Dissertation Research: Molecular Evolution of the Endo16 cis-regulatory System

海胆基因Endo16将被用于检测负责基因调控的DNA序列中的分子进化，称为启动子。观察到的进化变化的功能后果将在几个密切相关的物种中进行测试。这些问题将通过DNA序列比较、基因表达定位和启动子功能的实验测试来解决。对任何海胆物种的启动子功能进行分析的能力将提供关于启动子序列变异如何在种群内产生并积累以在启动子序列、组织和调控机制上产生更广泛的物种水平差异的详细图景。蛋白质产物在整个动物界的广泛保守以及基因表达变化与形态变化的进化相关性表明，基因调控序列的变化是表型进化的重要基础。由于对启动子区域结构和功能的不完全了解，以及无法在多个物种上进行必要的功能实验，以前对基因调控序列中的分子进化的研究一直受到限制。这个项目将提供启动子序列遗传变异的第一张详细图片，进一步加深我们对物种间表型进化潜在的遗传差异的理解。

The sea urchin gene Endo16 will be used to examine molecular evolution in DNA sequences responsible for gene regulation, called promoters. The functional consequences of the observed evolutionary changes will be tested among several closely related species. These issues will be addressed using DNA sequence comparisons, gene expression localizations, and experimental tests of promoter function. The ability to perform analyses of promoter function in any sea urchin species will provide a detailed picture of how promoter sequence variation arises within populations and accumulates to create more extensive species-level differences in promoter sequence, organization, and regulatory mechanisms.The widespread conservation of protein products across the animal kingdom and the evolutionary correlation of changes in gene expression with changes in morphology suggest that change in gene regulatory sequences is an important basis for phenotypic evolution. Previous studies of molecular evolution in gene regulatory sequences have been limited by incomplete knowledge of the structure and function of the promoter region and the inability to perform the necessary functional experiments in more than one species. This project will provide one of the first detailed pictures of genetic variation in promoter sequences, furthering our understanding of the genetic differences underlying phenotypic evolution between species.