Alligator photographed at the Noxubee Wildlife Refuge near Starkville, MS

CROCODILIAN GENOMICS

Crocodilians (order Crocodylia) are an ancient group of reptiles of tremendous ecological, social, and evolutionary importance. They have been apex predators in warm-water lake, river, and coastal ecosystems for over 200 million years. In evolutionary terms, crocodilians are the only extant reptilian members of the archosaurs, a monophyletic group which also includes birds, dinosaurs, and pterosaurs. Consequently, crocodilian genomes represent a gateway through which the molecular evolution of avian (and ostensibly saurian and pterosaurian) lineages can be explored.

In January 2010, an NSF Gene & Genome Systems grant was awarded to Dr. David Ray (PI; MS State), MGEL's Daniel Peterson (co-PI), Dr. Fiona McCarthy (co-PI; MS State), and Dr. Carl Schmidt (co-PI; U. of DE).  MGEL's portion of the project, which is being led by Dr. Xueyan Shan, involves construction of a BAC library for the gharial (Gavialis gangeticus) and comparison of orthologous gene regions between the Australian saltwater crocodile (Crocodylus porosus), American alligator (Alligator mississippiensis), gharial, chicken, zebrafinch, and green anole.  Dr. Shan previously constructed a 3.7X BAC library for the Australian saltwater crocodile.  Dr. Ray's lab will focus on transposable element evolution within Crocodylia while Dr. Schmidt and Dr. McCarthy will lead structural and functional annotation aspects of the research, respectively.