ABI Innovation: Identification and evolutionary studies of mobile genetic elements

印第安纳州大学获得一笔赠款，用于开发计算方法，以识别和分类真核生物和细菌物种基因组序列中的移动的遗传元件（MGE）。MGE可以在基因组内或基因组之间跳跃，产生有害的突变，并有助于其宿主中新生物功能的创新。该项目将使用基于模型的概率方法（如隐马尔可夫模型）识别新型MGE，以发现新型MGE并识别大规模人群基因组学和宏基因组学项目中的插入。这些工具将在真核生物和细菌基因组以及宏基因组数据集上进行测试，以识别潜在的MGE。该项目将为基因组和宏基因组序列中的MGE鉴定提供软件工具，为新兴模式生物中的MGE提供注释，并创建已鉴定的MGE序列数据库，发现和理解MGE可应用于生命科学的许多领域，如环境生物学，生态学，食品科学，农业和生物技术。该项目将为MGE研究提供关键的公开可用的软件工具和数据资源。这项研究将纳入生物信息学和进化遗传学的研究生课程。PI将涉及来自北卡罗来纳州AT州立大学的本科生在夏季研究项目。

Indiana University is awarded a grant to develop computational methods to identify and classify mobile genetic elements (MGEs) in the genomic sequences of eukaryotic and bacterial species. MGEs can jump within or between genomes, generating deleterious mutations as well as contributing to the innovation of novel biological functions in their hosts. This project will identify novel MGEs using model-based probabilistic approaches such as Hidden Markov Models to find novel MGEs and identify insertions in large-scale population genomics and metagenomic projects. The tools will be tested on eukaryotic and bacterial genomes as well as metagenomic datasets to identify potential MGEs. The project will produce software tools for MGE identification in genomic and metagenomic sequences, provide annotation of MGEs in emerging model organisms, and create a database of identified MGE sequences, Finding and understanding MGEs has applications to many fields of life sciences, such as environmental biology, ecology, food science, agriculture, and biotechnology. This project will provide key publicly-available software tools and data resources for MGE research. The research will be incorporated into graduate courses in bioinformatics and evolutionary genetics. The PIs will involve undergraduate students from North Carolina A&T State University in summer research projects.