This thesis explores chromatin modification (CM) as a biological system and uses known CM factors in four model organisms; yeast, worm, fly, and human to explore how CM factors have consistently evolved across a diverse spectrum of 111 organisms by using the InParanoid homology algorithm. Using InParanoid, phylogenetic profiles are constructed for each model organism to highlight evolutionary trajectories and which CM factors are lost, expanded, and are specific to some lineages. Phylogenetic tree construction demonstrates that peripheral subunits of CM complexes evolve independently. Accurate mapping of domains to CM factors and their homologs reveals that the architecture of domains is very well conserved, with only one potential case of a domain swap. Homology, domain architecture, and protein-protein interaction is then combined to illustrate an interolog example and potential interaction candidates. The techniques highlighted in this thesis represent a generic and powerful approach to analyzing any biological system of interest.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:TORONTO/oai:tspace.library.utoronto.ca:1807/25887 |
| Date | 13 January 2011 |
| Creators | On, Tuan |
| Contributors | Parkinson, John |
| Source Sets | University of Toronto |
| Language | en_ca |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis, Dataset |
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