Web services at the European bioinformatics institute

The DBCLS BioHackathon: standardization and interoperability for bioinformatics web services and workflows. The DBCLS BioHackathon Consortium*

Web services have become a key technology for bioinformatics, since life science databases are globally decentralized and the exponential increase in the amount of available data demands for efficient systems without the need to transfer entire databases for every step of an analysis. However, various incompatibilities among database resources and analysis services make it difficult to connect and integrate these into interoperable workflows. To resolve this situation, we invited domain specialists from web service providers, client software developers, Open Bio* projects, the BioMoby project and researchers of emerging areas where a standard exchange data format is not well established, for an intensive collaboration entitled the BioHackathon 2008. The meeting was hosted by the Database Center for Life Science (DBCLS) and Computational Biology Research Center (CBRC) and was held in Tokyo from February 11th to 15th, 2008. In this report we highlight the work accomplished and the common issues arisen from this event, including the standardization of data exchange formats and services in the emerging fields of glycoinformatics, biological interaction networks, text mining, and phyloinformatics. In addition, common shared object development based on BioSQL, as well as technical challenges in large data management, asynchronous services, and security are discussed. Consequently, we improved interoperability of web services in several fields, however, further cooperation among major database centers and continued collaborative efforts between service providers and software developers are still necessary for an effective advance in bioinformatics web service technologies.

A novel syntaxin 6-interacting protein, SHIP164, regulates syntaxin 6-dependent sorting from early endosomes

Membrane fusion is dependent on the function of SNAREs and their alpha-helical SNARE motifs that form SNARE complexes. The Habc domains at the N-termini of some SNAREs can interact with their associated SNARE motif, Sec1/Munc18 (SM) proteins, tethering proteins or adaptor proteins, suggesting that they play an important regulatory function. We screened for proteins that interact with the Habc domain of Syntaxin 6, and isolated an uncharacterized 164-kDa protein that we named SHIP164. SHIP164 is part of a large (approximately 700 kDa) complex, and interacts with components of the Golgi-associated retrograde protein (GARP) tethering complex. Depletion of GARP subunits or overexpression of Syntaxin 6 results in a redistribution of soluble SHIP164 to endosomal structures. Co-overexpression of Syntaxin 6 and SHIP164 produced excessive tubulation of endosomes, and perturbed the transport of cation-independent mannose-6-phosphate receptor (CI-MPR) and transferrin receptor. Thus,we propose that SHIP164 functions in trafficking through the early/recycling endosomal system.

Optimal network alignment with graphlet degree vectors

Important biological information is encoded in the topology of biological networks. Comparative analyses of biological networks are proving to be valuable, as they can lead to transfer of knowledge between species and give deeper insights into biological function, disease, and evolution. We introduce a new method that uses the Hungarian algorithm to produce optimal global alignment between two networks using any cost function. We design a cost function based solely on network topology and use it in our network alignment. Our method can be applied to any two networks, not just biological ones, since it is based only on network topology. We use our new method to align protein-protein interaction networks of two eukaryotic species and demonstrate that our alignment exposes large and topologically complex regions of network similarity. At the same time, our alignment is biologically valid, since many of the aligned protein pairs perform the same biological function. From the alignment, we predict function of yet unannotated proteins, many of which we validate in the literature. Also, we apply our method to find topological similarities between metabolic networks of different species and build phylogenetic trees based on our network alignment score. The phylogenetic trees obtained in this way bear a striking resemblance to the ones obtained by sequence alignments. Our method detects topologically similar regions in large networks that are statistically significant. It does this independent of protein sequence or any other information external to network topology.

Comparative genomics reveals conservative evolution of the xylem transcriptome in vascular plants

BACKGROUND

Wood is a valuable natural resource and a major carbon sink. Wood formation is an important developmental process in vascular plants which played a crucial role in plant evolution. Although genes involved in xylem formation have been investigated, the molecular mechanisms of xylem evolution are not well understood. We use comparative genomics to examine evolution of the xylem transcriptome to gain insights into xylem evolution.

RESULTS

The xylem transcriptome is highly conserved in conifers, but considerably divergent in angiosperms. The functional domains of genes in the xylem transcriptome are moderately to highly conserved in vascular plants, suggesting the existence of a common ancestral xylem transcriptome. Compared to the total transcriptome derived from a range of tissues, the xylem transcriptome is relatively conserved in vascular plants. Of the xylem transcriptome, cell wall genes, ancestral xylem genes, known proteins and transcription factors are relatively more conserved in vascular plants. A total of 527 putative xylem orthologs were identified, which are unevenly distributed across the Arabidopsis chromosomes with eight hot spots observed. Phylogenetic analysis revealed that evolution of the xylem transcriptome has paralleled plant evolution. We also identified 274 conifer-specific xylem unigenes, all of which are of unknown function. These xylem orthologs and conifer-specific unigenes are likely to have played a crucial role in xylem evolution.

CONCLUSIONS

Conifers have highly conserved xylem transcriptomes, while angiosperm xylem transcriptomes are relatively diversified. Vascular plants share a common ancestral xylem transcriptome. The xylem transcriptomes of vascular plants are more conserved than the total transcriptomes. Evolution of the xylem transcriptome has largely followed the trend of plant evolution.

Unraveling new genes associated with seed development and metabolism in Bixa orellana L. by expressed sequence tag (EST) analysis

The tropical tree Bixa orellana L. produces a range of secondary metabolites which biochemical and molecular biosynthesis basis are not well understood. In this work we have characterized a set of ESTs from a non-normalized cDNA library of B. orellana seeds to obtain information about the main developmental and metabolic processes taking place in developing seeds and their associated genes. After sequencing a set of randomly selected clones, most of the sequences were assigned with putative functions based on similarity, GO annotations and protein domains. The most abundant transcripts encoded proteins associated with cell wall (prolyl 4-hydroxylase), fatty acid (acyl carrier protein), and hormone/flavonoid (2OG-Fe oxygenase) synthesis, germination (MADS FLC-like protein) and embryo development (AP2/ERF transcription factor) regulation, photosynthesis (chlorophyll a-b binding protein), cell elongation (MAP65-1a), and stress responses (metallothionein- and thaumatin-like proteins). Enzymes were assigned to 16 different metabolic pathways related to both primary and secondary metabolisms. Characterization of two candidate genes of the bixin biosynthetic pathway, BoCCD and BoOMT, showed that they belong, respectively, to the carotenoid-cleavage dioxygenase 4 (CCD4) and caffeic acid O-methyltransferase (COMT) families, and are up-regulated during seed development. It indicates their involvement in the synthesis of this commercially important carotenoid pigment in seeds of B. orellana. Most of the genes identified here are the first representatives of their gene families in B. orellana.

Natural diversity in flowering responses of Arabidopsis thaliana caused by variation in a tandem gene array

Tandemly arrayed genes that belong to gene families characterize genomes of many organisms. Gene duplication and subsequent relaxation of selection can lead to the establishment of paralogous cluster members that may evolve along different trajectories. Here, we report on the structural variation in MADS AFFECTING FLOWERING 2 (MAF2) gene, one member of the tandemly duplicated cluster of MADS-box-containing transcription factors in Arabidopsis thaliana. The altered gene structure at the MAF2 locus is present as a moderate-frequency polymorphism in Arabidopsis and leads to the extensive diversity in transcript patterns due to alternative splicing. Rearrangements at the MAF2 locus are associated with an early flowering phenotype in BC(5) lines. The lack of suppression of flowering time in a MAF2-insertion line expressing the MAF2-specific artificial miRNA suggests that these MAF2 variants are behaving as loss-of-function alleles. The variation in gene architecture is also associated with segregation distortion, which may have facilitated the spread and the establishment of the corresponding alleles throughout the Eurasian range of the A. thaliana population.

TogoWS: integrated SOAP and REST APIs for interoperable bioinformatics Web services

Web services have become widely used in bioinformatics analysis, but there exist incompatibilities in interfaces and data types, which prevent users from making full use of a combination of these services. Therefore, we have developed the TogoWS service to provide an integrated interface with advanced features. In the TogoWS REST (REpresentative State Transfer) API (application programming interface), we introduce a unified access method for major database resources through intuitive URIs that can be used to search, retrieve, parse and convert the database entries. The TogoWS SOAP API resolves compatibility issues found on the server and client-side SOAP implementations. The TogoWS service is freely available at: http://togows.dbcls.jp/.

EST analysis and annotation of transcripts derived from a trichome-specific cDNA library from Salvia fruticosa

Greek sage (Salvia fruticosa Mill., Syn. Salvia triloba L.) is appreciated for its essential oil which is used as an aromatic spice and active against a wide range of microorganisms and viruses. The essential oil is dominated by terpenoids and flavonoids which are produced and stored in glandular trichomes on the plant surface. The present study aims to give insights into the metabolic activities of S. fruticosa trichomes on a transcriptome level. A total of 2,304 clones were sequenced from a cDNA library from leaves' trichomes of S. fruticosa. Exclusion of sequences shorter than 100 bp resulted in 1,615 high-quality ESTs with a mean length of 592 bp. Cluster analysis indicated the presence of 197 contigs (908 clones) and 707 singletons, generating a total of 904 unique sequences. Of the 904 unique ESTs, 628 (69.5%) had significant hits in the non-redundant protein database and were annotated. A total of 517 (82.3%) sequences were functionally classified using the gene ontologies (GO) and established pathway associations to 220 (24.3%) sequences in Kyoto encyclopedia of genes and genomes (KEGG). In addition, 52 (5.8%) of the unique ESTs revealed a GO biological term with relation to terpenoid (78 ESTs), phenylpropanoid (43 ESTs), flavonoid (18 ESTs) or alkaloid (10 ESTs) biosynthesis or to P450s (26 ESTs). Expression analysis of a selected set of genes known to be involved in the pathways of secondary metabolite synthesis showed higher expression levels in trichomes, validating the tissue specificity of the analyzed glandular trichome library.

Crystal structure of the yeast Sac1: implications for its phosphoinositide phosphatase function

Sac family phosphoinositide (PI) phosphatases are an essential family of CX(5)R(T/S)-based enzymes, involved in numerous aspects of cellular function such as PI homeostasis, cellular signalling, and membrane trafficking. Genetic deletions of several Sac family members result in lethality in animal models and mutations of the Sac3 gene have been found in human hereditary diseases. In this study, we report the crystal structure of a founding member of this family, the Sac phosphatase domain of yeast Sac1. The 2.0 A resolution structure shows that the Sac domain comprises of two closely packed sub-domains, a novel N-terminal sub-domain and the PI phosphatase catalytic sub-domain. The structure further shows a striking conformation of the catalytic P-loop and a large positively charged groove at the catalytic site. These findings suggest an unusual mechanism for its dephosphorylation function. Homology structural modeling of human Fig4/Sac3 allows the mapping of several disease-related mutations and provides a framework for the understanding of the molecular mechanisms of human diseases.

Characterization of a beta-hydroxybutyryl-CoA dehydrogenase from Mycobacterium tuberculosis

The lipid-rich cell wall of mycobacteria is essential not only for virulence but also for survival. Whilst anabolic pathways for mycobacterial lipid biosynthesis have been well studied, there has been little research looking into lipid catabolism. The genome of Mycobacterium tuberculosis encodes multiple enzymes with putative roles in the beta-oxidation of fatty acids. In this report we explore the functionality of FadB2, one of five M. tuberculosis homologues of a beta-hydroxybutyryl-CoA dehydrogenase, an enzyme that catalyses the third step in the beta-oxidation cycle. Purified M. tuberculosis FadB2 catalysed the in vitro NAD(+)-dependent dehydration of beta-hydroxybutyryl-CoA to acetoacetyl-CoA at pH 10. Mutation of the active-site serine-122 residue resulted in loss of enzyme activity, consistent with the function of FadB2 as a fatty acyl dehydrogenase involved in the beta-oxidation of fatty acids. Surprisingly, purified FadB2 also catalysed the reverse reaction, converting acetoacetyl-CoA to beta-hydroxybutyryl-CoA, albeit in a lower pH range of 5.5-6.5. Additionally, a null mutant of fadB2 was generated in Mycobacterium smegmatis. However, the mutant showed no significant differences from the wild-type strain with regard to lipid composition, utilization of different fatty acid carbon sources and tolerance to various stresses; the absence of any phenotype in the mutant strain could be due to the potential redundancy between the five M. smegmatis fadB paralogues.

Temporin-SHf, a new type of phe-rich and hydrophobic ultrashort antimicrobial peptide

Because issues of cost and bioavailability have hampered the development of gene-encoded antimicrobial peptides to combat infectious diseases, short linear peptides with high microbial cell selectivity have been recently considered as antibiotic substitutes. A new type of short antimicrobial peptide, designated temporin-SHf, was isolated and cloned from the skin of the frog Pelophylax saharica. Temporin-SHf has a highly hydrophobic sequence (FFFLSRIFa) and possesses the highest percentage of Phe residues of any known peptide or protein. Moreover, it is the smallest natural linear antimicrobial peptide found to date, with only eight residues. Despite its small size and hydrophobicity, temporin-SHf has broad-spectrum microbicidal activity against Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria and yeasts, with no hemolytic activity. CD and NMR spectroscopy combined with restrained molecular dynamics calculations showed that the peptide adopts a well defined non-amphipathic alpha-helical structure from residue 3 to 8, when bound to zwitterionic dodecyl phosphocholine or anionic SDS micelles. Relaxation enhancement caused by paramagnetic probes showed that the peptide adopts nearly parallel orientations to the micelle surface and that the helical structure is stabilized by a compact hydrophobic core on one face that penetrates into the micelle interior. Differential scanning calorimetry on multilamellar vesicles combined with membrane permeabilization assays on bacterial cells indicated that temporin-SHf disrupts the acyl chain packing of anionic lipid bilayers, thereby triggering local cracks and microbial membrane disintegration through a detergent-like effect probably via the carpet mechanism. The short length, compositional simplicity, and broad-spectrum activity of temporin-SHf make it an attractive candidate to develop new antibiotic agents.

Lutzomyia sand fly diversity and rates of infection by Wolbachia and an exotic Leishmania species on Barro Colorado Island, Panama

Background

Sand flies (Diptera, Psychodidae, Phlebotominae) in the genus Lutzomyia are the predominant vectors of the protozoan disease leishmaniasis in the New World. Within the watershed of the Panama Canal, the cutaneous form of leishmaniasis is a continuous health threat for residents, tourists and members of an international research community. Here we report the results of screening a tropical forest assemblage of sand fly species for infection by both Leishmania and a microbe that can potentially serve in vector population control, the cytoplasmically transmitted rickettsia, Wolbachia pipientis. Knowing accurately which Lutzomyia species are present, what their evolutionary relationships are, and how they are infected by strains of both Leishmania and Wolbachia is of critical value for building strategies to mitigate the impact of this disease in humans.

Methodology and Findings

We collected, sorted and then used DNA sequences to determine the diversity and probable phylogenetic relationships of the Phlebotominae occurring in the understory of Barro Colorado Island in the Republic of Panama. Sequence from CO1, the DNA barcoding gene, supported 18 morphology-based species determinations while revealing the presence of two possible “cryptic” species, one (Lu. sp. nr vespertilionis) within the Vespertilionis group, the other (Lu. gomezi) within the Lutzomyia-cruciata series. Using ITS-1 and “minicircle” primers we detected Leishmania DNA in 43.3% of Lu. trapidoi, 26.3% of Lu. gomezi individuals and in 0% of the other 18 sand fly species. Identical ITS-1 sequence was obtained from the Leishmania infecting Lu. trapidoi and Lu. gomezi, sequence which was 93% similar to Leishmania (viannia) naiffi in GenBank, a species previously unknown in Panama, but recognized as a type of cutaneous leishmaniasis vectored broadly across northern and central South America. Distinct strains of the intracellular bacterium Wolbachia were detected in three of 20 sand fly species, including Lu. trapidoi, in which it frequently co-occurred with Leishmania.

Conclusions

Both morphological and molecular methods were used to examine an assemblage of 20 sand fly species occurring in the forests of the Panama Canal area. Two of these species, members of separate clades, were found to carry Leishmania at high frequency and hence are likely vectors of leishmaniasis to humans or other mammal species. A single Leishmania species, identified with high confidence as Le. naiffi, was carried by both species. That Le. naiffi is known to cause cutaneous lesions in South America but has hitherto not been reported or implicated in Panama opens the possibility that its range has recently expanded to include the Isthmus or that it occurs as a recent introduction. The occurrence of Leishmania and Wolbachia in Lu. trapidoi identifies one important vector of the disease as a potential target for gene introductions using Wolbachia population sweeps.

Certain sand fly species living inside or on the edge of tropical forests are well known to transmit a protozoan to humans, which in lowland Panama develops into a cutaneous form of leishmaniasis; open, itching sores on the face and extremities requiring aggressive treatment with antimonial compounds. Morphological characters and DNA sequence from mitochondrial and nuclear gene fragments permitted us to identify and then establish historical relationships among 20 common sand fly species occurring in the understory of Barro Colorado Island, a forested preserve in the middle of the Panama Canal. Individuals in three of these sand fly species were found to be 26–43% infected by Leishmania naiffi, a species hitherto known only from the Amazonian region and the Caribbean. We then screened the same 20 sand fly species for the cytoplasmically transmitted bacteria Wolbachia pipientis, finding three infected at high rates, each by a distinct strain. Lutzomyia trapidoi, the most likely transmitter of Leishmania to humans in Panama, was among the Wolbachia-infected species, thus marking it as a possible high-value target for future biocontrol studies using the bacteria either to induce mating incompatabilities or to drive selected genes into the population.

Systems-level cancer gene identification from protein interaction network topology applied to melanogenesis-related functional genomics data

Many real-world phenomena have been described in terms of large networks. Networks have been invaluable models for the understanding of biological systems. Since proteins carry out most biological processes, we focus on analysing protein-protein interaction (PPI) networks. Proteins interact to perform a function. Thus, PPI networks reflect the interconnected nature of biological processes and analysing their structural properties could provide insights into biological function and disease. We have already demonstrated, by using a sensitive graph theoretic method for comparing topologies of node neighbourhoods called 'graphlet degree signatures', that proteins with similar surroundings in PPI networks tend to perform the same functions. Here, we explore whether the involvement of genes in cancer suggests the similarity of their topological 'signatures' as well. By applying a series of clustering methods to proteins' topological signature similarities, we demonstrate that the obtained clusters are significantly enriched with cancer genes. We apply this methodology to identify novel cancer gene candidates, validating 80 per cent of our predictions in the literature. We also validate predictions biologically by identifying cancer-related negative regulators of melanogenesis identified in our siRNA screen. This is encouraging, since we have done this solely from PPI network topology. We provide clear evidence that PPI network structure around cancer genes is different from the structure around non-cancer genes. Understanding the underlying principles of this phenomenon is an open question, with a potential for increasing our understanding of complex diseases.

Diarrhoea-predominant irritable bowel syndrome distinguishable by 16S rRNA gene phylotype quantification

AIM: To study whether selected bacterial 16S ribosomal RNA (rRNA) gene phylotypes are capable of distinguishing irritable bowel syndrome (IBS).

METHODS: The faecal microbiota of twenty volunteers with IBS, subdivided into eight diarrhoea-predominant (IBS-D), eight constipation-predominant (IBS-C) and four mixed symptom-subtype (IBS-M) IBS patients, and fifteen control subjects, were analysed at three time-points with a set of fourteen quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction assays. All assays targeted 16S rRNA gene phylotypes putatively associated with IBS, based on 16S rRNA gene library sequence analysis. The target phylotypes were affiliated with Actinobacteria, Bacteroidetes and Firmicutes. Eight of the target phylotypes had less than 95% similarity to cultured bacterial species according to their 16S rRNA gene sequence. The data analyses were made with repeated-measures ANCOVA-type modelling of the data and principle component analysis (PCA) with linear mixed-effects models applied to the principal component scores.

RESULTS: Bacterial phylotypes Clostridium cocleatum 88%, Clostridium thermosuccinogenes 85%, Coprobacillus catenaformis 91%, Ruminococcus bromii-like, Ruminococcus torques 91%, and R. torques 93% were detected from all samples analysed. A multivariate analysis of the relative quantities of all 14 bacterial 16S rRNA gene phylotypes suggested that the intestinal microbiota of the IBS-D patients differed from other sample groups. The PCA on the first principal component (PC1), explaining 30.36% of the observed variation in the IBS-D patient group, was significantly altered from all other sample groups (IBS-D vs control, P = 0.01; IBS-D vs IBS-M, P = 0.00; IBS-D vs IBS-C, P = 0.05). Significant differences were also observed in the levels of distinct phylotypes using relative values in proportion to the total amount of bacteria. A phylotype with 85% similarity to C. thermosuccinogenes was quantified in significantly different quantities among the IBS-D and control subjects (-4.08 ± 0.90 vs -3.33 ± 1.16, P = 0.04) and IBS-D and IBS-M subjects (-4.08 ± 0.90 vs -3.08 ± 1.38, P = 0.05). Furthermore, a phylotype with 94% similarity to R. torques was more prevalent in IBS-D patients’ intestinal microbiota than in that of control subjects (-2.43 ± 1.49 vs -4.02 ± 1.63, P = 0.01). A phylotype with 93% similarity to R. torques was associated with control samples when compared with IBS-M (-2.41 ± 0.53 vs -2.92 ± 0.56, P = 0.00). Additionally, a R. bromii-like phylotype was associated with IBS-C patients in comparison to control subjects (-1.61 ± 1.83 vs -3.69 ± 2.42, P = 0.01). All of the above mentioned phylotype specific alterations were independent of the effect of time.

CONCLUSION: Significant phylotype level alterations in the intestinal microbiotas of IBS patients were observed, further emphasizing the possible contribution of the gastrointestinal microbiota in IBS.

Two CDC42 paralogues modulate Cryptococcus neoformans thermotolerance and morphogenesis under host physiological conditions

The precise regulation of morphogenesis is a key mechanism by which cells respond to a variety of stresses, including those encountered by microbial pathogens in the host. The polarity protein Cdc42 regulates cellular morphogenesis throughout eukaryotes, and we explore the role of Cdc42 proteins in the host survival of the human fungal pathogen Cryptococcus neoformans. Uniquely, C. neoformans has two functional Cdc42 paralogues, Cdc42 and Cdc420. Here we investigate the contribution of each paralogue to resistance to host stress. In contrast to non-pathogenic model organisms, C. neoformans Cdc42 proteins are not required for viability under non-stress conditions but are required for resistance to high temperature. The paralogues play differential roles in actin and septin organization and act downstream of C. neoformans Ras1 to regulate its morphogenesis sub-pathway, but not its effects on mating. Cdc42, and not Cdc420, is upregulated in response to temperature stress and is required for virulence in a murine model of cryptococcosis. The C. neoformans Cdc42 proteins likely perform complementary functions with other Rho-like GTPases to control cell polarity, septin organization and hyphal transitions that allow survival in the environment and in the host.

Bioclipse 2: a scriptable integration platform for the life sciences

Background

Contemporary biological research integrates neighboring scientific domains to answer complex questions in fields such as systems biology and drug discovery. This calls for tools that are intuitive to use, yet flexible to adapt to new tasks.

Results

Bioclipse is a free, open source workbench with advanced features for the life sciences. Version 2.0 constitutes a complete rewrite of Bioclipse, and delivers a stable, scalable integration platform for developers and an intuitive workbench for end users. All functionality is available both from the graphical user interface and from a built-in novel domain-specific language, supporting the scientist in interdisciplinary research and reproducible analyses through advanced visualization of the inputs and the results. New components for Bioclipse 2 include a rewritten editor for chemical structures, a table for multiple molecules that supports gigabyte-sized files, as well as a graphical editor for sequences and alignments.

Conclusion

Bioclipse 2 is equipped with advanced tools required to carry out complex analysis in the fields of bio- and cheminformatics. Developed as a Rich Client based on Eclipse, Bioclipse 2 leverages on today's powerful desktop computers for providing a responsive user interface, but also takes full advantage of the Web and networked (Web/Cloud) services for more demanding calculations or retrieval of data. The fact that Bioclipse 2 is based on an advanced and widely used service platform ensures wide extensibility, making it easy to add new algorithms, visualizations, as well as scripting commands. The intuitive tools for end users and the extensible architecture make Bioclipse 2 ideal for interdisciplinary and integrative research.

Bioclipse 2 is released under the Eclipse Public License (EPL), a flexible open source license that allows additional plugins to be of any license. Bioclipse 2 is implemented in Java and supported on all major platforms; Source code and binaries are freely available at http://www.bioclipse.net.

Generation and gene ontology based analysis of expressed sequence tags (EST) from a Panax ginseng C. A. Meyer roots

Panax ginseng C. A. Meyer is a perennial herb from the Araliaceae family. Traditionally used as a medicinal plant in Oriental medicine for more than thousand years. Ginsenosides are the major therapeutic components in ginseng roots. Roots of the ginseng plant have more commercial value and based on the age. No genomic data available till now. In this study, transcriptome analysis for hairy root, 14 year root, 4 year root get insight in to ginsenoside pathway and genes responsible for long survival and stress. Totally 6,757 Expressed Sequence Tags (EST) was obtained from cDNA libraries. Clustering of those ESTs returned 1,037 contigs and 3,445 singlets for a total of 4,482 putative unigenes. Use of bioinformatics methods 85% of EST sequence was well annotated towards reeds one dimensional concept. The unique transcripts were functionally classified by using Gene Ontology (GO) hierarchy, Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG), KEGG orthology and structural domain data from biological database. Isoprenoid and putative ginsenoside pathway genes were discussed. EST dataset provides a wide outlook of the genes expressed in hairy roots, 14 years root and 4 years root. The dataset contains more than 1,365 EST sequences related to plant secondary metabolism and 745 sequences related to stresses. This study will improve the genetic engineering of ginseng plant and ginsenosides rich plant development. One dimensional data will lead to the two and three dimensional data.

Stem loop sequences specific to transposable element IS605 are found linked to lipoprotein genes in Borrelia plasmids

Background

Plasmids of Borrelia species are dynamic structures that contain a large number of repetitive genes, gene fragments, and gene fusions. In addition, the transposable element IS605/200 family, as well as degenerate forms of this IS element, are prevalent. In Helicobacter pylori, flanking regions of the IS605 transposase gene contain sequences that fold into identical small stem loops. These function in transposition at the single-stranded DNA level.

Methodology/Principal Findings

In work reported here, bioinformatics techniques were used to scan Borrelia plasmid genomes for IS605 transposable element specific stem loop sequences. Two variant stem loop motifs are found in the left and right flanking regions of the transposase gene. Both motifs appear to have dispersed in plasmid genomes and are found “free-standing” and phylogenetically conserved without the associated IS605 transposase gene or the adjacent flanking sequence. Importantly, IS605 specific stem loop sequences are also found at the 3′ ends of lipoprotein genes (PFam12 and PFam60), however the left and right sequences appear to develop their own evolutionary patterns. The lipoprotein gene-linked left stem loop sequences maintain the IS605 stem loop motif in orthologs but only at the RNA level. These show mutations whereby variants fold into phylogenetically conserved RNA-type stem loops that contain the wobble non-Watson-Crick G-U base-pairing. The right flanking sequence is associated with the family lipoprotein-1 genes. A comparison of homologs shows that the IS605 stem loop motif rapidly dissipates, but a more elaborate secondary structure appears to develop in its place.

Conclusions/Significance

Stem loop sequences specific to the transposable element IS605 are present in plasmid regions devoid of a transposase gene and significantly, are found linked to lipoprotein genes in Borrelia plasmids. These sequences are evolutionarily conserved and/or structurally developed in an RNA format. The findings show that IS605 stem loop sequences are multifaceted and are selectively conserved during evolution when the transposable element dissipates.

Bio-jETI: a framework for semantics-based service composition

BACKGROUND

The development of bioinformatics databases, algorithms, and tools throughout the last years has lead to a highly distributed world of bioinformatics services. Without adequate management and development support, in silico researchers are hardly able to exploit the potential of building complex, specialized analysis processes from these services. The Semantic Web aims at thoroughly equipping individual data and services with machine-processable meta-information, while workflow systems support the construction of service compositions. However, even in this combination, in silico researchers currently would have to deal manually with the service interfaces, the adequacy of the semantic annotations, type incompatibilities, and the consistency of service compositions.

RESULTS

In this paper, we demonstrate by means of two examples how Semantic Web technology together with an adequate domain modelling frees in silico researchers from dealing with interfaces, types, and inconsistencies. In Bio-jETI, bioinformatics services can be graphically combined to complex services without worrying about details of their interfaces or about type mismatches of the composition. These issues are taken care of at the semantic level by Bio-jETI's model checking and synthesis features. Whenever possible, they automatically resolve type mismatches in the considered service setting. Otherwise, they graphically indicate impossible/incorrect service combinations. In the latter case, the workflow developer may either modify his service composition using semantically similar services, or ask for help in developing the missing mediator that correctly bridges the detected type gap. Newly developed mediators should then be adequately annotated semantically, and added to the service library for later reuse in similar situations.

CONCLUSION

We show the power of semantic annotations in an adequately modelled and semantically enabled domain setting. Using model checking and synthesis methods, users may orchestrate complex processes from a wealth of heterogeneous services without worrying about interfaces and (type) consistency. The success of this method strongly depends on a careful semantic annotation of the provided services and on its consequent exploitation for analysis, validation, and synthesis. We are convinced that these annotations will become standard, as they will become preconditions for the success and widespread use of (preferred) services in the Semantic Web.

SSWAP: A Simple Semantic Web Architecture and Protocol for semantic web services

BACKGROUND

SSWAP (Simple Semantic Web Architecture and Protocol; pronounced "swap") is an architecture, protocol, and platform for using reasoning to semantically integrate heterogeneous disparate data and services on the web. SSWAP was developed as a hybrid semantic web services technology to overcome limitations found in both pure web service technologies and pure semantic web technologies.

RESULTS

There are currently over 2400 resources published in SSWAP. Approximately two dozen are custom-written services for QTL (Quantitative Trait Loci) and mapping data for legumes and grasses (grains). The remaining are wrappers to Nucleic Acids Research Database and Web Server entries. As an architecture, SSWAP establishes how clients (users of data, services, and ontologies), providers (suppliers of data, services, and ontologies), and discovery servers (semantic search engines) interact to allow for the description, querying, discovery, invocation, and response of semantic web services. As a protocol, SSWAP provides the vocabulary and semantics to allow clients, providers, and discovery servers to engage in semantic web services. The protocol is based on the W3C-sanctioned first-order description logic language OWL DL. As an open source platform, a discovery server running at http://sswap.info (as in to "swap info") uses the description logic reasoner Pellet to integrate semantic resources. The platform hosts an interactive guide to the protocol at http://sswap.info/protocol.jsp, developer tools at http://sswap.info/developer.jsp, and a portal to third-party ontologies at http://sswapmeet.sswap.info (a "swap meet").

CONCLUSION

SSWAP addresses the three basic requirements of a semantic web services architecture (i.e., a common syntax, shared semantic, and semantic discovery) while addressing three technology limitations common in distributed service systems: i.e., i) the fatal mutability of traditional interfaces, ii) the rigidity and fragility of static subsumption hierarchies, and iii) the confounding of content, structure, and presentation. SSWAP is novel by establishing the concept of a canonical yet mutable OWL DL graph that allows data and service providers to describe their resources, to allow discovery servers to offer semantically rich search engines, to allow clients to discover and invoke those resources, and to allow providers to respond with semantically tagged data. SSWAP allows for a mix-and-match of terms from both new and legacy third-party ontologies in these graphs.

XMPP for cloud computing in bioinformatics supporting discovery and invocation of asynchronous web services

BACKGROUND

Life sciences make heavily use of the web for both data provision and analysis. However, the increasing amount of available data and the diversity of analysis tools call for machine accessible interfaces in order to be effective. HTTP-based Web service technologies, like the Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) and REpresentational State Transfer (REST) services, are today the most common technologies for this in bioinformatics. However, these methods have severe drawbacks, including lack of discoverability, and the inability for services to send status notifications. Several complementary workarounds have been proposed, but the results are ad-hoc solutions of varying quality that can be difficult to use.

RESULTS

We present a novel approach based on the open standard Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP), consisting of an extension (IO Data) to comprise discovery, asynchronous invocation, and definition of data types in the service. That XMPP cloud services are capable of asynchronous communication implies that clients do not have to poll repetitively for status, but the service sends the results back to the client upon completion. Implementations for Bioclipse and Taverna are presented, as are various XMPP cloud services in bio- and cheminformatics.

CONCLUSION

XMPP with its extensions is a powerful protocol for cloud services that demonstrate several advantages over traditional HTTP-based Web services: 1) services are discoverable without the need of an external registry, 2) asynchronous invocation eliminates the need for ad-hoc solutions like polling, and 3) input and output types defined in the service allows for generation of clients on the fly without the need of an external semantics description. The many advantages over existing technologies make XMPP a highly interesting candidate for next generation online services in bioinformatics.

Geometric de-noising of protein-protein interaction networks

Understanding complex networks of protein-protein interactions (PPIs) is one of the foremost challenges of the post-genomic era. Due to the recent advances in experimental bio-technology, including yeast-2-hybrid (Y2H), tandem affinity purification (TAP) and other high-throughput methods for protein-protein interaction (PPI) detection, huge amounts of PPI network data are becoming available. Of major concern, however, are the levels of noise and incompleteness. For example, for Y2H screens, it is thought that the false positive rate could be as high as 64%, and the false negative rate may range from 43% to 71%. TAP experiments are believed to have comparable levels of noise.

We present a novel technique to assess the confidence levels of interactions in PPI networks obtained from experimental studies. We use it for predicting new interactions and thus for guiding future biological experiments. This technique is the first to utilize currently the best fitting network model for PPI networks, geometric graphs. Our approach achieves specificity of 85% and sensitivity of 90%. We use it to assign confidence scores to physical protein-protein interactions in the human PPI network downloaded from BioGRID. Using our approach, we predict 251 interactions in the human PPI network, a statistically significant fraction of which correspond to protein pairs sharing common GO terms. Moreover, we validate a statistically significant portion of our predicted interactions in the HPRD database and the newer release of BioGRID. The data and Matlab code implementing the methods are freely available from the web site: http://www.kuchaev.com/Denoising.

Proteins are responsible for much of the biological ‘heavy lifting’ that keeps our cells functioning. However, proteins don't usually work alone; instead they typically bind together to form geometrically and chemically complex structures that are tailored for a specific task. Experimental techniques allow us to detect whether two types of proteins are capable of binding together, or ‘interacting’. This creates a network where two proteins are connected if they have been seen to interact, just as we could regard two people as being connected if they are linked on Facebook. Such protein-protein interaction networks have been developed for several organisms, using a range of methods, all of which are subject to experimental errors. These network data reveal a fascinating and intricate pattern of connections. In particular, it is known that proteins can be arranged into a low-dimensional space, such as a three-dimensional cube, so that interacting proteins are close together. Our work shows that this structure can be exploited to assign confidence levels to recorded protein-protein interactions and predict new interactions that were overlooked experimentally. In tests, we predicted 251 new human protein-protein interactions, and through literature curation we independently validated a statistically significant number of them.

VENN, a tool for titrating sequence conservation onto protein structures

Residue conservation is an important, established method for inferring protein function, modularity and specificity. It is important to recognize that it is the 3D spatial orientation of residues that drives sequence conservation. Considering this, we have built a new computational tool, VENN that allows researchers to interactively and graphically titrate sequence homology onto surface representations of protein structures. Our proposed titration strategies reveal critical details that are not readily identified using other existing tools. Analyses of a bZIP transcription factor and receptor recognition of Fibroblast Growth Factor using VENN revealed key specificity determinants. Weblink: http://sbtools.uchc.edu/venn/.

5'-Transducing SVA retrotransposon groups spread efficiently throughout the human genome

SVA elements represent the youngest family of hominid non-LTR retrotransposons, which alter the human genome continuously. They stand out due to their organization as composite repetitive elements. To draw conclusions on the assembly process that led to the current organization of SVA elements and on their transcriptional regulation, we initiated our study by assessing differences in structures of the 116 SVA elements located on human chromosome 19. We classified SVA elements into seven structural variants, including novel variants like 3'-truncated elements and elements with 5'-flanking sequence transductions. We established a genome-wide inventory of 5'-transduced SVA elements encompassing approximately 8% of all human SVA elements. The diversity of 5' transduction events found indicates transcriptional control of their SVA source elements by a multitude of external cellular promoters in germ cells in the course of their evolution and suggests that SVA elements might be capable of acquiring 5' promoter sequences. Our data indicate that SVA-mediated 5' transduction events involve alternative RNA splicing at cryptic splice sites. We analyzed one remarkably successful human-specific SVA 5' transduction group in detail because it includes at least 32% of all SVA subfamily F members. An ancient retrotransposition event brought an SVA insertion under transcriptional control of the MAST2 gene promoter, giving rise to the primal source element of this group. Members of this group are currently transcribed. Here we show that SVA-mediated 5' transduction events lead to structural diversity of SVA elements and represent a novel source of genomic rearrangements contributing to genomic diversity.

A PH domain within OCRL bridges clathrin-mediated membrane trafficking to phosphoinositide metabolism

OCRL, whose mutations are responsible for Lowe syndrome and Dent disease, and INPP5B are two similar proteins comprising a central inositol 5-phosphatase domain followed by an ASH and a RhoGAP-like domain. Their divergent NH2-terminal portions remain uncharacterized. We show that the NH2-terminal region of OCRL, but not of INPP5B, binds clathrin heavy chain. OCRL, which in contrast to INPP5B visits late stage endocytic clathrin-coated pits, was earlier shown to contain another binding site for clathrin in its COOH-terminal region. NMR structure determination further reveals that despite their primary sequence dissimilarity, the NH2-terminal portions of both OCRL and INPP5B contain a PH domain. The novel clathrin-binding site in OCRL maps to an unusual clathrin-box motif located in a loop of the PH domain, whose mutations reduce recruitment efficiency of OCRL to coated pits. These findings suggest an evolutionary pressure for a specialized function of OCRL in bridging phosphoinositide metabolism to clathrin-dependent membrane trafficking.

Transcriptomic analysis of tomato carpel development reveals alterations in ethylene and gibberellin synthesis during pat3/pat4 parthenocarpic fruit set

BACKGROUND

Tomato fruit set is a key process that has a great economic impact on crop production. We employed the Affymetrix GeneChip Tomato Genome Array to compare the transcriptome of a non-parthenocarpic line, UC82, with that of the parthenocarpic line RP75/59 (pat3/pat4 mutant). We analyzed the transcriptome under normal conditions as well as with forced parthenocarpic development in RP75/59, emasculating the flowers 2 days before anthesis. This analysis helps to understand the fruit set in tomato.

RESULTS

Differentially expressed genes were extracted with maSigPro, which is designed for the analysis of single and multiseries time course microarray experiments. 2842 genes showed changes throughout normal carpel development and fruit set. Most of them showed a change of expression at or after anthesis. The main differences between lines were concentrated at the anthesis stage. We found 758 genes differentially expressed in parthenocarpic fruit set. Among these genes we detected cell cycle-related genes that were still activated at anthesis in the parthenocarpic line, which shows the lack of arrest in the parthenocarpic line at anthesis. Key genes for the synthesis of gibberellins and ethylene, which were up-regulated in the parthenocarpic line were also detected.

CONCLUSION

Comparisons between array experiments determined that anthesis was the most different stage and the key point at which most of the genes were modulated. In the parthenocarpic line, anthesis seemed to be a short transitional stage to fruit set. In this line, the high GAs contends leads to the development of a parthenocarpic fruit, and ethylene may mimic pollination signals, inducing auxin synthesis in the ovary and the development of a jelly fruit.

HotSpot Wizard: a web server for identification of hot spots in protein engineering

HotSpot Wizard is a web server for automatic identification of 'hot spots' for engineering of substrate specificity, activity or enantioselectivity of enzymes and for annotation of protein structures. The web server implements the protein engineering protocol, which targets evolutionarily variable amino acid positions located in the active site or lining the access tunnels. The 'hot spots' for mutagenesis are selected through the integration of structural, functional and evolutionary information obtained from: (i) the databases RCSB PDB, UniProt, PDBSWS, Catalytic Site Atlas and nr NCBI and (ii) the tools CASTp, CAVER, BLAST, CD-HIT, MUSCLE and Rate4Site. The protein structure and e-mail address are the only obligatory inputs for the calculation. In the output, HotSpot Wizard lists annotated residues ordered by estimated mutability. The results of the analysis are mapped on the enzyme structure and visualized in the web browser using Jmol. The HotSpot Wizard server should be useful for protein engineers interested in exploring the structure of their favourite protein and for the design of mutations in site-directed mutagenesis and focused directed evolution experiments. HotSpot Wizard is available at http://loschmidt.chemi.muni.cz/hotspotwizard/.

iCODEHOP: a new interactive program for designing COnsensus-DEgenerate Hybrid Oligonucleotide Primers from multiply aligned protein sequences

PCR amplification using COnsensus DEgenerate Hybrid Oligonucleotide Primers (CODEHOPs) has proven to be highly effective for identifying unknown pathogens and characterizing novel genes. We describe iCODEHOP; a new interactive web application that simplifies the process of designing and selecting CODEHOPs from multiply-aligned protein sequences. iCODEHOP intelligently guides the user through the degenerate primer design process including uploading sequences, creating a multiple alignment, deriving CODEHOPs and calculating their annealing temperatures. The user can quickly scan over an entire set of degenerate primers designed by the program to assess their relative quality and select individual primers for further analysis. The program displays phylogenetic information for input sequences and allows the user to easily design new primers from selected sequence sub-clades. It also allows the user to bias primer design to favor specific clades or sequences using sequence weights. iCODEHOP is freely available to all interested researchers at https://icodehop.cphi.washington.edu/i-codehop-context/Welcome.

Web services at the European Bioinformatics Institute-2009

The European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI) has been providing access to mainstream databases and tools in bioinformatics since 1997. In addition to the traditional web form based interfaces, APIs exist for core data resources such as EMBL-Bank, Ensembl, UniProt, InterPro, PDB and ArrayExpress. These APIs are based on Web Services (SOAP/REST) interfaces that allow users to systematically access databases and analytical tools. From the user's point of view, these Web Services provide the same functionality as the browser-based forms. However, using the APIs frees the user from web page constraints and are ideal for the analysis of large batches of data, performing text-mining tasks and the casual or systematic evaluation of mathematical models in regulatory networks. Furthermore, these services are widespread and easy to use; require no prior knowledge of the technology and no more than basic experience in programming. In the following we wish to inform of new and updated services as well as briefly describe planned developments to be made available during the course of 2009–2010.

Gemin5-snRNA interaction reveals an RNA binding function for WD repeat domains

Gemin5 binds specifically to the small nuclear RNA (snRNA)-defining small nuclear ribonucleoprotein (snRNP) code sequence and is essential, together with other components of the survival of motor neurons (SMN) complex, for the biogenesis of snRNPs, the major constituents of spliceosomes. We show that this binding is mediated by Gemin5's WD repeat domain, a common domain not previously known to bind RNA independently. The entire WD repeat domain, comprising 13 WD motifs, is both necessary and sufficient for sequence-specific, high-affinity binding of Gemin5 to its RNA targets. Using an RNA-mediated hydroxyl radical probing method and mass spectrometry, we mapped a discrete region of the WD repeat domain that contacts snRNAs and demonstrated by mutagenesis that specific amino acids in this region are crucial for Gemin5-snRNA binding. The WD repeat domain is thus a previously undescribed RNA binding domain, and we suggest that the presence of WD repeats should be considered as predictive of potential function in RNA binding.

Structure and in vivo requirement of the yeast Spt6 SH2 domain

During transcription elongation through chromatin, the Ser2-phosphorylated C-terminal repeat domain of RNA polymerase II binds the C-terminal Src homology 2 (SH2) domain of the nucleosome re-assembly factor Spt6. This SH2 domain is unusual in its specificity to bind phosphoserine, rather than phosphotyrosine and because it is the only SH2 domain in the yeast genome. Here, we report the high-resolution crystal structure of the SH2 domain from Candida glabrata Spt6. The structure combines features from both structural subfamilies of SH2 domains, suggesting it resembles a common ancestor of all SH2 domains. Two conserved surface pockets deviate from those of canonical SH2 domains, and may explain the unusual phosphoserine specificity. Differential gene expression analysis reveals that the SH2 domain is required for normal expression of a subset of yeast genes, and is consistent with multiple functions of Spt6 in chromatin transcription.

Characterization of human lysophospholipid acyltransferase 3

Esterifying lysophospholipids may serve a variety of functions, including phospholipid remodeling and limiting the abundance of bioactive lipids. Recently, a yeast enzyme, Lpt1p, that esterifies an array of lysophospholipids was identified. Described here is the characterization of a human homolog of LPT1 that we have called lysophosphatidylcholine acyltransferase 3 (LPCAT3). Expression of LPCAT3 in Sf9 insect cells conferred robust esterification of lysophosphatidylcholine in vitro. Kinetic analysis found apparent cooperativity with a saturated acyl-CoA having the lowest K0.5 (5 microM), a monounsaturated acyl-CoA having the highest apparent Vmax (759 nmol/min/mg), and two polyunsaturated acyl-CoAs showing intermediate values. Lysophosphatidylethanolamine and lysophosphatidylserine were also utilized as substrates. Electrospray ionization mass spectrometric analysis of phospholipids in Sf9 cells expressing LPCAT3 showed a relative increase in phosphatidylcholine containing saturated acyl chains and a decrease in phosphatidylcholine containing unsaturated acyl chains. Targeted reduction of LPCAT3 expression in HEK293 cells had essentially an opposite effect, resulting in decreased abundance of saturated phospholipid species and more unsaturated species. Reduced LPCAT3 expression resulted in more apoptosis and distinctly fewer lamellipodia, suggesting a necessary role for lysophospholipid esterification in maintaining cellular function and structure.

Genome and proteome annotation: organization, interpretation and integration

Recent years have seen a huge increase in the generation of genomic and proteomic data. This has been due to improvements in current biological methodologies, the development of new experimental techniques and the use of computers as support tools. All these raw data are useless if they cannot be properly analysed, annotated, stored and displayed. Consequently, a vast number of resources have been created to present the data to the wider community. Annotation tools and databases provide the means to disseminate these data and to comprehend their biological importance. This review examines the various aspects of annotation: type, methodology and availability. Moreover, it puts a special interest on novel annotation fields, such as that of phenotypes, and highlights the recent efforts focused on the integrating annotations.

Intergenic regions of Borrelia plasmids contain phylogenetically conserved RNA secondary structure motifs

BACKGROUND

Borrelia species are unusual in that they contain a large number of linear and circular plasmids. Many of these plasmids have long intergenic regions. These regions have many fragmented genes, repeated sequences and appear to be in a state of flux, but they may serve as reservoirs for evolutionary change and/or maintain stable motifs such as small RNA genes.

RESULTS

In an in silico study, intergenic regions of Borrelia plasmids were scanned for phylogenetically conserved stem loop structures that may represent functional units at the RNA level. Five repeat sequences were found that could fold into stable RNA-type stem loop structures, three of which are closely linked to protein genes, one of which is a member of the Borrelia lipoprotein_1 super family genes and another is the complement regulator-acquiring surface protein_1 (CRASP-1) family. Modeled secondary structures of repeat sequences display numerous base-pair compensatory changes in stem regions, including C-G-->A-U transversions when orthologous sequences are compared. Base-pair compensatory changes constitute strong evidence for phylogenetic conservation of secondary structure.

CONCLUSION

Intergenic regions of Borrelia species carry evolutionarily stable RNA secondary structure motifs. Of major interest is that some motifs are associated with protein genes that show large sequence variability. The cell may conserve these RNA motifs whereas allow a large flux in amino acid sequence, possibly to create new virulence factors but with associated RNA motifs intact.

WSsas: a web service for the annotation of functional residues through structural homologues

MOTIVATION

Annotation tools help scientists to traverse the gap between characterized and uncharacterized proteins. Tools for the prediction of protein function include those which predict the function of entire proteins or complexes, those annotating functional domains and those which predict specific residues within the domain. We have developed WSsas, a web service focused on the annotation of essential functional residues. WSsas uses similarity searches and pairwise alignments to transfer functional information about binding, catalytic and protein-protein interaction residues from solved structures to query sequences. In addition, WSsas can supply information about the relevant functional atoms. The web service definition (WSDL) file and a Perl client are freely available at http://www.ebi.ac.uk/thornton-srv/databases/WSsas/.

Evolutionary analysis of the Sub1 gene cluster that confers submergence tolerance to domesticated rice

BACKGROUND AND AIMS

Tolerance of complete submergence is recognized in a small number of accessions of domesticated Asian rice (Oryza sativa) and can be conferred by the Sub1A-1 gene of the polygenic Submergence-1 (Sub1) locus. In all O. sativa varieties, the Sub1 locus encodes the ethylene-responsive factor (ERF) genes Sub1B and Sub1C. A third paralogous ERF gene, Sub1A, is limited to a subset of indica accessions. It is thought that O. sativa was domesticated from the gene pools of the wild perennial species O. rufipogon Griff. and/or the annual species O. nivara Sharma et Shastry. The aim of this study was to evaluate the orthologues of the Sub1 locus in the closest relatives of O. sativa to provide insight into the origin of the gene and allelic variation of the Sub1 locus.

METHODS

Orthologues of the Sub1 genes were isolated from O. rufipogon and O. nivara by use of oligonucleotide primers corresponding to the most highly conserved regions of the Sub1 genes of domesticated rice. The phylogenetic relatedness of Sub1 genes of O. sativa and its wild relatives was evaluated.

KEY RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS

Both O. rufipogon and O. nivara possess two Sub1 gene orthologues with strong sequence identity to the Sub1B and Sub1C alleles of cultivated rice. The phylogeny of the Sub1 genes of the domesticated and wild rice suggests that Sub1A arose from duplication of Sub1B. Variation in Sub1B alleles is correlated with the absence or presence of Sub1A. Together, the results indicate that genetic variation at the Sub1 locus is due to gene duplication and divergence that have occurred both prior to and after rice domestication.

Partial genome sequence analysis of parvoviruses associated with enteric disease in poultry

Poult enteritis mortality syndrome (PEMS) of turkeys and runting-stunting syndrome (RSS) of chickens are significant viral enteric diseases of poultry. Although a number of different viruses, including avian reoviruses, rotaviruses, astroviruses and coronaviruses, have been isolated from the intestinal contents of birds in affected poultry flocks, their role in PEMS and RSS is not yet understood. Here, we report the application of a molecular screening method to detection of novel viruses in intestinal samples of chickens and turkeys exhibiting characteristic signs of enteric disease. The technique is based on random amplification of particle-associated nucleic acids in clinical samples. Using this method we successfully identified parvovirus DNA sequences in intestinal homogenates of affected birds. This is the first time partial genomic sequences of autonomously replicating chicken and turkey parvoviruses have been described. Sequence analysis of the left end of the genome, including the complete non-structural gene, demonstrated that the chicken and turkey parvoviruses were closely related to each other and were representative of a novel member of the Parvovirus family. These parvoviruses may play a significant role in the aetiology of PEMS and RSS.

InterPro: the integrative protein signature database

The InterPro database (http://www.ebi.ac.uk/interpro/) integrates together predictive models or 'signatures' representing protein domains, families and functional sites from multiple, diverse source databases: Gene3D, PANTHER, Pfam, PIRSF, PRINTS, ProDom, PROSITE, SMART, SUPERFAMILY and TIGRFAMs. Integration is performed manually and approximately half of the total approximately 58,000 signatures available in the source databases belong to an InterPro entry. Recently, we have started to also display the remaining un-integrated signatures via our web interface. Other developments include the provision of non-signature data, such as structural data, in new XML files on our FTP site, as well as the inclusion of matchless UniProtKB proteins in the existing match XML files. The web interface has been extended and now links out to the ADAN predicted protein-protein interaction database and the SPICE and Dasty viewers. The latest public release (v18.0) covers 79.8% of UniProtKB (v14.1) and consists of 16 549 entries. InterPro data may be accessed either via the web address above, via web services, by downloading files by anonymous FTP or by using the InterProScan search software (http://www.ebi.ac.uk/Tools/InterProScan/).

PMAP: databases for analyzing proteolytic events and pathways

The Proteolysis MAP (PMAP, http://www.proteolysis.org) is a user-friendly website intended to aid the scientific community in reasoning about proteolytic networks and pathways. PMAP is comprised of five databases, linked together in one environment. The foundation databases, ProteaseDB and SubstrateDB, are driven by an automated annotation pipeline that generates dynamic ‘Molecule Pages’, rich in molecular information. PMAP also contains two community annotated databases focused on function; CutDB has information on more than 5000 proteolytic events, and ProfileDB is dedicated to information of the substrate recognition specificity of proteases. Together, the content within these four databases will ultimately feed PathwayDB, which will be comprised of known pathways whose function can be dynamically modeled in a rule-based manner, and hypothetical pathways suggested by semi-automated culling of the literature. A Protease Toolkit is also available for the analysis of proteases and proteolysis. Here, we describe how the databases of PMAP can be used to foster understanding of proteolytic pathways, and equally as significant, to reason about proteolysis.

RiceGeneThresher: a web-based application for mining genes underlying QTL in rice genome

RiceGeneThresher is a public online resource for mining genes underlying genome regions of interest or quantitative trait loci (QTL) in rice genome. It is a compendium of rice genomic resources consisting of genetic markers, genome annotation, expressed sequence tags (ESTs), protein domains, gene ontology, plant stress-responsive genes, metabolic pathways and prediction of protein–protein interactions. RiceGeneThresher system integrates these diverse data sources and provides powerful web-based applications, and flexible tools for delivering customized set of biological data on rice. Its system supports whole-genome gene mining for QTL by querying using DNA marker intervals or genomic loci. RiceGeneThresher provides biologically supported evidences that are essential for targeting groups or networks of genes involved in controlling traits underlying QTL. Users can use it to discover and to assign the most promising candidate genes in preparation for the further gene function validation analysis. The web-based application is freely available at http://rice.kps.ku.ac.th.

Molecular modeling of the full-length human TRPV1 channel in closed and desensitized states

The transient receptor potential vanilloid subtype 1 (TRPV1) is a member of the TRP family gated by vanilloids, heat, and protons. Structurally, TRPV1 subunits have a modular architecture underlying different functionalities, namely stimuli recognition, channel gating, ion selectivity, subunit oligomerization, and regulation by intracellular signaling molecules. Considering modular organization and recent structural information in the ion channel field, we have modeled a full-length TRPV1 by assembly of its major modules: the cytosolic N-terminal, C-terminal, and membrane-spanning region. For N-terminal, we used the ankyrin repeat structure fused with the N-end segment. The membrane domain was modeled with the structure of the eukaryotic, voltage-gated Kv1.2 K+ channel. The C-terminus was cast using the coordinates of HCN channels. The extensive structure-function data available for TRPV1 was used to validate the models in terms of the location of molecular determinants of function in the structure. Additionally, the current information allowed the modeling of the vanilloid receptor in the closed and desensitized states. The closed state shows the N-terminal module highly exposed and accessible to adenosine triphosphate and the C-terminal accessible to phosphoinositides. In contrast, the desensitized state depicts the N-terminal and C-terminal modules close together, compatible with an interaction mediated by Ca2+ -calmodulin complex. These models identify potential previously unrecognized intra- and interdomain interactions that may play an important functional role. Although the molecular models should be taken with caution, they provide a helpful tool that yields testable hypothesis that further our understanding on ion channels work in terms of underlying protein structure.

Introducing meta-services for biomedical information extraction

We introduce the first meta-service for information extraction in molecular biology, the BioCreative MetaServer (BCMS; http://bcms.bioinfo.cnio.es/). This prototype platform is a joint effort of 13 research groups and provides automatically generated annotations for PubMed/Medline abstracts. Annotation types cover gene names, gene IDs, species, and protein-protein interactions. The annotations are distributed by the meta-server in both human and machine readable formats (HTML/XML). This service is intended to be used by biomedical researchers and database annotators, and in biomedical language processing. The platform allows direct comparison, unified access, and result aggregation of the annotations.

Structure of selenophosphate synthetase essential for selenium incorporation into proteins and RNAs

Selenophosphate synthetase (SPS) catalyzes the activation of selenide with adenosine 5'-triphosphate (ATP) to generate selenophosphate, the essential reactive selenium donor for the formation of selenocysteine (Sec) and 2-selenouridine residues in proteins and RNAs, respectively. Many SPS are themselves Sec-containing proteins, in which Sec replaces Cys in the catalytically essential position (Sec/Cys). We solved the crystal structures of Aquifex aeolicus SPS and its complex with adenosine 5'-(alpha,beta-methylene) triphosphate (AMPCPP). The ATP-binding site is formed at the subunit interface of the homodimer. Four Asp residues coordinate four metal ions to bind the phosphate groups of AMPCPP. In the free SPS structure, the two loop regions in the ATP-binding site are not ordered, and no enzyme-associated metal is observed. This suggests that ATP binding, metal binding, and the formation of their binding sites are interdependent. To identify the amino-acid residues that contribute to SPS activity, we prepared six mutants of SPS and examined their selenide-dependent ATP consumption. Mutational analyses revealed that Sec/Cys13 and Lys16 are essential. In SPS.AMPCPP, the N-terminal loop, including the two residues, assumes different conformations ("open" and "closed") between the two subunits. The AMPCPP gamma-phosphate group is solvent-accessible, suggesting that a putative nucleophile could attack the ATP gamma-phosphate group to generate selenophosphate and adenosine 5'-diphosphate (ADP). Selenide attached to Sec/Cys13 as -Se-Se(-)/-S-Se(-) could serve as the nucleophile in the "closed" conformation. A water molecule, fixed close to the beta-phosphate group, could function as the nucleophile in subsequent ADP hydrolysis to orthophosphate and adenosine 5'-monophosphate.

Planar polarity genes in the Drosophila wing regulate the localisation of the FH3-domain protein Multiple Wing Hairs to control the site of hair production

The core planar polarity proteins play important roles in coordinating cell polarity, in part by adopting asymmetric subcellular localisations that are likely to serve as cues for cell polarisation by as yet uncharacterised pathways. Here we describe the role of Multiple Wing Hairs (Mwh), a novel formin homology 3 (FH3)-domain protein, which acts downstream of the core polarity proteins to restrict the production of actin-rich prehairs to distal cell edges in the Drosophila pupal wing. Mwh appears to function as a repressor of actin filament formation and, in its absence, ectopic actin bundles are seen across the entire apical surface of cells. We show that the proximally localised core polarity protein Strabismus acts via the downstream effector proteins Inturned, Fuzzy and Fritz to stabilise Mwh in apico-proximal cellular regions. In addition, the distally localised core polarity protein Frizzled positively promotes prehair initiation, suggesting that both proximal and distal cellular cues act together to ensure accurate prehair placement.