Project Details
Projekt
Usage of relative timing of intron gain for phylogenetic analysis
Subject Area
Bioinformatics and Theoretical Biology
Term
from 2007 to 2012
Project identifier
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 35225218
We developed a novel phylogenetic marker class which we called near intron pair (NIP). This marker class is derived by the insertion of a novel intron nearby (< 50 nucleotides) to an evolutionarily older intron. The small distance from each other generally excludes the simultaneous existence of both introns and characterizes the novel intron insertion as apomorph (derived). We demonstrated the suitability of this marker for phylogenetic analysis of holometabolic insects. We developed algorithms for automatic generation of intron distribution matrices of orthologous genes. We plan to reconstruct phylogenetic trees for animal genomes based exclusively on NIP data. We would like to determine the phylogenetic position of distinct taxa of holometabolic insects by PCR-based cloning of informative NIPs. Furthermore, we would like to analyze recently gained introns to evaluate alternative hypotheses about intron gain and migration. In addition, we plan to establish a database containing orthologous intron sequences that will be used to study the emergence of novel introns in genome sequences of closely related metazoans. Such a database will offer comprehensive possibilities of further usage.
DFG Programme
Research Grants
