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，以大型水蚤为模式系统，揭示自然种群对人为和自然应激源的适应模式和机制。水蚤是生态学、进化生物学和生态毒理学的重要模式生物，并迅速发展成为生态基因组学中领先的模式生物。由于其生态重要性和生命周期特征(世代时间短、克隆谱系、分层休眠卵库)，水蚤作为生态模型具有明确的资产。STRESSFLEA的目标是(1)深入了解基因对特定应激源(捕食、寄生、栖息地不可预测、金属污染)的适应的基因组基础；(2)通过将基因表达与性状值联系起来确定基因功能；(3)洞察适应多种应激源的基因组学；以及(4)通过使用基因组标记和分层卵库中的候选基因重建更长时间轴上的进化过程。STRESSFLEA汇集了正在开发基因组资源以研究天然水蚤种群对应激源反应的主要欧洲研究小组(辅之以来自美国的一个关键研究小组)，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、蛋白质组学和甲基组分析来确定候选基因座和相关的SNP标记，分析基因功能，并应用这些知识以古基因组学方法重建进化动力学，并分析局部适应的动态和特征。STRESSFLEA的遗产将包括对单一和多个应激源的局部适应的基因组基础的坚定洞察，对延长时间尺度上微观进化适应的动态的洞察，使用Daphnia模型系统进行生态基因组学的精心设计的基因组学和转录组学工具箱，以及以Daphnia为模型在自然种群的生态和功能基因组学方面进行合作的稳固的欧洲研究小组网络。

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.