Faculty Sponsor(s)
Catherine Reinke
Subject Area
Biology
Description
Our lab is using comparative genomics protocols to explore the evolution of the insulin-like signaling pathway in Drosophila species spanning 40M years of evolution. This project aims to annotate an ortholog of the Drosophila melanogaster gene microtubule star (mts) in the incompletely characterized Drosophila ananassae genome. Genome annotation is the process of creating gene models, or labelling areas of interest in a species’ genome for further investigation, using genome comparisons and large data sets characterizing gene expression, which is the production of RNA from select regions of genomic DNA. We are using comparative genomics and bioinformatics protocols to identify and build a detailed gene model of the putative mts gene in D. ananassae. We will annotate all unique protein-coding isoforms of this gene in D. ananassae. Our research tools include a custom mirror of the UCSC Genome Browser, NCBI BLAST, the model organism database FlyBase, and custom bioinformatics tools developed by the Genomics Education Partnership. Annotation of a large number of insulin-like signaling pathway genes will enable further investigation of the evolution of these genes and their regulatory regions in the context of their action within the insulin-like signaling pathway.
Recommended Citation
Khazaei, Danesh and Reinke, Catherine, "Annotation of the Microtubule Star (mts) Gene in Drosophila Ananassae Using Drosophila Melanogaster as a Reference Organism for Comparative Genomics" (2023). Linfield University Student Symposium: A Celebration of Scholarship and Creative Achievement. Event. Submission 1.
https://digitalcommons.linfield.edu/symposium/2023/biol/1
Annotation of the Microtubule Star (mts) Gene in Drosophila Ananassae Using Drosophila Melanogaster as a Reference Organism for Comparative Genomics
Our lab is using comparative genomics protocols to explore the evolution of the insulin-like signaling pathway in Drosophila species spanning 40M years of evolution. This project aims to annotate an ortholog of the Drosophila melanogaster gene microtubule star (mts) in the incompletely characterized Drosophila ananassae genome. Genome annotation is the process of creating gene models, or labelling areas of interest in a species’ genome for further investigation, using genome comparisons and large data sets characterizing gene expression, which is the production of RNA from select regions of genomic DNA. We are using comparative genomics and bioinformatics protocols to identify and build a detailed gene model of the putative mts gene in D. ananassae. We will annotate all unique protein-coding isoforms of this gene in D. ananassae. Our research tools include a custom mirror of the UCSC Genome Browser, NCBI BLAST, the model organism database FlyBase, and custom bioinformatics tools developed by the Genomics Education Partnership. Annotation of a large number of insulin-like signaling pathway genes will enable further investigation of the evolution of these genes and their regulatory regions in the context of their action within the insulin-like signaling pathway.
