BIO

Hannah is a freshman Presidential Scholar from Jupiter, Florida, majoring in Biological Sciences and pursuing a Specialized Study in Applied Economics. She is a member of the Lemmon Lab at FSU, under the mentorship of Dr. Emily and Dr. Alan Lemmon. Hannah is currently involved in neurogenomic research, but she hopes to experiment in the future with a variety of biological research. As of now, Hannah's career plans remain undecided, although she is heavily considering a career which combines her love for science with her interest in business. She looks forward to continuing her research with the Lemmon Lab next semester through a Directed Individual Study.

The Evolution of the GABA Receptor in Pseudacris and its Contribution to Speciation

Abstract

This project analyzes candidate Pseudacris (chorus frog) genes associated with the neurological GABA-A receptor in order to identify protein variation that could potentially cause differences in mate preferences across sex and geographical variables. In this study, we focus on the alpha1 subunit of the GABA-A receptor to determine and analyze amino acid variation in that region. We translated and aligned reads from seventeen Pseudacris individuals varying in sex and origin and compared these with one another and to the translated human alpha1 subunit of the GABA-A receptor. Our hypothesis was confirmed: although nucleotide variation was discovered across Pseudacris individuals, there was no amino acid variation in the alpha1 subunit across individuals, and there was little significant variation between Pseudacris and human amino acids for the alpha1 subunit. The few sites of variation between the Pseudacris and human alpha1 subunit include locations near the α1-β2 GABA binding site, which must be explored further. In future analyses, we will test other subunits of the GABA-A receptor for protein variation and locate those variant sites on the GABA-A receptor to determine their effect on function. We do not expect to find amino acid variation in important regions of the GABA-A receptor because that would potentially alter other critical neurological functions. Subsequently, the excitatory neurotransmitters AMPA and NMDA must also be analyzed for amino acid variation. This project’s future goal is to determine whether amino acid variation contributes to different mating call reception and selection, an important step in understanding chorus frog speciation.

Keywords: Neurogenomics, Speciation, Biology, Bioinformatics, Frogs