Archaea gene cataloguing-based reconstruction of evolution from simple to complex cells

2022 Fiscal Year Annual Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 22F22379
• Allocation Type: Single-year Grants
• Research Institution: National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology
• Principal Investigator: 延 優 (NOBUMASARU・KONISHI) 国立研究開発法人産業技術総合研究所, 生命工学領域, 主任研究員 (40805644)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): MEI RAN 国立研究開発法人産業技術総合研究所, 生命工学領域, 外国人特別研究員
• Project Period (FY): 2022-11-16 – 2025-03-31
• Keywords: Bioinformatics / Archaea / Genes

Outline of Annual Research Achievements

We collected archaeal genomes public databases and, with the workstation purchased using this funding, performed computationally demanding analyses, such as gene function annotation, species pangenome construction, prediction of protein families/superfamilies, and homology analyses. We also performed iterative Markov-clustering-based approaches to cluster all archaeal gene sequences into homologous groups. Evaluating the functional consistency in each cluster showed that most clusters associated with known functions do not include homologs of other function, indicating success of the approach (to a certain degree).

Current Status of Research Progress

1: Research has progressed more than it was originally planned.

Reason

The project is proceeding as planned.

Strategy for Future Research Activity

In the next steps we will further refine the clustering and further predict the evolutionary history of each gene/function (i.e., vertical inheritance, lateral gene transfer, and gene loss). We will look to compare ancient and recent evolution of function tied with the emergence of primordial and younger archaeal lineages. One target will be tying such evolution with acetogenesis, methanogenesis and eukaryogenesis.