9726480 Lake In recent years, biologists wishing to reconstruct the history of life have made much use of sequence data from individual macromolecules (DNA sequences from genes, amino acid sequences from proteins). As data from whole genomes (each encoding thousands of genes) become available, they become a major resource for systematic biologists if they can be utilized effectively. Effective use of genomic data is especially needed to reconstruct ancient events in life's history, such as the origin of the eukaryotic cell or the appearance and divergence of major lineages of organisms. In this proposal, James A. Lake and colleagues will investigate the problem of deriving phylogenetic trees from complete eukaryotic and prokaryotic genomes. More specifically, they will test theories for the relationship of eukaryotic to prokaryotic genomes, investigate the inheritance of groups of genes within functional classes (such as those involved in translation, transcription, amino acid biosynthesis, and transport), and relate the trees they generate to trees inferred from other classes of evidence, such as the fossil and geochemical records.
