Connecting Phylogenetic Relationships Among Halobacteria to Phylogenetic Relationships of Their Ion Channel Proteins to Find Possible HGT Events
Author: Gabriela Franco
Faculty Supervisor: José R. de la Torre
Department: Biology
K+ and Cl− help halophilic cells be osmotically balanced in high-salt environments. In salt levels below 100-150g/l most Halobacteria lyse. Due to the importance of salts and ions for halophilic Halobacteria, understanding the proteins/transporters that move ions across the cell membrane is important. For this reason, I am looking at the phylogenetics of the ion transporter proteins in Halobacteria species and comparing that to the overall phylogenetics of Halobacteria species. An ion transporter proteins phylogenetic tree and an overall phylogenetic tree will be created to look for the horizontal gene transfer (HGT) events. I expect some HGT events have occurred causing divergences in the phylogenetics of the ion transporter proteins in comparison to overall phylogenetics.