Computational Methods for a Large Scale Annotation of Mitochondrial Genome

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Martin Middendorf
• Subject Area: Bioinformatics and Theoretical Biology ; Data Management, Data-Intensive Systems, Computer Science Methods in Business Informatics
• Term: from 2018 to 2024
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 404363117

Mitogenomes are the genomes of mitochondria which are organelles that are present in most eukaryotic cells. With modern sequencing methods research has become feasible that involves sequencing of mitogenomes for a large number of species. Therefore, the number of species for which the mitogenome sequence is known is growing rapidly and with increasing pace. A comprehensive and automatic analysis of all available mitogenome data is not possible with existing computational methods. Computational annotation methods for mitogenomes are often only semi-automatic or have a sufficient quality only for some types of genes or mitogenome features and only for certain taxa. Moreover, these methods are not efficient enough for a fast annotation of a large number of mitogenome sequences. In this project we want to develop the algorithmic foundation for an efficient and comprehensive annotation of mitogenome sequences and want to show how the developed methods can help for an analysis of the evolution of mitogenomes. We also want to study if and how the developed methods can be employed for an annotation of other small genomes, in particular for plastid genomes.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• Co-Investigator: Professor Dr. Peter Florian Stadler