ELTE Researcher Leads Consortium Winning Grant to Study the Evolution of Air Breathing
The project is dedicated to fundamental research on the evolution of respiratory strategies in fish, with a primary focus on the paradise fish (Macropodus opercularis). As Máté Varga, Associate Professor at the ELTE Institute of Biology explains:
“While colloquially we think about fish as gill-breathing creatures, in fact multiple lineages have adopted to air breathing (and one particular lineage went on to evolve into terrestrial vertebrates). The paradise fish, living in oxygen-poor waters, also evolved a specific structure, the labyrinth organ, that helps it to process atmospheric oxygen efficiently. Using HFSP funding, we want to unravel the developmental pathways that contribute to the emergence of this peculiar evolutionary innovation. This way
our work will provide insights into how organisms can adjust their physiology to more extreme conditions.”
After undergoing a rigorous multi-stage evaluation by an international committee of renowned scientists, the HFSP Board of Trustees approved funding of USD 400,000 per year for three years for the team. The project is the result of an international collaboration between three laboratories: Czech Republic, where Peter Fabian’s team is responsible for cell sequencing and analysis Hungary, where Máté Varga’s group will conduct the genetic and developmental studies on fish, and Japan, where Takayuki Onai’s group will focus on the evolutionary biology aspects of the project and a broader perspective on adaptations
Understanding Adaptations to Extreme Conditions
Existing literature suggests that the paradise fish initially develops gills like any other fish but later utilizes atmospheric oxygen to fully develop its specialized respiratory organ. If this organ is non-functional, the fish eventually dies, making the paradise fish an obligate air breather species.
“This system might provide an interesting case to study how environmental stimuli can affect gene expression to drive developmental processes,” says Dr. Varga.
By isolating and analyzing cells from adult fish, researchers can compare this process to a standard fish model such as the zebrafish (Danio rerio), widely used in biological research. Further experiments will explore whether introducing certain factors from the genome of the paradise fish into zebrafish—a species that lacks this structure—could induce the formation of a similar adaptation.
“This approach can help us better understand the mechanisms underlying the formation of this unique respiratory organ,” concludes Peter Fabian, from Masaryk University.
International Impact and Prestigious Recognition
Beyond advancing our understanding of evolutionary processes, this project fosters collaboration between leading laboratories across continents. The grant supports the formation of new research teams, laboratory upgrades, symposium organization, and scientist exchanges among participating institutions.
The HFSP Program Grant is one of the most prestigious awards in fundamental research, with an acceptance rate of around 4%. Hungarian researchers have only received a handful of such grants in its history, and this is the first Program Grant ever awarded to a team lead by a principal investigator with Hungarian affiliation. Among ELTE researchers, Imre Derényi (Institute of Physics, Department of Biological Physics) and Mihály Kovács (Institute of Biology, Department of Biochemistry) won HFSP Early Career Research Grants in 2006 and 2010, respectively.