Image: Simen Røyseland
Duration: January 2025 – December 2028
Responsible: Simen Rød Sandve
Funding source: NFR (FRIPRO)
Project number: 352116
Awarded: 12,000,000 NOK
Summary:
Changes in the genetic makeup of species over time – i.e. evolution – is the fundamental process that has resulted in all the fascinating adaptations and life forms that adorn our planet today.
A spectacular type of genetic change, genome duplication, can occur due to errors during cell division, resulting in organisms with a double set of genetic material. This could increase the long-term potential for the development of biological innovations and new life forms, as nature can “test out” new genetic solutions while having a genetic “backup”. However, with a double set of genetic material, the chances of errors in cell function also increase, and this challenge must be addressed in order to survive and succeed.
Exciting new research now indicates that organisms with a newly duplicated genome undergo changes in the three-dimensional organization of DNA molecules in the cell nucleus and that this may be an important mechanism for adapting to a new life with a double genome.
In the ThreeD project, we aim to explore this new hypothesis by reconstructing the changes in the three-dimensional organization of DNA, as well as gene regulation, over 100 million years of evolution after the ancestor of all salmonids underwent single-gene duplication.
CIGENE researchers involved: Simen Rød Sandve, Lars Grønvold, Thu-Hien To, Catherine Brekke, Tomasz Podgorniak