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PASS2: an automated database of protein alignments organised as structural superfamilies.

BACKGROUND: The functional selection and three-dimensional structural constraints of proteins in nature often relates to the retention of significant sequence similarity between proteins of similar fold and function despite poor sequence identity. Organization of structure-based sequence alignments for distantly related proteins, provides a map of the conserved and critical regions of the protein universe that is useful for the analysis of folding principles, for the evolutionary unification of protein families and for maximizing the information return from experimental structure determination. The Protein Alignment organised as Structural Superfamily (PASS2) database represents continuously updated, structural alignments for evolutionary related, sequentially distant proteins. DESCRIPTION: An automated and updated version of PASS2 is, in direct correspondence with SCOP 1.63, consisting of sequences having identity below 40% among themselves. Protein domains have been grouped into 628 multi-member superfamilies and 566 single member superfamilies. Structure-based sequence alignments for the superfamilies have been obtained using COMPARER, while initial equivalencies have been derived from a preliminary superposition using LSQMAN or STAMP 4.0. The final sequence alignments have been annotated for structural features using JOY4.0. The database is supplemented with sequence relatives belonging to different genomes, conserved spatially interacting and structural motifs, probabilistic hidden markov models of superfamilies based on the alignments and useful links to other databases. Probabilistic models and sensitive position specific profiles obtained from reliable superfamily alignments aid annotation of remote homologues and are useful tools in structural and functional genomics. PASS2 presents the phylogeny of its members both based on sequence and structural dissimilarities. Clustering of members allows us to understand diversification of the family members. The search engine has been improved for simpler browsing of the database. CONCLUSIONS: The database resolves alignments among the structural domains consisting of evolutionarily diverged set of sequences. Availability of reliable sequence alignments of distantly related proteins despite poor sequence identity and single-member superfamilies permit better sampling of structures in libraries for fold recognition of new sequences and for the understanding of protein structure-function relationships of individual superfamilies. PASS2 is accessible at http://www.ncbs.res.in/~faculty/mini/campass/pass2.html

Amino Acid Sequence↗

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↗

A variable region in the Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever virus L segment distinguishes between strains isolated from different geographic regions.

Alignment of Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever virus (CCHFV) L genome segment full-length sequences reveals an overall high level of conservation among strains, with greater than 90% of translated amino acid residues strictly conserved. However, a region of marked variability identified previously, corresponding to L polyprotein amino acid positions 760-810, shares only 40% overall identity between strains. The variable regions sequences of 16 laboratory-adapted CCHFV strains were determined, including 11 strains from European Russia, one strain from Bulgaria, and four strains from the Central Asian countries of Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. Phylogenetic analysis demonstrates this L segment variable region sequence divides CCHFV strains into similar geographically-defined groupings observed for S segment-derived trees, but with higher bootstrap support and a much smaller character set required for analysis.

Africa↗

Integrated maps in quail (Coturnix japonica) confirm the high degree of synteny conservation with chicken (Gallus gallus) despite 35 million years of divergence.

BACKGROUND: By comparing the quail genome with that of chicken, chromosome rearrangements that have occurred in these two galliform species over 35 million years of evolution can be detected. From a more practical point of view, the definition of conserved syntenies helps to predict the position of genes in quail, based on information taken from the chicken sequence, thus enhancing the utility of this species in biological studies through a better knowledge of its genome structure. A microsatellite and an Amplified Fragment Length Polymorphism (AFLP) genetic map were previously published for quail, as well as comparative cytogenetic data with chicken for macrochromosomes. Quail genomics will benefit from the extension and the integration of these maps. RESULTS: The integrated linkage map presented here is based on segregation analysis of both anonymous markers and functional gene loci in 1,050 quail from three independent F2 populations. Ninety-two loci are resolved into 14 autosomal linkage groups and a Z chromosome-specific linkage group, aligned with the quail AFLP map. The size of linkage groups ranges from 7.8 cM to 274.8 cM. The total map distance covers 904.3 cM with an average spacing of 9.7 cM between loci. The coverage is not complete, as macrochromosome CJA08, the gonosome CJAW and 23 microchromosomes have no marker assigned yet. Significant sequence identities of quail markers with chicken enabled the alignment of the quail linkage groups on the chicken genome sequence assembly. This, together with interspecific Fluorescence In Situ Hybridization (FISH), revealed very high similarities in marker order between the two species for the eight macrochromosomes and the 14 microchromosomes studied. CONCLUSION: Integrating the two microsatellite and the AFLP quail genetic maps greatly enhances the quality of the resulting information and will thus facilitate the identification of Quantitative Trait Loci (QTL). The alignment with the chicken chromosomes confirms the high conservation of gene order that was expected between the two species for macrochromosomes. By extending the comparative study to the microchromosomes, we suggest that a wealth of information can be mined in chicken, to be used for genome analyses in quail.

Animals↗

Genomic exploration of the hemiascomycetous yeasts: 3. Methods and strategies used for sequence analysis and annotation.

The primary analysis of the sequences for our Hemiascomycete random sequence tag (RST) project was performed using a combination of classical methods for sequence comparison and contig assembly, and of specifically written scripts and computer visualization routines. Comparisons were performed first against DNA and protein sequences from Saccharomyces cerevisiae, then against protein sequences from other completely sequenced organisms and, finally, against protein sequences from all other organisms. Blast alignments were individually inspected to help recognize genes within our random genomic sequences despite the fact that only parts of them were available. For each yeast species, validated alignments were used to infer the proper genetic code, to determine codon usage preferences and to calculate their degree of sequence divergence with S. cerevisiae. The quality of each genomic library was monitored from contig analysis of the DNA sequences. Annotated sequences were submitted to the EMBL database, and the general annotation tables produced served as a basis for our comparative description of the evolution, redundancy and function of the Hemiascomycete genomes described in other articles of this issue.

Amino Acid Sequence↗

A sequence based synteny map between soybean and Arabidopsis thaliana.

BACKGROUND: Soybean (Glycine max, L. Merr.) is one of the world's most important crops, however, its complete genomic sequence has yet to be determined. Nonetheless, a large body of sequence information exists, particularly in the form of expressed sequence tags (ESTs). Herein, we report the use of the model organism Arabidopsis thaliana (thale cress) for which the entire genomic sequence is available as a framework to align thousands of short soybean sequences. RESULTS: A series of JAVA-based programs were created that processed and compared 341,619 soybean DNA sequences against A. thaliana chromosomal DNA. A. thaliana DNA was probed for short, exact matches (15 bp) to each soybean sequence, and then checked for the number of additional 7 bp matches in the adjacent 400 bp region. The position of these matches was used to order soybean sequences in relation to the A. thaliana genome. CONCLUSION: Reported associations between soybean sequences and A. thaliana were within a 95% confidence interval of e(-30)-e(-100). In addition, the clustering of soybean expressed sequence tags (ESTs) based on A. thaliana sequence was accurate enough to identify potential single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) within the soybean sequence clusters. An EST, bacterial artificial chromosome (BAC) end sequence and marker amplicon sequence synteny map of soybean and A. thaliana is presented. In addition, all JAVA programs used to create this map are available upon request and on the WEB.

Arabidopsis↗

CorGen--measuring and generating long-range correlations for DNA sequence analysis.

CorGen is a web server that measures long-range correlations in the base composition of DNA and generates random sequences with the same correlation parameters. Long-range correlations are characterized by a power-law decay of the auto correlation function of the GC-content. The widespread presence of such correlations in eukaryotic genomes calls for their incorporation into accurate null models of eukaryotic DNA in computational biology. For example, the score statistics of sequence alignment and the performance of motif finding algorithms are significantly affected by the presence of genomic long-range correlations. We use an expansion-randomization dynamics to efficiently generate the correlated random sequences. The server is available at http://corgen.molgen.mpg.de.

Algorithms↗

Gap mapping: a paradigm for aligning two sequences.

Pairwise sequence alignment is one of the most essential tools in comparative genomic sequence analysis. It is used to compare the sequences of genes and proteins with the aim of inferring structural, functional and evolutionary relationships. However, current 'mainstream' alignment algorithms have optimisation criteria based primarily on computational efficiency using parameters such as gap penalties, which are not biologically motivated. In addition, current alignment algorithms such as the Smith and Waterman technique provide a single alignment that could be sensitive to rather arbitrary choices in parameters such as gap penalties. This paper explores the range of properties resulting from posing the alignment problem more as a 'mapping gaps in sequences' exercise. We argue that this approach is intuitive and provides greater control over the number of gaps placed within an alignment. This type of approach was proposed by Sankoff (1972), but unfortunately has not received much attention. We report and discuss our findings by comparing this approach to other techniques using structurally confirmed aligned sequences from a benchmark alignment database. Interestingly, this approach consistently provides optimal and near optimal alignments and is thus a viable approach to sequence alignment.

Algorithms↗

Nucleotide substitutions and the evolution of duplicate genes.

This paper describes software created to search for and analyze pairs of duplicate genes within a genome. The process is based on a program that uses aligned amino acid sequences to generate a corresponding alignment of the underlying nucleotide sequences and perform a codon by codon comparison of the nucleotides. Observed numbers of nucleotide substitutions can be used to make inferences about the ages of gene duplication events and the effects of natural selection acting on duplicate genes.

Animals↗

Parallel hardware for sequence comparison and alignment.

Sequence comparison, a vital research tool in computational biology, is based on a simple O(n2) algorithm that easily maps to a linear array of processors. This paper reviews and compares high-performance sequence analysis on general-purpose supercomputers and single-purpose reconfigurable, and programmable co-processors. The difficulty of comparing hardware from published performance figures is also noted.

Algorithms↗

Evolutionary conservation of putative functional domains in the human homolog of the murine His-1 gene.

The mouse His-1 gene encodes a spliced and polyadenylated RNA with no long open reading frame (ORF), making it difficult to distinguish a functional protein coding domain. To identify candidate protein coding ORFs, and other functionally significant regions, we have isolated and sequenced 8.5 kb of a human genomic DNA that is homologous to the mouse His-1 gene. Alignment of the mouse and human sequences required no extensive gapping, indicating that evolutionary constraints have maintained a requirement for colinearity in genomic organization. We have identified the mouse transcriptional start point (tsp) and shown that the sequence of the 5'-flanking region is highly conserved in the human homolog. Sequence comparisons between the mouse and human genes identified conservation of other putative functional domains in exon 3 and in each of the two introns. Southern blot analysis with probes from each of these regions detected homologs in multiple other vertebrate species. However, none of the multiple candidate ORFs in the mouse RNA were conserved in the human sequence, suggesting that the RNA is unlikely to encode a protein. These data suggest that the RNA may be the final and functional product from the mouse His-1 gene.

Animals↗

Two large families of chemoreceptor genes in the nematodes Caenorhabditis elegans and Caenorhabditis briggsae reveal extensive gene duplication, diversification, movement, and intron loss.

The str family of genes encoding seven-transmembrane G-protein-coupled or serpentine receptors related to the ODR-10 diacetyl chemoreceptor is very large, with at least 197 members in the Caenorhabditis elegans genome. The closely related stl family has 43 genes, and both families are distantly related to the srd family with 55 genes. Analysis of the structures of these genes indicates that a third of them are clearly or likely pseudogenes. Preliminary surveys of other candidate chemoreceptor families indicates that as many as 800 genes and pseudogenes or 6% of the genome might encode 550 functional chemoreceptors constituting 4% of the C. elegans protein complement. Phylogenetic analyses of the str and stl families, and comparisons with a few orthologs in Caenorhabditis briggsae, reveal ongoing processes of gene duplication, diversification, and movement. The reconstructed ancestral gene structures for these two families have eight introns each, four of which are homologous. Mapping of intron distributions on the phylogenetic tree reveals that each intron has been lost many times independently. Most of these introns were lost individually, which might best be explained by precise in-frame deletions involving nonhomologous recombination between short direct repeats at their termini. [Alignment of the putatively functional proteins in the str and stl families is available from Pfam (http://genome. wustl.edu/Pfam); alignments of all translations are available at http://cshl.org/gr; alignments of the genes are available from the author at hughrobe@uiuc.edu]

Amino Acid Sequence↗

Alignment of BLAST high-scoring segment pairs based on the longest increasing subsequence algorithm.

MOTIVATION: The popular BLAST algorithm is based on a local similarity search strategy, so its high-scoring segment pairs (HSPs) do not have global alignment information. When scientists use BLAST to search for a target protein or DNA sequence in a huge database like the human genome map, the existence of repeated fragments, homologues or pseudogenes in the genome often makes the BLAST result filled with redundant HSPs. Therefore, we need a computational strategy to alleviate this problem. RESULTS: In the gene discovery group of Celera Genomics, I developed a two-step method, i.e. a BLAST step plus an LIS step, to align thousands of cDNA and protein sequences into the human genome map. The LIS step is based on a mature computational algorithm, Longest Increasing Subsequence (LIS) algorithm. The idea is to use the LIS algorithm to find the longest series of consecutive HSPs in the BLAST output. Such a BLAST+LIS strategy can be used as an independent alignment tool or as a complementary tool for other alignment programs like Sim4 and GenWise. It can also work as a general purpose BLAST result processor in all sorts of BLAST searches. Two examples from Celera were shown in this paper.

Algorithms↗

Comparison of two Xanthomonas campestris pathovar campestris genomes revealed differences in their gene composition.

For the Xanthomonas campestris pathovar campestris wild-type strain B100 a plasmid-based clone library was constructed. The plasmids carried chromosomal fragments of 3-4 kb in size that were tagged in vitro with the artificial transposon KAN-2. More than 3000 of the transposon target sites were characterized by DNA sequencing. The sequences obtained were compared to the recently published genome of Xanthomonas campestris pathovar campestris strain ATCC 33913. Most of the sequenced clones derived from strain B100 matched the chromosomal sequence of strain ATCC 33913. An alignment to the circular map of this chromosome revealed that the similarities were statistically distributed over the entire genome of strain ATCC 33913. The similarity was obvious for protein coding sequences, as well as for mobile genetic elements. However, four regions in the genome of Xanthomonas campestris pathovar campestris strain ATCC 33913, ranging in size from 11 to 37 kb, were not represented in the sequenced clone library of Xanthomonas campestris pathovar campestris strain B100. On the other hand, 1.2% of the sequenced clones originating from Xanthomonas campestris pathovar campestris strain B100 showed no or insignificant similarities to the genome of strain ATCC 33913.

Chromosome Mapping↗

SpacerScope: binary-vectorized, genome-wide off-target profiling for RNA-guided nucleases without prior candidate-site bias.

The precision of CRISPR/Cas systems is fundamental to their application in plant and animal biotechnology. However, comprehensive sequence-based off-target candidate discovery remains a computational bottleneck, particularly in large and complex genomes. Here we developed SpacerScope, an off-target candidate discovery framework that enables unbiased, genome-wide discovery by leveraging binary vectorization, bitwise filtering, and right-end-anchored alignment. Benchmarking against human CIRCLE-seq data demonstrated that SpacerScope recovered 100% of validated off-target sites (6142/6142), matching the sensitivity of exhaustive algorithms. Crucially, SpacerScope achieved this maximum candidate recovery while substantially reducing computational overhead. In large-genome evaluations, SpacerScope maintained low peak memory usage of 2.20 GiB and achieved substantial runtime improvements over indel-aware comparator tools, including more than 50-fold speedup relative to Cas-OFFinder 3 (544 s versus 29 185 s). Furthermore, comparative analyses in polyploid species, such as the octoploid strawberry, revealed that SpacerScope identified larger sequence-compatible candidate burdens than standard web-based design platforms. Our results establish SpacerScope as a high-speed framework for sequence-based genome-wide off-target candidate discovery across diverse and highly repetitive genomic landscapes. The source code and program was publicly available at https://github.com/charlesqu666/SpacerScope. Short Abstract CRISPR/Cas sequence-based off-target candidate discovery remains computationally challenging in large, repetitive, and polyploid genomes. Existing tools either miss indel-containing candidate sites or incur prohibitive runtime and memory costs. We developed SpacerScope, a binary-vectorized framework that enables unbiased, genome-wide off-target candidate discovery without pre-selected candidate sites. By integrating bitwise filtering with right-end-anchored alignment, SpacerScope recovered 100% of validated off-target sites in human CIRCLE-seq data while using only 2.20 GiB of memory and achieving more than 10-fold speedup over indel-aware alternatives. Evaluation in plant genomes, including rice and octoploid strawberry, further demonstrated SpacerScope's capacity to identify larger sequence-compatible candidate burdens overlooked by standard tools. SpacerScope thus provides a high-speed framework for sequence-based genome-wide off-target candidate discovery across diverse and highly repetitive genomic landscapes, supporting downstream prioritization.

CRISPR-Cas Systems↗

ChloroplastDB: the Chloroplast Genome Database.

The Chloroplast Genome Database (ChloroplastDB) is an interactive, web-based database for fully sequenced plastid genomes, containing genomic, protein, DNA and RNA sequences, gene locations, RNA-editing sites, putative protein families and alignments (http://chloroplast.cbio.psu.edu/). With recent technical advances, the rate of generating new organelle genomes has increased dramatically. However, the established ontology for chloroplast genes and gene features has not been uniformly applied to all chloroplast genomes available in the sequence databases. For example, annotations for some published genome sequences have not evolved with gene naming conventions. ChloroplastDB provides unified annotations, gene name search, BLAST and download functions for chloroplast encoded genes and genomic sequences. A user can retrieve all orthologous sequences with one search regardless of gene names in GenBank. This feature alone greatly facilitates comparative research on sequence evolution including changes in gene content, codon usage, gene structure and post-transcriptional modifications such as RNA editing. Orthologous protein sets are classified by TribeMCL and each set is assigned a standard gene name. Over the next few years, as the number of sequenced chloroplast genomes increases rapidly, the tools available in ChloroplastDB will allow researchers to easily identify and compile target data for comparative analysis of chloroplast genes and genomes.

Chloroplasts↗

Extracting and calibrating evidence of variant pathogenicity from population biobank data.

Genomic medicine requires a robust evidence base of variant phenotypic impacts, which remains incomplete even in extensively studied genes with monogenic disease associations. Here, we evaluated the broad potential of using population cohort data to identify evidence that can be used in variant assessment. Across 41 genes related to 18 clinically actionable monogenic phenotypes, we calculated variant-level odds ratios of disease enrichment using data from 469,803 UK Biobank participants. We found significant differences in odds ratio values between ClinVar-labeled pathogenic and benign variants in 11 phenotypes, spanning both common and rare disorders. To facilitate clinical translation, we calibrated the strength of evidence provided by variant-level odds ratios to align with American College of Medical Genetics and Genomics and the Association for Molecular Pathology (ACMG/AMP) interpretation guidelines (PS4 criterion) and found that odds ratios may reach "moderate," "strong," or "very strong" evidence, varying by phenotype and gene. Overall, we found that 2.6% (N = 12,350) of participants harbor a rare variant of uncertain significance (VUS) with at least moderate evidence of pathogenicity-an indication of potentially unrecognized disease risk. Finally, by incorporating computational and functional data alongside population-based odds ratios, we identified variants that met the criteria for clinical reclassification. Notably, using this approach, we identified that 12.4% of rare VUSs in LDLR seen in participants meet diagnostic criteria to be classified as likely pathogenic, demonstrating its potential to scale the reclassification of VUSs.

Humans↗

Protein families and TRIBES in genome sequence space.

Accurate detection of protein families allows assignment of protein function and the analysis of functional diversity in complete genomes. Recently, we presented a novel algorithm called TribeMCL for the detection of protein families that is both accurate and efficient. This method allows family analysis to be carried out on a very large scale. Using TribeMCL, we have generated a resource called TRIBES that contains protein family information, comprising annotations, protein sequence alignments and phylogenetic distributions describing 311 257 proteins from 83 completely sequenced genomes. The analysis of at least 60 934 detected protein families reveals that, with the essential families excluded, paralogy levels are similar between prokaryotes, irrespective of genome size. The number of essential families is estimated to be between 366 and 426. We also show that the currently known space of protein families is scale free and discuss the implications of this distribution. In addition, we show that smaller families are often formed by shorter proteins and discuss the reasons for this intriguing pattern. Finally, we analyse the functional diversity of protein families in entire genome sequences. The TRIBES protein family resource is accessible at http://www.ebi.ac.uk/research/cgg/tribes/.

Algorithms↗