Cancers are bad, but why do they occur?
The prevalence of cancer, or malignant neoplasia, varies across and within species. Theories argue that life-history trade-off underpins this variation and predict a negative correlation between lifespan and neoplasia prevalence, and a positive correlation between fertility and neoplasia prevalence.
This is because neoplasia increases mortality risk, and tumor suppression is important for survival. Therefore, organisms that invest more resources in survival could evolve better defense against neoplastic growth, leading to the evolution of longer lifespan and lower neoplasia prevalence. On the other hand, because resources are limited, organisms evolve to ‘trade off’ resources among traits (such as between survival and reproduction) to maximize their overall fitness. If fitness is increased by channeling more resources to reproduction (e.g., by increasing fertility) at the cost of lower resources for somatic maintenance, optimization of resource allocation could result in a concomitant increase in fertility and in neoplasia prevalence.
For this project, we will take advantage of the long-lived and short-lived selection lines of Drosophila melanogaster that are already available. We will examine neoplasia prevalence (in the intestine) in long-lived versus short-lived Drosophila melanogaster, and we will disentangle the genes underlying neoplasia defense and lifespan regulation using transcriptome analysis.
What you will learn: You will learn about evolutionary medicine and life-history evolution. You will gain experience on fly maintenance, molecular biology techniques, and bioinformatics skills (optional; if time allows and if you are interested).
Required qualifications: Interested in evolutionary biology and evolutionary applications. Willing to learn handle small insects and work in a lab setting. No other specific experience required.
Duration: 45-60 credits
Starting date: flexible
Contact: Hwei-yen Chen, hwei-yen.chen@biol.lu.se