[ Show All ]
Tip: Click on plus/minus sign to expand/collapse menu
|
|
Origins of Multicellularity
Initiative Rationale
The most basic aspects of human development and genetic structures can be mapped back to the common single-celled ancestors that animals shared with fungi. How did multicellularity evolve? What are the genes and gene families associated with the advent of multicellularity? How does this compare between two different major clades that underwent this transition (animals and fungi)? The comparison of these organisms to protists will provide the most complete picture of basic developmental mechanisms.
Selected divergent fungal, animal, and protest genomes will be sequenced at high coverage for the purpose of comparative analysis. The organisms selected for sequencing will fill crucial gaps in the knowledge of animal and fungal evolution. A complete rationale for this initiative is available at
Animals and Fungi:
Common Origin, But Independent Approaches to Multicellularity.
Top of page
Active Sequencing Projects
- For more information on the progress of all sequencing projects, including the rest of the Comparative Genome Evolution projects, please see Approved Sequencing Targets.
Top of page
Program Contacts
Adam Felsenfeld, Ph.D.
Program Director
E-mail: felsenfa@mail.nih.gov
Jane Peterson, Ph.D.
Associate Director, Division of Extramural Research
E-mail: petersoj@mail.nih.gov
To view the PDF on this page, you will need Adobe Reader.
Top of page
Last Reviewed: January 29, 2009
|