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At least 505 records · Page 28Linked to original sources

Semiparametric approach to characterize unique gene expression trajectories across time.

BACKGROUND: A semiparametric approach was used to identify groups of cDNAs and genes with distinct expression profiles across time and overcome the limitations of clustering to identify groups. The semiparametric approach allows the generalization of mixtures of distributions while making no specific parametric assumptions about the distribution of the hidden heterogeneity of the cDNAs. The semiparametric approach was applied to study gene expression in the brains of Apis mellifera ligustica honey bees raised in two colonies (A. m. mellifera and ligustica) with consistent patterns across five maturation ages. RESULTS: The semiparametric approach provided unambiguous criteria to detect groups of genes, trajectories and probability of gene membership to groups. The semiparametric results were cross-validated in both colony data sets. Gene Ontology analysis enhanced by genome annotation helped to confirm the semiparametric results and revealed that most genes with similar or related neurobiological function were assigned to the same group or groups with similar trajectories. Ten groups of genes were identified and nine groups had highly similar trajectories in both data sets. Differences in the trajectory of the reminder group were consistent with reports of accelerated maturation in ligustica colonies compared to mellifera colonies. CONCLUSION: The combination of microarray technology, genomic information and semiparametric analysis provided insights into the genomic plasticity and gene networks linked to behavioral maturation in the honey bee.

Age Factors↗

Shared genetic architecture of smoking dependence and Crohn's disease: A cross-trait analysis of GWAS summary statistics.

INTRODUCTION: Smoking dependence (SD) and Crohn's disease (CD) are epidemiologically associated, but whether this relationship reflects shared genetic susceptibility remains unclear. METHODS: We conducted a cross-trait genetic analysis of SD and CD using publicly available genome-wide association study (GWAS) summary statistics from European-ancestry populations. Genome-wide genetic correlation was estimated using linkage disequilibrium score regression (LDSC) and high-definition likelihood (HDL). Pleiotropic variants were identified using PLACO and mapped to genomic loci using FUMA. Regional signal sharing was assessed by Bayesian colocalization. Functional analyses included stratified LDSC, Multi-marker Analysis of GenoMic Annotation (MAGMA), GTEx tissue analysis, and Metascape. Expression-linked candidate genes were prioritized using expression quantitative trait locus (eQTL)-based summary-data-based Mendelian randomization (SMR) with heterogeneity in dependent instruments (HEIDI) testing. Genetically informed spatial mapping of cells for complex traits (gsMap) was used for spatial mapping. RESULTS: SD and CD showed positive genetic correlation by LDSC (rg=0.2090, p=0.0008) and HDL (rg=0.3817, p=0.00106). PLACO identified 81 genome-wide significant pleiotropic SNPs, which were mapped by FUMA to three loci at 1p31.3, 5p13.1, and 12q12, represented by rs11209031, rs1395152, and rs17467116, respectively. MAGMA identified 22 FDR-significant genes, four of which remained Bonferroni significant: LRRK2, TNFRSF6B, ZGPAT, and RP4-583P15.15. Cross-trait tissue analysis showed significant enrichment of the shared genetic signal in whole blood and small intestine, while gene-set analysis highlighted inflammatory response (pbon=1.86×10-5) and T-helper 17 cell differentiation (pbon=7.37×10-4). SMR/HEIDI analysis further prioritized RPS6KB1 as a shared expression-linked candidate. Spatial mapping revealed a prominent signal in the embryonic gastrointestinal tract and gene-specific regional patterns involving LRRK2 and SLC2A13 in the adult mouse brain. CONCLUSIONS: SD and CD showed measurable shared genetic susceptibility, with convergent evidence from pleiotropic loci, immune-inflammatory pathway enrichment, tissue-level associations, and spatial transcriptomic mapping.

Crohn's disease↗

In search of the small ones: improved prediction of short exons in vertebrates, plants, fungi and protists.

MOTIVATION: Prediction of the coding potential for stretches of DNA is crucial in gene calling and genome annotation, where it is used to identify potential exons and to position their boundaries in conjunction with functional sites, such as splice sites and translation initiation sites. The ability to discriminate between coding and non-coding sequences relates to the structure of coding sequences, which are organized in codons, and by their biased usage. For statistical reasons, the longer the sequences, the easier it is to detect this codon bias. However, in many eukaryotic genomes, where genes harbour many introns, both introns and exons might be small and hard to distinguish based on coding potential. RESULTS: Here, we present novel approaches that specifically aim at a better detection of coding potential in short sequences. The methods use complementary sequence features, combined with identification of which features are relevant in discriminating between coding and non-coding sequences. These newly developed methods are evaluated on different species, representative of four major eukaryotic kingdoms, and extensively compared to state-of-the-art Markov models, which are often used for predicting coding potential. The main conclusions drawn from our analyses are that (1) combining complementary sequence features clearly outperforms current Markov models for coding potential prediction in short sequence fragments, (2) coding potential prediction benefits from length-specific models, and these models are not necessarily the same for different sequence lengths and (3) comparing the results across several species indicates that, although our combined method consistently performs extremely well, there are important differences across genomes. SUPPLEMENTARY DATA: http://bioinformatics.psb.ugent.be/.

Algorithms↗

[Gene regulation and bioinformatics].

Gene regulation networks control differentiation and function of hundreds of cell types. Dysfunctions of transcription factors, which are key elements in the regulation pathways, are involved in numerous pathologies. The recent development of genomics technologies allows the study of gene regulation mechanisms and help us understand their impact on the cells. Bioinformatic tools are needed to fully exploit data obtained by genomics approaches. Thus, bioinformatics play an essential role in the characterisation of the transcription factors binding sites and their target genes. In this review we will introduce the main breakthroughs in bioinformatics area for the comprehension of regulation mechanisms. We will insist on i) the approaches "with a priori" for the genome annotation based on known transcription factors binding sites, ii) the approaches "without a priori" for the discovery of new binding sites and iii) the functional annotation of the target genes of those transcription factors. Finally, we will present recent examples of the fruitful use of in silico studies for the comprehension of regulation mechanisms and of the consequences of their dysfunction.

Algorithms↗

CAPweb: a bioinformatics CGH array Analysis Platform.

Assessing variations in DNA copy number is crucial for understanding constitutional or somatic diseases, particularly cancers. The recently developed array-CGH (comparative genomic hybridization) technology allows this to be investigated at the genomic level. We report the availability of a web tool for analysing array-CGH data. CAPweb (CGH array Analysis Platform on the Web) is intended as a user-friendly tool enabling biologists to completely analyse CGH arrays from the raw data to the visualization and biological interpretation. The user typically performs the following bioinformatics steps of a CGH array project within CAPweb: the secure upload of the results of CGH array image analysis and of the array annotation (genomic position of the probes); first level analysis of each array, including automatic normalization of the data (for correcting experimental biases), breakpoint detection and status assignment (gain, loss or normal); validation or deletion of the analysis based on a summary report and quality criteria; visualization and biological analysis of the genomic profiles and results through a user-friendly interface. CAPweb is accessible at http://bioinfo.curie.fr/CAPweb.

Chromosome Breakage↗

Taverna: a tool for building and running workflows of services.

Taverna is an application that eases the use and integration of the growing number of molecular biology tools and databases available on the web, especially web services. It allows bioinformaticians to construct workflows or pipelines of services to perform a range of different analyses, such as sequence analysis and genome annotation. These high-level workflows can integrate many different resources into a single analysis. Taverna is available freely under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL) from http://taverna.sourceforge.net/.

Computational Biology↗

LAMBDA: a prophage detection benchmark for genomic language models.

Transformer-based genomic sequence models represent an emerging frontier in computational biology. Yet, their embeddings have not yet shown the same level of predictive power as natural and protein language models, highlighting a gap between current implementations and theoretical promise. Existing benchmarks for DNA language models primarily focus on classifying regulatory elements in eukaryotic genomes, leaving open the fundamental question of whether these models learn sequence-level features across whole genomes. We introduce LAMBDA, a benchmark designed to rigorously evaluate genome language model embeddings through phage-bacteria sequence discrimination across four categories of increasing complexity: probing tasks, fine-tuning assessments, diagnostic tests, and genome-wide prophage detection. Our comprehensive analysis of current genomic language models provides insight into the importance of training data selection relative to model size, the need for domain-specific training, and the capabilities and limitations of genomic language models for detecting prophage sequences. This benchmark represents a challenging genomic annotation task in the bacterial domain and addresses a key computational problem with direct relevance to microbiology and medicine.

Prophages↗

LAMBDA: A Prophage Detection Benchmark for Genomic Language Models.

Transformer-based genomic sequence models represent an emerging frontier in computational biology. Yet, their embeddings have not yet shown the same level of predictive power as natural and protein language models, indicating a gap between current implementations and theoretical promise. Existing benchmarks for DNA language models primarily focus on classifying regulatory elements in eukaryotic genomes, leaving open the fundamental question of whether these models learn sequence-level features across whole genomes. We introduce LAMBDA, a benchmark designed to rigorously evaluate genome language model embeddings through phage-bacteria sequence discrimination across four categories of increasing complexity: probing tasks, fine-tuning assessments, diagnostic tests, and genome-wide prophage detection. Our comprehensive analysis of current genomic language models provides novel insights into the importance of training data quality relative to model size, the need for domain-specific training, and the application of genomic language models for detecting prophage sequences. This benchmark represents a challenging genomic annotation task in the bacterial domain and addresses a key computational problem with direct relevance to microbiology and medicine.

DNA language model↗

Charting gene regulatory networks: strategies, challenges and perspectives.

One of the foremost challenges in the post-genomic era will be to chart the gene regulatory networks of cells, including aspects such as genome annotation, identification of cis-regulatory elements and transcription factors, information on protein-DNA and protein-protein interactions, and data mining and integration. Some of these broad sets of data have already been assembled for building networks of gene regulation. Even though these datasets are still far from comprehensive, and the approach faces many important and difficult challenges, some strategies have begun to make connections between disparate regulatory events and to foster new hypotheses. In this article we review several different genomics and proteomics technologies, and present bioinformatics methods for exploring these data in order to make novel discoveries.

Animals↗

Nutritional effects on blood pressure.

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: There has not been a thorough recent evaluation of the nutritional effects on blood pressure. Apart from outstanding clinical trials like Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension, there have been controversial papers on a number of factors influencing blood pressure. This paper is a systematic review of the current literature as it relates to hypertension. RECENT FINDINGS: Results from many meta-analyses and well controlled clinical trials on the effects of a variety of nutritional factors are presented in this review. Evidence suggests that dietary sodium intake needs reduction. There is a seemingly inverse relationship between protein intake and blood pressure, but data are inconclusive. High monounsaturated fat and fish oil appear to be beneficial. Several studies on dietary fiber indicate that the strongest evidence for blood pressure lowering effects is in hypertensive as opposed to normotensive participants. Vegetarians seem to have lower levels of hypertension and cardiovascular disease risk. Low carbohydrate diets show short-term beneficial effects but are not sustained. High levels of potassium, magnesium, calcium and soy seem to have some benefit, but results remain inconclusive. Weight reduction positively impacts blood pressure. SUMMARY: More compelling research defining specific factors is needed to inform the public as to steps needed to reduce blood pressure and improve cardiovascular risk.

Blood Pressure↗

Detecting overlapping coding sequences in virus genomes.

BACKGROUND: Detecting new coding sequences (CDSs) in viral genomes can be difficult for several reasons. The typically compact genomes often contain a number of overlapping coding and non-coding functional elements, which can result in unusual patterns of codon usage; conservation between related sequences can be difficult to interpret--especially within overlapping genes; and viruses often employ non-canonical translational mechanisms--e.g. frameshifting, stop codon read-through, leaky-scanning and internal ribosome entry sites--which can conceal potentially coding open reading frames (ORFs). RESULTS: In a previous paper we introduced a new statistic--MLOGD (Maximum Likelihood Overlapping Gene Detector)--for detecting and analysing overlapping CDSs. Here we present (a) an improved MLOGD statistic, (b) a greatly extended suite of software using MLOGD, (c) a database of results for 640 virus sequence alignments, and (d) a web-interface to the software and database. Tests show that, from an alignment with just 20 mutations, MLOGD can discriminate non-overlapping CDSs from non-coding ORFs with a typical accuracy of up to 98%, and can detect CDSs overlapping known CDSs with a typical accuracy of 90%. In addition, the software produces a variety of statistics and graphics, useful for analysing an input multiple sequence alignment. CONCLUSION: MLOGD is an easy-to-use tool for virus genome annotation, detecting new CDSs--in particular overlapping or short CDSs--and for analysing overlapping CDSs following frameshift sites. The software, web-server, database and supplementary material are available at http://guinevere.otago.ac.nz/mlogd.html.

Algorithms↗

Multiple alignment of complete sequences (MACS) in the post-genomic era.

Multiple alignment, since its introduction in the early seventies, has become a cornerstone of modern molecular biology. It has traditionally been used to deduce structure / function by homology, to detect conserved motifs and in phylogenetic studies. There has recently been some renewed interest in the development of multiple alignment techniques, with current opinion moving away from a single all-encompassing algorithm to iterative and / or co-operative strategies. The exploitation of multiple alignments in genome annotation projects represents a qualitative leap in the functional analysis process, opening the way to the study of the co-evolution of validated sets of proteins and to reliable phylogenomic analysis. However, the alignment of the highly complex proteins detected by today's advanced database search methods is a daunting task. In addition, with the explosion of the sequence databases and with the establishment of numerous specialized biological databases, multiple alignment programs must evolve if they are to successfully rise to the new challenges of the post-genomic era. The way forward is clearly an integrated system bringing together sequence data, knowledge-based systems and prediction methods with their inherent unreliability. The incorporation of such heterogeneous, often non-consistent, data will require major changes to the fundamental alignment algorithms used to date. Such an integrated multiple alignment system will provide an ideal workbench for the validation, propagation and presentation of this information in a format that is concise, clear and intuitive.

Amino Acid Sequence↗

Targeting a complex transcriptome: the construction of the mouse full-length cDNA encyclopedia.

We report the construction of the mouse full-length cDNA encyclopedia,the most extensive view of a complex transcriptome,on the basis of preparing and sequencing 246 libraries. Before cloning,cDNAs were enriched in full-length by Cap-Trapper,and in most cases,aggressively subtracted/normalized. We have produced 1,442,236 successful 3'-end sequences clustered into 171,144 groups, from which 60,770 clones were fully sequenced cDNAs annotated in the FANTOM-2 annotation. We have also produced 547,149 5' end reads,which clustered into 124,258 groups. Altogether, these cDNAs were further grouped in 70,000 transcriptional units (TU),which represent the best coverage of a transcriptome so far. By monitoring the extent of normalization/subtraction, we define the tentative equivalent coverage (TEC),which was estimated to be equivalent to >12,000,000 ESTs derived from standard libraries. High coverage explains discrepancies between the very large numbers of clusters (and TUs) of this project,which also include non-protein-coding RNAs,and the lower gene number estimation of genome annotations. Altogether,5'-end clusters identify regions that are potential promoters for 8637 known genes and 5'-end clusters suggest the presence of almost 63,000 transcriptional starting points. An estimate of the frequency of polyadenylation signals suggests that at least half of the singletons in the EST set represent real mRNAs. Clones accounting for about half of the predicted TUs await further sequencing. The continued high-discovery rate suggests that the task of transcriptome discovery is not yet complete.

Animals↗

Widespread distribution of antisense transcripts in the Plasmodium falciparum genome.

The availability of the complete genome sequence of Plasmodium falciparum has facilitated high-throughput profiling of its complex life cycle, following the application of micro-array, proteomic, and serial analysis of gene expression (SAGE) technologies in this system. These, in turn, have yielded unprecedented insight into global gene expression, including the foremost demonstration of antisense transcription in the parasite. For example, owing to its inherent ability to sample novel ORFs and to predict transcript orientation, SAGE analysis in asexual forms led to the initial discovery of highly abundant antisense RNAs. To determine the extent of this phenomenon in P. falciparum, we have surveyed the distribution of both sense and antisense transcripts across the asexual transcriptome for the first time. To this end, a relational database integrating SAGE expression data with genome annotation information was constructed. This allowed the comprehensive annotation of a total of 17245 SAGE tags, extending over a 350-fold expression range. Transcripts from approximately 30% of the estimated 3D7 gene loci were present at detectable levels in mixed asexual stages, where loci involved in invasion and immune evasion; and carbohydrate metabolism were highly represented in the sense transcriptome. Approximately 12% of SAGE tags, however, were derived from the non-coding strand of nuclear-encoded ORFs, indicating that endogenous antisense RNAs are widespread in this system. Notably, these antisense transcripts were absent from the mitochondrial genome. Interestingly, we note that sense and antisense tag counts from single loci across the transcriptome were inversely related. Taken together, this data may provide first hints as to the possible function of antisense transcription in this system.

Animals↗

Decoding the fine-scale structure of a breast cancer genome and transcriptome.

A comprehensive understanding of cancer is predicated upon knowledge of the structure of malignant genomes underlying its many variant forms and the molecular mechanisms giving rise to them. It is well established that solid tumor genomes accumulate a large number of genome rearrangements during tumorigenesis. End Sequence Profiling (ESP) maps and clones genome breakpoints associated with all types of genome rearrangements elucidating the structural organization of tumor genomes. Here we extend the ESP methodology in several directions using the breast cancer cell line MCF-7. First, targeted ESP is applied to multiple amplified loci, revealing a complex process of rearrangement and co-amplification in these regions reminiscent of breakage/fusion/bridge cycles. Second, genome breakpoints identified by ESP are confirmed using a combination of DNA sequencing and PCR. Third, in vitro functional studies assign biological function to a rearranged tumor BAC clone, demonstrating that it encodes anti-apoptotic activity. Finally, ESP is extended to the transcriptome identifying four novel fusion transcripts and providing evidence that expression of fusion genes may be common in tumors. These results demonstrate the distinct advantages of ESP including: (1) the ability to detect all types of rearrangements and copy number changes; (2) straightforward integration of ESP data with the annotated genome sequence; (3) immortalization of the genome; (4) ability to generate tumor-specific reagents for in vitro and in vivo functional studies. Given these properties, ESP could play an important role in a tumor genome project.

Breast Neoplasms↗

Performance assessment of promoter predictions on ENCODE regions in the EGASP experiment.

BACKGROUND: This study analyzes the predictions of a number of promoter predictors on the ENCODE regions of the human genome as part of the ENCODE Genome Annotation Assessment Project (EGASP). The systems analyzed operate on various principles and we assessed the effectiveness of different conceptual strategies used to correlate produced promoter predictions with the manually annotated 5' gene ends. RESULTS: The predictions were assessed relative to the manual HAVANA annotation of the 5' gene ends. These 5' gene ends were used as the estimated reference transcription start sites. With the maximum allowed distance for predictions of 1,000 nucleotides from the reference transcription start sites, the sensitivity of predictors was in the range 32% to 56%, while the positive predictive value was in the range 79% to 93%. The average distance mismatch of predictions from the reference transcription start sites was in the range 259 to 305 nucleotides. At the same time, using transcription start site estimates from DBTSS and H-Invitational databases as promoter predictions, we obtained a sensitivity of 58%, a positive predictive value of 92%, and an average distance from the annotated transcription start sites of 117 nucleotides. In this experiment, the best performing promoter predictors were those that combined promoter prediction with gene prediction. The main reason for this is the reduced promoter search space that resulted in smaller numbers of false positive predictions. CONCLUSION: The main finding, now supported by comprehensive data, is that the accuracy of human promoter predictors for high-throughput annotation purposes can be significantly improved if promoter prediction is combined with gene prediction. Based on the lessons learned in this experiment, we propose a framework for the preparation of the next similar promoter prediction assessment.

Computational Biology↗

Evidence of a large-scale functional organization of mammalian chromosomes.

Evidence from inbred strains of mice indicates that a quarter or more of the mammalian genome consists of chromosome regions containing clusters of functionally related genes. The intense selection pressures during inbreeding favor the coinheritance of optimal sets of alleles among these genetically linked, functionally related genes, resulting in extensive domains of linkage disequilibrium (LD) among a set of 60 genetically diverse inbred strains. Recombination that disrupts the preferred combinations of alleles reduces the ability of offspring to survive further inbreeding. LD is also seen between markers on separate chromosomes, forming networks with scale-free architecture. Combining LD data with pathway and genome annotation databases, we have been able to identify the biological functions underlying several domains and networks. Given the strong conservation of gene order among mammals, the domains and networks we find in mice probably characterize all mammals, including humans.

Animals↗

Discovering new genes with advanced homology detection.

Most genome annotation protocols combine ab initio predictions with transcription and homology analyses to produce reliable gene predictions but they often fail to detect many actual genes. Alternative approaches involving more sensitive homology recognition methods are playing an increasingly important role in the next stage of gene discovery. The hunt for new genes is far from over.

Database Management Systems↗