Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Interdisciplinary Informatics for FY 2003

跨学科信息学博士后研究奖学金由数学和物理科学理事会(MPS)和生物科学理事会(BIO)联合赞助，以鼓励跨越它们之间传统学科界限的研究和培训。这些奖学金为范围广泛的最近获得博士学位的人(生物学家、化学家、物理学家、数学家、统计学家、计算机科学家等)提供了在生物学和信息学方面进行跨学科研究和教育活动的机会。预计通过这些研究金培训的研究员将在培训未来的工作人员方面发挥重要作用。信息学的博士后研究和培训将使受过生物、数学、化学和物理科学培训的初级科学家在开发新的量化工具和方法方面发挥关键作用，这些工具和方法将推动生物和其他领域的信息学的发展。这项研究和培训计划的标题是“自私基因进化效应的基因组痕迹”。自私的基因以牺牲同一基因组中的其他基因为代价，将自己的副本传递给后代。这项研究比较了具有不同细胞质雄性不育进化史的几个Silene物种的核和细胞质基因多样性，以确定这种自私基因的基因组效应。对这种基因组足迹的已知植物序列的广泛调查为被子植物中过去出现过自私基因提供了证据。

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.