This research will help understand how small changes in the ways molecules work can produce big changes in how living things are organized and interact with their environment. This work is expected to generate broad positive impacts on society. First, this project should improve public understanding of evolutionary theory by detailing how changes in molecules can produce complexity. Second, the training of postdoctoral and graduate students at the interface of computational, evolutionary and molecular biology is expected to help produce a next generation of scientists able to use multiple disciplines to solve real problems. Third, the expansion of distance-learning programs in computational biology is expected to help increase participation of underrepresented groups in STEM disciplines. Finally, understanding how molecules produce complexity is likely to drive future innovations in fields such as biotechnology, synthetic biology and nanotechnology.
Understanding how complex life arises through changes in molecular systems is a central goal of evolutionary biology. RNA interference (RNAi) is a molecular system recognized as important in the evolution of complex animals and plants. However, little is known about how molecular changes in the protein and RNA machinery comprising the RNAi system facilitated these rapid leaps in animal and plant complexity. The objective of this project is to determine how molecular changes in RNAi machinery altered the working of RNAi system in animals and plants. This project's methodology utilizes evolutionary analysis of animal and plant gene sequences encoding the protein components of RNAi system to identify important evolutionary changes, experimental analysis of modern day and ancestral molecules to determine the effects of evolutionary changes on how RNAi works, and structural analysis to characterize the mechanisms by which evolutionary changes alter RNAi function. By comparing the evolution of similar RNAi systems in animals and plants, this project is expected to determine the general principles governing how RNAi evolved to contribute to organism complexity.
