Tracing the evolution of sensory cell types in animal diversity: multidisciplinary training in 3D cellular reconstruction, multimodal data analysis

追踪动物多样性中感觉细胞类型的进化：3D 细胞重建、多模式数据分析的多学科培训

• 批准号: EP/Y037081/1
• 负责人: Maximilian Telford
• 金额: $ 33.22万
• 依托单位: University College London
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2024
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2024 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=EP%2FY037081%2F1
• 关键词: Tracing; evolution; sensory; cell; types

All animals need to sense their environments. The ability to detect light, temperature, chemicals, sound, vibrations and other stimuli depends on an extraordinary range of sensory cell types. The diversity and relationships between these receptor cells across the animal phyla, the ways in which they have been adapted, reused, tweaked and sometimes lost, is little known, but is crucial for understanding how animals survive and thrive in diverse environments. Most sensory cells are characterised by complex shapes and molecular machinery, first discovered by meticulous electron microscopy in the past decades. More recently, this has been complemented by genetic studies of their development and differentiation in various animal models. These two research programmes have, however, largely remained separate, and a unified morphological and molecular understanding of how the diversity of animal sensory cells has evolved is lacking. Our aim in ZooCELL is to create a comprehensive view of sensory cell type evolution based on the discovery of recurrent patterns of genetic and subcellular structure across a wide range of new animal models. To this end, we will combine single-cell genomics, correlative light and electron microscopy, Artificial Intelligence, and reverse genetics approaches in these species. ZooCELL will bring together Europe's world-leading expertise in these disciplines, and thuscontribute to building the field of comparative integrative cell biology in animals. While training the next generation of doctoral students in these novel interdisciplinary techniques, we will develop new tools for combined molecular and morphological comparative analyses of cell types. Our interdisciplinary, intersectoral and international training programme will also include dissemination and public outreach, and the comprehensive training provided will enable our graduate students to assume leadership roles in academia, industry and science outreach.

所有的动物都需要感知它们的环境。探测光、温度、化学物质、声音、振动和其他刺激的能力取决于一系列非同寻常的感觉细胞类型。动物门中这些受体细胞之间的多样性和关系，以及它们被适应、重复使用、调整甚至有时丢失的方式，鲜为人知，但对于理解动物如何在不同的环境中生存和茁壮成长至关重要。大多数感觉细胞的特征是复杂的形状和分子机制，这是在过去几十年里通过细致的电子显微镜首次发现的。最近，对它们在不同动物模型中的发育和分化的遗传学研究也补充了这一点。然而，这两个研究项目在很大程度上仍然是分开的，对于动物感觉细胞的多样性是如何进化的，缺乏统一的形态和分子理解。我们在ZooCELL中的目标是基于在广泛的新动物模型中发现的遗传和亚细胞结构的循环模式，创建感觉细胞类型进化的全面视图。为此，我们将在这些物种中结合单细胞基因组学、相关的光学和电子显微镜、人工智能和反向遗传学方法。ZooCELL将汇聚欧洲在这些学科方面的世界领先专业知识，从而为建立动物比较综合细胞生物学领域做出贡献。在培训下一代博士生这些新的跨学科技术的同时，我们将开发新的工具，用于结合细胞类型的分子和形态比较分析。我们的跨学科、跨部门和国际培训方案还将包括传播和公众外联，所提供的全面培训将使我们的研究生能够在学术界、工业和科学外联中发挥领导作用。