The Genetic Basis of Behaviour in a Brainless Blob

Student: Max Charles Vallarino The Carnegie University of Trust for the Aberdeen Email: [email protected] Universities of Supervisor: Dr Marius Wenzel Scotland

➢ New model system for studying Behaviour & Why Study Intelligence Physarum? ➢ Single cell with many intriguing features (Signalling Network, Shapeshifting, Learning, Memory & Social Behaviour) ➢ There is Behavioural Variability across different Physarum strains

“Is there a genetic basis of the behavioural What Did variability observed across P. polycephalum strains? Which are likely candidates?” We Investigate? The Slime Mould, Physarum Polycephalum ➢ Identified the following plausible candidate pathways and the genes contained in them using KEGG database: Calcium, cAMP, cGMP-PKG & Phosphatidylinositol Signalling ➢ Used RNASeq data from different strains of Physarum to assemble transcriptomes, Brief Outline identify candidate genes & extract homologous nucleotide sequences Of Methods ➢ Extracted homologous gene sequences from the Physarum genome and from genomes of closely-related organisms (e.g. Dictyostelium) ➢ Studied genetic variation (non-synonymous vs synonymous SNPs) between strains of Physarum and constructed a consensus phylogenetic tree across all genes!

Genomes Branch 2 (highlighted in Physarum green) shows Physarum- Transcriptomes specific evolution. We found evidence of positive selection inside the Physarum clade for 12 genes: ADCY5, DGKH (linked to Final human bipolar disorder), Results ERBB4, MYH7, MYLK, PIK3CB (linked to development of cancer cells), 2 PIK3CD, PLCB1, PLCB2, PLCB3 (linked to skeleton patterning in zebrafish), SLC25A6, SLC25A31 Branches 3-10 (highlighted in green) show genetic variability between the different Physarum strains. We found evidence of positive 4 selection between strains (within the Physarum group) for 31 genes: Branch 3: ATP1A1, ATP1A3, CNGA1, GABBR2, GNAI1, GNAI2,

5 GNAI3, INPPL1, KCNMA1, MEF2A (linked to skeletal muscle regeneration in humans!), MEF2C, MEF2D, NOS3, NPR2, 6 PIK3CD, PIP4K2C

3 7 Branch 4: CACNA1F, ERBB3, OCRL, PDGFRA, PLD2, SYNJ1 (linked to Parkinson’s disease), SYNJ2 8 Branch 5: PLD2 (linked to human phagocytic cell migration) Branch 6: OCRL (linked to lysosomal response) Branch 7: BORCS8-MEF2B (linked to alcohol sensitivity in 9 humans!) Branch 8: ATP1A4, CNGB1 (linked to retinal function in mice) 10 Branch 9: CDS2, KCNMA1 (linked to tumour cell proliferation), PDE3A Branch 10: GNA14, INPP5B (linked to fertility in mice), KCNMA1, PDE3A, PLCD3

➢ Different Physarum strains code for different functional proteins at candidate genes. Conclusions ➢ This genetic variability could be at the root of behavioural “personalities” observed & Future across multiple Physarum strains Research ➢ Gene function is not entirely clear. Perhaps a future research idea could be to perform functional assays on some of these genes (knockouts, CRISPR, gene expression, PCR)