[EUKPHYLEVOL] Unveiling novel deeply branching protist lineages to reconstruct major evolutionary events in the early history of eukaryotes
Ente: European Commission
Scadenza: 2028-06-30
Importo max: 209.914,56 EUR
Paese: EU
Descrizione
Animals, plants, and fungi, which evolved multicellularity independently from their unicellular ancestors, represent only a small minority of the many branches on the eukaryotic tree of life, while the most of eukaryotic diversity is represented by microbial eukaryotes, or protists. Heterotrophic flagellates have been found in all major eukaryotic lineages and represent the most ancient and ancestral cellular organization. Heterotrophic flagellates often occupy early-branching or intermediate evolutionary positions within eukaryotes, thus comprehensive studies of novel lineages of heterotrophic flagellates not only fill the gaps in microbial diversity and phylogeny, but also help to understand the origin and evolution of major, well-known and diverse eukaryotic groups. Moreover, elements of the flagellar apparatus are homologous in all eukaryotes and are an excellent tool of comparative morphology to help interpret molecular phylogenetic data. The main goal of this project is to culture new and important protist lineages occupying key positions in the eukaryotic tree of life and to characterize their biology by linking sequence information to morphological, life history, and ecological traits. I propose two parallel Objectives on morphological and molecular characterization of previously unknown and understudied deeply branching lineages of eukaryotes, Collodictyonida and Rhizaria, that are both of critical importance in understanding eukaryotic evolution.
Settori: heterotrophic flagellates, protists, early eukaryotic evolution, molecular phylogeny, morphology, ultrastructure, light and electron microscopy
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