DNA methylation and its role in regulating seasonal timing of reproduction and phenotypic plasticity
Informations
- Funding country
Norway- Acronym
- -
- URL
- -
- Start date
- 1/1/2015
- End date
- 12/31/2021
- Budget
- 886,092 EUR
Fundings
| Name | Role | Start | End | Amount |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| FRIMEDBIO - Independent projects - Medicine, Health Sciences and Biology | Grant | - | - | 886,092 EUR |
Abstract
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.