 Aromatase is an enzyme critical in sexual determination  Converts androgen to estrogen  Conserved across all vertebrates and mammals  Located in the brain, ovary, and testes  This study assesses protein alignment and evolutionary relationships between Kmar and other Teleosts

 Obtained sequence from NCBI ◦ Taxonomy report ◦ Saved in FASTA format  Put sequences in SEAVIEW ◦ Converted to Protein ◦ Aligned Protein Sequence  Used RaxML ◦ Determined Bootstrap values  Input into Figtree ◦ Graphical representation of evolutionary relationship

Protein Alignment

Aromatase Tree

Concatenated Tree

 Similar protein structure when Kmar compared to other Teleosts  Teleosts evolved at similar rates  Kmar and Medaka closely related ◦ Evolved at similar evolutionary rates  Out-group evolved separately