Principal Investigator: Michael Stanhope

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): 

This work will be devoted to the completion, analysis, and publication of the great hammerhead genome sequence. More specifically, it will involve the annotation of our recently assembled hammerhead genome, and then conducting comparative analysis of the great hammerhead to the white shark genome, as well as several other recently published shark genome sequences and finally, a range of other vertebrates. The analysis will center on (1) positive selection of protein coding genes from across the hammerhead genome, looking for signatures of adaptive molecular evolution and (2) gene content enrichments in Gene Ontology functional categories of proteins. In addition to these genome wide perspectives on adaptive molecular evolution we will also complete more focused positive selection analyses centered on wound healing, genome stability, and sensory perception. Additional analyses of population dynamic history for the great hammerhead and white shark will be completed from the read sequence data and compared with one another, as well as a range of other vertebrates. A paper describing these comparative analyses will then be completed as part of this funding period.