[Extract from the AEF dispatch of January 5, 2022] As part of its drive to promote “science with and for society”, on March 18, 2024 the ANR launched a new call specifically aimed at research projects it had already funded in 2021. The aim is for these winning projects to propose and implement “scientific mediation, communication or promotion actions” on their issues and results, aimed at a non-specialist audience. Submission of proposals to this call, entitled SAPS-CSTI-Générique21, is open until April 25, 2024. This call “aims to implement scientific communication, mediation and promotion actions around the issues, methods and results of research projects supported by the ANR as part of the 2021 generic project calls, under the JCJC (young researchers) and PRC (collaborative research projects) funding schemes”, states the call text. “All forms of scientific mediation, communication and promotion can be envisaged”, emphasizes the ANR. However, “they must be of a structuring nature at local, regional or national level, by jointly mobilizing the project coordinators [...] within the establishments, but also the scientific culture structures [...], and in particular those referenced by the Ocim (Office de coopération et d'information muséales)”. The aim is to create or reinforce a real synergy between scientists and professionals in the fields of scientific communication, mediation and promotion, “backed up by a steering mechanism to ensure the coherence and visibility of the actions carried out”, explains the ANR.

The VORTECS (superfluid VORtex TurbulencE on a Curved Surface) project is a joint theory-experiment effort to investigate superfluid dynamics on the surface of a bubble. It aims first at evidencing long-wavelength Rossby waves and zonal (azimuthal) flows driven by a latitude-dependent Coriolis force, a superfluid analogue of atmospheric hydrodynamics. The relevant parameters can be varied over a wide range on the experimental platform: the rotation speed from subsonic to hypersonic and the latitude from the south pole to the equator. Second, in order to access individual vortex trajectories, we will implement a non destructive, in situ, high resolution imaging scheme. We will also develop an effective kinetic model describing a dilute vortex gas to gain quantitative understanding of the energy and momentum redistribution processes. This will give access to the dynamics of large vortex clusters, a crucial feature of two-dimensional turbulence. The kinetic model will help guiding the experiment to reach and characterize turbulent states. Finally the interplay of curvature, rotation, large-scale instabilities and vortex dynamics will be evidenced in the competition between vortex clustering and formation of large scale azimuthal flows.

Asymmetry is a universal principle in nature and all sciences. It plays essential roles in living organisms at all biological scales, from homochirality of biomolecules, to cell, tissue, organ, and whole organism development and physiology. Using the Drosophila model, we study the importance of Left-Right (LR) asymmetry at both organismal (brain and visceral laterality) and molecular (homochirality) levels, allowing to develop a ‘holistic’ approach to the question of LR asymmetry generation in a single organism. Brain laterality is a widespread trait in animals, from drosophila to humans, which is manifest at molecular, circuitry and functional level. Despite evidence showing that brain asymmetry is associated to cognitive performance and neurological disorders (e.g., schizophrenia, autism), the contribution of brain asymmetry to the function of the nervous system remains surprisingly overlooked. Particularly, molecular, and genetic determinants of laterality, which are independent from those governing visceral LR asymmetry, remain poorly characterized. In this proposal, we aim at deciphering brain laterality through development of an advanced, novel genetic paradigm using Drosophila as a model system. Building on our recent published and unpublished results, we will develop integrated approaches to study laterality across biological scales. Particularly, using the asymmetric H-neuron model we will perform genome-wide molecular and genetic screens to identify novel factors important for neuronal laterality. Among these, we will study a novel laterality factor leading to a randomization phenotype with situs inversus. Using computational approaches and expression databases, we will expand the repertoire of known asymmetric neuronal circuits and study specific and common mechanisms of laterality establishment. Finally, our recent identification of asymmetric glia paves the way for the study of glia laterality and its interaction with neurons for proper brain function.

Genetic assimilation describes the evolutionary process during which an environmentally-induced (conditional) phenotype becomes a genetically controlled (constitutive) phenotype. This important concept remains controversial because the molecular mechanisms of genetic assimilation are rarely understood. Our project seeks to characterize the molecular genetic underpinnings of genetic assimilation in nematode egg retention. This conditional phenotype depends on the environmental modulation of egg-laying behaviour through neuromodulatory changes in the underlying neural circuit. Our past collaborative research has established that natural and experimental populations of the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans show great variation in the environmental sensitivity of egg-laying behaviour, and in extreme cases, display genetic assimilation in egg retention. The existence of this natural variation represents a uniquely well-suited experimental paradigm to characterize the molecular basis of genetic assimilation. Leveraging natural diversity by employing a powerful multi-parental experimental mapping population and a global panel of wild strains, we will conduct unbiased whole-genome screens to uncover the molecular mechanisms governing genetic assimilation. Our first aim involves conducting genome-wide association (GWA) mapping to identify the Quantitative Trait Loci (QTL) that modulate environmental sensitivity of egg retention and thought to underlie genetic assimilation. Our second aim will employ CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing to pinpoint the molecular nature of QTL and explore its functional consequences on egg retention and environmental sensitivity in egg-laying behaviour. In our third final aim, we will evaluate the significance of molecularly validated QTL during the process of genetic assimilation across 100 generations of experimental evolution. Through the integration of these complementary approaches, we will contribute to a deeper understanding of the molecular architecture of genetic assimilation and generate fundamental insights into how environmental and genetic information can act interchangeably to regulate gene activity and phenotype expression. This project is based on extensive past research, novel unpublished data and unique resources developed by the consortium, uniting two project partners with highly complementary expertise in molecular, developmental and evolutionary quantitative genetics.