Molekulare Evolution von Reproduktionsgenen bei Drosophila

• Applicant: Professor Dr. John Parsch
• Subject Area: General Genetics and Functional Genome Biology
• Term: from 2004 to 2008
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 5417017

The goal of this project is to perform a general test of the faster male evolution hypothesis using recently available genomic resources from Drosophila melanogaster. The specific objectives are as follows: (1) Use the available genome sequence of D. melanogaster and data from EST and microarray experiments to identify genes with sex-specific or sex-enriched expression, (2) clone and sequence orthologs of these genes from other members of the D. melanogaster species subgroup, (3) determine the rate of molecular evolution of these genes based on the ratio of nonsynonymous/synonymous substitution rates among species and compare these rates among genes with male-, female- and non-biased expression, (4) test for the possible role of positive selection in the evolution of reproductive genes using recently developed statistical methods on both inter- and intraspecific DNA sequence data.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• Participating Person: Dr. Tina Hambuch