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Biomedical subjects

Jeppe Emmersen

Publications and source records attributed to Jeppe Emmersen.

8 recordsLinked to original sources

Separation of sequences from host-pathogen interface using triplet nucleotide frequencies.

The identification of genes involved in host-pathogen interactions is important for the elucidation of mechanisms of disease resistance and host susceptibility. A traditional way to classify the origin of genes sampled from a pool of mixed cDNA is through sequence similarity to known genes from either the pathogen or host organism or other closely related species. This approach does not work when the identified sequence has no close homologues in the sequence databases. In our previous studies, we classified genes using their codon frequencies. This method, however, explicitly required the prediction of CDS regions and thus could not be applied to sequences composed from the non-coding regions of genes. In this study, we show that the use of sliding-window triplet frequencies extends the application of the algorithm to both coding and non-coding sequences and also increases the prediction accuracy of a Support Vector Machine classifier from 95.6+/-0.3 to 96.5+/-0.2. Thus the use of the triplet frequencies increased the prediction accuracy of the new method by more than 20% compared to our previous approach. A functional analysis of sequences detected gene families having significantly higher or lower probability to be correctly classified compared to the average accuracy of the method is described. The server to perform classification of EST sequences using triplet frequencies is available at (URL: http://mips.gsf.de/proj/est3).

Algorithms↗

Generating unigene collections of expressed sequence tag sequences for use in mass spectrometry identification.

Expressed sequence tag sequences remain the largest resource of DNA sequence for most organisms despite recent advances in genome sequencing. These sequences are short, fragmented versions of the expressed genes. By DNA sequence assembly, the fragments can be assembled into contiguous DNA sequences that are better suited for protein identification by mass spectrometry.

Cluster Analysis↗

DeepSAGE--digital transcriptomics with high sensitivity, simple experimental protocol and multiplexing of samples.

Digital transcriptomics with pyrophosphatase based ultra-high throughput DNA sequencing of di-tags provides high sensitivity and cost-effective gene expression profiling. Sample preparation and handling are greatly simplified compared to Serial Analysis of Gene Expression (SAGE). We compare DeepSAGE and LongSAGE data and demonstrate greater power of detection and multiplexing of samples derived from potato. The transcript analysis revealed a great abundance of up-regulated potato transcripts associated with stress in dormant potatoes compared to harvest. Importantly, many transcripts were detected that cannot be matched to known genes, but is likely to be part of the abiotic stress-response in potato.

Diphosphates↗

Patatins, Kunitz protease inhibitors and other major proteins in tuber of potato cv. Kuras.

The major potato tuber proteins of the Kuras cultivar, which is the dominant cultivar used in Northern Europe for industrial starch production, were analysed using 1D and 2D gel electrophoresis. The electrophoretic patterns varied significantly depending on the method of preparation and the potato variant (Solanum tuberosum). Proteins were characterized using MS and scored against potato protein databases, derived from both 'Kuras only' and 'all potato' expressed sequence tags (EST) and full-length cDNAs. Despite the existence of approximately 180 000 ESTs, the currently available potato sequence data showed a severe under-representation of genes or long transcripts encoding proteins > 50 kDa (3.5% of all) compared with the complete proteome of Arabidopsis thaliana (33% of all). We found that patatin and Kunitz protease inhibitor (KPI) variants are extraordinarily dominant in Kuras tuber and, most significantly, that their amino acid sequences are specific to Kuras. Other proteins identified include annexin, glyoxalase I, enolase and two lipoxygenases, the sequences of which are highly conserved among potato variants. Known S. tuberosum patatins cluster into three clades all represented in Kuras. S. tuberosum KPIs cluster into more diverse clades of which five were found in Kuras tuber, including a novel clade, KPI K, found to date only in Kuras. Furthermore, protein abundance was contrasted with the levels of corresponding gene transcripts found in our previous EST and LongSAGE studies of Kuras tuber.

Amino Acid Sequence↗

Global transcript profiling of potato tuber using LongSAGE.

Solanum tuberosum (potato) is the fourth major crop worldwide and is used for food, feed and biotechnological applications. To fully realize the biosynthetic potential for the production of starch, protein and metabolites, we conducted an extensive quantitative profiling of the expressed genes of mature potato tuber. A total of 58,322 serial analysis of gene expression (SAGE) tags of 19 nucleotides (nt), representing 22,233 different tags, were analysed. The 695 tags seen 10 or more times were assigned a tentative function by comparison with homologous genes. The identities of 12 'known' and 12 'unknown' transcripts were confirmed by rapid amplification of cDNA ends (RACE) cloning using the 19 nt tag as a primer. The SAGE and expressed sequence tag (EST) profiles of potato tuber were compared. Transcripts for four types of protease inhibitor, a metallothionein and a lipoxygenase were more prominent than patatin isoforms.

Journal Article↗

The vaa locus of Mycoplasma hominis contains a divergent genetic islet encoding a putative membrane protein.

BACKGROUND: The Mycoplasma hominis vaa gene encodes a highly variable, surface antigen involved in the adhesion to host cells. We have analysed the structure of the vaa locus to elucidate the genetic basis for variation of vaa. RESULTS: Mapping of vaa on existing physical maps of five M. hominis isolates by pulsed field gel electrophoresis revealed that vaa is located in a genomic region containing the majority of other characterized membrane protein genes of M. hominis. Sequencing of an 11 kb region containing the vaa locus of M. hominis isolate 132 showed the presence of conserved housekeeping genes at the borders of the region, uvrA upstream and the hitABL operon downstream to vaa. Analysis of 20 M. hominis isolates revealed that the vaa upstream region was conserved whereas the downstream region was highly variable. In isolate 132 this region contained an open reading frame (ORF) encoding a putative 160 kDa membrane protein. Homologous ORFs were present in half of the isolates, whereas this ORF, termed vmp (variable membrane protein), was deleted from the locus in the remaining isolates. Compellingly, the conserved upstream region and variable downstream region of vaa correlates with the genetic structure of vaa itself which consists of a conserved 5' end and a variable 3' end containing a variable number of exchangeable sequence cassettes. CONCLUSION: Our data demonstrate that the vaa locus contains a divergent genetic islet, and indicate pronounced intraspecies recombination. The high variability level of the locus indicate that it is a chromosomal 'hot spot', presumably important for sustaining diversity and a high adaptation potential of M. hominis.

Adhesins, Bacterial↗

aRNA-longSAGE: a new approach to generate SAGE libraries from microdissected cells.

Large-scale gene expression analyses of microdissected primary tissue are still difficult because generally only a limited amount of mRNA can be obtained from microdissected cells. The introduction of the T7-based RNA amplification technique was an important step to reduce the amount of RNA needed for such analyses. This amplification technique produces amplified antisense RNA (aRNA), which so far has precluded its direct use for serial analysis of gene expression (SAGE) library production. We describe a method, termed 'aRNA-longSAGE', which is the first to allow the direct use of aRNA for standard longSAGE library production. The aRNA-longSAGE protocol was validated by comparing two aRNA-longSAGE libraries with two Micro-longSAGE libraries that were generated from the same RNA preparations of two different cell lines. Using a conservative validation approach, we were able to verify 68% of the differentially expressed genes identified by aRNA-longSAGE. Furthermore, the identification rate of differentially expressed genes was roughly twice as high in our aRNA-longSAGE libraries as in the standard Micro-longSAGE libraries. Using our validated aRNA-longSAGE protocol, we were able to successfully generate longSAGE libraries from as little as 40 ng of total RNA isolated from 2000-3000 microdissected pancreatic ductal epithelial cells or cells from pancreatic intraepithelial neoplasias.

Caco-2 Cells↗

Effect of fatty acid chain length on initial reaction rates and regioselectivity of lipase-catalysed esterification of disaccharides.

In a reaction medium mixture of 9:11 t-BuOH and pyridine (v/v) the effect of fatty acid chain length (C-4-C-12) on C. antarctica lipase B (Novozym 435, EC 3.1.1.3) catalysed esterification was studied. alpha and beta maltose 6'-O-acyl esters in an anomeric molar ratio of 1.0:1.1 were synthesised independently of the chain length, but the initial specific reaction rate increased with decreasing chain length of the acyl donor. The product yield followed the same trend with a lauryl ester yield of 1.1% (mol/mol) and a butyl ester yield of 27.6% (mol/mol) after 24 h of reaction. With sucrose as the acyl acceptor the 6'-O-acyl and 6-O-acyl monoesters were formed with fatty acids of chain length C-4 and C-10 while the 6',6-O-acyl diester was formed only with butanoic acid (C-4:0) as acyl donor. The 6'-O-acyl and 6-O-acyl monoesters and the 6',6-O-acyl diester of butanoic acid were produced in a molar ratio of 1.0:0.5:0.2 and with decanoic acid (C-10:0) the 6'-O-acyl and 6-O-acyl monoesters were formed in the ratio of 1.0:0.3. The highest initial reaction rate and yield were obtained with the shortest chain length of the acyl donor. Initial reaction rates and ester yields were affected by the solubility of the disaccharide, with higher reaction rates and yields with maltose than with sucrose, while no formation of esters were observed with either cellobiose or lactose as acyl acceptors.

Candida↗