Research Statement: We have been investigating a set of developmental genes in several invertebrate species by generating from their genomes specific DNA fragments suitable for sequencing. Knowledge about these gene fragments allows us to compare them with similar genes in other organisms by bioinformatics methods in computational biology. These comparisons afford theoretical deductions about both evolutionary and functional relationships from a variety of perspectives. Some of these perspectives range from the (1) underlying molecular genetic mechanisms responsible for gene expression during development of these organisms into fully-formed adults with distinct morphologies, such as (2) how specific transcription factors control this gene expression through DNA-protein interactions as studied at the atomic level, to (3) assessments of the gene expression patterns associated with the development of specific body-parts, and finally to (4) considerations of the evolutionary relationships among the transcription factors for discovering patterns in their structures and functions. Major goals of this research work include the unraveling of the transcription-factor mediated molecular mechanisms by which these organisms develop specific body-parts and then assemble them into full-functioning creatures with distinct morphologies, along with the intermediary gene expression patterns that link the underlying molecular events to the observable phenotypes, i.e., specific body-parts arranged in distinct shapes contributing to an overall morphology. |