Postdoctoral Research Fellowships in Biology for FY 2009

本行动为2009财年美国国家科学基金会博士后研究奖学金提供资金，资金来自2009年美国复苏和再投资法案（公法111-5）。这项研究和培训计划是为Matthew K. Fujita准备的，名为“基因组结构及其对爬行动物自然选择效率的影响”。这项研究的主办机构是哈佛大学，由斯科特·爱德华兹博士赞助。DNA构建块排列的变化决定了基因组的结构，这种结构对自然选择的表现有深远的影响。自然选择的特征和基因组的结构成分之间有很强的相关性，这是遗传学研究的传统模型，但对于非传统模型的生物体，如爬行动物，这些关系知之甚少。本研究(1)利用最近测序的蜥蜴基因组和即将测序的海龟基因组鉴定和描述爬行动物基因组的结构成分；(2)研究这些结构成分如何影响影响基因组进化的自然选择等力量。这项研究为研究自然种群的进化生物学家如何利用这些日益庞大和复杂的数据集来理解生物多样性起源的进化过程提供了一个愿景。培训计划包括开发基因组数据组织、计算方法和统计分析方面的技术。这项研究也有很强的国际成分，汇集了来自哈佛大学（Harvard University）、马萨诸塞州剑桥（Cambridge）布罗德研究所（Broad Institute）的研究人员。美国和英国的牛津大学。

This action funds an NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellowship for FY 2009 using funds from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5). The research and training plan is for Matthew K. Fujita and is entitled "Genome structure and its influence on the efficacy of natural selection in reptiles." The host institution for this research is Harvard University under the sponsorship of Dr. Scott Edwards.Variation in the arrangement of the building blocks of DNA define the structure of the genome, and this structure can have a profound influence on the performance of natural selection. There are strong correlations between signatures of natural selection and structural components of genomes in organisms that are traditional models for genetics research, but not much is known about these relationships in organisms that are not traditional models, such as reptiles. This research (1) identifies and describes the structural components of reptile genomes using the recently-sequenced Anolis lizard genome and an upcoming turtle genome and (2) examines how these structural components affect forces such natural selection that influence genome evolution. This research provides a vision of how evolutionary biologists who study natural populations can utilize these increasingly large and complex datasets with important and relevant questions towards understanding the evolutionary processes responsible for the origin of biological diversity. Training plans include developing techniques in genomic data organization, computational methods, and statistical analyses. There is also a strong international component to this research that brings together researchers from Harvard University, the Broad Institute in Cambridge, Mass. USA, and Oxford University in the United Kingdom.