Original Synteny

Abstract

The inference of genome rearrangement requires detailed gene maps of related species. For most multichromosomal species, however, knowledge of chromosomal assignment of genes outstrips mapping data. Comparison of these species is thus a question of comparing sets of syntenic genes, without any gene order or gene orientation information. Given synteny data from present-day species, can we infer the synteny sets of ancestor species? How many chromosomes did these ancestors possess, and what genes were on each one? We first study the problem of calculating a syntenic edit distance between two genomes, based on reciprocal translocation, chromosome fusion and fission. This distance is then used in the analysis of the median problem for synteny, and hence for a prelimary approach to phylogenetic inference of synteny.

Research supported by grants from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada and the Canadian Genome Analysis and Technology program. Fellow of the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research.