I am overjoyed to announce that my European Research Commission (ERC) Starting Grant (StG) on the genomics of miniaturisation in vertebrates has been funded! This means 1.5 million euros for my lab over the next five years, to explore how the evolution of reduced body size is driven, shaped, and constrained at the genomic level.
GEMINI: The Genomics of Miniaturisation in Vertebrates
Miniaturisation—the evolution of such reduced body size that anatomy or ecology is substantially altered—has been a defining force in vertebrate evolution. These changes must have a genomic basis. My ambition with GEMINI is to characterise the interplay between organismal miniaturisation and the genome, and discover how morphological transformations can arise in these organisms.
To do this, I will produce a new comparative genomic paradigm in Work Package 1 (WP1) comprising chromosome-level genomes from 20 sister-pairs of miniaturised and non-miniaturised species spanning subphylum Vertebrata. Of these 40 genomes, 23 will be newly generated using the latest sequencing technologies and annotation pipelines. I will apply a host of cutting-edge methods in comparative evolutionary genomics to identify genomic signatures of miniaturisation (WP2), and test hypotheses regarding the drivers and limiters of miniaturisation (WP3) on this paradigm. I will then integrate these findings with developmental approaches to establish if there is a common basis to a classic case of convergent, miniaturisation-induced anatomical change: digit loss in the smallest tetrapods, frogs (WP4).
GEMINI will dramatically change our understanding of the evolution of miniaturisation. It will set the stage for larger-scale interrogation of the evolution of novelty in metazoans, and help us understand why being small is such a big deal.
For those who do not know, the ERC Starting Grant is perhaps the most prestigious and best-endowed junior research group leading grant in Europe; it is widely viewed as one of the most competitive and daunting grants of its kind, but also as a career-changing opportunity to awardees. I am still in a state of disbelief that mine has been funded.
I am overwhelmed with gratitude to the many people that helped to make my application and project a reality. First and foremost, I have to thank my wife, Ella, who was not only a great sparring partner on some of my ideas and plans, but who did everything in her power to make it possible for me to put in the work in the end to get the grant written. To my mother-in-law, Inge, I am likewise indebted, because her stay with us also made this possible. My father, Mike, I thank for several fruitful discussions and brainstorming sessions. Feedback and discussion with Joost Woltering, Claudius Kratochwil, Ricardo Pereira, Alice Petzold, David Duchêne, and Tom Gilbert were absolutely key to putting together a strong grant and interview. Many collaborators of the project, too numerous to name, have ensured that it will be possible to carry out. My lab group gave really great feedback, especially during interview preparation. I am also grateful to the various people who sent me their own ERC applications as inspiration—these too were instrumental.
The project will start in January 2025. Watch this space to hear about job advertisements, project updates, and more!
SO COOL!!!
Thanks! I think so too!!
HOW DO THEY MAKE BABIES WHEN THEY’RE ALREADY SO VERY VERY SMOL?!?! They’re already so small they have to use tricky tricks to have enough organs, how are the babies even smaller????
Hard to believe, right‽ There are some solutions—like having smaller litters/clutches—but these are limited to a certain extent. There is a good chance that it is the embryo, and not so much the adult, that is the limiting factor… but only by studying it can we find out!
What about Breesia Nana?
Brookesia nana is unfortunately too inaccessible for inclusion, but there is another member of the subgenus Evoluticauda on the targeted species list!