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Alginate production affects Pseudomonas aeruginosa biofilm development and architecture, but is not essential for biofilm formation.

Extracellular polymers can facilitate the non-specific attachment of bacteria to surfaces and hold together developing biofilms. This study was undertaken to qualitatively and quantitatively compare the architecture of biofilms produced by Pseudomonas aeruginosa strain PAO1 and its alginate-overproducing (mucA22) and alginate-defective (algD) variants in order to discern the role of alginate in biofilm formation. These strains, PAO1, Alg+ PAOmucA22 and Alg- PAOalgD, tagged with green fluorescent protein, were grown in a continuous flow cell system to characterize the developmental cycles of their biofilm formation using confocal laser scanning microscopy. Biofilm Image Processing (BIP) and Community Statistics (COMSTAT) software programs were used to provide quantitative measurements of the two-dimensional biofilm images. All three strains formed distinguishable biofilm architectures, indicating that the production of alginate is not critical for biofilm formation. Observation over a period of 5 days indicated a three-stage development pattern consisting of initiation, establishment and maturation. Furthermore, this study showed that phenotypically distinguishable biofilms can be quantitatively differentiated.

Alginates↗

Linear versus circular mitochondrial genomes: intraspecies variability of mitochondrial genome architecture in Candida parapsilosis.

The yeast species Candida parapsilosis, an opportunistic pathogen, exhibits genetic and genomic heterogeneity. To assess the polymorphism at the level of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA), the organization of the mitochondrial genome in strains belonging to the three variant groups of this species was investigated. Although these analyses revealed a group-specific restriction fragment pattern of mtDNA, strains belonging to different groups appear to have similar genes in the same gene order. An extensive survey of C. parapsilosis isolates uncovered surprising alterations in the molecular architecture of their mitochondrial genome. A screening strategy for strains harbouring mtDNA with rearranged architecture showed that nearly all strains from groups I and III possess linear mtDNA molecules terminating with arrays of tandem repeat units, while most of the group II strains have a circular mitochondrial genome. In addition, it was found that linear genophores in mitochondria of strains from different groups differ in the sequence of the mitochondrial telomeric repeat unit. The occurrence of altered forms of mtDNA among C. parapsilosis strains opens up the unique possibility to address questions concerning the evolutionary origin and replication strategy of linear and circular genomes in mitochondria.

Candida↗

Prediction and functional interpretation of inter-chromosomal genome architecture from DNA sequence with TwinC.

Three-dimensional nuclear DNA architecture comprises well-studied intra-chromosomal (cis) folding and less characterized inter-chromosomal (trans) interfaces. Current predictive models of 3D genome folding can effectively infer pairwise cis-chromatin interactions from the primary DNA sequence but generally ignore trans contacts. There is an unmet need for robust models of trans-genome organization that provide insights into their underlying principles and functional relevance. We present TwinC, an interpretable convolutional neural network model that reliably predicts trans contacts measurable through proximity ligation-dependent (in situ and intact Hi-C) and independent (DNA SPRITE) genome-wide chromatin conformation assays. . TwinC uses a paired sequence design from replicate Hi-C experiments to learn single base pair relevance in trans interactions across two stretches of DNA. The method achieves high predictive accuracy (AUROC=0.80) on a cross-chromosomal test set from in situ and intact Hi-C experiments in heart tissue. Furthermore, we train TwinC using in situ Hi-C data from the widely used GM12878 cell line and validate its performance with orthogonal DNA SPRITE assay in the same cell type. Mechanistically, the neural network learns the importance of compartments, chromatin accessibility, clustered transcription factor binding and G-quadruplexes in forming trans contacts. In summary, TwinC models and interprets trans genome architecture, shedding light on this poorly understood aspect of gene regulation.

Journal Article↗

DNA-binding determinants of the alpha subunit of RNA polymerase: novel DNA-binding domain architecture.

The Escherichia coli RNA polymerase alpha-subunit binds through its carboxy-terminal domain (alpha CTD) to a recognition element, the upstream (UP) element, in certain promoters. We used genetic and biochemical techniques to identify the residues in alpha CTD important for UP-element-dependent transcription and DNA binding. These residues occur in two regions of alpha CTD, close to but distinct from, residues important for interactions with certain transcription activators. We used NMR spectroscopy to determine the secondary structure of alpha CTD, alpha CTD contains a nonstandard helix followed by four alpha-helices. The two regions of alpha CTD important for DNA binding correspond to the first alpha-helix and the loop between the third and fourth alpha-helices. The alpha CTD DNA-binding domain architecture is unlike any DNA-binding architecture identified to date, and we propose that alpha CTD has a novel mode of interaction with DNA. Our results suggest models for alpha CTD-DNA and alpha CTD-DNA-activator interactions during transcription initiation.

Amino Acid Sequence↗

An architectural map of the anaphase-promoting complex.

The anaphase-promoting complex or cyclosome (APC) is an unusually complicated ubiquitin ligase, composed of 13 core subunits and either of two loosely associated regulatory subunits, Cdc20 and Cdh1. We analyzed the architecture of the APC using a recently constructed budding yeast strain that is viable in the absence of normally essential APC subunits. We found that the largest subunit, Apc1, serves as a scaffold that associates independently with two separable subcomplexes, one that contains Apc2 (Cullin), Apc11 (RING), and Doc1/Apc10, and another that contains the three TPR subunits (Cdc27, Cdc16, and Cdc23). We found that the three TPR subunits display a sequential binding dependency, with Cdc27 the most peripheral, Cdc23 the most internal, and Cdc16 between. Apc4, Apc5, Cdc23, and Apc1 associate interdependently, such that loss of any one subunit greatly reduces binding between the remaining three. Intriguingly, the cullin and TPR subunits both contribute to the binding of Cdh1 to the APC. Enzymatic assays performed with APC purified from strains lacking each of the essential subunits revealed that only cdc27Delta complexes retain detectable activity in the presence of Cdh1. This residual activity depends on the C-box domain of Cdh1, but not on the C-terminal IR domain, suggesting that the C-box mediates a productive interaction with an APC subunit other than Cdc27. We have also found that the IR domain of Cdc20 is dispensable for viability, suggesting that Cdc20 can activate the APC through another domain. We have provided an updated model for the subunit architecture of the APC.

Anaphase-Promoting Complex-Cyclosome↗

Equipotent mouse ribosomal protein promoters have a similar architecture that includes internal sequence elements.

The promoters of the mouse ribosomal protein genes rpL30, rpL32, and rpS16 are of equal strength, as indicated by in vivo measurements of polymerase loading and by their relative efficiency in driving the expression of a linked reporter gene. The equipotency of these promoters appears to derive from a remarkably similar architecture in which five or more elements are distributed over a 200-bp region that spans a polypyrimidine-embedded cap site. Three trans-acting factors are shared by the rpL30 and rpL32 promoters, one of which, delta, recognizes a common CNGCCATCT motif in the first (untranslated) exons. Site-specific mutagenesis demonstrated that delta-factor binding is critical for rpL30 promoter function. The repeated occurrence of this novel promoter architecture among ribosomal protein genes with very different coding specificities is most readily explained by convergent evolution.

Animals↗

The 1.4-Mb CMT1A duplication/HNPP deletion genomic region reveals unique genome architectural features and provides insights into the recent evolution of new genes.

Duplication and deletion of the 1.4-Mb region in 17p12 that is delimited by two 24-kb low copy number repeats (CMT1A-REPs) represent frequent genomic rearrangements resulting in two common inherited peripheral neuropathies, Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease type 1A (CMT1A) and hereditary neuropathy with liability to pressure palsy (HNPP). CMT1A and HNPP exemplify a paradigm for genomic disorders wherein unique genome architectural features result in susceptibility to DNA rearrangements that cause disease. A gene within the 1.4-Mb region, PMP22, is responsible for these disorders through a gene-dosage effect in the heterozygous duplication or deletion. However, the genomic structure of the 1.4-Mb region, including other genes contained within the rearranged genomic segment, remains essentially uncharacterized. To delineate genomic structural features, investigate higher-order genomic architecture, and identify genes in this region, we constructed PAC and BAC contigs and determined the complete nucleotide sequence. This CMT1A/HNPP genomic segment contains 1,421,129 bp of DNA. A low copy number repeat (LCR) was identified, with one copy inside and two copies outside of the 1.4-Mb region. Comparison between physical and genetic maps revealed a striking difference in recombination rates between the sexes with a lower recombination frequency in males (0.67 cM/Mb) versus females (5.5 cM/Mb). Hypothetically, this low recombination frequency in males may enable a chromosomal misalignment at proximal and distal CMT1A-REPs and promote unequal crossing over, which occurs 10 times more frequently in male meiosis. In addition to three previously described genes, five new genes (TEKT3, HS3ST3B1, NPD008/CGI-148, CDRT1, and CDRT15) and 13 predicted genes were identified. Most of these predicted genes are expressed only in embryonic stages. Analyses of the genomic region adjacent to proximal CMT1A-REP indicated an evolutionary mechanism for the formation of proximal CMT1A-REP and the creation of novel genes by DNA rearrangement during primate speciation.

Animals↗

The Ensembl computing architecture.

Ensembl is a software project to automatically annotate large eukaryotic genomes and release them freely into the public domain. The project currently automatically annotates 10 complete genomes. This makes very large demands on compute resources, due to the vast number of sequence comparisons that need to be executed. To circumvent the financial outlay often associated with classical supercomputing environments, farms of multiple, lower-cost machines have now become the norm and have been deployed successfully with this project. The architecture and design of farms containing hundreds of compute nodes is complex and nontrivial to implement. This study will define and explain some of the essential elements to consider when designing such systems. Server architecture and network infrastructure are discussed with a particular emphasis on solutions that worked and those that did not (often with fairly spectacular consequences). The aim of the study is to give the reader, who may be implementing a large-scale biocompute project, an insight into some of the pitfalls that may be waiting ahead.

Computational Biology↗

Architecture of idiotypic networks: percolation and scaling behavior.

We investigate a model where idiotypes (characterizing B lymphocytes and antibodies of an immune system) and anti-idiotypes are represented by complementary bit strings of a given length d allowing for a number of mismatches (matching rules). In this model, the vertices of the hypercube in dimension d represent the potential repertoire of idiotypes. A random set of (with probability p) occupied vertices corresponds to the expressed repertoire of idiotypes at a given moment. Vertices of this set linked by the above matching rules build random clusters. We give a structural and statistical characterization of these clusters, or in other words of the architecture of the idiotypic network. Increasing the probability p one finds at a critical p a percolation transition where for the first time a large connected graph occurs with probability 1. Increasing p further, there is a second transition above which the repertoire is complete in the sense that any newly introduced idiotype finds a complementary anti-idiotype. We introduce structural characteristics such as the mass distribution and the fragmentation rate for random clusters, and determine the scaling behavior of the cluster size distribution near the percolation transition, including finite size corrections. We find that slightly above the percolation transition the large connected cluster (the central part of the idiotypic network) consists typically of one highly connected part and a number of weakly connected constituents and coexists with a number of small, isolated clusters. This is in accordance with the picture of a central and a peripheral part of the idiotypic network and gives some support to idealized architectures of the central part used in recent dynamical mean field models.

Animals↗

Chiral front propagation in liquid-crystalline materials: Formation of the planar monodomain twisted plywood architecture of biological fibrous composites.

Biological fibrous composites commonly exhibit an architecture known as twisted plywood, which is similar to that of the cholesteric liquid-crystalline mesophases. The explanation for the structural similarity is that biological fibrous composites adopt a lyotropic cholesteric liquid-crystalline phase during their formation process. In this work, a mathematical model based on the Landau-de Gennes theory of liquid crystals has been developed to reproduce the process by which long chiral fibrous molecules form the twisted plywood structures observed in biological composites. The dynamics of the process was then further investigated by analytically solving a simplified version of the governing equations. Results obtained from the model are in good qualitative agreement with the theory of Neville [Biology of Fibrous Composites (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, England, 1993)] who hypothesized the necessity of a constraining layer to lock the direction of the helical axis of the plywood in order to create a monodomain structure. Computational results indicate that the plywood architecture is obtained by a chiral front propagation process with a fully relaxed wake. The effects of chirality and concentration on the formation process kinetics are characterized.

Journal Article↗

Influence of polymer architecture and polymer-wall interaction on the adsorption of polymers into a slit-pore.

The effects of molecular topology and polymer-surface interaction on the properties of isolated polymer chains trapped in a slit were investigated using off-lattice Monte Carlo simulations. Various methods were implemented to allow efficient simulation of molecular structure, confinement force, and free energy for a chain interacting with such "sticky" surfaces. The simulations were performed in the canonical ensemble, and the free energy was sampled via virtual slit-separation moves. Six different chain architectures were studied: linear, star-branched, dendritic, cyclic, two-node (i.e., containing two tetrafunctional intramolecular crosslinks), and six-node molecules. The first three topologies entail increasing degrees of branching, and the last three topologies entail increasing degrees of intramolecular bonding. The confinement force, monomer density profile, and conformational properties for all these systems were compared (for identical molecular weight N) and analyzed as a function of adsorption strength. The compensation point where the wall attraction counterbalances the polymer-slit exclusion effects was the focus of our study. It was found that the attractive energy at the compensation point, epsilon(c), is a weak increasing function of the chain length for excluded-volume chains. The value of epsilon(c) differs significantly for different topologies, and smaller values are associated with better-adsorbing molecules. Due to their globular shape and numerous chain ends, branched molecules (e.g., stars and dendrimers) experience a relatively small entropic penalty for adsorption at low adsorption force and moderate confinement. However, as the adsorption force increases, the more flexible linear chains reach the compensation point at a weaker attractive energy because of the ease with which monomers can be packed near the walls. In moderate to weak confinement, molecules with intramolecular cross-links, such as cyclic, two-node, and six-node molecules, always adsorb better than the other chains (with the same N). Especially at strong adsorption, two-node and six node molecules are highly localized in the region near the walls. Under strong confinement conditions, chain rigidity becomes the dominating factor and the more flexible linear chain adsorbs the best at all adsorption strengths. These results provide useful insights for controlling confinement and depletion forces of polymers with different molecular architectures in the presence of attractive polymer-surface interactions.

Adsorption↗

Photonic band gap architectures for holographic lithography.

Using symmetry considerations, we identify three families of large photonic band-gap (PBG) architectures defined by the isointensity surfaces of four beam laser interference. For particular choices of beam intensities, directions, and polarizations, we obtain a diamondlike crystal, a novel body-centered cubic architecture, and a simple cubic structure with PBG to center frequency ratios of 25%, 21%, and 11%, respectively, when the isointensity surface defines a silicon (dielectric constant of 11.9) to air boundary.

Journal Article↗

Direct measurement of xylem pressure in leaves of intact maize plants. A test of the cohesion-tension theory taking hydraulic architecture into consideration

The water relations of maize (Zea mays L. cv Helix) were documented in terms of hydraulic architecture and xylem pressure. A high-pressure flowmeter was used to characterize the hydraulic resistances of the root, stalk, and leaves. Xylem pressure measurements were made with a Scholander-Hammel pressure bomb and with a cell pressure probe. Evaporation rates were measured by gas exchange and by gravimetric measurements. Xylem pressure was altered by changing the light intensity, by controlling irrigation, or by gas pressure applied to the soil mass (using a root pressure bomb). Xylem pressure measured by the cell pressure probe and by the pressure bomb agreed over the entire measured range of 0 to -0.7 MPa. Experiments were consistent with the cohesion-tension theory. Xylem pressure changed rapidly and reversibly with changes in light intensity and root-bomb pressure. Increasing the root-bomb pressure increased the evaporation rate slightly when xylem pressure was negative and increased water flow rate through the shoots dramatically when xylem pressure was positive and guttation was observed. The hydraulic architecture model could predict all observed changes in water flow rate and xylem. We measured the cavitation threshold for oil- and water-filled pressure probes and provide some suggestions for improvement.

Journal Article↗

Water Relations and Hydraulic Architecture of a Tropical Tree (Schefflera morototoni) : Data, Models, and a Comparison with Two Temperate Species (Acer saccharum and Thuja occidentalis).

The water relations and hydraulic architecture of a tropical tree (Schefflera morototoni) and of two temperate species (Acer saccharum and Thuja occidentalis) are reported. Among the water relations parameters measured were leaf and stem water storage capacity, leaf water potential, transpiration, and vulnerability of stems to cavitation and loss of hydraulic conductivity by embolisms. Among the hydraulic architecture parameters measured were hydraulic conductivity per unit pressure gradient, specific conductivity, leaf-specific conductivity, and Huber value. In terms of vulnerability of stems to cavitation, stem and leaf capacitances, and leaf-specific conductivity, all three species followed the same sequence: Schefflera > Acer > Thuja. It is argued here that the high stem capacitance and high leaf-specific conductivity of Schefflera are necessary to compensate for its high vulnerability to cavitation. Extractable water storage per unit leaf area in Schefflera stems is >100 times that of Acer and may permit the species to survive unusually long, dry seasons in Panama. Although Schefflera frequently grows >20 meters, the biggest resistance to water flow in the shoots resides in the leaves.

Journal Article↗

EMF1, a novel protein involved in the control of shoot architecture and flowering in Arabidopsis.

Shoot architecture and flowering time in angiosperms depend on the balanced expression of a large number of flowering time and flower meristem identity genes. Loss-of-function mutations in the Arabidopsis EMBRYONIC FLOWER (EMF) genes cause Arabidopsis to eliminate rosette shoot growth and transform the apical meristem from indeterminate to determinate growth by producing a single terminal flower on all nodes. We have identified the EMF1 gene by positional cloning. The deduced polypeptide has no homology with any protein of known function except a putative protein in the rice genome with which EMF1 shares common motifs that include nuclear localization signals, P-loop, and LXXLL elements. Alteration of EMF1 expression in transgenic plants caused progressive changes in flowering time, shoot determinacy, and inflorescence architecture. EMF1 and its related sequence may belong to a new class of proteins that function as transcriptional regulators of phase transition during shoot development.

Amino Acid Sequence↗

A neural network architecture for preattentive vision.

Recent results towards development of a neural network architecture for general-purpose preattentive vision are summarized. The architecture contains two parallel subsystems, the boundary contour system (BCS) and the feature contour system (FCS), which interact together to generate a representation of form-and-color-and-depth. Emergent boundary segmentation within the BCS and featural filling-in within the FCS are herein emphasized within a monocular setting. Applications to the analysis of boundaries, textures, and smooth surfaces are described, as is a model for invariant brightness perception under variable illumination conditions. The theory shows how suitably defined parallel and hierarchical interactions overcome computational uncertainties that necessarily exist at early processing stages. Some of the psychophysical and neurophysiological data supporting the theory's predictions are mentioned.

Artificial Intelligence↗

Architecture of a mediator for a bioinformatics database federation.

Developments in our ability to integrate and analyze data held in existing heterogeneous data resources can lead to an increase in our understanding of biological function at all levels. However, supporting ad hoc queries across multiple data resources and correlating data retrieved from these is still difficult. To address this, we are building a mediator based on the functional data model database, P/FDM, which integrates access to heterogeneous distributed biological databases. Our architecture makes use of the existing search capabilities and indexes of the underlying databases, without infringing on their autonomy. Central to our design philosophy is the use of schemas. We have adopted a federated architecture with a five-level schema, arising from the use of the ANSI-SPARC three-level schema to describe both the existing autonomous data resources and the mediator itself. We describe the use of mapping functions and list comprehensions in query splitting, producing execution plans, code generation, and result fusion. We give an example of cross-database querying involving data held locally in P/FDM systems and external data in SRS.

Algorithms↗

FAIR: a hardware architecture for real-time 3-D image registration.

Mutual information-based image registration, shown to be effective in registering a range of medical images, is a computationally expensive process, with a typical execution time on the order of minutes on a modern single-processor computer. Accelerated execution of this process promises to enhance efficiency and therefore promote routine use of image registration clinically. This paper presents details of a hardware architecture for real-time three-dimensional (3-D) image registration. Real-time performance can be achieved by setting up a network of processing units, each with three independent memory buses: one each for the two image memories and one for the mutual histogram memory. Memory access parallelization and pipelining, by design, allow each processing unit to be 25 times faster than a processor with the same bus speed, when calculating mutual information using partial volume interpolation. Our architecture provides superior per-processor performance at a lower cost compared to a parallel supercomputer.

Algorithms↗