Co-Evolving Genomes: The Impact of Mitochondrial Genome Instability on the Nucleus

基本上，所有真核细胞，包括人类的真核细胞，都包含多个基因组，关键的生物学功能取决于每个基因组中编码的基因产物之间的相互作用。该项目将解决基本问题，即细胞内一个基因组的变化如何引起另一个基因组的补偿性变化，以维持基本的细胞功能。这项工作将为从本科生到博士后水平的学生提供尖端分子遗传和计算技术方面的培训，并将通过在科罗拉多州立大学开发一门新的分子进化顶峰课程，将这项研究的成果整合到本科教育中。这项研究项目将比较在线粒体基因组进化变化速度上表现出巨大自然变异的开花植物物种。该项目将从这些物种的核基因组中生成和分析基因序列的大型数据集。对这些物种内部和之间的序列变异的分析将被用来确定核基因组的变化，以响应线粒体基因组的不同进化速度。这些比较分析的结果将通过在一个成熟的模式物种中进行遗传操作来补充，以测试特定基因变化的生化和生理影响。

Essentially all eukaryotic cells, including those of humans, contain multiple genomes, and key biological functions depend on the interaction between the gene products that are encoded in each of these genomes. This project will address fundamental questions about how changes in one genome within a cell can elicit compensatory changes in another to maintain basic cellular functions. This work will provide training in cutting edge molecular genetic and computational techniques to students all the way from the undergraduate to the postdoctoral level, and findings from this research will be integrated into undergraduate education through the development of a new capstone course in molecular evolution at Colorado State University.This research project will compare species of flowering plants that exhibit enormous natural variation in the rate of evolutionary change in their mitochondrial genomes. The project will generate and analyze large datasets of gene sequences from the nuclear genomes of these species. Analysis of sequence variation within and between these species will be used to identify changes in the nuclear genome in response to the different rates of evolution in the mitochondrial genome. Findings from these comparative analyses will be complemented by performing genetic manipulations in a well-established model species to test the biochemical and physiological effects of changes in specific genes.