An intron based screen for functional innovation

For long time, introns were considered to be evolving neutrally. Recently, this view has changed and it is widely recognized that many introns are conserved in length and sequence, which strongly supports their functional importance. This project aims to exploit the conservation of introns to perform a scan for functional innovation in Drosophila. Based on the availability of 12 fully sequenced Drosophila genomes, introns conserved in length or sequence will be identified. Among the functionally conserved introns, those will be identified that experienced a brief period of rapid change either in length or sequence. If this change is followed by a period of functional constraint these altered introns are regarded as indicators of a functional innovation. Using population genetics the functional conservation of candidate introns will be validated. A subset of the introns that experienced a putative functional innovation will be functionally tested using transgenesis and expression analyses.

For long time, introns were considered to be evolving neutrally. Recently, this view has changed and it is widely recognized that many introns are conserved in length and sequence, which strongly supports their functional importance. This project aims to exploit the conservation of introns to perform a scan for functional innovation in Drosophila. Based on the availability of 12 fully sequenced Drosophila genomes, introns conserved in length or sequence will be identified. Among the functionally conserved introns, those will be identified that experienced a brief period of rapid change either in length or sequence. If this change is followed by a period of functional constraint these altered introns are regarded as indicators of a functional innovation. Using population genetics the functional conservation of candidate introns will be validated. A subset of the introns that experienced a putative functional innovation will be functionally tested using transgenesis and expression analyses.