomics approach and analyse the dynamics and signature of local adaptation. The legacy of STRESSFLEA will include firm insight into the genomic underpinning of local adaptation to single and multiple stressors, insight into the dynamics of micro-evolutionary adaptation over extended timescales, a strongly elaborated genomics and transcriptomics toolbox for ecologic genomics using the model system Daphnia, and a firmly established network of European research groups that collaborate on ecological and functional genomics of natural populations, using Daphnia as a model.