MuBoEx
Financiado
Mushroom Body Expansion in Heliconius butterflies
The brain plays a central role in the production of adaptive behaviour. It must extract and integrate the most relevant sensory cues from the environment, and combine this information with memories of past experience to trigger ap...
The brain plays a central role in the production of adaptive behaviour. It must extract and integrate the most relevant sensory cues from the environment, and combine this information with memories of past experience to trigger appropriate behavioural responses. To fully understand the origins of behavioural novelty we need a detailed understanding of how behavioural differences are generated, both across evolutionary time and during development. This requires the integration of behavioural and neuroanatomical variation, and their genomic and developmental bases.
Mushroom bodies (MBs) are the most enigmatic structures in the insect brain. They have ‘higher order’ functions, integrating sensory information and storing memories of past experience. MBs share a conserved ground plan, but their size and structure varies extensively across species. MB morphology is determined by the number of MB neurons, and the nature and extent of connections they make with other brain regions. As such, they provide a model for asking fundamental questions about how selection, development and functional constraints shape brain evolution.
This project will establish a new study system in evolutionary neuroscience, Heliconius butterflies. MB volume in Heliconius is among the highest across insects, 3-4 times larger than typical for Lepidoptera, including closely related genera. The proposal represents a synthesis of four key objectives that will provide a cohesive understanding of MB expansion in Heliconius, encompassing both proximate and ultimate causes. Specifically, I will ask: i) How does MB expansion enhance behavioural function? ii) How do volumetric changes relate to differences in neuron number, density and connectivity? iii) What developmental mechanisms control region specific changes in neural proliferation? And iv) what is the genetic basis of MB expansion? Addressing these questions will provide profound advances in our understanding of brain evolution.
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Duración del proyecto: 75 meses
Fecha Inicio: 2017-10-04
Fecha Fin: 2024-01-31
Fecha Fin: 2024-01-31
Línea de financiación: concedida
El organismo H2020 notifico la concesión del proyecto el día 2024-01-31
Línea de financiación objetivo
El proyecto se financió a través de la siguiente ayuda:
ERC-2017-STG:
ERC Starting Grant
Cerrada
hace 8 años
Presupuesto
El presupuesto total del proyecto asciende a
1M€
Líder del proyecto
UNIVERSITY OF BRISTOL
No se ha especificado una descripción o un objeto social para esta compañía.
Perfil tecnológico
TRL
4-5
Perfil tecnológico
TRL
4-5
741.79K€ |
Participante