A STOCHASTIC MODEL FOR GENOMIC POLYMORPHISMS
Dr Anna Fukshansky, Department of Computer Science, Royal Holloway, University of London

Abstract: During replication of the genome from the parent generation to the offspring mutations occur. The stochastic model I will be presenting describes the accumulation of mutations and their effect on the viability of the organism. The model operates as a black box, getting input values depending on the species we are dealing with, and returns the distribution of mutations in organisms in any generation as well as the probability of survival. In the second step the stratified model is able to distinguish between different areas of the genome, mutations in some of which affect the organism more than mutations in others. One of the results is that it is of great advantage to have areas which can mutate without any effect, for example the last base pair in a codon which can often change without making a difference during translation into a protein. The model as it is now only applies to haploid organsims, it does not consider sex and crossing over. The mutations we look at now are just replacements of base pairs. In future I hope to be able to extend the model to describe e.g. recombining systems and changes in the surroundings.

This seminar was held at the Department of Computer Science, Royal Holloway, University of London on 22 May 2000.

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