Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Interdisciplinary Informatics for FY 2003

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Postdoctoral Research Fellowships in Interdisciplinary Informatics are sponsored jointly by the Directorates for Mathematical and Physical Sciences (MPS) and Biological Sciences (BIO) to encourage research and training that cross the traditional disciplinary boundaries between them. These fellowships provide opportunities for interdisciplinary research and educational activities in biology and informatics to a wide range of recent doctoral recipients (biologists, chemists, physicists, mathematicians, statisticians, computer scientists, and others). It is expected that the Fellows trained through these fellowships will play an important role in training the future workforce. Postdoctoral research and training in informatics will permit junior scientists trained in biology, mathematical, chemical, and physical sciences to play key roles in developing new quantitative tools and methods that will advance informatics in biology and other fields.The research and training plan is entitled "Genomic traces of the evolutionary effects of a selfish gene." Selfish genes transmit copies of themselves to future generations at the expense of other genes within the same genome. This research compares nuclear and cytoplasmic gene diversity among several Silene species that have different evolutionary histories of cytoplasmic male sterility to determine the genomic effects of this selfish gene. A broad survey of known plant sequences for this genomic 'footprint' is providing evidence of past occurrences of selfish genes in angiosperms.