Unit 1

WP1: Environmental Genetics – Genomics 

Increased anthropogenic pressures and the climate crisis have brought about major and worrying changes in the functioning of marine ecosystems and the services they provide. Therefore, the highest quality and current production of knowledge regarding the complexity of these systems is considered imperative. The present project responds to this need by improving a holistic approach to the study and interpretation of marine biodiversity in three guidelines. The first concerns the climate crisis following direct anthropogenic interventions (such as the Suez Canal, 1869), which favored the invasion of Red Sea species into the Mediterranean (Lesbian migration) and the shift in the balance of ecosystems. The approach is done by applying population and comparative genomic methods. The second concerns the effects of the climate crisis on marker organisms (marine mollusks) which are investigated in both natural and experimental conditions with short-term and long-term response methods (micro-tomography methods, epigenetic mechanisms and genomic landscape respectively). The third concerns the improvement of the access to the benthic dividing layer of the continental shelf with new sampling methods. At the same time, the use of both classical and genomic methods (DNA barcoding / metabarcoding) for the study of biodiversity and the investigation of natural and biogeochemical parameters, give a more comprehensive approach to the interaction of the depth through the water-separating surface.

Objectives of subsection 1.1 (WP1.1)

  •       The study at the genome level of lesbian immigrants to understand the evolutionary processes that take place during the invasion.
  •       The study at the level of the genome of the Seriola dumerilli, one of the new fish farming fish with rapid growth and the creation of a database available for future applications of genetic improvement of the species.

 

Objectives of subsection 1.2 (WP1.2)

  •       Comparative morphology with the use of micro-CT limestone structures in marine molluscs after subjecting them to different experimental conditions (reduced pH and increased temperature), according to the climate change scenarios.
  •   Investigation of the epigenemic effect of small or microRNAs in individuals of a species of marine mollusk that have undergone temperature and pH changes.
  •   Study of the genomics of the marine landscape of a species of marine mollusk, with the correlation of genomic patterns with environmental parameters and a description of the degree of communication (regions) between regions, the parameters that affect it and the adaptability of populations to change.

 

Objectives of subsection 1.3 (WP1.3)

  •       The investigation of the diversity of the benthic separating layer of the continental shelf of the Gulf of Heraklion using a new method of benthic sampling with the conversion of a hyperbolic sleigh in order to simulate the “natural” resuscitation of organic and surface components. The assessment of diversity will be done using classical methods of taxonomy and study of biocommunities and with modern genomic techniques, while at the same time the changes of physical and biogeochemical parameters will be studied.