I am in the process of developing a course proposal for a course on
hands-on application of various sequence analysis tools (phylogeny
construction, parameter estimation, alignment, etc.) I would like to
use a single locus for the entire course, so that we could get
decently familiar with its characteristics.
Can anyone suggest a gene for which the following are true?
Genbank sequences for multiple individuals within a species are
available
Polymorphic within a species
Sequences from a fairly wide range of species are available
Gene has known structure and function
Can be part of a multi-gene family, but must have sufficiently
strong individual identity that paralogy is easy to recognize
I have considered using an MHC locus, but MHC is perhaps
*too* interesting--it's hard to identify homologs versus paralogs
across species, and the selection is so viciously strong that it
may obscure a lot of other interesting phenomena.
Thanks in advance for any suggestions.
Mary Kuhner mkkuhner at genetics.washington.edu
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