New Center for Integrative Genomics to Study Major Evolutionary Changes

By Genevieve Shiffrar

December 16, 2002

Ever since Charles Darwin published his treatise "The Origin of Species," people have wondered how the most elementary organisms could have given rise to the vast variety and complexity of animal life. New fields of research, like anthropology, were established to explore the question; other fields, such as biology, changed forever.

Today's efforts to understand the question are dazzling in their scope and breadth. Take for instance the goals of the new campus Center for Integrative Genomics.

Directed by Molecular and Cell Biology Professor Michael Levine, the Center for Integrative Genomics gathers scientists across campus to discover the genetic mechanisms responsible for evolutionary change in animals. Each researcher brings his or her experience to the table--the computer scientist, the paleontologist, the evolutionary biologist, the developmental biologist, the geneticist--and each is equipped with the advanced tools of their respective disciplines.

Together, these scientists hope to shed light on the major milestones in animal evolution such as the appearance of the first simple animal, the transition of radially symmetric animals into bilateral animals, and the origins of the first vertebrate animals.

The relationships of animals for which genomes have been characterized.

In recent years, the genetic footprints or genomes of a handful of animals have been defined, including a mouse and a fruit fly. Laboratories the world over are working to determine the genetic codes of many more animals. According to Professor Levine, perhaps as many as 100 animal genomes will be sequenced and assembled in the next five years.

This series of discoveries is providing an extraordinary amount of data—data that the scientists at the Center for Integrative Genomics hope to compare and contrast. This will help them determine how animals maintained similarities with each other over time or how they differentiated from one another.

Currently, about 10 faculty in College of Letters & Science and other colleges are members; this number will double in the next few years. The new alliances, such as with computer scientists in the College of Engineering and a wide variety of scholars in the College of Letters & Science, help to strengthen the University as a whole.  

Additionally, interested students at all levels aim to benefit from this inter-college collaboration. An important goal for the center is to become a major catalyst for teaching computer-oriented undergraduates about genome biology, and conversely, for teaching biology-oriented students ways in which to use computers in their research. Graduate students will benefit from a graduate course; a seminar series will help popularize the center.

Already, the Center for Integrative Genomics is making headlines. The cover story of the December 13, 2002 edition of Science features its first major accomplishment. Center members played a major role in the determining the genome of the latest animal, the sea squirt (Ciona intestinalis). Read why this unlikely animal holds important clues to the history of animal evolution in Sea squirt joins ranks of organisms whose genome has been sequenced, a recent article published by Berkeley's Public Affairs Office.