fairfolio
Saved Projects

Sequence Comparison across Species as a Predictor of Gene Function

CSEF · 2008 Biochemistry/ Molecular Biology Third Award

Vivek A. Banerjee · Portola (Gaspar de) Middle School, Tarzana, Los Angeles County

Overview

Objectives/Goals This study viewed the evolution of genes related to Serine Protease Inhibitor Activity throughout several species of Drosophila. The goal was to extend the theoretical predictions of sequence comparisons by appropriate molecular and genetic experiments. Methods/Materials Blast searches were done of the sequences of all genes related to serine protease inhibitors. E values and scores of all Drosophila species were recorded and missing spaces were filled with repeated in-depth blast searches. Drosophila melanogaster species was grown in lab cultures and analyzed for gene expression. Materials included Drosophila cultures, molecular biology equipment, reagents, and computer. Results Results showed in genes: Spn43Ad-PA, Acp62F, CG12807, and CG6663; in one or two drosophila species, the gene was either completely absent, or very close to non-existent. Species pseudoobscura turned out much different from any other species for several of the genes. Genes: Spn43Aa, Cg3790, PlxA, Tep11, Az2, Spn27a, CG14470, and CG1342 were very slow evolving and were found with seemingly no change between all species. Genes Acp76-Pa and Bg642378-Pb evolved very rapidly, and were found with varying change between all species. I attempted to demonstrate experimentally that the fastest evolving genes have functions related to reproduction. Conclusions/Discussion Sequence analysis across species was found to be a powerful method to identify genes with similar functions. In particular, the demonstration that some of the previously uncharacterized fastest evolving genes may have to do with reproduction, is consistent with their species specific function.

Summary statement

Predicting gene function by sequence comparison and expression analysis.

Help received

My father helped introduce me to the problem; Dr. Mukherjee at UCLA helped with experimental set up.

Awards (1)

Competition history

  • CSEF 2008 Biochemistry/ Molecular Biology · Entry J0401

Resources

Related projects

Closest projects by meaning, across every fair and year in the corpus.

Browse more like this

Source: California Science & Engineering Fair public projects

Save projects to your library

Sign in with Google to keep track of projects you find interesting, organized into folders. An account also raises your daily allowance for “Has this been done?”, and lets you create a key for the MCP server with a much higher limit than anonymous use. Browsing stays public.

Continue with Google