Design of a bioinformatic database for functional evolutionary footprints in multigene families

Arizona State University, Scottsdale AZ

Investigators

Abstract

Understanding the molecular basis for origin of new function and diversificaton of existing gene function is of fundamental importance in molecular biology. Gene duplications are possibly the predominant mechanism for generating raw materials for functional evolution, as the duplicate copies may acquire a new function by accumulating mutational changes (substitutions) in their coding sequences. Biochemical properties and the location of such changes in the protein sequence are the evolutionary "footprints" of functional diversification. These mutations are under strong purifying selection pressures to maintain the novel/modified function. The goal of this project is to design a biological database and an informatic system with the following objectives: 1. Design and construction of a database of potentially functionally important mutations in animal multigene families to facilitate identification and exploration of the evolutionary footprints in the following contexts: (i) protein sequence context [e.g., alpha-helix], (ii) duplicate gene function context [e.g., DNA-binding activity], and (iii) phylogenetic context of gene duplication events [e.g., vertebrate-invertebrate divergence, radiation of mammals]. 2. Development of a general purpose Web-based client/server resource for researchers world-wide to dynamically and interactively query, retrieve, explore, and analyze evolutionary footprints. The proposed Evolutionary Footprint (EF) Client/Server System will be useful for researchers interested in exploring evolutionary footprints and will address the day-to-day needs of researchers in many different areas of molecular biology including computational genomics, evolutionary biology, immunology, systematics, and developmental biology.