This action funds an NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellowship for FY 2009 and supports a research and training plan entitled "Gene regulation in vertebrate evolution and embryo development" for Aaron T. Garnett. The host institution for this research is University of Colorado under the sponsorships of Dr. Daniel Medeiros and Dr. Xuedong Liu.
Two important types of DNA sequences found in animal genomes are (1) sequences that encode proteins and (2) regulatory sequences that determine where and when protein-coding sequences will be used. While encoding proteins in DNA is fairly well understood, encoding regulatory information is far from complete. For animal development to occur, it is essential that proteins be made in the proper places at the proper time in the embryo, so discovering how regulatory information is encoded in the genome is crucial to understanding animal development. In addition, many of the changes that occur during evolution are the result of changes to regulatory DNA which modify the way in which an organism develops. This research is exploring how regulatory DNA encodes the information necessary for proteins to be made in the neural crest, a structure that gives rise to the facial skeleton and the peripheral nervous system and is found only in vertebrate embryos, by identifying the DNA sequences that cause protein expression in the genome of the puffer fish Fugu (a vertebrate), and then comparing the Fugu sequence to the lancelet (an invertebrate) sequence to determine the regulatory DNA necessary for the neural crest to arise during vertebrate evolution.
The training goals for this project include techniques involved with amphioxus embryology and strengthening computer-programming skills to improve understanding of evolutionary concepts. In addition to addressing fundamental questions in vertebrate evolution, this project involves the development of computational techniques for detecting regulatory DNA which will be useful in studying a range of biological systems.
