Award
National Institute of General Medical Sciences 5R00GM129411-04
Evolutionary and functional consequences of structural genetic variation in Drosophila
Recipient
Texas A&M University, College Station, TX
Award Amount
$240,920.00
Ceiling
$240,920.00
Awarded
December 11, 2024
Identifier
5R00GM129411-04
This award funds research to create a comprehensive catalog of structural genetic variation in Drosophila melanogaster using genome assemblies and to study the fitness effects of these variants through population genetics and experimental assays.
Description
Changes in the genome structure due to copying, deletion, rearrangement, or otherwise reorganization of sequences is a major source of genetic variation in all organisms, including humans. Although structural variants cause many heritable diseases and underlie phenotypic changes, 40-80% of this genetic variation remains hidden to the common genotyping strategies. Here, we propose to create a comprehensive catalog of polymorphic structural genetic variation using 50 de novo platinum genome assemblies of genetically diverse D. melanogaster strains and investigate their fitness consequences using population genetic theories and experimental fitness assays.