Analysis of the compositional biases in Plasmodium falciparum genome and proteome using Arabidopsis thaliana as a reference

A network-based approach reveals novel invasion and Maurer's clefts-related proteins in Plasmodium falciparum

Malaria continues to be a major concern in developing countries despite continuous efforts to find a cure for the disease. Understanding the pathogenesis mechanism is necessary to identify more effective drug targets against malaria. Many years of experimental research have generated a large amount of data for the malarial parasite, Plasmodium falciparum. These data are useful to understand the importance of certain parasite proteins, but it often remains unclear how these proteins come together, interact with other proteins and carry out their function. Identification of all proteins involved in pathogenesis is an important step towards understanding the molecular mechanism of pathogenesis. In this study, dynamic stage-specific protein-protein interaction networks were created based on gene expression data during the parasite's intra-erythrocytic stages and static protein-protein interaction data. Using previously known proteins of a biological event as seed proteins, the random walk with restart (RWR) method was used on the dynamic protein-protein interaction networks to identify novel proteins related to that event. Two screening procedures namely, permutation test and GO enrichment test were performed to increase the reliability of the RWR predictions. The proposed method was first validated on Plasmodium falciparum proteins related to invasion, where it could reproduce the existing knowledge from a small set of seed proteins. It was then used to identify novel Maurer's clefts resident proteins, where it could identify 152 parasite proteins. We show that the current approach can annotate conserved proteins with unknown function. The predicted proteins can help build a mechanistic model for disease pathogenesis, which will be useful in identifying new drug targets.

Evolution of folate biosynthesis and metabolism across algae and land plant lineages

Tetrahydrofolate and its derivatives, commonly known as folates, are essential for almost all living organisms. Besides acting as one-carbon donors and acceptors in reactions producing various important biomolecules such as nucleic and amino acids, as well as pantothenate, they also supply one-carbon units for methylation reactions. Plants along with bacteria, yeast and fungi synthesize folates de novo and therefore constitute a very important dietary source of folates for animals. All the major steps of folate biosynthesis and metabolism have been identified but only few have been genetically characterized in a handful of model plant species. The possible differences in the folate pathway between various plant and algal species have never been explored. In this study we present a comprehensive comparative study of folate biosynthesis and metabolism of all major land plant lineages as well as green and red algae. The study identifies new features of plant folate metabolism that might open new directions to folate research in plants.

Forces acting on codon bias in malaria parasites

Malaria parasite genomes have a range of codon biases, with Plasmodium falciparum one of the most AT-biased genomes known. We examined the make up of synonymous coding sites and stop codons in the core genomes of representative malaria parasites, showing first that local DNA context influences codon bias similarly across P. falciparum, P. vivax and P. berghei, with suppression of CpG dinucleotides and enhancement of CpC dinucleotides, both within and aross codons. Intense asexual phase gene expression in P. falciparum and P. berghei is associated with increased A3:G3 bias but reduced T3:C3 bias at 2-fold sites, consistent with adaptation of codons to tRNA pools and avoidance of wobble tRNA interactions that potentially slow down translation. In highly expressed genes, the A3:G3 ratio can exceed 30-fold while the T3:C3 ratio can be less than 1, according to the encoded amino acid and subsequent base. Lysine codons (AAA/G) show distinctive behaviour with substantially reduced A3:G3 bias in highly expressed genes, perhaps because of selection against frameshifting when the AAA codon is followed by another adenine. Intense expression is also associated with a strong bias towards TAA stop codons (found in 94% and 89% of highly expressed P. falciparum and P. berghei genes respectively) and a proportional rise in the TAAA stop ‘tetranucleotide’. The presence of these expression-linked effects in the relatively AT-rich malaria parasite species adds weight to the suggestion that AT-richness in the Plasmodium genus might be a fitness adaptation. Potential explanations for the relative lack of codon bias in P. vivax include the distinct features of its lifecycle and its effective population size over evolutionary time.

Genome-wide analysis of the human malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum transcription factor PfNF-YB shows interaction with a CCAAT motif

Little is known about transcription factor regulation during the Plasmodium falciparum intraerythrocytic cycle. In order to elucidate the role of the P. falciparum (Pf)NF-YB transcription factor we searched for target genes in the entire genome. PfNF-YB mRNA is highly expressed in late trophozoite and schizont stages relative to the ring stage. In order to determine the candidate genes bound by PfNF-YB a ChIP-on-chip assay was carried out and 297 genes were identified. Ninety nine percent of PfNF-YB binding was to putative promoter regions of protein coding genes of which only 16% comprise proteins of known function. Interestingly, our data reveal that PfNF-YB binding is not exclusively to a canonical CCAAT box motif. PfNF-YB binds to genes coding for proteins implicated in a range of different biological functions, such as replication protein A large subunit (DNA replication), hypoxanthine phosphoribosyltransferase (nucleic acid metabolism) and multidrug resistance protein 2 (intracellular transport).

Phylogenomic and biogeographic reconstruction of the Trichinella complex

Trichinellosis is a globally important food-borne parasitic disease of humans caused by roundworms of the Trichinella complex. Extensive biological diversity is reflected in substantial ecological and genetic variability within and among Trichinella taxa, and major controversy surrounds the systematics of this complex. Here we report the sequencing and assembly of 16 draft genomes representing all 12 recognized Trichinella species and genotypes, define protein-coding gene sets and assess genetic differences among these taxa. Using thousands of shared single-copy orthologous gene sequences, we fully reconstruct, for the first time, a phylogeny and biogeography for the Trichinella complex, and show that encapsulated and non-encapsulated Trichinella taxa diverged from their most recent common ancestor ∼21 million years ago (mya), with taxon diversifications commencing ∼10-7 mya.

The evolution of genomic GC content undergoes a rapid reversal within the genus Plasmodium

The genome of the malarial parasite Plasmodium falciparum is extremely AT rich. This bias toward a low GC content is a characteristic of several, but not all, species within the genus Plasmodium. We compared 4283 orthologous pairs of protein-coding sequences between Plasmodium falciparum and the less AT-biased Plasmodium vivax. Our results indicate that the common ancestor of these two species was also extremely AT rich. This means that, although there was a strong bias toward A+T during the early evolution of the ancestral Plasmodium lineage, there was a subsequent reversal of this trend during the more recent evolution of some species, such as P. vivax. Moreover, we show that not only is the P. vivax genome losing its AT richness, it is actually gaining a very significant degree of GC richness. This example illustrates the potential volatility of nucleotide content during the course of molecular evolution. Such reversible fluxes in nucleotide content within lineages could have important implications for phylogenetic reconstruction based on molecular sequence data.

Plastids with or without galactoglycerolipids

In structural, functional, and evolutionary terms, galactoglycerolipids are signature lipids of chloroplasts. Their presence in nongreen plastids has been demonstrated in angiosperms and diatoms. Thus, galactoglycerolipids are considered as a landmark of green and nongreen plastids, deriving from either a primary or secondary endosymbiosis. The discovery of a plastid in Plasmodium falciparum, the causative agent of malaria, fueled the search for galactoglycerolipids as possible targets for treatments. However, recent data have provided evidence that the Plasmodium plastid does not contain any galactoglycerolipids. In this opinion article, we discuss questions raised by the loss of galactoglycerolipids during evolution: how have galactoglycerolipids been lost? How does the Plasmodium plastid maintain four membranes without these lipids? What are the main constituents instead of galactoglycerolipids?

Aminoacylation of Plasmodium falciparum tRNA(Asn) and insights in the synthesis of asparagine repeats

Genome sequencing revealed an extreme AT-rich genome and a profusion of asparagine repeats associated with low complexity regions (LCRs) in proteins of the malarial parasite Plasmodium falciparum. Despite their abundance, the function of these LCRs remains unclear. Because they occur in almost all families of plasmodial proteins, the occurrence of LCRs cannot be associated with any specific metabolic pathway; yet their accumulation must have given selective advantages to the parasite. Translation of these asparagine-rich LCRs demands extraordinarily high amounts of asparaginylated tRNA(Asn). However, unlike other organisms, Plasmodium codon bias is not correlated to tRNA gene copy number. Here, we studied tRNA(Asn) accumulation as well as the catalytic capacities of the asparaginyl-tRNA synthetase of the parasite in vitro. We observed that asparaginylation in this parasite can be considered standard, which is expected to limit the availability of asparaginylated tRNA(Asn) in the cell and, in turn, slow down the ribosomal translation rate when decoding asparagine repeats. This observation strengthens our earlier hypothesis considering that asparagine rich sequences act as "tRNA sponges" and help cotranslational folding of parasite proteins. However, it also raises many questions about the mechanistic aspects of the synthesis of asparagine repeats and about their implications in the global control of protein expression throughout Plasmodium life cycle.

The evolution of metabolic enzymes in Plasmodium and trypanosomatids as compared to Saccharomyces and Schizosaccharomyces

Understanding how the biological connectivity of genes and gene products affects evolution is an important aspect of understanding evolution. Genes encoding enzymes are frequently used to carry out such analyses. Interestingly, studies have shown that connectivity in the metabolic networks in parasitic protists, including Plasmodium falciparum and Trypanosoma brucei, have been substantially altered as compared to free living eukaryotes, such as Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Herein, we have determined K(a) values, which are a measure of the non-synonymous substitution rate, and used them to examine the differences between the evolution of genes in T. brucei, P. falciparum, S. cerevisiae, and Schizosaccharomyces pombe. All four organisms share similar traits with respect to the evolution of genes encoding metabolic enzymes. First, genes encoding metabolic enzymes have lower K(a) values than genes encoding non-metabolic proteins. In addition, perturbations of the metabolic network appear to have limited affects on the genes encoding enzymes near the perturbation. In most cases, there is a negative relationship between connectivity in the metabolic network of the gene product and the K(a) value for the gene, i.e. examining how much constraint there is on gene evolution when it is connected to many other genes. In addition, we find that the K(a) values of orthologs encoding for metabolic enzymes in each organism are significantly correlated, indicating similar patterns of non-synonymous substitutions. In total, our results indicate that the evolution of genes encoding metabolic enzymes do not tend to be greatly affected by changes in the metabolic network.

Fitting hidden Markov models of protein domains to a target species: application to Plasmodium falciparum

BACKGROUND

Hidden Markov Models (HMMs) are a powerful tool for protein domain identification. The Pfam database notably provides a large collection of HMMs which are widely used for the annotation of proteins in new sequenced organisms. In Pfam, each domain family is represented by a curated multiple sequence alignment from which a profile HMM is built. In spite of their high specificity, HMMs may lack sensitivity when searching for domains in divergent organisms. This is particularly the case for species with a biased amino-acid composition, such as P. falciparum, the main causal agent of human malaria. In this context, fitting HMMs to the specificities of the target proteome can help identify additional domains.

RESULTS

Using P. falciparum as an example, we compare approaches that have been proposed for this problem, and present two alternative methods. Because previous attempts strongly rely on known domain occurrences in the target species or its close relatives, they mainly improve the detection of domains which belong to already identified families. Our methods learn global correction rules that adjust amino-acid distributions associated with the match states of HMMs. These rules are applied to all match states of the whole HMM library, thus enabling the detection of domains from previously absent families. Additionally, we propose a procedure to estimate the proportion of false positives among the newly discovered domains. Starting with the Pfam standard library, we build several new libraries with the different HMM-fitting approaches. These libraries are first used to detect new domain occurrences with low E-values. Second, by applying the Co-Occurrence Domain Discovery (CODD) procedure we have recently proposed, the libraries are further used to identify likely occurrences among potential domains with higher E-values.

CONCLUSION

We show that the new approaches allow identification of several domain families previously absent in the P. falciparum proteome and the Apicomplexa phylum, and identify many domains that are not detected by previous approaches. In terms of the number of new discovered domains, the new approaches outperform the previous ones when no close species are available or when they are used to identify likely occurrences among potential domains with high E-values. All predictions on P. falciparum have been integrated into a dedicated website which pools all known/new annotations of protein domains and functions for this organism. A software implementing the two proposed approaches is available at the same address: http://www.lirmm.fr/~terrapon/HMMfit/

Normalized global alignment for protein sequences

Global alignment is used to compare proteins in different fields, for example in phylogenetic research. In order to reduce the length and composition dependence of global alignment scores, Z-score is computed with a Monte-Carlo algorithm. This technique requires a great number of sequence alignments on shuffled sequences, leading to a high computational cost. In this work, a normalized global alignment score is introduced in order to correct the length dependence of global alignments. This score is defined as the best ratio between the score of an alignment and its length, and an algorithm to compute it based on fractional programming is implemented. The properties and effectiveness of normalized global alignment applied to protein comparison are analyzed. Experiments with proteins selected from the SCOP ASTRAL database were run to study relationship of normalized global alignment with Z-score and performance in homologous detection. Results show that normalized global alignment has a computational cost equivalent to 2.5 Needleman-Wunsch runs and a linear relationship with Z-score. This linearity allows us to use normalized global alignment as a cheap substitute to a computationally expensive Z-score. Experiments show that normalized global alignment improves the ability to identify homologous proteins. Software used to compute normalized global alignments is available from http://www3.uji.es/∼peris/nga.

The cyst-dividing bacterium Ramlibacter tataouinensis TTB310 genome reveals a well-stocked toolbox for adaptation to a desert environment

Ramlibacter tataouinensis TTB310(T) (strain TTB310), a betaproteobacterium isolated from a semi-arid region of South Tunisia (Tataouine), is characterized by the presence of both spherical and rod-shaped cells in pure culture. Cell division of strain TTB310 occurs by the binary fission of spherical "cyst-like" cells ("cyst-cyst" division). The rod-shaped cells formed at the periphery of a colony (consisting mainly of cysts) are highly motile and colonize a new environment, where they form a new colony by reversion to cyst-like cells. This unique cell cycle of strain TTB310, with desiccation tolerant cyst-like cells capable of division and desiccation sensitive motile rods capable of dissemination, appears to be a novel adaptation for life in a hot and dry desert environment. In order to gain insights into strain TTB310's underlying genetic repertoire and possible mechanisms responsible for its unusual lifestyle, the genome of strain TTB310 was completely sequenced and subsequently annotated. The complete genome consists of a single circular chromosome of 4,070,194 bp with an average G+C content of 70.0%, the highest among the Betaproteobacteria sequenced to date, with total of 3,899 predicted coding sequences covering 92% of the genome. We found that strain TTB310 has developed a highly complex network of two-component systems, which may utilize responses to light and perhaps a rudimentary circadian hourglass to anticipate water availability at the dew time in the middle/end of the desert winter nights and thus direct the growth window to cyclic water availability times. Other interesting features of the strain TTB310 genome that appear to be important for desiccation tolerance, including intermediary metabolism compounds such as trehalose or polyhydroxyalkanoate, and signal transduction pathways, are presented and discussed.

How Fitch-Margoliash Algorithm can Benefit from Multi Dimensional Scaling

Whatever the phylogenetic method, genetic sequences are often described as strings of characters, thus molecular sequences can be viewed as elements of a multi-dimensional space. As a consequence, studying motion in this space (ie, the evolutionary process) must deal with the amazing features of high-dimensional spaces like concentration of measured phenomenon.

To study how these features might influence phylogeny reconstructions, we examined a particular popular method: the Fitch-Margoliash algorithm, which belongs to the Least Squares methods. We show that the Least Squares methods are closely related to Multi Dimensional Scaling. Indeed, criteria for Fitch-Margoliash and Sammon’s mapping are somewhat similar. However, the prolific research in Multi Dimensional Scaling has definitely allowed outclassing Sammon’s mapping.

Least Square methods for tree reconstruction can now take advantage of these improvements. However, “false neighborhood” and “tears” are the two main risks in dimensionality reduction field: “false neighborhood” corresponds to a widely separated data in the original space that are found close in representation space, and neighbor data that are displayed in remote positions constitute a “tear”. To address this problem, we took advantage of the concepts of “continuity” and “trustworthiness” in the tree reconstruction field, which limit the risk of “false neighborhood” and “tears”. We also point out the concentration of measured phenomenon as a source of error and introduce here new criteria to build phylogenies with improved preservation of distances and robustness.

The authors and the Evolutionary Bioinformatics Journal dedicate this article to the memory of Professor W.M. Fitch (1929–2011).

Exploring genomes for glycosyltransferases

Glycosyltransferases are one of the largest and most diverse enzyme groups in Nature. They catalyse the synthesis of glycosidic linkages by the transfer of a sugar residue from a donor to an acceptor substrate. These enzymes have been classified into families on the basis of amino acid sequence similarity that are kept updated in the Carbohydrate Active enZyme database (CAZy, ). The repertoire of glycosyltransferases in genomes is believed to determine the diversity of cellular glycan structures, and current estimates suggest that for most genomes about 1% of the coding regions are glycosyltransferases. However, plants tend to have far more glycosyltransferase genes than any other organism sequenced to date, and this can be explained by the highly complex polysaccharide network that form the cell wall and also by the numerous glycosylated secondary metabolites. In recent years, various bioinformatics strategies have been used to search bacterial and plant genomes for new glycosyltransferase genes. These are based on the use of remote homology detection methods that act at the 1D, 2D, and 3D level. The combined use of methods such as profile Hidden Markov Model (HMM) and fold recognition appears to be appropriate for this class of enzyme. Chemometric tools are also particularly well suited for obtaining an overview of multivariate data and revealing hidden latent information when dealing with large and highly complex datasets.

Use of thermal melt curves to assess the quality of enzyme preparations

This study sought to determine whether the quality of enzyme preparations can be determined from their melting curves, which may easily be obtained using a fluorescent probe and a standard reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) machine. Thermal melt data on 31 recombinant enzymes from Plasmodium parasites were acquired by incrementally heating them to 90 degrees C and measuring unfolding with a fluorescent dye. Activity assays specific to each enzyme were also performed. Four of the enzymes were denatured to varying degrees with heat and sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) prior to the thermal melt and activity assays. In general, melting curve quality was correlated with enzyme activity; enzymes with high-quality curves were found almost uniformly to be active, whereas those with lower quality curves were more varied in their catalytic performance. Inspection of melting curves of bovine xanthine oxidase and Entamoeba histolytica cysteine protease 1 allowed active stocks to be distinguished from inactive stocks, implying that a relationship between melting curve quality and activity persists over a wide range of experimental conditions and species. Our data suggest that melting curves can help to distinguish properly folded proteins from denatured ones and, therefore, may be useful in selecting stocks for further study and in optimizing purification procedures for specific proteins.

Darwinian selection for sites of Asn-linked glycosylation in phylogenetically disparate eukaryotes and viruses

Numerous protists and rare fungi have truncated Asn-linked glycan precursors and lack N-glycan-dependent quality control (QC) systems for glycoprotein folding in the endoplasmic reticulum. Here, we show that the abundance of sequons (NXT or NXS), which are sites for N-glycosylation of secreted and membrane proteins, varies by more than a factor of 4 among phylogenetically diverse eukaryotes, based on a few variables. There is positive correlation between the density of sequons and the AT content of coding regions, although no causality can be inferred. In contrast, there appears to be Darwinian selection for sequons containing Thr, but not Ser, in eukaryotes that have N-glycan-dependent QC systems. Selection for sequons with Thr, which nearly doubles the sequon density in human secreted and membrane proteins, occurs by an increased conditional probability that Asn and Thr are present in sequons rather than elsewhere. Increasing sequon densities of the hemagglutinin (HA) of influenza viruses A/H3N2 and A/H1N1 during the past few decades of human infection also result from an increased conditional probability that Asn, Thr, and Ser are present in sequons rather than elsewhere. In contrast, there is no selection on sequons by this mechanism in HA of A/H5N1 or 2009 A/H1N1 (Swine flu). Very strong selection for sequons with both Thr and Ser in glycoprotein of M(r) 120,000 (gp120) of HIV and related retroviruses results from this same mechanism, as well as amino acid composition bias and increases in AT content. We conclude that there is Darwinian selection for sequons in phylogenetically disparate eukaryotes and viruses.

Word-based characterization of promoters involved in human DNA repair pathways

Background

DNA repair genes provide an important contribution towards the surveillance and repair of DNA damage. These genes produce a large network of interacting proteins whose mRNA expression is likely to be regulated by similar regulatory factors. Full characterization of promoters of DNA repair genes and the similarities among them will more fully elucidate the regulatory networks that activate or inhibit their expression. To address this goal, the authors introduce a technique to find regulatory genomic signatures, which represents a specific application of the genomic signature methodology to classify DNA sequences as putative functional elements within a single organism.

Results

The effectiveness of the regulatory genomic signatures is demonstrated via analysis of promoter sequences for genes in DNA repair pathways of humans. The promoters are divided into two classes, the bidirectional promoters and the unidirectional promoters, and distinct genomic signatures are calculated for each class. The genomic signatures include statistically overrepresented words, word clusters, and co-occurring words. The robustness of this method is confirmed by the ability to identify sequences that exist as motifs in TRANSFAC and JASPAR databases, and in overlap with verified binding sites in this set of promoter regions.

Conclusion

The word-based signatures are shown to be effective by finding occurrences of known regulatory sites. Moreover, the signatures of the bidirectional and unidirectional promoters of human DNA repair pathways are clearly distinct, exhibiting virtually no overlap. In addition to providing an effective characterization method for related DNA sequences, the signatures elucidate putative regulatory aspects of DNA repair pathways, which are notably under-characterized.

Fumagillin and fumarranol interact with P. falciparum methionine aminopeptidase 2 and inhibit malaria parasite growth in vitro and in vivo

The fumagillin family of natural products is known to inhibit angiogenesis through irreversible inhibition of human type 2 methionine aminopeptidase (MetAP2). Recently, fumagillin and TNP-470 were reported to possess antimalarial activity in vitro, and it was hypothesized that this inhibition was mediated by interaction with the putative malarial ortholog of human MetAP2. In this report, we have overexpressed and purified to near-homogeneity PfMetAP2 from bacteria, yeast, and insect cells. Although none of the recombinant forms of PfMetAP2 exhibited enzymatic activity in existing assays, PfMetAP2 proteins expressed in both yeast and insect cells were able to bind to fumagillin in a pull-down assay. The interaction between fumagillin and analogs with PfMetAP2 was further demonstrated using a newly established mammalian three-hybrid assay incorporating a conjugate between dexamethasone and fumagillin. Unlike human (Hs)MetAP2, it was found that PfMetAP2 is bound to fumagillin noncovalently. Importantly, a new analog of fumagillin, fumarranol, was demonstrated to interact with PfMetAP2 and inhibit the growth of both chloroquine-sensitive and drug-resistant Plasmodium falciparum strains in vitro. Antiparasite activity of fumagillin and fumarranol was also demonstrated in vivo using a mouse malaria model. These findings suggest that PfMetAP2 is a viable target, and fumarranol is a promising lead compound for the development of novel antimalarial agents.

Evolution of biological sequences implies an extreme value distribution of type I for both global and local pairwise alignment scores

Background

Confidence in pairwise alignments of biological sequences, obtained by various methods such as Blast or Smith-Waterman, is critical for automatic analyses of genomic data. Two statistical models have been proposed. In the asymptotic limit of long sequences, the Karlin-Altschul model is based on the computation of a P-value, assuming that the number of high scoring matching regions above a threshold is Poisson distributed. Alternatively, the Lipman-Pearson model is based on the computation of a Z-value from a random score distribution obtained by a Monte-Carlo simulation. Z-values allow the deduction of an upper bound of the P-value (1/Z-value²) following the TULIP theorem. Simulations of Z-value distribution is known to fit with a Gumbel law. This remarkable property was not demonstrated and had no obvious biological support.

Results

We built a model of evolution of sequences based on aging, as meant in Reliability Theory, using the fact that the amount of information shared between an initial sequence and the sequences in its lineage (i.e., mutual information in Information Theory) is a decreasing function of time. This quantity is simply measured by a sequence alignment score. In systems aging, the failure rate is related to the systems longevity. The system can be a machine with structured components, or a living entity or population. "Reliability" refers to the ability to operate properly according to a standard. Here, the "reliability" of a sequence refers to the ability to conserve a sufficient functional level at the folded and maturated protein level (positive selection pressure). Homologous sequences were considered as systems 1) having a high redundancy of information reflected by the magnitude of their alignment scores, 2) which components are the amino acids that can independently be damaged by random DNA mutations. From these assumptions, we deduced that information shared at each amino acid position evolved with a constant rate, corresponding to the information hazard rate, and that pairwise sequence alignment scores should follow a Gumbel distribution, which parameters could find some theoretical rationale. In particular, one parameter corresponds to the information hazard rate.

Conclusion

Extreme value distribution of alignment scores, assessed from high scoring segments pairs following the Karlin-Altschul model, can also be deduced from the Reliability Theory applied to molecular sequences. It reflects the redundancy of information between homologous sequences, under functional conservative pressure. This model also provides a link between concepts of biological sequence analysis and of systems biology.

A novel series of compositionally biased substitution matrices for comparing Plasmodium proteins

Background

The most common substitution matrices currently used (BLOSUM and PAM) are based on protein sequences with average amino acid distributions, thus they do not represent a fully accurate substitution model for proteins characterized by a biased amino acid composition. This problem has been addressed recently by adjusting existing matrices, however, to date, no empirical approach has been taken to build matrices which offer a substitution model for comparing proteins sharing an amino acid compositional bias. Here, we present a novel procedure to construct series of symmetrical substitution matrices to align proteins from similarly biased Plasmodium proteomes.

Results

We generated substitution matrices by selecting from the BLOCKS database those multiple alignments with a compositional bias similar to that of P. falciparum and P. yoelii proteins. A novel 'fuzzy' clustering method was adopted to group sequences within these alignments, showing that this method retains more complete information on the amino acid substitutions when compared to hierarchical clustering. We assessed the performance against the BLOSUM62 series and showed that the usage of our matrices results in an improvement in the performance of BLAST database searches, greatly reducing the number of false positive hits. We then demonstrated applications of the use of novel matrices to improve the annotation of homologs between the two Plasmodium species and to classify members of the P. falciparum RIFIN/STEVOR family.

Conclusion

We confirmed that in the case of compositionally biased proteins, standard BLOSUM matrices are not suited for optimal alignments, and specific substitution matrices are required. In addition, we showed that the usage of these matrices leads to a reduction of false positive hits, facilitating the automatic annotation process.

Expression and biochemical characterization of the Plasmodium falciparum DNA repair enzyme, flap endonuclease-1 (PfFEN-1)

Flap endonuclease-1 (FEN-1) is a structure-specific endonuclease that is critical for the resolution of single-stranded DNA flap intermediates that form during long patch DNA base excision repair (BER). This investigation reports that Plasmodium species encode FEN-1 homologs. Protein sequence analysis revealed the N and I domains of Plasmodium falciparum (PfFEN-1) and Plasmodium yoelii (PyFEN-1) to be homologous to FEN-1 from other species. However, each possessed an extended C domain which had limited homology to apicomplexan FEN-1s and no homology to eukaryotic FEN-1s. A conserved proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA)-binding site was identified at an internal location rather than the extreme C-terminal location typically seen in FEN-1 from other organisms. The endonuclease and exonuclease activities of PfFEN-1 and PyFEN-1 were investigated using recombinant protein produced in Escherichia coli. Pf and PyFEN-1 possessed DNA structure-specific flap endonuclease and 5'-->3' exonuclease activities, similar to FEN-1s from other species. Endonuclease activity was stimulated by Mg(2+) or Mn(2+) and inhibited by monovalent ions (>20.0 mM). A PfFEN-1 C-terminal truncation mutant lacking the terminal 250 amino acids (PfFEN-1DeltaC) had endonuclease activity that was approximately 130-fold greater (k(cat)=1.2x10(-1)) than full-length PfFEN-1 (k(cat)=9.1x10(-4)) or approximately 240-fold greater than PyFEN-1 (k(cat)=4.9x10(-4)) in vitro. PfFEN-1 generated a nicked DNA substrate that was ligated by recombinant Pf DNA Ligase I (PfLigI) using an in vitro DNA repair assay. Plasmodium FEN-1s have enzymatic activities similar to other species but contain extended C-termini and a more internally located PCNA-binding site.

Integration and mining of malaria molecular, functional and pharmacological data: how far are we from a chemogenomic knowledge space?

The organization and mining of malaria genomic and post-genomic data is important to significantly increase the knowledge of the biology of its causative agents, and is motivated, on a longer term, by the necessity to predict and characterize new biological targets and new drugs. Biological targets are sought in a biological space designed from the genomic data from Plasmodium falciparum, but using also the millions of genomic data from other species. Drug candidates are sought in a chemical space containing the millions of small molecules stored in public and private chemolibraries. Data management should, therefore, be as reliable and versatile as possible. In this context, five aspects of the organization and mining of malaria genomic and post-genomic data were examined: 1) the comparison of protein sequences including compositionally atypical malaria sequences, 2) the high throughput reconstruction of molecular phylogenies, 3) the representation of biological processes, particularly metabolic pathways, 4) the versatile methods to integrate genomic data, biological representations and functional profiling obtained from X-omic experiments after drug treatments and 5) the determination and prediction of protein structures and their molecular docking with drug candidate structures. Recent progress towards a grid-enabled chemogenomic knowledge space is discussed.

Comparative genomic and phylogenetic analyses of calcium ATPases and calcium-regulated proteins in the apicomplexa

The phylum Apicomplexa comprises a large group of early branching eukaryotes that includes a number of human and animal parasites. Calcium controls a number of vital processes in apicomplexans including protein secretion, motility, and differentiation. Despite the importance of calcium as a second messenger, very little is known about the systems that control homeostasis or that regulate calcium signaling in parasites. The recent completion of many apicomplexan genomes provides new opportunity to define calcium response pathways in this group of parasites in comparison to model organisms. Whole-genome comparison between the apicomplexans Plasmodium spp., Cryptosporidium spp., and Toxoplasma gondii revealed the presence of several P-Type Ca2+ transporting ATPases including a single endoplasmic reticulum (ER)-type sarcoplasmic-endoplasmic reticulum Ca2+ ATPase, several Golgi-like Ca2+ ATPases, and a single Ca2+/H+ exchanger. Only T. gondii showed evidence of plasma membrane-type Ca2+ ATPases or voltage-gated calcium channels. Despite pharmacological evidence for IP3 and ryanodine-mediated calcium release, animal-type calcium channels were not readily identified in parasites, indicating they are more similar to plants. Downstream of calcium release, a variety of EF-hand-containing proteins regulate calcium responses. Our analyses detected a single conserved calmodulin (CaM) homologue, 3 distinct centrin (CETN)-caltractin-like proteins, one of which is shared with ciliates, and a variety of deep-branching, CaM-CETN-like proteins. Apicomplexans were also found to contain a wide array of calcium-dependent protein kinases (CDPKs), which are commonly found in plants. Toxoplasma gondii contains more than 20 CDPK or CDPK-related kinases, which likely regulate a variety of responses including secretion, motility, and differentiation. Genomic and phylogenetic comparisons revealed that apicomplexans contain a variety of unusual calcium response pathways that are distinct from those seen in vertebrates. Notably, plant-like pathways for calcium release channels and calcium-dependent kinases are found in apicomplexans. The experimental flexibility of T. gondii should allow direct experimental manipulation of these pathways to validate their biological roles. The central importance of calcium in signaling and development, and the novel characteristics of many of these systems, indicates that parasite calcium pathways may be exploited as new therapeutic targets for intervention.

New insights into myosin evolution and classification

Myosins are eukaryotic actin-dependent molecular motors important for a broad range of functions like muscle contraction, vision, hearing, cell motility, and host cell invasion of apicomplexan parasites. Myosin heavy chains consist of distinct head, neck, and tail domains and have previously been categorized into 18 different classes based on phylogenetic analysis of their conserved heads. Here we describe a comprehensive phylogenetic examination of many previously unclassified myosins, with particular emphasis on sequences from apicomplexan and other chromalveolate protists including the model organism Toxoplasma, the malaria parasite Plasmodium, and the ciliate Tetrahymena. Using different phylogenetic inference methods and taking protein domain architectures, specific amino acid polymorphisms, and organismal distribution into account, we demonstrate a hitherto unrecognized common origin for ciliate and apicomplexan class XIV myosins. Our data also suggest common origins for some apicomplexan myosins and class VI, for classes II and XVIII, for classes XII and XV, and for some microsporidian myosins and class V, thereby reconciling evolutionary history and myosin structure in several cases and corroborating the common coevolution of myosin head, neck, and tail domains. Six novel myosin classes are established to accommodate sequences from chordate metazoans (class XIX), insects (class XX), kinetoplastids (class XXI), and apicomplexans and diatom algae (classes XXII, XXIII, and XXIV). These myosin (sub)classes include sequences with protein domains (FYVE, WW, UBA, ATS1-like, and WD40) previously unknown to be associated with myosin motors. Regarding the apicomplexan "myosome," we significantly update class XIV classification, propose a systematic naming convention, and discuss possible functions in these parasites.

Prediction of the general transcription factors associated with RNA polymerase II in Plasmodium falciparum: conserved features and differences relative to other eukaryotes

BACKGROUND

To date, only a few transcription factors have been identified in the genome of the parasite Plasmodium falciparum, the causative agent of malaria. Moreover, no detailed molecular analysis of its basal transcription machinery, which is otherwise well-conserved in the crown group of eukaryotes, has yet been reported. In this study, we have used a combination of sensitive sequence analysis methods to predict the existence of several parasite encoded general transcription factors associated with RNA polymerase II.

RESULTS

Several orthologs of general transcription factors associated with RNA polymerase II can be predicted among the hypothetical proteins of the P. falciparum genome using the two-dimensional Hydrophobic Cluster Analysis (HCA) together with profile-based search methods (PSI-BLAST). These predicted orthologous genes encoding putative transcription factors include the large subunit of TFIIA and two candidates for its small subunit, the TFIIE beta-subunit, which would associate with the previously known TFIIE alpha-subunit, the TFIIF beta-subunit, as well as the p62/TFB1 subunit of the TFIIH core. Within TFIID, the putative orthologs of TAF1, TAF2, TAF7 and TAF10 were also predicted. However, no candidates for TAFs with classical histone fold domain (HFD) were found, suggesting an unusual architecture of TFIID complex of RNA polymerase II in the parasite.

CONCLUSION

Taken together, these results suggest that more general transcription factors may be present in the P. falciparum proteome than initially thought. The prediction of these orthologous general transcription factors opens the way for further studies dealing with transcriptional regulation in P. falciparum. These alternative and sensitive sequence analysis methods can help to identify candidates for other transcriptional regulatory factors in P. falciparum. They will also facilitate the prediction of biological functions for several orphan proteins from other apicomplexan parasites such as Toxoplasma gondii, Cryptosporidium parvum and Eimeria.

Proteome composition in Plasmodium falciparum: higher usage of GC-rich nonsynonymous codons in highly expressed genes

The parasite Plasmodium falciparum, responsible for the most deadly form of human malaria, is one of the extremely AT-rich genomes sequenced so far and known to possess many atypical characteristics. Using multivariate statistical approaches, the present study analyzes the amino acid usage pattern in 5038 annotated protein-coding sequences in P. falciparum clone 3D7. The amino acid composition of individual proteins, though dominated by the directional mutational pressure, exhibits wide variation across the proteome. The Asn content, expression level, mean molecular weight, hydropathy, and aromaticity are found to be the major sources of variation in amino acid usage. At all stages of development, frequencies of residues encoded by GC-rich codons such as Gly, Ala, Arg, and Pro increase significantly in the products of the highly expressed genes. Investigation of nucleotide substitution patterns in P. falciparum and other Plasmodium species reveals that the nonsynonymous sites of highly expressed genes are more conserved than those of the lowly expressed ones, though for synonymous sites, the reverse is true. The highly expressed genes are, therefore, expected to be closer to their putative ancestral state in amino acid composition, and a plausible reason for their sequences being GC-rich at nonsynonymous codon positions could be that their ancestral state was less AT-biased. Negative correlation of the expression level of proteins with respective molecular weights supports the notion that P. falciparum, in spite of its intracellular parasitic lifestyle, follows the principle of cost minimization.

Construction of non-symmetric substitution matrices derived from proteomes with biased amino acid distributions

Automatic comparison of compositionally biased genomes, such as that of the malarial causative agent Plasmodium falciparum (82% adenosine + thymidine), with genomes of average composition, is currently limited. Indeed, popular tools such as BLAST require that amino acid distributions be similar in aligned sequences. However, the P. falciparum genome is so biased that six amino acids account for more than 50% of the protein composition. One reason for the comparison methods failure lies in the compositional difference between the query and the subject proteomes, which is not taken into account in the amino acid substitution matrices. This paper introduces a method to derive substitution matrices, in particular BLOSUM 62, in the frame of the information theory. It allows the construction of non-symmetrical matrices, taking into account the non-symmetric amino acid distributions. The dirAtPf family of matrices allowing the comparison of P. falciparum and A. thaliana is given as an example. This paper further provides an analysis of the obtained matrices in the frame of the information theory, supporting the discrimination advantage they bring.

A configuration space of homologous proteins conserving mutual information and allowing a phylogeny inference based on pair-wise Z-score probabilities

Background

Popular methods to reconstruct molecular phylogenies are based on multiple sequence alignments, in which addition or removal of data may change the resulting tree topology. We have sought a representation of homologous proteins that would conserve the information of pair-wise sequence alignments, respect probabilistic properties of Z-scores (Monte Carlo methods applied to pair-wise comparisons) and be the basis for a novel method of consistent and stable phylogenetic reconstruction.

Results

We have built up a spatial representation of protein sequences using concepts from particle physics (configuration space) and respecting a frame of constraints deduced from pair-wise alignment score properties in information theory. The obtained configuration space of homologous proteins (CSHP) allows the representation of real and shuffled sequences, and thereupon an expression of the TULIP theorem for Z-score probabilities. Based on the CSHP, we propose a phylogeny reconstruction using Z-scores. Deduced trees, called TULIP trees, are consistent with multiple-alignment based trees. Furthermore, the TULIP tree reconstruction method provides a solution for some previously reported incongruent results, such as the apicomplexan enolase phylogeny.

Conclusion

The CSHP is a unified model that conserves mutual information between proteins in the way physical models conserve energy. Applications include the reconstruction of evolutionary consistent and robust trees, the topology of which is based on a spatial representation that is not reordered after addition or removal of sequences. The CSHP and its assigned phylogenetic topology, provide a powerful and easily updated representation for massive pair-wise genome comparisons based on Z-score computations.