Life Sciences & Biotechnology
Title : | Investigation of metabolic cooperation driven evolutionary dynamics. |
Area of research : | Life Sciences & Biotechnology |
Principal Investigator : | Dr. Supreet Saini, Indian Institute Of Technology Bombay (IITB), Maharashtra |
Timeline Start Year : | 2023 |
Timeline End Year : | 2026 |
Contact info : | saini@che.iitb.ac.in |
Details
Executive Summary : | The evolution of sexual reproduction has been a significant transition in life forms on Earth, with the Red-Queen Hypothesis being the most common explanation. This hypothesis suggests that an arms race between a host and a pathogen leads to evolutionary pressure on the host to adapt quickly, with sexual reproduction facilitating this faster adaptation rate. However, recent metagenomics analysis indicates that auxorophy is widespread in microbial populations, and species are dependent on their environment or neighboring species for essential nutrients they cannot synthesize themselves. Metabolic trade is an important parameter relevant to survival and fitness in ecological niches. The first step towards evolution of sexual reproduction is two haploid organisms coming together and merging their genomes. This merging is driven by selection pressure to metabolically cooperate in various contexts. The study proposes to conduct evolution experiments with two yeast strains, each with different metabolic capacities. Three experiments will be conducted: strain 'A' capable of synthesizing Tryptophan but not Leucine; strain 'B' capable of synthesizing Leucine but not Tryptophan; strain 'A' (co-operator) will be the ancestor wild type, which can utilize sucrose, while strain 'B' lacks genes to utilize sucrose. The experiments will use genome sequencing and molecular biology tools to identify mutations leading to haploid-haploid fusion and the mechanistic basis of this fusion. The study aims to provide an alternate paradigm to explain the first step towards sexual reproduction evolution and emphasize the importance of metabolic cooperation in niche utilization and speciation, including among pathogenic varieties. |
Total Budget (INR): | 44,58,720 |
Organizations involved