Abraham B Korol

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Abraham B. Korol
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Born
Abraham Bentsionovich Korol

(1946-10-18) October 18, 1946 (age 77)
Bendery city, Moldavia
Employer University of Haifa

Abraham Bentsionovich Korol (born October 18, 1946) is a professor in the Institute of Evolution at the University of Haifa. [1] He is a prominent Israeli geneticist and evolutionary biologist known for his work on the evolution of sex and recombination, genome mapping and the genetics of complex traits. Korol was born in Bendery city, Moldavia (now Moldova), then part of the Soviet Union, and immigrated to Israel in 1991. Before immigrating to Israel, Korol was appointed in 1981 as a senior researcher and was awarded the degree of Doctor of Science by the Presidium of Academy of Science USSR in 1988, and became a full professor in 1991. [2] After immigrating to Israel in 1991, Korol has established and headed the Laboratory of Population Genetics and Computational Biology in the Institute of Evolution at the University of Haifa. [3] He became full professor there in 1996 and served as the director of the Institute of Evolution between 2008 and 2013. [3] [4] Since 1994, Korol has filled many scholarly positions including member of the steering committee of Israeli Gene Bank; member of the Human Genome Organization; member of the European Society of Evolutionary Biology; a member of the Coordinating Committee of the International Wheat Genome Sequencing Consortium; [5] member of the Infrastructure Steering Committee of the Israeli Ministry of Science; representative of Haifa University in the Kamea program steering committee (alef and bet); member of the Advisory Committee of Absorption in Science of the Israeli Ministry of Absorption.

Contents

Early life and education

Korol was born in Moldova in 1946. Since childhood, Korol was passionate with classical music. His favorite compositor is Johann Sebastian Bach and violin is his favorite instrument. In 1971 Korol graduated from Leningrad Polytechnic University and received his master in computer science, followed by a doctorate in genetics from the Institute of General Genetics, USSR Academy of Science, Moscow under the supervision of Prof. A.A. Zhuchenko. [3]

Immigration to Israel (Aliyah)

Immigration to Israel was always an aspiration in Korol's family, leading his uncle to immigrate to Palestine in the 1930s. Nevertheless, immigration restrictions in the USSR prevented Korol from immigrating until the 1990s with the collapse of the Soviet Union. Korol was eager to continue his research and has contacted different institutes in Israel. He eventually accepted the invitation from the head of the Institute of Evolution at the University of Haifa, Prof. Eviatar Nevo, and established his new lab in 1991 [3] [4]

Research

Korol's research is focused on evolutionary genetics and genomics in several target species using both theoretical and experimental approaches with emphasis on the mathematical aspect.

Evolution of sex and recombination

Korol's work on the evolution of sex and recombination includes developing theoretical models to explain the factors responsible for sex and recombination maintenance, [6] their role in adaptation [7] and genome evolution. [6] In addition, Korol's group has generated and tested empirical evidences based on assessment of DNA sequence variation in natural populations aiming at the ecological-genetic regulation of recombination and mutation. [8]

Molecular-genetic basis of adaptation to stress

Korol's study of incipient sympatric differentiation caused by microsite ecological contrasts is focused on ecological selection and premating isolation in Drosophila melanogaster, [9] and testing candidate genes for association with adaptive outcome (physiological and behavioral) based on sequence organization in coding and non-coding genome regions. [10]

Genome structure, sequence comparisons on the above-gene level

Along his career, Korol has developed in collaboration with colleagues novel approaches for sequence comparisons on the whole genome level (compositional spectra based on fuzzy linguistics). He has coined a new concept of "genome dialect" to demonstrate the above-gene sequence organization and its relationship with the evolution of recombination-repair enzymes. [11] A major scope of this field is to explore genome heterogeneity in main groups of organisms where total genome sequence is available (mammals and vertebrates in general, insects, fungi, plants). Another aspect of this field is to reveal genomic peculiarities associated with evolution at contrasting and extreme environments (e.g. extremophiles vs. mesophiles). [12]

Genome mapping (genetic and physical)

Much of Korol's work is devoted to understanding peculiarities of recombination and organization of eukaryotic chromosomes and development of multilocus genomic maps allowing reliable ordering of thousands of markers per chromosome, complemented by computing-intensive map verification. As part of these efforts, new heuristics for Evolution Strategy algorithms were developed in Korol's lab to efficiently tackle this subsequent discrete optimization problem (with complexity ~n! where n~102-103). [13] Another complementary problem to reconstructing genetic maps is ensemble a consensus map from data produced by different labs, mapping populations or genotyping technologies. Currently Korol's group is responsible for developing new methodology for physical genome mapping in complex cereal genomes in the framework of FP7 consortium [14] (contig assembly algorithms for BAC libraries based on fingerprinting or DNA-DNA hybridization data, and integration of genetic and physical maps).

Genetic architecture of complex (quantitative) traits

Along his career, Korol has developed methods [15] and tools [16] for genetic mapping of quantitative traits including joint analysis of multiple trait complexes across the genome using data scored in different developmental and ecological conditions. Among the themes Korol's group has addressed are mapping domestication-evolution traits; genetic dissection of agriculturally important stress-tolerance traits in cereals, cattle, poultry, fishes, and medically important traits of rat and mouse. In addition, Korol has contributed to multiple-trait QTL analysis for revealing genomic determinants of microarray expression (eQTL mapping).

Related Research Articles

A genetic screen or mutagenesis screen is an experimental technique used to identify and select individuals who possess a phenotype of interest in a mutagenized population. Hence a genetic screen is a type of phenotypic screen. Genetic screens can provide important information on gene function as well as the molecular events that underlie a biological process or pathway. While genome projects have identified an extensive inventory of genes in many different organisms, genetic screens can provide valuable insight as to how those genes function.

Gene duplication is a major mechanism through which new genetic material is generated during molecular evolution. It can be defined as any duplication of a region of DNA that contains a gene. Gene duplications can arise as products of several types of errors in DNA replication and repair machinery as well as through fortuitous capture by selfish genetic elements. Common sources of gene duplications include ectopic recombination, retrotransposition event, aneuploidy, polyploidy, and replication slippage.

A quantitative trait locus (QTL) is a locus that correlates with variation of a quantitative trait in the phenotype of a population of organisms. QTLs are mapped by identifying which molecular markers correlate with an observed trait. This is often an early step in identifying the actual genes that cause the trait variation.

A polygene is a member of a group of non-epistatic genes that interact additively to influence a phenotypic trait, thus contributing to multiple-gene inheritance, a type of non-Mendelian inheritance, as opposed to single-gene inheritance, which is the core notion of Mendelian inheritance. The term "monozygous" is usually used to refer to a hypothetical gene as it is often difficult to distinguish the effect of an individual gene from the effects of other genes and the environment on a particular phenotype. Advances in statistical methodology and high throughput sequencing are, however, allowing researchers to locate candidate genes for the trait. In the case that such a gene is identified, it is referred to as a quantitative trait locus (QTL). These genes are generally pleiotropic as well. The genes that contribute to type 2 diabetes are thought to be mostly polygenes. In July 2016, scientists reported identifying a set of 355 genes from the last universal common ancestor (LUCA) of all organisms living on Earth.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brian Charlesworth</span> British evolutionary biologist (born 1945)

Brian Charlesworth is a British evolutionary biologist at the University of Edinburgh, and editor of Biology Letters. Since 1997, he has been Royal Society Research Professor at the Institute of Evolutionary Biology (IEB) in Edinburgh. He has been married since 1967 to the British evolutionary biologist Deborah Charlesworth.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gene mapping</span> Process of locating specific genes

Gene mapping or genome mapping describes the methods used to identify the location of a gene on a chromosome and the distances between genes. Gene mapping can also describe the distances between different sites within a gene.

In molecular biology and other fields, a molecular marker is a molecule, sampled from some source, that gives information about its source. For example, DNA is a molecular marker that gives information about the organism from which it was taken. For another example, some proteins can be molecular markers of Alzheimer's disease in a person from which they are taken. Molecular markers may be non-biological. Non-biological markers are often used in environmental studies.

A phene is an individual genetically determined characteristic or trait which can be possessed by an organism, such as eye colour, height, behavior, tooth shape or any other observable characteristic.

Orphan genes, ORFans, or taxonomically restricted genes (TRGs) are genes that lack a detectable homologue outside of a given species or lineage. Most genes have known homologues. Two genes are homologous when they share an evolutionary history, and the study of groups of homologous genes allows for an understanding of their evolutionary history and divergence. Common mechanisms that have been uncovered as sources for new genes through studies of homologues include gene duplication, exon shuffling, gene fusion and fission, etc. Studying the origins of a gene becomes more difficult when there is no evident homologue. The discovery that about 10% or more of the genes of the average microbial species is constituted by orphan genes raises questions about the evolutionary origins of different species as well as how to study and uncover the evolutionary origins of orphan genes.

Population genomics is the large-scale comparison of DNA sequences of populations. Population genomics is a neologism that is associated with population genetics. Population genomics studies genome-wide effects to improve our understanding of microevolution so that we may learn the phylogenetic history and demography of a population.

In genetics, association mapping, also known as "linkage disequilibrium mapping", is a method of mapping quantitative trait loci (QTLs) that takes advantage of historic linkage disequilibrium to link phenotypes to genotypes, uncovering genetic associations.

Nested association mapping (NAM) is a technique designed by the labs of Edward Buckler, James Holland, and Michael McMullen for identifying and dissecting the genetic architecture of complex traits in corn. It is important to note that nested association mapping is a specific technique that cannot be performed outside of a specifically designed population such as the Maize NAM population, the details of which are described below.

Martin Edward Kreitman is an American geneticist at the University of Chicago, most well known for the McDonald–Kreitman test that is used to infer the amount of adaptive evolution in population genetic studies.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Restriction site associated DNA markers</span> Type of genetic marker

Restriction site associated DNA (RAD) markers are a type of genetic marker which are useful for association mapping, QTL-mapping, population genetics, ecological genetics and evolutionary genetics. The use of RAD markers for genetic mapping is often called RAD mapping. An important aspect of RAD markers and mapping is the process of isolating RAD tags, which are the DNA sequences that immediately flank each instance of a particular restriction site of a restriction enzyme throughout the genome. Once RAD tags have been isolated, they can be used to identify and genotype DNA sequence polymorphisms mainly in form of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). Polymorphisms that are identified and genotyped by isolating and analyzing RAD tags are referred to as RAD markers. Although genotyping by sequencing presents an approach similar to the RAD-seq method, they differ in some substantial ways.

GeneNetwork is a combined database and open-source bioinformatics data analysis software resource for systems genetics. This resource is used to study gene regulatory networks that link DNA sequence differences to corresponding differences in gene and protein expression and to variation in traits such as health and disease risk. Data sets in GeneNetwork are typically made up of large collections of genotypes and phenotypes from groups of individuals, including humans, strains of mice and rats, and organisms as diverse as Drosophila melanogaster, Arabidopsis thaliana, and barley. The inclusion of genotypes makes it practical to carry out web-based gene mapping to discover those regions of genomes that contribute to differences among individuals in mRNA, protein, and metabolite levels, as well as differences in cell function, anatomy, physiology, and behavior.

A recombinant inbred strain or recombinant inbred line (RIL) is an organism with chromosomes that incorporate an essentially permanent set of recombination events between chromosomes inherited from two or more inbred strains. F1 and F2 generations are produced by intercrossing the inbred strains; pairs of the F2 progeny are then mated to establish inbred strains through long-term inbreeding.

Drosophila Genetic Reference Panel (DGRP) is a suite of Drosophila melanogaster lines derived from an out-crossed population in Raleigh, North Carolina. The founders of these lineages were collected from the Raleigh State Farmer's Market 35.764254°N 78.662935°W. The suite consists of 205 fully sequenced lines which have been inbred to near homozygosity. The primary goal of the DGRP is to provide a common set of strain for quantitative genetics research in Drosophila. Each researcher who uses the lines from the DGRP will have access to other researchers' data, which will be stored in a publicly available database. This allows for analyses to be performed across studies without having to worry about complications arising from different labs using genomically different lines of fruit flies.

Molecular breeding is the application of molecular biology tools, often in plant breeding and animal breeding. In the broad sense, molecular breeding can be defined as the use of genetic manipulation performed at the level of DNA to improve traits of interest in plants and animals, and it may also include genetic engineering or gene manipulation, molecular marker-assisted selection, and genomic selection. More often, however, molecular breeding implies molecular marker-assisted breeding (MAB) and is defined as the application of molecular biotechnologies, specifically molecular markers, in combination with linkage maps and genomics, to alter and improve plant or animal traits on the basis of genotypic assays.

Eviatar Nevo, is Professor Emeritus, founder and director of the Institute of Evolution at University of Haifa, Israel.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peter Keightley</span>

Peter D. Keightley FRS is Professor of Evolutionary Genetics at the Institute of Evolutionary Biology in School of Biological Sciences at the University of Edinburgh.

References

  1. "evolution.haifa.ac.il/index.php/33-laboratories/korol-laboratory/104-korol-laboratory" . Retrieved 21 October 2016.
  2. "evolution.haifa.ac.il/index.php/27-people/cv/2-cv-a-korol" . Retrieved 21 October 2016.
  3. 1 2 3 4 "/www.runyweb.com/articles/life/health/professor-abraham-korol-interview.html" . Retrieved 21 October 2016.
  4. 1 2 "Institute of Evolution - University of Haifa" . Retrieved 19 October 2016.
  5. "www.wheatgenome.org/Users/Coordinating-members/Korol-Abraham" . Retrieved 21 October 2016.
  6. 1 2 "Korol A.B., Preygel I.A., Preygel S.I. 1994. Recombination Variability and Evolution. London, Chapman & Hall, 361pp".{{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  7. "Korol A.B., Iliadi K.G. 1994. Recombination increase resulting from directional selection for geotaxis in Drosophila. Heredity 72: 64-68".{{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  8. "Hübner S., Rashkovetskya E., Kimc Y.B., Ohd J.H., Michalakc K., Weiner D., Korol A.B., Nevo E., and Michalack P. 2013. Genome differentiation of Drosophila melanogaster from a microclimate contrast in Evolution Canyon, Israel. Proceedings National Academy of Science USA, 110:21059-21064".{{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  9. "Zamorzaeva, I., Rashkovetsky, E., Nevo, E., & Korol, A.B. 2005. Sequence polymorphism of candidate behavioural genes in Drosophila melanogaster flies from 'Evolution Canyon'. Molecular ecology, 14: 3235-3245".{{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  10. "Paz A., Kirzhner, V.M., Nevo E., Korol A.B. 2006. Coevolution of DNA-interacting proteins and genome "dialect". Molecular Biology and Evolution 23: 56-64".{{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  11. "Paz, A., Mester, D., Baca, I., Nevo, E., & Korol, A.B. 2004. Adaptive role of increased frequency of polypurine tracts in mRNA sequences of thermophilic prokaryotes. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 101: 2951-2956".{{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  12. "Mester D., Ronin Y.I., Minkov D., Nevo E., Korol A.B. 2003. Constructing large scale genetic maps using evolutionary strategy algorithm. Genetics 165: 2269-2282".{{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  13. "ec.europa.eu/research/fp7/index_en.cfm" . Retrieved 19 October 2016.
  14. "Korol A.B., Ronin Y.I., Itzcovich A., Nevo E. 2001. Enhanced efficiency of QTL mapping analysis based on multivariate complexes of quantitative traits. Genetics 157: 1789-1803".{{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  15. "www.multiqtl.com" . Retrieved 19 October 2016.