PostDoctoral Research Fellowship in Biological Informatics FY2006

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Project Title:Evolution of oxygen carrying blood proteins in response to high-altitude and low-oxygen conditions in deer mice (genus Peromyscus).This project is awarded under the Postdoctoral Research Fellowships in Biological Informatics Program for 2006. Insights into the genetic architecture enabling organisms to function under extreme conditions can significantly increase our understanding of the evolutionary processes responsible for the origin and maintenance of natural variation. The objectives of this research are to elucidate the molecular basis of physiological adaptations to high-altitude hypoxic conditions in deer mice (Peromyscus sp.). This interdisciplinary study will involve molecular genetic, biophysical, and biochemical analyses of naturally occurring variation in the genes that encode the alpha- and beta-globin subunits of hemoglobin. Analyses of DNA variation of the alpha- and beta-globin chains will be conducted to determine the role that selection has on fixing hemoglobin variation and to quantify how protein-protein interactions affect the genetic architecture of this molecule. Using protein models, computer analyses will predict how hemoglobin molecules will function under different oxygen conditions. Biochemical assays will be conducted to test these predictions. By integrating evolutionary analyses of DNA sequence variation and computer and in vitro analyses of the proteins, this research will provide a comprehensive analysis of hemoglobin structure and function. These data will provide testable predictions on how protein variation influences whole-organism respiratory physiology under different oxygen conditions. The post-doctoral fellow will work in the lab of Jay Storz at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln where she will be trained in the theory and methodology of molecular biophysics, biochemistry, and structural biology. By combining these skills with the fellow's expertise in molecular evolution, phylogenetics, and population genetics, this experience will enable her to develop her own research program focusing on integrative biology. In addition to research experience, the fellow will develop a course for biology students that will introduce them to the theory and methods of protein biophysical analyses.