Dr. Igor B. Jouline (Zhulin)
See Also: Curriculum Vitae | Lab Website | UTK-ORNL Joint Institute for Computational Sciences
Research
Each scientific discipline has its own materials and methods. The genome sequencing technology, which is revolutionizing biology in the 21 century, generates a new type of materials – millions of genes and proteins that reside not in living cells, but in electronic databases. These new materials prompted the development of new methods – computerized tools for analyzing DNA and protein sequences on a large, industrial scale – comprising a new discipline, computational genomics. We develop and apply computational genomics approaches to best characterized biological processes in order to reveal novel functional features that cannot be obtained by experimental techniques alone. In this work, we use an array of bioinformatics tools – from sensitive similarity searches to phylogenetics and structure prediction – and several tiers of hardware – from workstations and stand-alone servers to Linux clusters and supercomputers sifting through trillions of letters of DNA and protein sequences in search of answers to basic biological questions.
We are interested in fundamental biological questions, such as signal transduction, gene regulation and protein-protein interactions, which we study through the prism of molecular evolution. Our main focus is on prokaryotes, not only because they display an extraordinary diversity and unexpected complexity, but also because prokaryotic genomes are best suited for in-depth computational analyses using evolutionary genomics. Our credo is simple: Nature has already performed millions of genetic experiments; all we need to do is to carefully analyze the results. Most of our studies generate testable hypotheses that are often taken directly into experiment by our colleagues in “wet” laboratories.
Our work leads to better understanding of biological systems and have direct applications to medicine, environment, bioenergy, and agriculture. For detailed description of our research, please visit our Lab website.
Selected Publications
Alexander RP and Zhulin IB (2007) Evolutionary genomics reveals conserved structural determinants of signaling and adaptation in microbial chemoreceptors. Proc. Natl, Acad. Sci. USA 104: 2885-2890
Ulrich LE and Zhulin IB (2007) MiST: a Microbial Signal Transduction database. Nucleic Acids Res. 35: D386-D390
Chain PSG, Denef VJ, Konstantinidis K, Vergez LM, Agullo L, Reyes VL, Hauser L, Cordova M, Gomez L, Gonzalez M, Land M, Lao V, Larimer F, LiPuma JJ, Mahenthiralingam E, Malfatti SA, Marx CJ, Parnell JJ, Ramette A, Richardson P, Seeger M, Smith D, Spilker T, Sul WJ, Tsoi T, Ulrich LE, Zhulin IB, and Tiedje JM (2006) Burkholderia xenovorans LB400 harbors a multi-replicon, 9.73 M bp genome shaped for versatility. Proc. Natl, Acad. Sci. USA 103: 15280-15287
Ulrich LE, Koonin EV and Zhulin IB. (2005) One-component regulators dominate signal transduction in prokaryotes. Trends Microbiol. 13, 52-56
Shu CJ and Zhulin IB (2002) ANTAR: an RNA-binding domain in transcription antitermination regulatory proteins. Trends Biochem. Sci. 27, 3-5
Taylor BL and Zhulin IB (1999) PAS domains: internal sensors of oxygen, redox potential and light. Microbiol. Mol. Biol. Rev. 63: 479-506
Dr. Igor Jouline (Zhulin)
UTK-ORNL Joint Faculty Professor
Ph.D., 1988
St. Petersburg State University, Russia
M409 Walters Life Sciences Knoxville, Tennessee
37996-0845
Phone: 865-974-7687 (UTK)
865-241-3697 (ORNL)
Fax: 865-974-4007 (UTK)
865-576-4368 (ORNL)
Email: ijouline @ utk.edu
joulineib@ornl.gov