Evoluzione e biologia di popolazioni animali

La teoria dell’evoluzione costituisce il concetto unificante della Biologia e la comprensione dei suoi meccanismi - dalle specie ai geni e ritorno - rappresenta il focus principale della nostra ricerca. Il gruppo di Evoluzione Animale e Biologia di Popolazioni lavora su numerosi argomenti di Biologia Evolutiva nell’ambito della più ampia area di studio rappresentata dalla Zoologia. Le linee di ricerca sotto riportate sono affrontate con l’utilizzo di numerosi approcci tecnici, dalla microscopia ottica ed elettronica alla cariologia, citogenetica, “RealTime qPCR”, e “High-Throughput Sequencing”.

Temi di ricerca
1) Filogenesi molecolare animale e DNA barcoding di Mollusca, Pancrustacea, e Chordata (Prof. Barbara Mantovani)
2) Biologia riproduttiva ed evoluzione del genoma di artropodi (Prof. Barbara Mantovani)
3) Genomica dei bivalvi (Dott. Fabrizio Ghiselli)
4) Evoluzione, sistematica e conservazione di pesci cartilaginei (Prof. Fausto Tinti)
5) Genomica evolutiva e funzionale dei mitocondri (Prof. Marco Passamonti)
6) Biologia evolutiva di insetti sociali (Prof. Andrea Luchetti)
7) Genomica di popolazioni e tracciabilità di pesci marini (Dott. Alessia Cariani)

Settori ERC
LS2_1 Genomics, comparative genomics, functional genomics
LS2_2 Trascriptomics
LS2_6 Molecular genetics, reverse genetics and RNAi
LS3_6 Organelle biology
LS8_2 Population biology, population dynamics, population genetics, plant-animal interactions
LS8_3 Systems Evolution, biological adaptation, phylogenetics, systematics
LS8_4 Biodiversity, comparative biology
LS8_5 Biodiversity, comparative biology
LS8_6 Biogeography
LS8_8 Environmental and marine biology
LS9_3 Agriculture related to animal husbandry, dairying, livestock raising)

Referente
Barbara Mantovani (PO)

Membri del gruppo
Fausto Tinti (PA)
Marco Passamonti (PA)
Andrea Luchetti (PA)

Fabrizio Ghiselli (PA)
Alessia Cariani (PA)
Federico Plazzi (Professore a contratto)
Alice Ferrari (Assegnista)

Filippo Nicolini (PhD Student)

Jacopo Martelossi (PhD Student)
Ran XU (PhD Student)
Filippo Castellucci (PhD Student)

Altri membri
Dott. Guglielmo Puccio (Italia)
Dott. Oskar Conle (Germania)
Dott. Frank Hennemann (Germania).
Paul Brock (Phasmid Study Group , UK).
Dott. Pablo Valero e Prof. Dr. Antonio Ortiz (Università di Murcia, Spain).
Prof. Dr. Jane Margaret Costa von Sydow (Institut Oswaldo Cruz/ Fiocruz, Rio de Janei-ro, Brazil).
Dr. Bruno Kneubühler (Switzerland).
Joachim Bresseel & Jerome Constant (Institut Royal des Sciences Naturelles, Bruxelles, Belgium).
Yeisson Gutierrez (Università di Münster, Germany).

Collaborazioni
Consorzio ELASMOMED e iniziativa FISHBOL (CBOL, Canada); Shark Specialist Group (IUCN); Gruppo Ricercatori Italiani sugli Squali, razze e chimere (GRIS, Italia)

Produzione scientifica
• F. Dedeine, S. Dupont, S. Guyot, K. Matsuura, C. Wang, B. Habibpour, A.-G. Bagnères, B. Mantovani, A. Luchetti (2016). Historical biogeography of Reticulitermes termites (Isoptera: Rhinotermitidae) inferred from analyses of mitochondrial and nuclear loci. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution, 94:778-790.
• C. Scavariello*, A. Luchetti*, L. Bonandin, F. Martoni, B. Mantovani (2017). Hybridogenesis and a potential case of R2 non-LTR retrotransposon horizontal transmission in Bacillus stick insects (Insecta Phasmida). Scientific Reports, 7: 41946 (* equally contributing authors).
• L. Bonandin, C. Scavariello, V. Mingazzini, A. Luchetti, B. Mantovani (2017). Obligatory parthenogenesis and TE load: Bacillus stick insects and the R2 non-LTR retrotransposon. Insect Science, 24: 409-417.
• C. Savojardo*, A. Luchetti*, P.L. Martelli, R. Casadio, B. Mantovani (2019). Draft genomes and genomic divergence of two Lepidurus tadpole shrimp species (Crustacea, Branchiopoda, Notostraca). Molecular Ecology Resources, 19: 235–244 (* equally contributing authors).
• A. Luchetti, G. Forni, A.M. Skaist, S.J. Wheelan, B. Mantovani (2019). Mitochondrial genome diversity and evolution in Branchiopoda (Crustacea). Zoological Letters, 5: 15.
• Breton S., Milani L., Ghiselli F., Guerra D., Stewart D.T., Passamonti M. (2014). A resourceful genome: updating the functional repertoire and evolutionary role of animal mitochondrial DNAs. TRENDS IN GENETICS, 30(12): 555-564.
• Milani L., Ghiselli F., Passamonti M. (2016). Mitochondrial selfish elements and the evolution of biological novelties. CURRENT ZOOLOGY, 62(6):687-697.
• Pozzi A., Plazzi F., Milani L., Ghiselli F., Passamonti M. (2017). SmithRNAs: could mitochondria “bend” nuclear regulation? MOLECULAR BIOLOGY AND EVOLUTION, 34(8): 1960-1973.
• Plazzi F., Passamonti M. (2019) Footprints of unconventional mitochondrial inheritance in bivalve phylogeny: signatures of positive selection on clades with Doubly Uniparental Inheritance. JOURNAL OF ZOOLOGICAL SYSTEMATICS AND EVOLUTIONARY RESEARCH, 57(2) 258-271.
• 2019. Natural Heteroplasmy and Mitochondrial Inheritance in Bivalve Molluscs. Integr Comp Biol. (in press)
• Iannello M, Puccio G, Piccinini G, Passamonti M, Ghiselli F. 2019. The dynamics of mito-nuclear coevolution: A perspective from bivalve species with two different mechanisms of mitochondrial inheritance. J Zoolog Syst Evol Res 369:20130438.
• Ghiselli F, Iannello M, Puccio G, Chang PL, Plazzi F, Nuzhdin SV, Passamonti M. 2018. Comparative Transcriptomics in Two Bivalve Species Offers Different Perspectives on the Evolution of Sex-Biased Genes. Genome Biol Evol 10:1389–1402.
• Milani L, Ghiselli F. 2015. Mitochondrial activity in gametes and transmission of viable mtDNA. Biol Direct 10:22.
• Savojardo, Castrense, et al. "Draft genomes and genomic divergence of two Lepidurus tadpole shrimp species (Crustacea, Branchiopoda, Notostraca)." Molecular ecology resources 19.1 (2019): 235-244.
• GN Puncher, A Cariani, GBYP Consortium, F Tinti (in prep) “Spatial dynamics and mixing of Bluefin tuna in the Atlantic Ocean and Mediterranean Sea revealed using next generation sequencing”.
• J Bylemans, GE Maes, E Diopere, A Cariani, H Senn, MI Taylor, S Helyar, L Bargello-ni, A Bonaldo, GR Carvalho, I Guarniero, H Komen, JT Martinsohn, EE Nielsen, F Tinti, FAM Volckaert, R Ogden (2016) “Evaluating genetic traceability methods for captive bred marine fish and their applications in fisheries management and wildlife forensics.” Aquaculture Environment Interactions 8:131-145, doi:10.3354/aei00164
• C Pecoraro, M Babbucci, A Villamor, R Franch, C Papetti, B Leroy, S Ortega-Garcia, J Muir, J Rooker, F Arocha, H Murua, I Zudaire, E Chassot, N Bodin, F Tinti, L Bargello-ni, A Cariani (2016) “Methodological assessment of 2b-RAD genotyping technique for population structure inferences in yellowfin tuna (Thunnus albacares).” Marine Ge-nomics 25: 43–48, doi:10.1016/j.margen.2015.12.002
• GN Puncher, H Arrizabalaga, F Alemany, A Cariani, IK Oray, FS Karakulak, G Basilo-ne, A Cuttitta, A Mazzola, F Tinti (2015) “Molecular Identification of Atlantic Bluefin Tu-na (Thunnus thynnus, Scombridae) Larvae and Development of a DNA Character-Based Identification Key for Mediterranean Scombrids.” PLoS ONE 10(7): e0130407, doi:10.1371/journal. pone.0130407
• I Milano, M Babbucci, A Cariani, M Atanassova, D Bekkevold, GR Carvalho, M Espiñeira, F Fiorentino, G Garofalo, AJ Geffen, J Hemmer-Hansen, SJ Helyar, EE Nielsen, R Ogden, T Patarnello, M Stagioni, FishPopTrace Consortium, F Tinti, L Bargelloni (2014) “Outlier SNP markers reveal fine-scale genetic structuring across European hake populations (Merluccius merluccius).” Molecular Ecology, 23: 118–135, doi:10.1111/mec.12568
• EE Nielsen, A Cariani, E Mac Aoidh, GE Maes, I Milano, R Ogden, M Taylor, J Hem-mer-Hansen, M Babbucci, L Bargelloni, D Bekkevold, E Diopere, L Grenfell, S Helyar, MT Limborg, JT Martinsohn, R McEwing, F Panitz, T Patarnello, F Tinti, JKJ Van Houdt, FAM Volckaert, RS Waples, FishPopTrace consortium & GR Carvalho (2012) “Gene-associated markers provide tools for tackling IUU fishing and false eco-certification.” Nature Communications 3:851, doi:10.1038/ncomms1845