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FRIMEDBIO-Fri prosj.st. med.,helse,biol

DNA methylation and its role in regulating seasonal timing of reproduction and phenotypic plasticity

Alternative title: DNA metylering og dens rolle i regulering av hekkefenologi og fenotypisk plastisitet.

Awarded: NOK 7.2 mill.

Understanding how individuals and populations are adapted to the environment they are in and how they can adapt to environmental changes is one of the biggest challenges in biology today. Phenotypic plasticity, ie how a genotype changes its phenotype in relation to environmental factors, is an important mechanism. On the other hand, we know little about the genetic factors that regulate phenotypic plasticity, but DNA methylation can play an important role. The purpose of this project has been to look more closely at the role of DNA methylation in regulating phenotypic plasticity in breeding time and plasticity in breeding time. We have used experiments on selection lines of great tits to investigate changes in DNA methylation over time and how changes in DNA methylation are linked to changes in gene expression, as well as how these are linked to when the great tits reproduces. Our results suggest that DNA methylation changes in previously known genes involved in reproduction may be important for gene regulation. We have also studied DNA methylation in natural populations of sparrows where we have investigated whether there are changes in DNA methylation in relation to when they nest. The house sparrow is an interesting species because it has up to 3 clutches per year and we thus expect stronger seasonal variation in methylation than in great tit which usually has only one. Our results show that DNA methylation is an important mechanism that, together with genetic variation, is involved in controlling when a species reproduces. This is important information because phenological traits such as breeding time is one of the features most affected by climate change and we therefore need a better understanding of the mechanisms that control this.

Dette prosjektet har identifisert DNA metylering som en genetisk mekanisme som er med på å regulere når i sesongen kjøttmeis reproduserer. Dette er viktig informasjon fordi vi har en dårlig forståelse for hvilke genetiske faktorer som er med på å regulere fenotypisk plastiske trekk slik som hekke tidspunkt. Vi viser att endringer i DNA metylering på kjente gener som styrer reproduksjon kan endre gen uttrykket og dermed når egg produseres.

Understanding how populations are adapted to the environment they occupy and how they can remain adapted if the environment change is a fundamental goal in evolutionary biology. Recent studies have highlighted the importance of phenotypic plasticity, the change in phenotype in different environments of a genotype, as one of the main mechanisms for adapting to changes in the environment. While phenotypic plasticity is often considered a non-genetic response, recent studies have demonstrated that the degree to which individuals can adjust their phenotype to match the environment can have a genetic component. Growing evidence suggests that epigenetic mechanisms such as DNA methylation, which are chemical marks added to the DNA, may play a important role in phenotypic plasticity. Despite the central role of phenotypic plasticity in allowing adaptation in natural populations epigenetic studies of plasticity are lacking. The main goal of this project is to fill this gap. I will do this using a unique approach combining experimental work in the wild with novel genomic techniques in the form of methylation tiling arrays to examine the importance of methylation in phenotypic plasticity. These experiments will use two avian model species (house sparrow and great tit) with well-characterized ecological information and genetic/genomic resources (SNP arrays and genome sequence). The combination of genomic approaches and traditional experimental techniques to examine the role of epigenetic effects on phenotypic plasticity in non-model organisms puts the research at the forefront of the emerging field of ecological epigenetics. The proposed research should therefore greatly contribute to our understanding of the role of epigenetic factors in phenotypic plasticity and hence the adaptive potential of species to cope with environmental change. The outcome of the study will therefore be of great interest toe be of great interest to the scientific community, public and policy makers.

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FRIMEDBIO-Fri prosj.st. med.,helse,biol

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