Sayantan Datta, QBioS Thesis Proposal

Monday
Sep
16
2024
Event Start
1:00PM
—
Event End
2:00PM
Location
EBB 1005Evolution of multicellular innovations

Quantitative Biosciences Thesis Proposal

Sayantan Datta

School of Biological Sciences
Advisor: Dr William C Ratcliff (School of Biological Sciences)
Open to the Community

Evolution of multicellular innovations

Monday, September 16, 2024, at 1:00pm

In Person Location: CHOA Seminar Room  (Krone EBB 1005)
Zoom Link: https://gatech.zoom.us/j/91323695764?pwd=nn9XgSoo2lU6pp56CbTh1AdZdaWNwC.1

 

Committee Members:

Dr G Ozan Bozdag (School of Biological Sciences)

Dr Peter J Yunker (School of Physics)

Dr Alberto S Stolfi (School of Biological Sciences)

 

Abstract:

Multicellular organisms are key to the shaping ecological dynamics of life on Earth making the evolution of multicellularity an important event in the history of life. Multicellularity has evolved multiple times within independent lineages with five lineages evolving “complex” multicellularity, namely plants, animals, fungi, brown and red algae. Studies utilizing fossil evidence, comparative biology, and laboratory experimental evolution have helped us understand how multicellularity can evolve from simple single-celled organisms; but more remains to be understood about how key multicellular innovations evolve to shape the complex life on Earth.

 

I will use the experimentally tractable model of snowflake yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) being selected for large size for 6000 generations and counting in the Multicellularity Long Term Evolution Experiment (MuLTEE) to understand how different multicellular innovations evolve. In specific, I will be looking into the genetic basis for the evolution of macroscopic size (Innovation 1); how germ-soma distinctions (Innovation 2) can evolve as a side-effect of life cycle evolution; what can enable the evolution of cell differentiation (Innovation 3) in multicellular organisms.

 

I will provide the significance of studying each of these innovations along with the various experiments that I plan on doing to understand them. I will also be presenting some of the preliminary results, especially concerning the role of aneuploidy in the evolution of macroscopic size in snowflake yeast.