- Scientists at the University of Sheffield will lead the first full study on epigenetics and evolution
- The research aims to understand how the environment we live in can change how our genes are read and how this may affect later generations
- The project is one of five awarded funding as part of the Natural Environment Research Council’s Pushing the Frontiers scheme
Scientists at the University of Sheffield will study how environmental factors could play a part in changing our genes, thanks to a £1.5m award from UKRI.
Professor Jon Slate and his team will conduct the first full study on epigenetics, to research how environmental factors could play a part in changing how our genes are read. The study will also focus on methylation, an epigenetic mechanism which can change the function of genes.
The researchers will track the population of Soay sheep on the island of Hirta, St Kilda in the Outer Hebrides, one of the best studied mammal populations in the world.
Jon Slate, Professor of Evolutionary Genetics at the University of Sheffield, said: “Epigenetics, or the study of how the environment can influence how our genetic code is read, has never been investigated at this scale before. Our research aims to understand whether the environment we live in can change how our genes are read and how that could affect our offspring and later generations.
“We will do this by studying a population of sheep on the remote island of Hirta. The Soay sheep population has been carefully studied for over 35 years and the environmental conditions on the island are challenging, meaning natural selection is strong enough for evolutionary change to have been witnessed and measured in the lifetime of the study.
“Because sheep have a short generation time, this is the equivalent of doctors studying cohorts of humans and their children for several centuries.”
The project is one of five awarded funding by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) as part of the Pushing the Frontiers scheme to fund high risk and innovative science.
The Pushing the Frontiers scheme aims to facilitate truly adventurous and ambitious science and exploit new technologies and approaches. The projects will be funded for between three and four years.
Professor Sir Duncan Wingham, Executive Chair of NERC, said: “These highly innovative research projects could advance our understanding of fundamental questions in environmental and earth science, and lead to important scientific breakthroughs. The grants are the outcome of an exciting new pilot scheme to encourage and fund some of the UK’s most exceptional environmental scientists to lead more risky and transformational research.”
