Project objectives

The overall goals of this project are

	to identify novel protein families through a computational comparative analysis
	to study the evolution of chromosome ends
	to enhance the utility of the Dicytostelium discoideum sequence through finding of conserved elements, particularly of regulatory sequences and of micro RNAs, and improving gene predictions
	to study the evolution of the actin cytoskeleton and of GPCR signaling
	to provide the basis for further comparative studies, e.g. transcriptomics and epigenetics
	to study the evolution of genes involved in developmental signalling
	to study the evolution of promoter complexity

Strategy

In an initial step of this project the Jena team will shotgun sequence two species (P. pallidum and D. fasciculatum) of the Dictyosteliida to a depth of 2.5x using traditional Sanger sequencing based technology. We then will complement these sequences with additional sequencing runs on a 454/Roche sequencing platform to a depth of ~20. Furthermore we are constructing fosmid libraries for each species. The paired end sequences then will be used as mapping resource to complete the genome sequence. Thus the initially planned low coverage genomic sequence will be extended to yield a high quality genome sequence.
The Dundee team will shotgun sequence the P.pallidum genome to a depth of 5x using traditional technology and will completely finish the P.pallidum genome by primer walking after initial rounds of assembly.