Environmental and chemical stressors are omnipresent, demanding evolutionary adaptations to optimize organismal fitness and prevent population decline.
In this research theme we investigate mechanisms of (chemical) stress response and of adaptation to different environmental conditions at different levels of biological organization, and at different time scales. In ecotoxicology, we study the effect and bioaccumulation of chemical stressors in soil invertebrates, also in relation to environmental conditions like soil properties and bioavailability. With a wide range of (eco)genomics and functional genetic approaches we study the evolutionary history of populations and aim to identify mechanisms of evolutionary adaptation. Finally, we apply genomics to understand inbreeding in endangered populations and facilitate conservation using genome sequence information.
PROJECTS
- DrComics [van Gestel, Hoedjes, Ellers, Bakker][LP1] Dose-response Curves for –OMICS data in soil quality assessment, especially in assessing the effects of pesticides to soil invertebrates.
- PRORISK [van Gestel, Berg, Fernandes] Exploring the role of soil organisms in relation to ecosystem services and its potential sensitivity to chemical stressors.
- Scaling for bioavailability [van Gestel, van Hall] Assessing the effect of soil properties on the toxicity of pesticides to soil organisms.
- PAPILLONS [van Gestel, Berg, van Loon] Determining the interaction between micro- and nanoplastics and soil organisms.
- PFAS [van Gestel, Xie] Exposure, hazard and risk of PFAS in aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems.
- Single nucleotide variants in life history evolution [Hoedjes] Identifying natural alleles responsible for ageing and fecundity evolution in the fruit fly.
- What makes inbreeding so depressing? [Bosse] A genomic perspective on the role of harmful mutations in inbreeding depression.
- Asian Elephant Genomics for Conservation [Bosse, Kappelhof] Genomic analysis of captive and wild Asian elephant populations to understand population structure and inbreeding.
- Functional genomics of Drosophila life-history evolution [Beets, Hoedjes, Bosse] From high impact mutations to developmental adaptation in Drosophila: a novel framework to Integrate functional prediction from genome sequence with experimental validation using CRISPR-cas.
- Omics of feral swine ASF susceptibility [Barmentlo, Bosse] Genomics and transcriptomics approach to predict feral swine response to African Swine Fever.