Sankoff

Comparative Genomics.

Recurrent processes in genome evolution focusing on the processes and consequences of inversion, translocation, transposition, duplication, chromosome fission/fusion etc.; from the points of view of modeling, formalization, simulation, inference. Topics include:

	   - the inference of evolutionary history using combinatorial
	     optimization to calculate various genomic distances - a field in which
	     there has been enormous progress over the past two years.  In
	     multichromosomal genomes, this applies to synteny (unordered)
	     data as well as gene order data.

	   - extensions to phylogeny of the above work, including the recent
	     results of Caprara, and the new techniques of breakpoint analysis

	   - the statistical models of translocation growing out of the 1984
	     discoveries of Nadeau and Taylor on the human-mouse comparison.
             Many of the open problems in this area have been solved and new
	     questions are arising from detailed mapping efforts and the widening
	     scope of the field.  Particular attention to algorithms for conserved
	     segment identification and rates of interchromosomal versus
	     intrachromosomal exchanges.

	   - genome duplication, a hot topic these days, in vertebrates, cereals,
	     yeast, etc.  as a major mechanism for rapid punctual evolution.  This
	     involves modeling, statistical analysis, and algorithms for genome
	     halving.