In his recent NSF Postodoctoral Research Fellowship, the PI has developed a stochastic birth and death model for gene family evolution. Using the genomes of five yeast species, the PI has shown that the model can be efficiently applied to multi-species genome comparisons. In the current project, the PI will use the model to identify large-scale patterns in genome evolution and make stronger inferences regarding the role of natural selection in gene family expansion or contraction. The goals of this project are to extend the statistical methodology available for making inferences using the birth and death model. The project will include both improvements to the computational and statistical methods used to study gene family evolution and the analysis of an ever-growing number of genomes. The project will result in the production of a freestanding software package that the investigator will make available to the research community. The PI has just very recently moved to his new position as assistant professor, so has not yet begun training students.
