....................................................................................................................................................... v Background .............................................................................................................................................. 1-5 Research Methods and Procedures ...................................................................................................... 5-11 Results ................................................................................................................................................... 11-23 Figure 1. Agarose gel electrophoresis separation of amplified KCNE4 from wildtype zebrafish DNA ................. 13 Figure 2. KCNE1 and KCNE3 PCR product gel electrophoresis confirmation for two separate colonies of E.coli transfected with the zebrafish Chromosome 23 BAC ................................................................ 14 Figure 3. Agarose gel electrophoresis analysis of the KCNE3 FA/RB PCR products amplified from seven colonies of E.coli transfected with the zebrafish Chromosome 23 BAC ................................................. 15 Figure 4. BLAST alignment of sequenced KCNE4 from wildtype zebrafish with KCNE4 sequence from the Zebrafish Genomic Library (NCBI)......................................................................................................... 16 Figure 5. Phylogenetic tree alignment of KCNQ1, KCNQ2, KCNQ3, KCNQ4 and KCNQ5 genes in human, mouse, xenopus, chicken, carp and zebrafish ......................................................................................... 17 Figure 6. Phylogenetic tree alignment of the HCN1, HCN2, HCN3 and HCN4 gene members in human, mouse, rainbow trout and zebrafish .................................................................................................................... 18 Figure 7. Phylogenetic tree alignment of the KCNE1, KCNE2, KCNE3, KCNE4 and KCNE5 gene members in human, mouse, xenopus, chicken, salmon, carp and zebrafish ............................................................... 19 Figure 8. KCNE1, KCNE3 and Cytochrome Oxidase expression via agarose gel electrophoresis separation of rtPCR products from heart cDNA ........................................................................................................... 20 Figure 9. KCNE1, KCNE3 and cytochrome oxidase expression via agarose gel electrophoresis separation of rtPCR products from liver cDNA. ........................................................................................................... 21 Figure 10.The Syntenic Analysis of the Slow mo region on Chromosome 23 in Zebrafish, Danio rerio revealed that taz, ATP64P1, GDI1, and FAM50A are located on chromosome 23 in zebrafish and the X chromosomes of humans and mice in non-contig portions ...................................................................... 23 Discussion & Conclusion ..................................................................................................................... 23-32 Literature Cited ................................................................................................................................... 33-34 Appendix ............................................................................................................................................... 35-38 Glossary of Molecular Genetics Terms ................................................................................................... 39