Search PubMed⌕ Search

SEARCH · Search PubMed

Results for “protein function annotation”

Search indexed PubMed citations on genomics, clinical trials, systematic reviews and public health. Explore titles, authors and supplied subject terms, then open the PubMed record.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 1,801 records · Page 100Linked to original sources

Organisation of the pantothenate (vitamin B5) biosynthesis pathway in higher plants.

Pantothenate (vitamin B5) is the precursor for the biosynthesis of the phosphopantetheine moiety of coenzyme A and acyl carrier protein, and is synthesised in Escherichia coli by four enzymic reactions. Ketopantoate hydroxymethyltransferase (KPHMT) and pantothenate synthetase (PtS) catalyse the first and last steps, respectively. Two genes encoding KPHMT and one for PtS were identified in the Arabidopsis thaliana genome, and cDNAs for all three genes were amplified by PCR. The cDNAs were able to complement their respective E. coli auxotrophs, demonstrating that they encoded functional enzymes. Subcellular localisation of the proteins was investigated using green fluorescent protein (GFP) fusions and confocal microscopy. The two KPHMT-GFP fusion proteins were targeted exclusively to mitochondria, whereas PtS-GFP was found in the cytosol. This implies that there must be transporters for pathway intermediates. KPHMT enzyme activity could be measured in purified mitochondria from both pea leaves and Arabidopsis suspension cultures. We investigated whether Arabidopsis encoded homologues of the remaining two pantothenate biosynthesis enzymes from E. coli, l-aspartate-alpha-decarboxylase (ADC) and ketopantoate reductase (KPR). No homologue of ADC could be identified using either conventional blast or searches with the program fugue in which the structure of the E. coli ADC was compared to all the annotated proteins in Arabidopsis. ADC also appears to be absent from the genome of the yeast, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, by the same criteria. In contrast, a putative Arabidopsis oxidoreductase with some similarity to KPR was identified with fugue.

Amino Acid Sequence↗

The 1.1-A resolution crystal structure of DJ-1, the protein mutated in autosomal recessive early onset Parkinson's disease.

Mutations in DJ-1, a human gene with homologues in organisms from all kingdoms of life, have been shown to be associated with autosomal recessive, early onset Parkinson's disease (PARK7). We report here the three-dimensional structure of the DJ-1 protein, determined at a resolution of 1.1 A by x-ray crystallography. The chain fold of DJ-1 resembles those of a bacterial protein, PfpI, that has been annotated as a cysteine protease, and of a domain of a bacterial catalase whose role in the activity of that enzyme is uncertain. In contrast to PfpI, a hexameric protein whose oligomeric structure is essential for its putative proteolytic activity, DJ-1 is a dimer with completely different intersubunit contacts. The proposed catalytic triad of PfpI is absent from the corresponding region of the structure of DJ-1, and biochemical assays fail to detect any protease activity for purified DJ-1. A highly conserved cysteine residue, which is catalytically essential in homologues of DJ-1, shows an extreme sensitivity to radiation damage and may be subject to other forms of oxidative modification as well. The structure suggests that the loss of function caused by the Parkinson's-associated mutation L166P in DJ-1 is due to destabilization of the dimer interface. Taken together, the crystal structure of human DJ-1 plus other observations suggest the possible involvement of this protein in the cellular oxidative stress response and a general etiology of neurodegenerative diseases.

Archaeal Proteins↗

Scalable approaches for functional analyses of whole-genome sequencing non-coding variants.

Non-coding genetic variants outside of protein-coding genome regions play an important role in genetic and epigenetic regulation. It has become increasingly important to understand their roles, as non-coding variants often make up the majority of top findings of genome-wide association studies (GWAS). In addition, the growing popularity of disease-specific whole-genome sequencing (WGS) efforts expands the library of and offers unique opportunities for investigating both common and rare non-coding variants, which are typically not detected in more limited GWAS approaches. However, the sheer size and breadth of WGS data introduce additional challenges to predicting functional impacts in terms of data analysis and interpretation. This review focuses on the recent approaches developed for efficient, at-scale annotation and prioritization of non-coding variants uncovered in WGS analyses. In particular, we review the latest scalable annotation tools, databases and functional genomic resources for interpreting the variant findings from WGS based on both experimental data and in silico predictive annotations. We also review machine learning-based predictive models for variant scoring and prioritization. We conclude with a discussion of future research directions which will enhance the data and tools necessary for the effective functional analyses of variants identified by WGS to improve our understanding of disease etiology.

Genome-Wide Association Study↗

Identification of promoter regions in the human genome by using a retroviral plasmid library-based functional reporter gene assay.

Attempts to identify regulatory sequences in the human genome have involved experimental and computational methods such as cross-species sequence comparisons and the detection of transcription factor binding-site motifs in coexpressed genes. Although these strategies provide information on which genomic regions are likely to be involved in gene regulation, they do not give information on their functions. We have developed a functional selection for promoter regions in the human genome that uses a retroviral plasmid library-based system. This approach enriches for and detects promoter function of isolated DNA fragments in an in vitro cell culture assay. By using this method, we have discovered likely promoters of known and predicted genes, as well as many other putative promoter regions based on the presence of features such as CpG islands. Comparison of sequences of 858 plasmid clones selected by this assay with the human genome draft sequence indicates that a significantly higher percentage of sequences align to the 500-bp segment upstream of the transcription start sites of known genes than would be expected from random genomic sequences. We also observed enrichment for putative promoter regions of genes predicted in at least two annotation databases and for clones overlapping with CpG islands. Functional validation of randomly selected clones enriched by this method showed that a large fraction of these putative promoters can drive the expression of a reporter gene in transient transfection experiments. This method promises to be a useful genome-wide function-based approach that can complement existing methods to look for promoters.

3T3 Cells↗

Integrating database homology in a probabilistic gene structure model.

We present an improved stochastic model of genes in DNA, and describe a method for integrating database homology into the probabilistic framework. A generalized hidden Markov model (GHMM) describes the grammar of a legal parse of a DNA sequence. Probabilities are estimated for gene features by using dynamic programming to combine information from multiple sensors. We show how matches to homologous sequences from a database can be integrated into the probability estimation by interpreting the likelihood of a sequence in terms of the bit-cost to encode a sequence given a homology match. We also demonstrate how homology matches in protein databases can be exploited to help identify splice sites. Our experiments show significant improvements in the sensitivity and specificity of gene structure identification when these new features are added to our gene-finding system, Genie. Experimental results in tests using a standard set of annotated genes showed that Genie identified 95% of coding nucleotides correctly with a specificity of 91%, and 77% of exons were identified exactly.

Algorithms↗

An object model and database for functional genomics.

MOTIVATION: Large-scale functional genomics analysis is now feasible and presents significant challenges in data analysis, storage and querying. Data standards are required to enable the development of public data repositories and to improve data sharing. There is an established data format for microarrays (microarray gene expression markup language, MAGE-ML) and a draft standard for proteomics (PEDRo). We believe that all types of functional genomics experiments should be annotated in a consistent manner, and we hope to open up new ways of comparing multiple datasets used in functional genomics. RESULTS: We have created a functional genomics experiment object model (FGE-OM), developed from the microarray model, MAGE-OM and two models for proteomics, PEDRo and our own model (Gla-PSI-Glasgow Proposal for the Proteomics Standards Initiative). FGE-OM comprises three namespaces representing (i) the parts of the model common to all functional genomics experiments; (ii) microarray-specific components; and (iii) proteomics-specific components. We believe that FGE-OM should initiate discussion about the contents and structure of the next version of MAGE and the future of proteomics standards. A prototype database called RNA And Protein Abundance Database (RAPAD), based on FGE-OM, has been implemented and populated with data from microbial pathogenesis. AVAILABILITY: FGE-OM and the RAPAD schema are available from http://www.gusdb.org/fge.html, along with a set of more detailed diagrams. RAPAD can be accessed by registration at the site.

Abstracting and Indexing↗

Dual-domain, dual-targeting organellar protein presequences in Arabidopsis can use non-AUG start codons.

The processes accompanying endosymbiosis have led to a complex network of interorganellar protein traffic that originates from nuclear genes encoding mitochondrial and plastid proteins. A significant proportion of nucleus-encoded organellar proteins are dual targeted, and the process by which a protein acquires the capacity for both mitochondrial and plastid targeting may involve intergenic DNA exchange coupled with the incorporation of sequences residing upstream of the gene. We evaluated targeting and sequence alignment features of two organellar DNA polymerase genes from Arabidopsis thaliana. Within one of these two loci, protein targeting appeared to be plastidic when the 5' untranslated leader region (UTR) was deleted and translation could only initiate at the annotated ATG start codon but dual targeted when the 5' UTR was included. Introduction of stop codons at various sites within the putative UTR demonstrated that this region is translated and influences protein targeting capacity. However, no ATG start codon was found within this upstream, translated region, suggesting that translation initiates at a non-ATG start. We identified a CTG codon that likely accounts for much of this initiation. Investigation of the 5' region of other nucleus-encoded organellar genes suggests that several genes may incorporate upstream sequences to influence targeting capacity. We postulate that a combination of intergenic recombination and some relaxation of constraints on translation initiation has acted in the evolution of protein targeting specificity for those proteins capable of functioning in both plastids and mitochondria.

5' Untranslated Regions↗

A proteomic characterization of the plasma membrane of human epidermis by high-throughput mass spectrometry.

Membrane proteins are responsible for many critical cellular functions and identifying cell surface proteins on different keratinocyte populations by proteomic approaches would improve our understanding of their biological function. The ability to characterize membrane proteins, however, has lagged behind that of soluble proteins both in terms of throughput and protein coverage. In this study, a membrane proteomic investigation of keratinocytes using a two-dimensional liquid chromatography (LC) tandem-mass spectrometry (MS/MS) approach that relies on a buffered methanol-based solubilization, and tryptic digestion of purified plasma membrane is described. A highly enriched plasma membrane fraction was prepared from newborn foreskins using sucrose gradient centrifugation, followed by a single-tube solubilization and tryptic digestion of membrane proteins. This digestate was fractionated by strong cation-exchange chromatography and analyzed using microcapillary reversed-phase LC-MS/MS. In a set of 1306 identified proteins, 866 had a gene ontology (GO) annotation for cellular component, and 496 of these annotated proteins (57.3%) were assigned as known integral membrane proteins or membrane-associated proteins. Included in the identification of a large number of aqueous insoluble integral membrane proteins were many known intercellular adhesion proteins and gap junction proteins. Furthermore, 121 proteins from cholesterol-rich plasma membrane domains (caveolar and lipid rafts) were identified.

Caveolae↗

A post-genomic approach to understanding sphingolipid metabolism in Arabidopsis thaliana.

AIMS: To highlight the importance of sphingolipids and their metabolites in plant biology. SCOPE: The completion of the arabidopsis genome provides a platform for the identification and functional characterization of genes involved in sphingolipid biosynthesis. Using the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae as an experimental model, this review annotates arabidopsis open reading frames likely to be involved in sphingolipid metabolism. A number of these open reading frames have already been subject to functional characterization, though the majority still awaits investigation. Plant-specific aspects of sphingolipid biology (such as enhanced long chain base heterogeneity) are considered in the context of the emerging roles for these lipids in plant form and function. CONCLUSIONS: Arabidopsis provides an excellent genetic and post-genomic model for the characterization of the roles of sphingolipids in higher plants.

Arabidopsis↗

Genomic annotation and expression analysis of the zebrafish Rho small GTPase family during development and bacterial infection.

The zebrafish genomic sequence database was analyzed for the presence of genes encoding members of the Rho small GTPases. The analysis shows the presence of 32 zebrafish Rho genes representing one or more homologs of the human RHOA, RND3, RHOF, RHOG, RHOH, RHOJ, RHOU, RHOV, CDC42, RAC1, RAC2, RAC3, RND1, RHOBTB1, RHOBTB2, RHOBTB3, and RHOT1 genes. By expression analysis using reverse transcriptase-PCR we show that at least 20 of the predicted zebrafish small GTPase genes are expressed in the adult stage. Interestingly, only 5 of these were found to be expressed at early embryonic stages, including rhoab, rhoad, cdc42a, cdc42c, and rac1a. We observed a strong upregulation of zebrafish rhogb expression after Mycobacterium marinum infection of adult fish. This complete annotation study provides a firm basis for the use of zebrafish as a model for analysis of Rho GTPase function in vertebrate development and the innate immune system.

Amino Acid Sequence↗

Adaptive algorithm of automated annotation.

MOTIVATION: It is common knowledge that the avalanche of data arriving from the sequencing projects cannot be annotated either experimentally or manually by experts. The need for a reliable and convenient tool for automated sequence annotation is broadly recognized. RESULTS: Here, we describe the Adaptive Algorithm of Automated Annotation (A(4)) based on a statistical approach to this problem. The mathematical model relates a set of homologous sequences and descriptions of their functional properties, and calculates the probabilities of transferring a sequence description onto its homologue. The proposed model is adaptive, its parameters (distribution characteristics, transference probabilities, thresholds, etc.) are dynamic, i.e. are generated individually for the sequences and various functional properties (words of the description). The proposed technique significantly outperforms the widely used test for frequency threshold, which is a special case of our model realized for the simplest set of parameters. The prediction technique has been realized as a computer program and tested on a random sequence sampling from SWISS-PROT. AVAILABILITY: The automated annotation program based on the proposed algorithm is available through the Web browser at http://www.genebee.msu.su/services/annot/basic.html.

Algorithms↗

Modularized learning of genetic interaction networks from biological annotations and mRNA expression data.

MOTIVATION: Inferring the genetic interaction mechanism using Bayesian networks has recently drawn increasing attention due to its well-established theoretical foundation and statistical robustness. However, the relative insufficiency of experiments with respect to the number of genes leads to many false positive inferences. RESULTS: We propose a novel method to infer genetic networks by alleviating the shortage of available mRNA expression data with prior knowledge. We call the proposed method 'modularized network learning' (MONET). Firstly, the proposed method divides a whole gene set to overlapped modules considering biological annotations and expression data together. Secondly, it infers a Bayesian network for each module, and integrates the learned subnetworks to a global network. An algorithm that measures a similarity between genes based on hierarchy, specificity and multiplicity of biological annotations is presented. The proposed method draws a global picture of inter-module relationships as well as a detailed look of intra-module interactions. We applied the proposed method to analyze Saccharomyces cerevisiae stress data, and found several hypotheses to suggest putative functions of unclassified genes. We also compared the proposed method with a whole-set-based approach and two expression-based clustering approaches.

Algorithms↗

AgBase: a functional genomics resource for agriculture.

BACKGROUND: Many agricultural species and their pathogens have sequenced genomes and more are in progress. Agricultural species provide food, fiber, xenotransplant tissues, biopharmaceuticals and biomedical models. Moreover, many agricultural microorganisms are human zoonoses. However, systems biology from functional genomics data is hindered in agricultural species because agricultural genome sequences have relatively poor structural and functional annotation and agricultural research communities are smaller with limited funding compared to many model organism communities. DESCRIPTION: To facilitate systems biology in these traditionally agricultural species we have established "AgBase", a curated, web-accessible, public resource http://www.agbase.msstate.edu for structural and functional annotation of agricultural genomes. The AgBase database includes a suite of computational tools to use GO annotations. We use standardized nomenclature following the Human Genome Organization Gene Nomenclature guidelines and are currently functionally annotating chicken, cow and sheep gene products using the Gene Ontology (GO). The computational tools we have developed accept and batch process data derived from different public databases (with different accession codes), return all existing GO annotations, provide a list of products without GO annotation, identify potential orthologs, model functional genomics data using GO and assist proteomics analysis of ESTs and EST assemblies. Our journal database helps prevent redundant manual GO curation. We encourage and publicly acknowledge GO annotations from researchers and provide a service for researchers interested in GO and analysis of functional genomics data. CONCLUSION: The AgBase database is the first database dedicated to functional genomics and systems biology analysis for agriculturally important species and their pathogens. We use experimental data to improve structural annotation of genomes and to functionally characterize gene products. AgBase is also directly relevant for researchers in fields as diverse as agricultural production, cancer biology, biopharmaceuticals, human health and evolutionary biology. Moreover, the experimental methods and bioinformatics tools we provide are widely applicable to many other species including model organisms.

Agriculture↗

Integrated functional visualization of eukaryotic genomes.

BACKGROUND: Increasing amounts of data from large scale whole genome analysis efforts demands convenient tools for manipulation, visualization and investigation. Whole genome plots offer an intuitive window to the analysis. We describe two applications that enable users to easily plot and explore whole genome data from their own or other researchers' experiments. RESULTS: STRIPE and GFFtool (General Feature Format Tool) are softwares designed to support integration, visualization and exploration of whole genome data from eukaryotic genomes. STRIPE, in addition to providing a highly customizable and interactive data plot, provides access to numerous well-selected databases with updated information on all genes of a genome. GFFtool provides a user-friendly solution to integrating experimental data with the genomic information available in public databases. They also obviate the need for users to maintain large annotation resources, as they link to well-known resources using standard gene and protein identifiers. CONCLUSION: The programs provide the user with broad genomic overviews of data distribution, fast access to data of interest, and the ability to navigate speedily from one resource to another, and gain a better understanding of result of whole genome analysis experiments.

Algorithms↗

CHOP proteins into structural domain-like fragments.

We developed a method CHOP dissecting proteins into domain-like fragments. The basic idea was to cut proteins beginning from very reliable experimental information (PDB), proceeding to expert annotations of domain-like regions (Pfam-A), and completing through cuts based on termini of known proteins. In this way, CHOP dissected more than two thirds of all proteins from 62 proteomes. Analysis of our structural domain-like fragments revealed four surprising results. First, >70% of all dissected proteins contained more than one fragment. Second, most domains spanned on average over approximately 100 residues. This average was similar for eukaryotic and prokaryotic proteins, and it is also valid-although previously not described-for all proteins in the PDB. Third, single-domain proteins were significant longer than most domains in multidomain proteins. Fourth, three fourths of all domains appeared shorter than 210 residues. We believe that our CHOP fragments constituted an important resource for functional and structural genomics. Nevertheless, our main motivation to develop CHOP was that the single-linkage clustering method failed to adequately group full-length proteins. In contrast, CLUP-the simple clustering scheme CLUP introduced here-succeeded largely to group the CHOP fragments from 62 proteomes such that all members of one cluster shared a basic structural core. CLUP found >63,000 multi- and >118,000 single-member clusters. Although most fragments were restricted to a particular cluster, approximately 24% of the fragments were duplicated in at least two clusters. Our thresholds for grouping two fragments into the same cluster were rather conservative. Nevertheless, our results suggested that structural genomics initiatives have to target >30,000 fragments to at least cover the multimember clusters in 62 proteomes.

Amino Acids↗

Robust method for proteome analysis by MS/MS using an entire translated genome: demonstration on the ciliome of Tetrahymena thermophila.

To improve the utility of increasingly large numbers of available unannotated and initially poorly annotated genomic sequences for proteome analysis, we demonstrate that effective protein identification can be made on a large and unannotated genome. The strategy developed is to translate the unannotated genome sequence into amino acid sequence encoding putative proteins in all six reading frames, to identify peptides by tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS), to localize them on the genome sequence, and to preliminarily annotate the protein via a similarity search by BLAST. These tasks have been optimized and automated. Optimization to obtain multiple peptide matches in effect extends the searchable region and results in more robust protein identification. The viability of this strategy is demonstrated with the identification of 223 cilia proteins in the unicellular eukaryotic model organism Tetrahymena thermophila, whose initial genomic sequence draft was released in November 2003. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first demonstration of large-scale protein identification based on such a large, unannotated genome. Of the 223 cilia proteins, 84 have no similarity to proteins in NCBI's nonredundant (nr) database. This methodology allows identifying the locations of the genes encoding these novel proteins, which is a necessary first step to downstream functional genomic experimentation.

Amino Acid Sequence↗

Fine-grained structural classification of biosynthetic gene cluster-encoded products.

MOTIVATION: Biosynthetic gene clusters (BGCs) are responsible the biosynthesis of many natural products, including a multitude of effective therapeutics and their precursors. Advances in genomic data collection as well as computational techniques have made it possible to identify BGCs at scale. However, accurately determining the types of BGC-encoded products from genomic content remains elusive. RESULTS: Here, we introduce BGC annotation tool (BGCat), a machine learning method for fine-grained structural classification of BGC-encoded products, leveraging the NPClassifier natural product nomenclature. Our method leverages a pre-trained protein language model for creating meaningful gene representations and a deep neural network for class label prediction. We show the method outperforms state-of-the-art approaches in coarse-grained product classification and is effective for detailed classification. We implement a clustering-based augmentation strategy for BGC-product relationships, addressing a crucial gap in the available datasets. We then introduce the concept of product class profiles of gene cluster families (GCFs), associating each GCF with a probabilistic distribution of product types and offering a new perspective on GCF functions. Lastly, we use BGCat to provide new product class labels for over 100k BGCs in antiSMASH DB that presently have minimal information about their products. AVAILABILITY AND IMPLEMENTATION: The source code and trained model weights are freely available at https://github.com/HassounLab/BGCat.

Multigene Family↗

Specialized microbial databases for inductive exploration of microbial genome sequences.

BACKGROUND: The enormous amount of genome sequence data asks for user-oriented databases to manage sequences and annotations. Queries must include search tools permitting function identification through exploration of related objects. METHODS: The GenoList package for collecting and mining microbial genome databases has been rewritten using MySQL as the database management system. Functions that were not available in MySQL, such as nested subquery, have been implemented. RESULTS: Inductive reasoning in the study of genomes starts from "islands of knowledge", centered around genes with some known background. With this concept of "neighborhood" in mind, a modified version of the GenoList structure has been used for organizing sequence data from prokaryotic genomes of particular interest in China. GenoChore http://bioinfo.hku.hk/genochore.html, a set of 17 specialized end-user-oriented microbial databases (including one instance of Microsporidia, Encephalitozoon cuniculi, a member of Eukarya) has been made publicly available. These databases allow the user to browse genome sequence and annotation data using standard queries. In addition they provide a weekly update of searches against the world-wide protein sequences data libraries, allowing one to monitor annotation updates on genes of interest. Finally, they allow users to search for patterns in DNA or protein sequences, taking into account a clustering of genes into formal operons, as well as providing extra facilities to query sequences using predefined sequence patterns. CONCLUSION: This growing set of specialized microbial databases organize data created by the first Chinese bacterial genome programs (ThermaList, Thermoanaerobacter tencongensis, LeptoList, with two different genomes of Leptospira interrogans and SepiList, Staphylococcus epidermidis) associated to related organisms for comparison.

Algorithms↗

Refine your search to explore more results.