Award details

Estimating the distribution of fitness effects of new mutations from DNA sequence data

Reference	BB/C517784/1
Principal Investigator / Supervisor	Professor Adam Eyre-Walker
Co-Investigators / Co-Supervisors
Institution	University of Sussex
Department	Biology and Environmental Science
Funding type	Research
Value (£)	139,466
Status	Completed
Type	Research Grant
Start date	01/09/2005
End date	31/08/2008
Duration	36 months

Abstract

Understanding the rate and effect of genetic mutation is central to many problems in genetics and evolution, including human evolution, the genetic basis of disease, the maintenance of genetic variation and the evolution of sex. Mutations can be broadly divided into three categories: (i) deleterious mutations which affect fertility and survival, (ii) neutral mutations which have little or no selective effects, and (iii) advantageous mutations which help an organism adapt to their environment. Unfortunately, we do not currently have very good estimates of the proportion of mutations which fit into these three categories. In the current work we intend to develop a variety of new statistical methods aimed at estimating the distribution of fitness effects of harmful mutations. We then intend to extend these methods to estimate the proportion of differences between species which have been driven by positive selection. We will apply the methods to data from humans, Drosophila and maize. It is anticipated that the work will allow us to estimate some of the most fundamental and important parameters in genetics and increase our understanding of genetic disease, the maintenance of genetic variation, the evolution of sex and the basis of the molecular clock. The research will be conducted at the University of Sussex and will cost 134,000 pounds.

Summary

unavailable

Committee	Closed Committee - Genes & Developmental Biology (GDB)
Research Topics	Plant Science, Technology and Methods Development
Research Priority	X – Research Priority information not available
Research Initiative	X - not in an Initiative
Funding Scheme	X – not Funded via a specific Funding Scheme

I accept the terms and conditions of use (opens in new window)

export PDF file

back to list new search