Evolutionary reconfiguration of signaling cascades

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All living creatures critically depend on being able to sense their environment and mount the appropriate responses in order to survive. As a consequence, all cells have intricate systems to do this. Such systems include proteins that sense environmental change and then signal this change to the other proteins that they interact with. Through such networks of protein interactions, the cell can orchestrate complex responses that are required to survive diverse environmental stresses such as changes in temperature, pH, or salt concentration or even exposure to toxins, pollutants, and chemical pesticides. Given the central importance of these signaling networks for adapting to environmental stress, the proteins involved are often highly conserved throughout evolution. This research program uses the most experimentally tractable organisms that are closely related to humans to study the mechanisms by which changes in the network of protein interactions impact on cellular signaling, survival during stress, and, ultimately, adaptation to new environments. We will use fungal model systems to evolve new connections in protein interaction networks, will exploit the genetic variation in diverse fungal species to determine how interaction networks have been reconfigured by evolution in nature, and will dissect the specific changes within a species underpinning adaptation to divergent environments on a global scale. This research uses state-of-the-art molecular tools to understand the wiring of a cell and how this can influence the course of evolution. The outcomes of this work will allow molecular geneticists to understand new aspects of cellular signaling and will also provide new insights for evolutionary biologists as to how evolution happens at the molecular level. Beyond benefiting multiple scientific disciplines, this research will establish strategies to block the evolution of resistance to pesticides crucial for agricultural productivity as well as strategies to evolve microbes with enhanced capacity to tolerate stress and remediate contaminated environments, thereby improving the lives of Canadians.