Abstract DBI-9803929 Erik Schultes This action funds an NSF/Alfred P. Sloan Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Molecular Evolution for 1998. These fellowships support studies involving the theoretical, comparative, computational, and/or experimental analyses of biological patterns and processes at the molecular level within the framework of organismic evolutionary change and adaptation. These studies also include the use of molecular data to address broader evolutionary questions. Each fellowship supports a research and training plan to be carried out in a sponsoring laboratory. The research and training plan for this fellowship is entitled measuring the effects of natural selection on RNA structure. In addition to structural properties imposed by evolutionary modification, evolved RNAs also display properties intrinsic to RNA polymer folding. The structural properties of evolved and random sequences are being compared to provide insight into the mechanisms by which evolution modifies RNA sequence and structure. These studies will begin to resolve features of RNA evolution that are historically contingent from those that are inherent to RNA polymer folding.
