Bilkent University
Department of Computer
Engineering
S
E M I N A R
Tandem
Repeat Evolution in the Human Genome:
An Algorithmic
Study
S.
Cenk Şahinalp
Associate
Professor,
School of Computing
Science,
The
human genome contains several classes of repeat segments such as common repeats,
interspersed repeats, and tandem repeats, which, in total, cover more than 60%
of the human genome sequence. Known mechanisms for the generation and
propagation of genome repeats include unequal crossovers, replication slippage,
and retrotransposition; there are potentially many more awaiting discovery.
In
this talk, we propose the existence of an unknown mechanism partially
responsible for the propagation of the alpha satellite DNA, the most common
tandem repeat sequence in the human genome. This unknown mechanism seems to
complement the unequal crossover events that were previously thought to be
solely responsible for the generation and expansion of all satellite
sequences.
The
talk will focus on computational/algorithmic methods to collect, evaluate and
analyze the sequence information from select regions of human centromeric DNA
and will provide mathematical evidence that the unequal crossovers may not
solely explain the composition of the alpha satellite
sequences.
Joint work
with Evan Eichler, Can Alkan and Eray Tuzun
DATE: April 27, 2004,
Tuesday @ 16:40
PLACE:
EA-409
-----------