Department of Integrative Marine Ecology
Director of Studies: Valerio Zupo
Project Summary/Abstract
Model species are commonly adopted for investigations in various fields of biology and ecology, to test hypotheses and perform bioassays. However, only a few organisms are universally considered and the narrow list limits science to the answers that those organisms can provide. In addition, models are scarcely representative samples of biological diversity, being often chosen according to evolutionary constraints. It is time to think more critically about how we choose and use animal models. We propose to define a list of candidate model species chosen among a broad set of marine organisms and test their performances –in terms of efficiency to answer scientific questions- by means of a set of characters and bioassays. According to the results obtained, the value of each species, as a model organism, will be defined and ranked, to avoid the influence of personal confidence with peculiar taxonomical groups, that determined the choice of most model species up to date. In the selection of animal models, both classical systems (Ciona, Zebrafish, sea urchins) and new candidates will be considered and their performances will be compared. We will consider a broad assortment of animals, from polychaetes to vertebrates, in order to avoid limitations due to taxonomical constraints. The research will initially evaluate the possibility to rear, culture, reproduce each species by simple and cheap methods. Then, developmental biology, physiology, toxicology, chemical ecology and molecular ecology techniques will be applied to measure the answers of each species to a common set of scientific questions. Finally, the value of each model species will be determined by ranking them according to the previous measurements. The project has clear intellectual merits, since it aims, for the first time, at providing a comprehensive survey of candidate model species, compare them and re-define, through quantitative evaluations, the features best suited to express the usefulness of a species for answering a wide set of scientific questions. In addition, it will allow for testing natural products on a range of organisms and describing their mechanisms of action, with the possibility to develop novel biotechnologies. The research could have broad impacts on future investigations involving model species, by indicating canonical choices for given purposes, avoiding the adoption of model species based on scientist’s personal confidence or due to the simple availability in given geographical locations, as widely applied at present. The completion of these researches, in addition, will provide the student with a wide experience in key disciplines and techniques, as culture of marine micro- and macro-algae, devising of experimental automatized culture systems for animal models, extracting, analyzing and testing algal secondary metabolites, testing the effect of natural substances on various marine organisms, analyzing the histological effects of natural products as candidate drugs, disclosing the molecular effects of algal metabolites by means of micro-arrays. On the whole, the candidate will acquire a vast knowledge on the manipulation and culture of model species and this will obviously increase his/her possibilities to be quickly hired as a post-doc.
