Search PubMed⌕ Search

SEARCH · Search PubMed

Results for “Molecular Sequence 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 667 records · Page 37Linked to original sources

Development of Saccharomyces cerevisiae as a model pathogen. A system for the genetic identification of gene products required for survival in the mammalian host environment.

Saccharomyces cerevisiae, a close relative of the pathogenic Candida species, is an emerging opportunistic pathogen. An isogenic series of S. cerevisiae strains, derived from a human clinical isolate, were used to examine the role of evolutionarily conserved pathways in fungal survival in a mouse host. As is the case for the corresponding Candida albicans and Cryptococcus neoformans mutants, S. cerevisiae purine and pyrimidine auxotrophs were severely deficient in survival, consistent with there being evolutionary conservation of survival traits. Resistance to the antifungal drug 5-fluorocytosine was not deleterious and appeared to be slightly advantageous in vivo. Of mutants in three amino acid biosynthetic pathways, only leu2 mutants were severely deficient in vivo. Unlike the glyoxylate cycle, respiration was very important for survival; however, the mitochondrial genome made a respiration-independent contribution to survival. Mutants deficient in pseudohyphal formation were tested in vivo; flo11Delta mutants were phenotypically neutral while flo8Delta, tec1Delta, and flo8Delta tec1Delta mutants were slightly deficient. Because of its ease of genetic manipulation and the immense S. cerevisiae database, which includes the best annotated eukaryotic genome sequence, S. cerevisiae is a superb model system for the identification of gene products important for fungal survival in the mammalian host environment.

Amino Acids↗

A quality control algorithm for DNA sequencing projects.

Heterologous DNA sequences from rearrangements with the genomes of host cells, genomic fragments from hybrid cells, or impure tissue sources can threaten the purity of libraries that are derived from RNA or DNA. Hybridization methods can only detect contaminants from known or suspected heterologous sources, and whole library screening is technically very difficult. Detection of contaminating heterologous clones by sequence alignment is only possible when related sequences are present in a known database. We have developed a statistical test to identify heterologous sequences that is based on the differences in hexamer composition of DNA from different organisms. This test does not require that sequences similar to potential heterologous contaminants are present in the database, and can in principle detect contamination by previously unknown organisms. We have applied this test to the major public expressed sequence tag (EST) data sets to evaluate its utility as a quality control measure and a peer evaluation tool. There is detectable heterogeneity in most human and C.elegans EST data sets but it is not apparently associated with cross-species contamination. However, there is direct evidence for both yeast and bacterial sequence contamination in some public database sequences annotated as human. Results obtained with the hexamer test have been confirmed with similarity searches using sequences from the relevant data sets.

Algorithms↗

Some statistical properties of regulatory DNA sequences, and their use in predicting regulatory regions in the Drosophila genome: the fluffy-tail test.

BACKGROUND: This paper addresses the problem of recognising DNA cis-regulatory modules which are located far from genes. Experimental procedures for this are slow and costly, and computational methods are hard, because they lack positional information. RESULTS: We present a novel statistical method, the "fluffy-tail test", to recognise regulatory DNA. We exploit one of the basic informational properties of regulatory DNA: abundance of over-represented transcription factor binding site (TFBS) motifs, although we do not look for specific TFBS motifs, per se . Though overrepresentation of TFBS motifs in regulatory DNA has been intensively exploited by many algorithms, it is still a difficult problem to distinguish regulatory from other genomic DNA. CONCLUSION: We show that, in the data used, our method is able to distinguish cis-regulatory modules by exploiting statistical differences between the probability distributions of similar words in regulatory and other DNA. The potential application of our method includes annotation of new genomic sequences and motif discovery.

Algorithms↗

[Annotation of complete genomic sequence of 3p24-p25 478 kb of human DNA].

OBJECTIVE: To annotate the human genome 3p24-p25 478 kb complete sequence. METHODS: The protein-coding genes in the genomic sequence were identified by using ab initio gene finding, homology-based similarity database searching and all or partial mRNA aligning with genomic sequence, and the content feature of the genomic sequence were analyzed by using EMBOSS package. RESULTS: Two known genes SLC6A1 and SLC6A11 were identified; as well as the GC content of this genomic sequence was 47% and 3 putative CpG islands were predicted in the genomic sequence, located in 130,685-131,516 bp, 307,090-307,870 bp and 415,585-416,308 bp, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: The methods, as mentioned above, might be used for annotating the biological information in the genomic sequence, such as gene structure, GC content, CpG island.

Base Sequence↗

Identification of differentially expressed cDNA sequences in ovaries of sexual and apomictic plants of Brachiaria brizantha.

The isolation of genes associated with apomixis would improve understanding of the molecular mechanism of this mode of reproduction in plants as well as open the possibility of transfer of apomixis to sexual plants, enabling cloning of crops through seeds. Brachiaria brizantha is a highly apomictic grass species with 274 tetraploid apomicts accessions and only one diploid sexual. In this study we have compared gene expression in ovaries at megasporogenesis and megagametogenesis of sexual and apomictic accessions of B. brizantha by differential display (DD-PCR), with 60 primer combinations. Specificity of 65 cloned fragments, checked by reverse northern blot analysis, showed that 11 clones were differentially expressed, 6 in apomictic ovaries, 2 in sexual and 3 in apomictic and sexual, but at different stages. Of the 6 sequences isolated that were preferentially expressed in the apomictic accession: one sequence was from ovaries at megasporogenesis stage; three were from megagametogenesis stage; two were from both stages. Of the two sequences isolated from the sexual accessions, one showed expression in ovaries at megagametogenesis, while the other sequence was shown to be specific to both stages. Three sequences were from megasporogenesis stage in apomicts but were also detected at megagametogenesis in sexual plants. Sequence analysis showed that 5 of the 11 clones had no apparent homologues in the protein database. Some of the clones identified as apomictic-specific shared homology with known genes enabling their functional annotation. The relationships of these functions to the generation of the apomictic trait are discussed.

Amino Acid Sequence↗

Gene expression during Ustilago maydis diploid filamentous growth: EST library creation and analyses.

Ustilago maydis is an important model system for the plant pathogenic smut and rust fungi. Critical to the continued development of this model is establishing genomic resources. We have constructed a cDNA library from a forced diploid culture of U. maydis growing as filaments and have generated 7455 ESTs that are assembled into 3074 contiguous sequences. This represents as much as 46% of the coding capacity predicted for U. maydis. BLAST searches with a similarity cutoff of E </= 10(-5), allow us to annotate 59% of the contigs based upon matches in the NCBI nr and dbEST databases. These annotated sequences provide information on mature mRNAs that will aid with gene prediction in the U. maydis genome sequence. Functional categorization and comparative analyses of the sequences provides gene identities, expression information and a solid base for future research in this model fungal pathogen.

Base Sequence↗

New trends in bioinformatics: from genome sequence to personalized medicine.

Molecular medicine requires the integration and analysis of genomic, molecular, cellular, as well as clinical data and it thus offers a remarkable set of challenges to bioinformatics. Bioinformatics nowadays has an essential role both, in deciphering genomic, transcriptomic, and proteomic data generated by high-throughput experimental technologies, and in organizing information gathered from traditional biology and medicine. The evolution of bioinformatics, which started with sequence analysis and has led to high-throughput whole genome or transcriptome annotation today, is now going to be directed towards recently emerging areas of integrative and translational genomics, and ultimately personalized medicine.Therefore considerable efforts are required to provide the necessary infrastructure for high-performance computing, sophisticated algorithms, advanced data management capabilities, and-most importantly-well trained and educated personnel to design, maintain and use these environments. This review outlines the most promising trends in bioinformatics, which may play a major role in the pursuit of future biological discoveries and medical applications.

Computational Biology↗

Closing in on the C. elegans ORFeome by cloning TWINSCAN predictions.

The genome of Caenorhabditis elegans was the first animal genome to be sequenced. Although considerable effort has been devoted to annotating it, the standard WormBase annotation contains thousands of predicted genes for which there is no cDNA or EST evidence. We hypothesized that a more complete experimental annotation could be obtained by creating a more accurate gene-prediction program and then amplifying and sequencing predicted genes. Our approach was to adapt the TWINSCAN gene prediction system to C. elegans and C. briggsae and to improve its splice site and intron-length models. The resulting system has 60% sensitivity and 58% specificity in exact prediction of open reading frames (ORFs), and hence, proteins-the best results we are aware of any multicellular organism. We then attempted to amplify, clone, and sequence 265 TWINSCAN-predicted ORFs that did not overlap WormBase gene annotations. The success rate was 55%, adding 146 genes that were completely absent from WormBase to the ORF clone collection (ORFeome). The same procedure had a 7% success rate on 90 Worm Base "predicted" genes that do not overlap TWINSCAN predictions. These results indicate that the accuracy of WormBase could be significantly increased by replacing its partially curated predicted genes with TWINSCAN predictions. The technology described in this study will continue to drive the C. elegans ORFeome toward completion and contribute to the annotation of the three Caenorhabditis species currently being sequenced. The results also suggest that this technology can significantly improve our knowledge of the "parts list" for even the best-studied model organisms.

Animals↗

Beyond annotation transfer by homology: novel protein-function prediction methods to assist drug discovery.

Every entirely sequenced genome reveals 100 s to 1000 s of protein sequences for which the only annotation available is 'hypothetical protein'. Thus, in the human genome and in the genomes of pathogenic agents there could be 1000 s of potential, unexplored drug targets. Computational prediction of protein function can play a role in studying these targets. We shall review the challenges, research approaches and recently developed tools in the field of computational function-prediction and we will discuss the ways these issues can change the process of drug discovery.

Computational Biology↗

The diversity of Rab GTPases in Entamoeba histolytica.

Rab proteins are ubiquitous small GTP-binding proteins that form a highly conserved family and regulate vesicular trafficking. Recent completion of the genome of the enteric protozoan parasite Entamoeba histolytica enabled us to identify an extremely large number (>90) of putative Rab genes. Multiple alignment and phylogenic analysis of amebic, human, and yeast Rab showed that only 22 amebic Rab proteins including EhRab1, EhRab2, EhRab5, EhRab7, EhRab8, EhRab11, and EhRab21 showed significant similarity to Rab from other organisms. The 69 remaining amebic Rab proteins showed only moderate similarity (<40% identity) to Rab proteins from other organisms. Approximately one-third of Rab proteins including Rab7, Rab11, and RabC form 15 subfamilies, which contain up to nine isoforms. Approximately 70% of amebic Rab genes contain single or multiple introns, and this proportion is significantly higher than that of common genes in this organism. Twenty-five Rabs possess an atypical carboxyl terminus such as CXXX, XCXX, XXCX, XXXC, and no cysteine. We propose annotation of amebic Rab genes and discuss biological significance of this extraordinary diversity of EhRab proteins in this organism.

Amino Acid Sequence↗

Analysis and prediction of functional sub-types from protein sequence alignments.

The increasing number and diversity of protein sequence families requires new methods to define and predict details regarding function. Here, we present a method for analysis and prediction of functional sub-types from multiple protein sequence alignments. Given an alignment and set of proteins grouped into sub-types according to some definition of function, such as enzymatic specificity, the method identifies positions that are indicative of functional differences by comparison of sub-type specific sequence profiles, and analysis of positional entropy in the alignment. Alignment positions with significantly high positional relative entropy correlate with those known to be involved in defining sub-types for nucleotidyl cyclases, protein kinases, lactate/malate dehydrogenases and trypsin-like serine proteases. We highlight new positions for these proteins that suggest additional experiments to elucidate the basis of specificity. The method is also able to predict sub-type for unclassified sequences. We assess several variations on a prediction method, and compare them to simple sequence comparisons. For assessment, we remove close homologues to the sequence for which a prediction is to be made (by a sequence identity above a threshold). This simulates situations where a protein is known to belong to a protein family, but is not a close relative of another protein of known sub-type. Considering the four families above, and a sequence identity threshold of 30 %, our best method gives an accuracy of 96 % compared to 80 % obtained for sequence similarity and 74 % for BLAST. We describe the derivation of a set of sub-type groupings derived from an automated parsing of alignments from PFAM and the SWISSPROT database, and use this to perform a large-scale assessment. The best method gives an average accuracy of 94 % compared to 68 % for sequence similarity and 79 % for BLAST. We discuss implications for experimental design, genome annotation and the prediction of protein function and protein intra-residue distances.

Adenylyl Cyclases↗

Mining the Giardia lamblia genome for new cyst wall proteins.

The Giardia lamblia cyst wall (CW), which is required for survival outside the host and infection, is a primitive extracellular matrix. Because of the importance of the CW, we queried the Giardia Genome Project Database with the coding sequences of the only two known CW proteins, which are cysteine-rich and contain leucine-rich repeats (LRRs). We identified five new LRR-containing proteins, of which only one (CWP3) is up-regulated during encystation and incorporated into the cyst wall. Sequence comparison with CWP1 and -2 revealed conservation within the LRRs and the 44-amino-acid N-flanking region, although CWP3 is more divergent. Interestingly, all 14 cysteine residues of CWP3 are positionally conserved with CWP1 and -2. During encystation, C-terminal epitope-tagged CWP3 was transported to the wall of water-resistant cysts via the novel regulated secretory pathway in encystation-secretory vesicles (ESVs). Deletion analysis revealed that the four LRRs are each essential to target CWP3 to the ESVs and cyst wall. In a deletion of the most C-terminal region, fewer ESVs were stained in encysting cells, and there was no staining in cysts. In contrast, deletion of the 44 amino acids between the signal sequence and the LRRs or the region just C-terminal to the LRRs only decreased the number of cells with CWP3 targeting to ESVs and cyst wall by approximately 50%. Our studies indicate that virtually every portion of the CWP3 protein is needed for efficient targeting to the regulated secretory pathway and incorporation into the cyst wall. Further, these data demonstrate the power of genomics in combination with rigorous functional analyses to verify annotation.

Amino Acid Sequence↗

Identification of function-associated loop motifs and application to protein function prediction.

MOTIVATION: The detection of function-related local 3D-motifs in protein structures can provide insights towards protein function in absence of sequence or fold similarity. Protein loops are known to play important roles in protein function and several loop classifications have been described, but the automated identification of putative functional 3D-motifs in such classifications has not yet been addressed. This identification can be used on sequence annotations. RESULTS: We evaluated three different scoring methods for their ability to identify known motifs from the PROSITE database in ArchDB. More than 500 new putative function-related motifs not reported in PROSITE were identified. Sequence patterns derived from these motifs were especially useful at predicting precise annotations. The number of reliable sequence annotations could be increased up to 100% with respect to standard BLAST. CONTACT: boliva@imim.es SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Supplementary Data are available at Bioinformatics online.

Amino Acid Sequence↗

Reinvestigation of the Saccharomyces cerevisiae genome annotation by comparison to the genome of a related fungus: Ashbya gossypii.

BACKGROUND: The recently sequenced genome of the filamentous fungus Ashbya gossypii revealed remarkable similarities to that of the budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae both at the level of homology and synteny (conservation of gene order). Thus, it became possible to reinvestigate the S. cerevisiae genome in the syntenic regions leading to an improved annotation. RESULTS: We have identified 23 novel S. cerevisiae open reading frames (ORFs) as syntenic homologs of A. gossypii genes; for all but one, homologs are present in other eukaryotes including humans. Other comparisons identified 13 overlooked introns and suggested 69 potential sequence corrections resulting in ORF extensions or ORF fusions with improved homology to the syntenic A. gossypii homologs. Of the proposed corrections, 25 were tested and confirmed by resequencing. In addition, homologs of nearly 1,000 S. cerevisiae ORFs, presently annotated as hypothetical, were found in A. gossypii at syntenic positions and can therefore be considered as authentic genes. Finally, we suggest that over 400 S. cerevisiae ORFs that overlap other ORFs in S. cerevisiae and for which no homolog can be detected in A. gossypii should be regarded as spurious. CONCLUSIONS: Although, the S. cerevisiae genome is rightly considered as one of the most accurately sequenced and annotated eukaryotic genomes, we have shown that it still benefits substantially from comparison to the completed sequence and syntenic gene map of A. gossypii, an evolutionarily related fungus. This type of approach will strongly support the annotation of more complex genomes such as the human and murine genomes.

Amino Acid Sequence↗

[Correction of five different types of errors of model REFSEQs appeared in NCBI human gene database only by using two novel human genes C17orf32 and ZNF362].

Found that there exist many mistakes in the REFSEQ issued in the genome annotation project of NCBI, the result of which indicates that people be cautious in using REFSEQ database in NCBI. By adopting the technical route combining bioinformatics analysis and experimental verification, through the comparison of the cloned genes in the non-redundant database, we found that there were many mistakes in the computer annotation human genome coding sequences that were issued on the internet. First we quoted nine wrong types of novel human genes anticipated by NCBI GENOME Annotation Project. Here we give one example in detail: (1) Comparison of the sequences between novel human gene C17orf32 and hypothetical human gene LOC124919. LOC123722 is a modified sequence of C17orf32 cDNA with an inserted G between 406 -407 nucleotides. The base G in the 401 position of LOC123722 cDNA is a redundant insert, which causes a reading frame shift in the translation of an alternative protein. This inserted G has not been found in our experimental clone, and is fully rejected by human EST alignment, and is shown as a redundance by genomic GT/AG organization analysis. (2) Comparison of the sequences between novel human gene C17orf32 and hypothetical human gene LOC147007. C17orf32 gene (ORF from 31 to 657 nucleotides) is located on human chromosome 17(Accession No. NT_010808.7), and is only linked with a hypothetical human gene LOC147007 (ORF from 55 to 435 nucleotides) at present. This hypothetical human gene sequence has not been verified by experiment, and is a wrong form of our verified C17orf32 gene. The full-length 1 679 bp cDNA sequence of C17orf32 exhibits overall homology to that of LOC147007 of 625 bp mRNA, with matching percentage of 37% in 36% of total window over the full-length nucleotide, especially 121 approximately 366 bp of LOC147007 is just the same as 316 approximately 561 bp of C17orf32. Thus, the 126 aa protein encoded by XP_097165 of LOC147007 exhibits overall homology to the 208 aa protein encoded by C17orf32, with matching percentage of 50% in 48% of total window over the full-length protein, especially 23 approximately 104 aa of XP_097165 is just the same as 96 approximately 177 aa of C17orf32 protein. Both flanking regions of LOC147007 outside the same ORF central part are wrong assembly of non-relative cDNA. In addition, we have in silico cloned a novel mouse gene, ORF32 (open reading frame 32) with TPA accession number of BK000258, which is the mouse ortholog of human C17orf32. Our strategy is helpful in both finding out more novel human genes and correcting the mistakes in the REFSEQs issued by NCBI genome annnotation project. For example, we adopted the gene anticipating method, through automatic calculation and analysis, anticipated two modes reference sequences (LOC124919 and LOC147007) from NCBI contig NT_ 010808. Both of them should be C17orf32, but the fact is that both of them are various wrong forms of C17orf32, respectively are the first type and second type of mistakes. Another example, we adopted gene anticipation method, through automatic calculation and analysis, anticipated three modes reference sequences (LOC14907, LOC200084 and LOC91126) from NCBI contig NT_004511 which really are one type of gene of ZNF362, but submitted three different wrong forms of ZNF362, respectively are: the fourth, fifth, and seventh type of mistakes. We can correct or avoid the currently wrong human genome coding sequence by using in silico clone and combining experimental verification. People should be cautious in treating the computer's annotation which may exist all type of wrong human genome coding sequences. The correct identification and annotation of the novel human genes still remain to be a long and arduous task.

Amino Acid Sequence↗

Experimental RNomics: identification of 140 candidates for small non-messenger RNAs in the plant Arabidopsis thaliana.

BACKGROUND: Genomes from all organisms known to date express two types of RNA molecules: messenger RNAs (mRNAs), which are translated into proteins, and non-messenger RNAs, which function at the RNA level and do not serve as templates for translation. RESULTS: We have generated a specialized cDNA library from Arabidopsis thaliana to investigate the population of small non-messenger RNAs (snmRNAs) sized 50-500 nt in a plant. From this library, we identified 140 candidates for novel snmRNAs and investigated their expression, abundance, and developmental regulation. Based on conserved sequence and structure motifs, 104 snmRNA species can be assigned to novel members of known classes of RNAs (designated Class I snmRNAs), namely, small nucleolar RNAs (snoRNAs), 7SL RNA, U snRNAs, as well as a tRNA-like RNA. For the first time, 39 novel members of H/ACA box snoRNAs could be identified in a plant species. Of the remaining 36 snmRNA candidates (designated Class II snmRNAs), no sequence or structure motifs were present that would enable an assignment to a known class of RNAs. These RNAs were classified based on their location on the A. thaliana genome. From these, 29 snmRNA species located to intergenic regions, 3 located to intronic sequences of protein coding genes, and 4 snmRNA candidates were derived from annotated open reading frames. Surprisingly, 15 of the Class II snmRNA candidates were shown to be tissue-specifically expressed, while 12 are encoded by the mitochondrial or chloroplast genome. CONCLUSIONS: Our study has identified 140 novel candidates for small non-messenger RNA species in the plant A. thaliana and thereby sets the stage for their functional analysis.

Arabidopsis↗

The TIGR gene indices: reconstruction and representation of expressed gene sequences.

Expressed sequence tags (ESTs) have provided a first glimpse of the collection of transcribed sequences in a variety of organisms. However, a careful analysis of this sequence data can provide significant additional functional, structural and evolutionary information. Our analysis of the public EST sequences, available through the TIGR Gene Indices (TGI; http://www.tigr.org/tdb/tdb.html ), is an attempt to identify the genes represented by that data and to provide additional information regarding those genes. Gene Indices are constructed for selected organisms by first clustering, then assembling EST and annotated gene sequences from GenBank. This process produces a set of unique, high-fidelity virtual transcripts, or tentative consensus (TC) sequences. The TC sequences can be used to provide putative genes with functional annotation, to link the transcripts to mapping and genomic sequence data, and to provide links between orthologous and paralogous genes.

Base Sequence↗

The Legume Information System (LIS): an integrated information resource for comparative legume biology.

The Legume Information System (LIS) (http://www.comparative-legumes.org), developed by the National Center for Genome Resources in cooperation with the USDA Agricultural Research Service (ARS), is a comparative legume resource that integrates genetic and molecular data from multiple legume species enabling cross-species genomic and transcript comparisons. The LIS virtual plant interface allows simplified and intuitive navigation of transcript data from Medicago truncatula, Lotus japonicus, Glycine max and Arabidopsis thaliana. Transcript libraries are represented as images of plant organs in different developmental stages, which are selected to query the analyzed and annotated data. Complex queries can be accomplished by adding modifiers, keywords and sequence names. The LIS also contains annotated genomic data featuring transcript alignments to validate gene predictions as well as motif and similarity analyses. The genomic browser supports comparative analysis via novel dynamic functional annotation comparisons. CMap, developed as part of the GMOD project (http://www.gmod.org/cmap/index.shtml), has been incorporated to support comparative analyses of community linkage and physical map data. LIS is being expanded to incorporate gene expression and biochemical pathways which will be seamlessly integrated forming a knowledge discovery framework.

Arabidopsis↗