Investigation of the evolutionary origin of mitochondria by BLAST analysis
Project Information
- Discipline
- Biology (603)
- Orientation
- Research
This project is investigating the evolutionary origin of mitochondria. Previous research suggests that mitochondria were once closely related to alpha-proteobacteria. However, when mitochondria were taken into eukaryotic cells as endosymbionts, many mitochondrial genes were transferred to the nuclear DNA. A BLAST analysis will be performed to compare the human genome to a database of about 800 bacterial genomes. Close matches between the human genome and alpha-proteobacteria are of great interest. Close matches will later be used to generate a multiple sequence alignment and a phylogenetic tree depicting the evolutionary relationships between bacteria and mitochondria.
Intellectual MeritGene sequencing and comparison.
Broader ImpactsData will later be used to generate a multiple sequence alignment and a phylogenetic tree depicting the evolutionary relationships between bacteria and mitochondria.
Project Contact
- Project Lead
- Katherine Holcomb (kholcomb)
- Project Manager
- Katherine Holcomb (kholcomb)
Resource Requirements
- Hardware System
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- I don't care (what I really need is a software environment and I don't care where it runs)
Using Genesis II software, already configured on FutureGrid resources to perform computation.
Scale of UseMultiple runs of 200 jobs each, taking 2-4 hours.
Project Timeline
- Submitted
- 03/24/2011 - 12:45