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BIOMOL-Molekylær biovitenskap og bioteknologi

A study of homing endonucleases: Molecular evolution and gene discovery

Awarded: NOK 0.72 mill.

Homing endonuclease genes (HEGs) encode highly specific DNases responsable for the mobility and spread of group 1 introns. They are divided into four families (His-Cys box, LAGLIDADG, GIY-YIG and HNH) based on conserved protein motifs. LAGLIDADG HEGs are most numerous and widespread, while the His-Cys box HEGs are exclusively found within nuclear group I introns in ribosomal (r) RNA genes of fungi and protists. Molecular evolution is the study of evolution at the molecular level by reconstruction of the e volutionary histories of genes and organisms. In a joint effort to reconstruct the evolution of HEGs the candidate, the RNA group at the University of Tromsø and the Bhattacharya lab of Molecular Evolution at the University of Iowa, propose a study that will involve three phases: 1) gene discovery; screening of a tissue-collection, and GenBank blast searchers to find new HEGs, 2) generate sequence alignments of HEGs, associated introns and host 18S rRNA sequences, and 3) infer the evolutionary history of HEGs by using phylogenetic and statistical software packages. These results will be used to test a novel model for intron-independent mobility of HEGs that is proposed in Haugen et al. 2004.

Funding scheme:

BIOMOL-Molekylær biovitenskap og bioteknologi

Thematic Areas and Topics

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