The role of genomic networks in adaptation to changing environments

Project Description

The earth is currently experiencing a period of global warming, increased extreme weather events, and with that, a significantly altered water chemistry in marine and freshwater habitats. It is important to understand how aquatic organisms will be affected by such drastic changes in their environment so that it can be predicted how entire ecosystems might respond. For example, many conservationists use population genetic diversity as measures for the potential of a species to adapt to climate change. But within cells, all genes are functionally connected to other genes through their products, and this network architecture might limit or “constrain” how adaptation can be realized. This project will elucidate this understudied dimension of genome functional network architecture that could drastically influence the outcome of the adaptation process under altered environmental conditions. In this project, laboratory populations of zebrafish will be evolved for five generations under future climate conditions. It will be tested using genotype profiling how the underlying genomic network structure is related to the changes in genetic diversity these fish experience. This will allow to better understand how organisms can adapt to changing environments and how population genetic parameters can be used to predict how successfully a species may be able to do this.