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Comprehensive profiling of antibiotic resistance genes and functional clusters of orthologous groups annotation of gut microbiota in Indonesian Kedu chickens.

Antibiotic resistance is a growing global health concern, with poultry systems acting as important reservoirs of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs). However, resistome and functional profiles of indigenous chickens raised under traditional systems remain underexplored. This study aimed to characterize the antibiotic resistome, virulence factor genes, and metabolic potential of gut microbiota in Indonesian Kedu chickens using a shotgun metagenomic approach. Digesta samples from five gastrointestinal segments of 21 healthy adult chickens were analyzed through high-throughput sequencing. ARGs were identified using the Comprehensive Antibiotic Resistance Database (CARD) and Antibiotic Resistance Genes Databases (ARDB), while virulence factors and functional genes were annotated using Virulence Factor Database (VFDB), Clusters of Orthologous Groups (COG), and Carbohydrate-Active EnZymes (CAZy) databases. Results revealed a diverse resistome dominated by multidrug resistance and efflux pump mechanisms, with prominent genes associated with fluoroquinolone, tetracycline, β-lactam, and glycopeptide resistance. The detection of clinically relevant ARGs suggests that genetic determinants associated with antimicrobial resistance are present in the gut microbiota of traditionally raised Kedu chickens, although metagenomic data alone cannot determine whether these genes are actively expressed or confer phenotypic resistance. Virulence factor analysis showed functions related to adherence, immune evasion, iron acquisition, quorum sensing, and efflux activity, reflecting strong microbial adaptability. Functional profiling demonstrated enrichment in translation, carbohydrate and amino acid metabolism, genome maintenance, and cell envelope biogenesis. Additionally, CAZyme analysis indicated a high capacity for complex polysaccharide degradation, supporting efficient utilization of fiber-rich traditional diets. In conclusion, this study provides a comprehensive metagenomic overview of antibiotic resistance and functional potential in Kedu chicken gut microbiota, emphasizing the importance of incorporating indigenous poultry into antimicrobial resistance surveillance within a One Health framework.

Antibiotic resistance genes↗

Microarray phenotyping in Dictyostelium reveals a regulon of chemotaxis genes.

MOTIVATION: Coordinate regulation of gene expression can provide information on gene function. To begin a large-scale analysis of Dictyostelium gene function, we clustered genes based on their expression in wild-type and mutant strains and analyzed their functions. RESULTS: We found 17 modes of wild-type gene expression and refined them into 57 submodes considering mutant data. Annotation analyses revealed correlations between co-expression and function and an unexpected correlation between expression and function of genes involved in various aspects of chemotaxis. Co-regulation of chemotaxis genes was also found in published data from neutrophils. To test the predictive power of the analysis, we examined the phenotypes of mutations in seven co-regulated genes that had no published role in chemotaxis. Six mutants exhibited chemotaxis defects, supporting the idea that function can be inferred from co-expression. The clustering and annotation analyses provide a public resource for Dictyostelium functional genomics.

Animals↗

Structure and organization of the human Ki-ras proto-oncogene and a related processed pseudogene.

Analysis of the organization and nucleotide sequence of two human loci related to the transforming gene of Kirsten murine sarcoma virus establishes one as a functional gene and the other as a processed pseudogene. The two final coding exons of the functional gene seem to have arisen by duplication. Differentially spliced mRNAs incorporating one or other of the duplicated exons probably served as the intermediates by which the viral transforming gene and the pseudogene were generated. This suggests that the functional gene may specify either of two related polypeptides depending on the pattern of RNA splicing.

Amino Acid Sequence↗

Development of a smooth muscle-targeted cre recombinase mouse reveals novel insights regarding smooth muscle myosin heavy chain promoter regulation.

The use of genetically modified mice has been an important model system to study gene function in cardiovascular development and under pathophysiological conditions. Although conventional gene knockout studies have provided important insights into gene function in the cardiovascular system, they may be limited by upregulation of compensatory pathways and the inability to differentiate direct versus indirect functions in vivo. As a first step in developing systems that can target gene activation or inactivation specifically to smooth muscle cells (SMCs), we coupled the smooth muscle myosin heavy chain (SMMHC) promoter to the cre recombinase gene and generated transgenic mice that express cre in SMCs. In addition, we used these mice to address whether the heterogeneous staining observed in SMMHC-LacZ mice was due to subsets of SMCs that required different regulatory cassettes of the promoter or if it reflected episodic expression of the transgene. To address both the feasibility of SMC targeting and the apparent heterogeneous expression, we bred SMMHC-cre mice to indicator mice containing a cre-activated LacZ gene. Results showed high-level expression in SMCs at various embryonic time points and in adult tissues. Because breeding of SMMHC-cre mice to an indicator line provided an integration of cre activity over time, results of this study revealed that expression of the SMMHC promoter fragment more closely resembled the expression of the endogenous gene, both with respect to the onset of activation during development and uniformity of staining among individual cells within tissues. Overall, these mice will provide a powerful tool to researchers to study gene function in vascular development/disease by using cre/lox technology to direct smooth muscle-specific gene activation or inactivation in vivo.

Animals↗

An analysis of the class of gene regulatory functions implied by a biochemical model.

Understanding the integrated behavior of genetic regulatory networks, in which genes regulate one another's activities via RNA and protein products, is emerging as a dominant problem in systems biology. One widely studied class of models of such networks includes genes whose expression values assume Boolean values (i.e., on or off). Design decisions in the development of Boolean network models of gene regulatory systems include the topology of the network (including the distribution of input- and output-connectivity) and the class of Boolean functions used by each gene (e.g., canalizing functions, post functions, etc.). For example, evidence from simulations suggests that biologically realistic dynamics can be produced by scale-free network topologies with canalizing Boolean functions. This work seeks further insights into the design of Boolean network models through the construction and analysis of a class of models that include more concrete biochemical mechanisms than the usual abstract model, including genes and gene products, dimerization, cis-binding sites, promoters and repressors. In this model, it is assumed that the system consists of N genes, with each gene producing one protein product. Proteins may form complexes such as dimers, trimers, etc. The model also includes cis-binding sites to which proteins may bind to form activators or repressors. Binding affinities are based on structural complementarity between proteins and binding sites, with molecular binding sites modeled by bit-strings. Biochemically plausible gene expression rules are used to derive a Boolean regulatory function for each gene in the system. The result is a network model in which both topological features and Boolean functions arise as emergent properties of the interactions of components at the biochemical level. A highly biased set of Boolean functions is observed in simulations of networks of various sizes, suggesting a new characterization of the subset of Boolean functions that are likely to appear in gene regulatory networks.

DNA-Binding Proteins↗

Molecular cloning and chromosomal assignment of the gene for human Zn-alpha 2-glycoprotein.

Genomic clones containing the human Zn-alpha 2-glycoprotein gene were isolated. Two of them were for the functional gene overlapped, and the other four were for two different pseudogenes (1 and 2) retaining exon-intron organization. The complete DNA sequence of the functional gene (9.3 kb) and its 5'- and 3'-flanking regions (5.3 and 0.1 kb, respectively) was determined. The gene is composed of four exons; the first exon is for the 5'-untranslated region, the signal sequence, and the first six amino acids; the second, for domain A; the third, for domain B; and the fourth, for domain C and the 3'-untranslated region. The 5'-flanking region contains a TATA box, a CAT box, an octamer sequence, and three possible Spl-binding sites. Ten and three copies of Alu repetitive DNA were identified within the gene and the 5'-flanking region, respectively, and they occupy 30% of the gene. The nucleotide sequences around the exons of pseudogene 1 were also determined; they had high homology (90-91%) with the corresponding region of the functional gene. Southern blot analysis suggested that there are only three genes, including nonfunctional ones, for Zn-alpha 2-glycoprotein in humans. The gene (ZA2G) was mapped to human chromosome band 7q22.1 by fluorescence in situ hybridization.

Amino Acid Sequence↗

Methyl-coenzyme M reductase genes: unique functional markers for methanogenic and anaerobic methane-oxidizing Archaea.

In many anoxic environments, methanogenesis is the predominant terminal electron accepting process involved in the mineralization of organic matter, which is catalyzed by methanogenic Archaea. These organisms represent a unique but phylogenetically diverse guild of prokaryotes, which can be conveniently tracked in the environment by targeting the mcrA gene as a functional marker. This gene encodes the alpha subunit of the methyl-coenzyme M reductase (MCR), which catalyzes the last step in methanogenesis and is present in all methanogens. Cultivation-independent analysis of methanogenic communities involves the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplification of the mcrA gene from extracted community DNA, comparative analysis of mcrA clone libraries, or PCR-based fingerprinting analysis by terminal restriction fragment polymorphism analysis (T-RFLP). It has also been suggested that anaerobic methane-oxidizing Archaea possess MCR, which facilitates detection of this novel group of "reverse methanogens" as well using the mcrA gene as a functional marker.

Archaea↗

Structure, function and gene expression of epithelial mucins.

In this review the main characteristics, i.e., structure, function and gene expression, of the different mucins are discussed. Mucin-type molecules consist of a core protein moiety (apomucin) where a number of carbohydrate chains are attached to serines and threonines by glycosidic bonds. O-linked carbohydrates form up to 80% of the molecule and the length of the glucidic side chains varies from one to more than 20 residues. At least eight mucin-like genes have been isolated so far, and the main characteristic is the presence of a central domain composed of a variable number of "tandem repeats". The sequence homology of the central domain among the different members of the mucin-type family is limited, indicating that this internal domain is unique for each mucin. Thanks to the integrated results of genetic, immunological and biochemical studies, it is now possible to identify eight apomucin genes, namely MUC1, MUC2, MUC3, MUC4, MUC5AC, MUC5B, MUC6 and MUC7. MUC1 is the best characterized mucin and it is expressed on the apical surface of most polarized epithelial cells. The MUC1 gene has been cloned and sequenced. The MUC2 gene encodes a typical secretory gel-forming mucin which represents the predominant form in human intestinal and colon tissues. Another intestinal mucin is MUC3. The MUC4, MUC5AC and MUC5B genes have been isolated from a bronchial tissue cDNA library. The MUC4 and MUC5AC genes are mainly expressed in the respiratory tract, in gastric and reproductive mucosa, while MUC5B is highly detectable only in the bronchial glands. The MUC6 gene is expressed by gastric tissue and, recently, MUC7 has been cloned and sequenced using a salivary cDNA library.

Amino Acid Sequence↗

Transcription factor binding element detection using functional clustering of mutant expression data.

As a powerful tool to reveal gene functions, gene mutation has been used extensively in molecular biology studies. With high throughput technologies, such as DNA microarray, genome-wide gene expression changes can be monitored in mutants. Here we present a simple approach to detect the transcription-factor-binding motif using microarray expression data from a mutant in which the relevant transcription factor is deleted. A core part of our approach is clustering of differentially expressed genes based on functional annotations, such as Gene Ontology (GO). We tested our method with eight microarray data sets from the Rosetta Compendium and were able to detect canonical binding motifs for at least four transcription factors. With the support of chromatin IP chip data, we also predict a possible variant of the Swi4 binding motif and recover a core motif for Arg80. Our approach should be readily applicable to microarray experiments using other types of molecular biology techniques, such as conditional knockout/overexpression or RNAi-mediated 'knockdown', to perturb the expression of a transcription factor. Functional clustering included in our approach may also provide new insights into the function of the relevant transcription factor.

Base Sequence↗

[Analysis of low density lipoprotein receptor function and gene mutation in familial hypercholesterolemic patients].

OBJECTIVE: To investigate low density lipoprotein receptor (LDLR) function and gene mutation in Chinese patients with familial hypercholesterolemia(FH). METHODS: Lymphocytes were isolated from 10 ml anticoagulated peripheral blood of the patients, then a flow-cytometric method (FCM) with 1,1'-dioctadecyl-3,3,3', 3-tetramethylindocarbocyanine perchlorate labelled low density lipoproetin (DiI-LDL) was used to identify the function of LDLR on the surface of lymphocytes. Genomic DNA was isolated from whole blood of FH patients and analyzed by PCR-single strand conformation polymorphism (SSCP) and nucleotide sequencing methods. RESULTS: Defects of binding and uptaking of LDLR were identified by FCM in 2 FH patients in one family, and their parents were examined in the present study. Then they were analyzed genetically. The detected mutation was a deletion of A, which caused a frame shift in codon 297 of exon 6 and introduced a beforehand stop codon in codon 369. CONCLUSION: A novel mutation of LDL receptor gene was detected by the combination of FCM and PCR-SSCP methods.

Adult↗

Developmentally distinct MYB genes encode functionally equivalent proteins in Arabidopsis.

The duplication and divergence of developmental control genes is thought to have driven morphological diversification during the evolution of multicellular organisms. To examine the molecular basis of this process, we analyzed the functional relationship between two paralogous MYB transcription factor genes, WEREWOLF (WER) and GLABROUS1 (GL1), in Arabidopsis. The WER and GL1 genes specify distinct cell types and exhibit non-overlapping expression patterns during Arabidopsis development. Nevertheless, reciprocal complementation experiments with a series of gene fusions showed that WER and GL1 encode functionally equivalent proteins, and their unique roles in plant development are entirely due to differences in their cis-regulatory sequences. Similar experiments with a distantly related MYB gene (MYB2) showed that its product cannot functionally substitute for WER or GL1. Furthermore, an analysis of the WER and GL1 proteins shows that conserved sequences correspond to specific functional domains. These results provide new insights into the evolution of the MYB gene family in Arabidopsis, and, more generally, they demonstrate that novel developmental gene function may arise solely by the modification of cis-regulatory sequences.

Amino Acid Sequence↗

Requirement of one functional RAS gene and inability of an oncogenic ras variant to mediate the glucose-induced cyclic AMP signal in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae.

Addition of glucose to Saccharomyces cerevisiae cells grown on a nonfermentable carbon source triggers a cyclic AMP (cAMP) signal, which induces a protein phosphorylation cascade. In a yeast strain lacking functional RAS1 and RAS2 genes and containing a bcy mutation to suppress the lethality of RAS deficiency, the cAMP signal was absent. Addition of dinitrophenol, which stimulates in vivo cAMP synthesis by lowering intracellular pH, also did not enhance the cAMP level. A bcy control strain, with functional RAS genes present, showed cAMP responses similar to those of a wild-type strain. In disruption mutants containing either a functional RAS1 gene or a functional RAS2 gene, the cAMP signal was not significantly different from the one in wild-type cells, indicating that RAS function cannot be a limiting factor for cAMP synthesis during induction of the signal. Compared with wild-type cells, the cAMP signal decreased in intensity with increasing temperature in a ras2 disruption mutant. When the mutant RAS2Val-19, which carries the equivalent of the human H-rasVal-12 oncogene, was grown under conditions in which RAS1 expression is repressed, the cAMP signal was absent. The oncogene product is known to be deficient in GTPase activity. However, the amino acid change at position 19 (or 12 in the corresponding human oncogene product) might also have other effects, such as abolishing receptor interaction. Such an additional effect probably provides a better explanation for the lack of signal transmission than the impaired GTPase activity. When the RAS2Val-19 mutant was grown under conditions in which RAS1 is expressed, the cAMP signal was present but significantly delayed compared with the signal in wild-type cells. This indicates that oncogenic RAS proteins inhibit normal functioning of wild-type RAS proteins in vivo and also that in spite of the presence of the RAS2(Val-19) oncogene, adenyl cyclase is not maximally stimulated in vivo. Expression of only the RAS(Val-19) gene product also prevented most of the stimulation of cAMP synthesis by dinitrophenol, indicating that lowered intracellular pH does not act directly on adenyl cyclase but on a step earlier in the activation pathway of the enzyme. The results obtained with the control bcy strain, the RAS2(Val-19) strain under conditions in which RAS1 is expressed, and with dinitrophenol show that the inability of the oncogene product to mediate the cAMP signal is not due to feedback inhibition by the high protein kinase activity in strains containing the RAS2(Val-19) oncogene. Hence, the present results show that the RAS protein in S. cerevisiae are involved in the transmission of the glucose-induced cAMP signal and that the oncogenic RAS protein is unable to act as a signal transducer. The RAS protein in S. cerevisiae apparently act similarly to the Gs proteins of mammalian adenyl cyclase, but instead of being involved in hormone signal transmission, they function in a nutrient-induced signal transmission pathway.

Cyclic AMP↗

Purification and characterization of an enhancer-binding protein of the fibroin gene. II. Functional analyses of fibroin factor 1.

Fibroin factor 1 (FF1) when coupled with fibroin factor 2 (FF2) is an enhancer binding protein of the fibroin gene. FF1a, one type of FF1, has been purified to homogeneity from crude nuclear extracts of posterior silk gland cells and identified as a protein with molecular mass 125 kDa (Suzuki, T., Matsuno, K., Takiya, S., Ohno, K., Ueno, K., and Suzuki, Y. (1991) J. Biol. Chem. 266, 16935-16941). FF1 is able to recognize and bind a sequence of -205 to -185 in the enhancer I of the fibroin gene in the presence of FF2. The binding sequence of FF1 with FF2 contains two repeats of the derivative of consensus sequence which is recognized by homeobox-containing proteins. Though FF1 activity to construct the major band complex I is specific to posterior silk gland cells, use of a specific antibody raised against FF1a showed that FF1 protein is ubiquitous in Bombyx cells. These results suggest the possibility that FF1 molecules present as multiple proteins might be specifically modified and activated for the binding to enhancer DNA in posterior silk gland cells. Since the FF1a antibody also inhibited a transcriptional enhancement activity governed by the enhancer sequence, we conclude that FF1 is one of the transcriptional factors of the fibroin gene. The functions of FF1 on fibroin gene transcription are discussed.

Antibodies↗

Gene Ontology friendly biclustering of expression profiles.

The soundness of clustering in the analysis of gene expression profiles and gene function prediction is based on the hypothesis that genes with similar expression profiles may imply strong correlations with their functions in the biological activities. Gene Ontology (GO) has become a well accepted standard in organizing gene function categories. Different gene function categories in GO can have very sophisticated relationships, such as 'part of' and 'overlapping'. Until now, no clustering algorithm can generate gene clusters within which the relationships can naturally reflect those of gene function categories in the GO hierarchy. The failure in resembling the relationships may reduce the confidence of clustering in gene function prediction. In this paper, we present a new clustering technique, Smart Hierarchical Tendency Preserving clustering (SHTP-clustering), based on a bicluster model, Tendency Preserving cluster (TP-Cluster). By directly incorporating Gene Ontology information into the clustering process, the SHTP-clustering algorithm yields a TP-cluster tree within which any subtree can be well mapped to a part of the GO hierarchy. Our experiments on yeast cell cycle data demonstrate that this method is efficient and effective in generating the biological relevant TP-Clusters.

Algorithms↗

Functional analysis of type II thioesterase of Streptomyces lydicus AS 4.2501.

Constructing a mutant strain of single gene disruption is the basis for the study of gene function and metabolomics. Systematic and complete genome sequencing is the basis of genetic manipulation. In the case of a little knowledge about the Streptomyces lydicus genome and the speculation that polyketide synthases (type I) might be responsible for the polyketide side chain biosynthesis of streptolydigin, a 588-bp fragment was amplified by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) according to the homology existing in the same functional genes among Streptomyces. A mutant strain of this gene was constructed by single crossover homologous recombination. The results of sequence analysis as well as the metabolite analysis of the mutant and the original strain by liquid chromatography/mass spectroscopy indicated that this fragment was part of type II thioesterase (TE) gene, which was required for streptolydigin biosynthesis like other type II TEs function in related antibiotics biosynthesis. Furthermore, targeted gene manipulation based on PCR was a powerful tool for studying gene function and metabolomics, especially when little was known about the genomic sequence of streptomyces.

Amino Acid Sequence↗

Reciprocal gene replacements reveal unique functions for Phox2 genes during neural differentiation.

The paralogous paired-like homeobox genes Phox2a and Phox2b are involved in the development of specific neural subtypes in the central and peripheral nervous systems. The different phenotypes of Phox2 knockout mutants, together with their asynchronous onset of expression, prompted us to generate two knock-in mutant mice, in which Phox2a is replaced by the Phox2b coding sequence, and vice versa. Our results indicate that Phox2a and Phox2b are not functionally equivalent, as only Phox2b can fulfill the role of Phox2a in the structures that depend on both genes. Furthermore, we demonstrate unique roles of Phox2 genes in the differentiation of specific motor neurons. Whereas the oculomotor and the trochlear neurons require Phox2a for their proper development, the migration of the facial branchiomotor neurons depends on Phox2b. Therefore, our analysis strongly indicates that biochemical differences between the proteins rather than temporal regulation of their expression account for the specific function of each paralogue.

Alleles↗

GeneCOCOA: Detecting context-specific functions of individual genes using co-expression data.

Extraction of meaningful biological insight from gene expression profiling often focuses on the identification of statistically enriched terms or pathways. These methods typically use gene sets as input data, and subsequently return overrepresented terms along with associated statistics describing their enrichment. This approach does not cater to analyses focused on a single gene-of-interest, particularly when the gene lacks prior functional characterization. To address this, we formulated GeneCOCOA, a method which utilizes context-specific gene co-expression and curated functional gene sets, but focuses on a user-supplied gene-of-interest (GOI). The co-expression between the GOI and subsets of genes from functional groups (e.g. pathways, GO terms) is derived using linear regression, and resulting root-mean-square error values are compared against background values obtained from randomly selected genes. The resulting p values provide a statistical ranking of functional gene sets from any collection, along with their associated terms, based on their co-expression with the gene of interest in a manner specific to the context and experiment. GeneCOCOA thereby provides biological insight into both gene function, and putative regulatory mechanisms by which the expression of the GOI is controlled. Despite its relative simplicity, GeneCOCOA outperforms similar methods in the accurate recall of known gene-disease associations. We furthermore include a differential GeneCOCOA mode, thus presenting the first implementation of a gene-focused approach to experiment-specific gene set enrichment analysis. GeneCOCOA is formulated as an R package for ease-of-use, available at https://github.com/si-ze/geneCOCOA.

Gene Expression Profiling↗