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Subekti DT, Azmi Z, Kurniawati DA, Suwanti LT, Mufasirin M, Sunarno S. Molecular characterization of trypanocide-resistant strains derived from a single field isolate of Trypanosoma evansi. Vet Parasitol 2024; 330:110236. [PMID: 38889668 DOI: 10.1016/j.vetpar.2024.110236] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/17/2024] [Revised: 05/28/2024] [Accepted: 06/10/2024] [Indexed: 06/20/2024]
Abstract
Four strains (SB-PR, SB-RS, SB-RD, and SB-RM) of Trypanosoma evansi (T. evansi) were used in this study. SB-PR is known to be trypanocide-sensitive, while the others are trypanocide-resistant to suramin, diminazene diaceturate, and melarsomine hydrochloride, respectively. SB-RS, SB-RD, and SB-RM are derivatives of a single field isolate of SB-PR. Trypanocide resistance will not only increase costs and decrease production efficiency but will also affect effective treatment strategies. Therefore, studies on this topic are important to avoid inefficient production and ineffective treatment. This paper aims to presents a comparative molecular characterization of the trypanocide-resistant strains compared to the parent population. Comparative molecular characterization of these strains based on a protein profile analysis performed with sodium dodecyl sulfate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE), DNA fingerprinting of random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD), and the molecular characterization of expression-site-associated 6 (ESAG6), variant surface glycoprotein (VSG), and T. evansi adenosine transporter-1 (TevAT1) gene sequences. The results show three derived strains (SB-RS, SB-RD, and SB-RM) exhibit different banding patterns than SB-PR. According to the RAPD results, SB-RS and SB-RD are different strains with DNA fingerprint similarities of about 77.8 %, while the DNA fingerprint of SB-RM has a similarity of 44.4 % to SB-RS and SB-RD. No differences in VSG were found among the four strains; however, ESAG6 showed differences in both nucleotide and amino acid sequences, as well as in its secondary and 3D structure. In conclusion, all molecular analyses of the ESAG6 gene showed that SB-PR, SB-RS, SB-RD, and SB-RM are different strains. Furthermore, SB-PR, SB-RS, SB-RD, and SB-RM did not exhibit the TevAT1 gene, so the resistance mechanism was determined to be unrelated to that gene.
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Affiliation(s)
- Didik T Subekti
- Veterinary Science Program, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Airlangga University, Campus C - JL. Mulyorejo, Surabaya, East Java Province 60115, Indonesia; Center for Biomedical Research, Research Organization for Health, National Research and Innovation Agency, Cibinong Science Center, JL. Raya Jakarta - Bogor Km. 46, Bogor, West Jawa Province 16911, Indonesia.
| | - Zul Azmi
- Center for Standardization of Animal Husbandry and Animal Health Instruments, Agency for Standardization of Agricultural Instruments, Indonesian Ministry of Agriculture, JL. Raya Pajajaran Kav. E No. 59, Bogor, West Jawa Province 16143, Indonesia
| | - Dyah A Kurniawati
- Center for Veterinary Instrument Standard Testing (CVIST), Agency for Standardization of Agricultural Instruments, Indonesian Ministry of Agriculture, JL. RE. Martadinata 30, Bogor, West Jawa Province 16114, Indonesia
| | - Lucia T Suwanti
- Division of Veterinary Parasitology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Airlangga University, Campus C - JL. Mulyorejo, Surabaya, East Java Province 60115, Indonesia
| | - Mufasirin Mufasirin
- Division of Veterinary Parasitology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Airlangga University, Campus C - JL. Mulyorejo, Surabaya, East Java Province 60115, Indonesia
| | - Sunarno Sunarno
- Center for Biomedical Research, Research Organization for Health, National Research and Innovation Agency, Cibinong Science Center, JL. Raya Jakarta - Bogor Km. 46, Bogor, West Jawa Province 16911, Indonesia
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2
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Duart G, Graña-Montes R, Pastor-Cantizano N, Mingarro I. Experimental and computational approaches for membrane protein insertion and topology determination. Methods 2024; 226:102-119. [PMID: 38604415 DOI: 10.1016/j.ymeth.2024.03.012] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/07/2023] [Revised: 03/13/2024] [Accepted: 03/22/2024] [Indexed: 04/13/2024] Open
Abstract
Membrane proteins play pivotal roles in a wide array of cellular processes and constitute approximately a quarter of the protein-coding genes across all organisms. Despite their ubiquity and biological significance, our understanding of these proteins remains notably less comprehensive compared to their soluble counterparts. This disparity in knowledge can be attributed, in part, to the inherent challenges associated with employing specialized techniques for the investigation of membrane protein insertion and topology. This review will center on a discussion of molecular biology methodologies and computational prediction tools designed to elucidate the insertion and topology of helical membrane proteins.
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Affiliation(s)
- Gerard Duart
- Departament de Bioquímica i Biologia Molecular, Institut Universitari de Biotecnologia i Biomedicina (BIOTECMED), Universitat de València, E-46100 Burjassot, Spain
| | - Ricardo Graña-Montes
- Departament de Bioquímica i Biologia Molecular, Institut Universitari de Biotecnologia i Biomedicina (BIOTECMED), Universitat de València, E-46100 Burjassot, Spain
| | - Noelia Pastor-Cantizano
- Departament de Bioquímica i Biologia Molecular, Institut Universitari de Biotecnologia i Biomedicina (BIOTECMED), Universitat de València, E-46100 Burjassot, Spain
| | - Ismael Mingarro
- Departament de Bioquímica i Biologia Molecular, Institut Universitari de Biotecnologia i Biomedicina (BIOTECMED), Universitat de València, E-46100 Burjassot, Spain.
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Quito-Avila DF, Reyes-Proaño E, Armijos-Capa G, Alcalá Briseño RI, Alvarez R, Flores FF. Analysis of a new negevirus-like sequence from Bemisia tabaci unveils a potential new taxon linking nelorpi- and centiviruses. PLoS One 2024; 19:e0303838. [PMID: 38753834 PMCID: PMC11098327 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0303838] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/13/2024] [Accepted: 05/01/2024] [Indexed: 05/18/2024] Open
Abstract
This study presents the complete genome sequence of a novel nege-like virus identified in whiteflies (Bemisia tabaci MEAM1), provisionally designated as whitefly negevirus 1 (WfNgV1). The virus possesses a single-stranded RNA genome comprising 11,848 nucleotides, organized into four open reading frames (ORFs). These ORFs encode the putative RNA-dependent-RNA-polymerase (RdRp, ORF 1), a glycoprotein (ORF 2), a structural protein with homology to those in the SP24 family, (ORF 3), and a protein of unknown function (ORF 4). Phylogenetic analysis focusing on RdRp and SP24 amino acid sequences revealed a close relationship between WfNgV1 and Bemisia tabaci negevirus 1, a negevirus sequence recently discovered in whiteflies from Israel. Both viruses form a clade sharing a most recent common ancestor with the proposed nelorpivirus and centivirus taxa. The putative glycoprotein from ORF 2 and SP24 (ORF 3) of WfNgV1 exhibit the characteristic topologies previously reported for negevirus counterparts. This marks the first reported negevirus-like sequence from whiteflies in the Americas.
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Affiliation(s)
- Diego F. Quito-Avila
- Centro de Investigaciones Biotecnologicas del Ecuador, CIBE, Escuela Superior Politécnica del Litoral, ESPOL, Campus Gustavo Galindo, Guayaquil, Ecuador
- Facultad de Ciencias de la Vida, Escuela Superior Politécnica del Litoral, ESPOL, Guayaquil, Ecuador
| | - Edison Reyes-Proaño
- Department of Entomology, Plant Pathology and Nematology, University of Idaho, Moscow, ID, United States of America
| | - Gerardo Armijos-Capa
- Facultad de Ciencias Exactas, Departamento de Química, Instituto de Investigaciones Fisicoquímicas Teóricas y Aplicadas (INIFTA), Universidad Nacional de La Plata, CCT La Plata-CONICET, La Plata, Argentina
| | | | - Robert Alvarez
- Department of Plant Pathology, University of Minnesota, St Paul, MN, United States of America
| | - Francisco F. Flores
- Departamento de Ciencias de la Vida y la Agricultura, Universidad de las Fuerzas Armadas-ESPE, Sangolquí, Pichincha, Ecuador
- Facultad de Ciencias de la Ingeniería e Industrias, Centro de Investigación de Alimentos, CIAL, Universidad -UTE, Quito, Pichincha, Ecuador
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Aleksandrova AA, Sarti E, Forrest LR. EncoMPASS: An encyclopedia of membrane proteins analyzed by structure and symmetry. Structure 2024; 32:492-504.e4. [PMID: 38367624 PMCID: PMC11251422 DOI: 10.1016/j.str.2024.01.011] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/24/2018] [Revised: 01/09/2024] [Accepted: 01/10/2024] [Indexed: 02/19/2024]
Abstract
Protein structure determination and prediction, active site detection, and protein sequence alignment techniques all exploit information about protein structure and structural relationships. For membrane proteins, however, there is limited agreement among available online tools for highlighting and mapping such structural similarities. Moreover, no available resource provides a systematic overview of quaternary and internal symmetries, and their orientation relative to the membrane, despite the fact that these properties can provide key insights into membrane protein function and evolution. Here, we describe the Encyclopedia of Membrane Proteins Analyzed by Structure and Symmetry (EncoMPASS), a database for relating integral membrane proteins of known structure from the points of view of sequence, structure, and symmetry. EncoMPASS is accessible through a web interface, and its contents can be easily downloaded. This allows the user not only to focus on specific proteins, but also to study general properties of the structure and evolution of membrane proteins.
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Affiliation(s)
- Antoniya A Aleksandrova
- Computational Structural Biology Section, National Institutes of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA
| | - Edoardo Sarti
- Computational Structural Biology Section, National Institutes of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA
| | - Lucy R Forrest
- Computational Structural Biology Section, National Institutes of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA.
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Berg Luecke L, Mesidor R, Littrell J, Carpenter M, Wojtkiewicz M, Gundry RL. Veneer Is a Webtool for Rapid, Standardized, and Transparent Interpretation, Annotation, and Reporting of Mammalian Cell Surface N-Glycocapture Data. J Proteome Res 2024. [PMID: 38412263 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jproteome.3c00800] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/29/2024]
Abstract
Currently, no consensus exists regarding criteria required to designate a protein within a proteomic data set as a cell surface protein. Most published proteomic studies rely on varied ontology annotations or computational predictions instead of experimental evidence when attributing protein localization. Consequently, standardized approaches for analyzing and reporting cell surface proteome data sets would increase confidence in localization claims and promote data use by other researchers. Recently, we developed Veneer, a web-based bioinformatic tool that analyzes results from cell surface N-glycocapture workflows─the most popular cell surface proteomics method used to date that generates experimental evidence of subcellular location. Veneer assigns protein localization based on defined experimental and bioinformatic evidence. In this study, we updated the criteria and process for assigning protein localization and added new functionality to Veneer. Results of Veneer analysis of 587 cell surface N-glycocapture data sets from 32 published studies demonstrate the importance of applying defined criteria when analyzing cell surface proteomics data sets and exemplify how Veneer can be used to assess experimental quality and facilitate data extraction for informing future biological studies and annotating public repositories.
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Affiliation(s)
- Linda Berg Luecke
- CardiOmics Program, Center for Heart and Vascular Research and Department of Cellular and Integrative Physiology, University of Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha, Nebraska 68198, United States
- Department of Biochemistry, Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, Wisconsin 53226, United States
| | - Roneldine Mesidor
- CardiOmics Program, Center for Heart and Vascular Research and Department of Cellular and Integrative Physiology, University of Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha, Nebraska 68198, United States
| | - Jack Littrell
- CardiOmics Program, Center for Heart and Vascular Research and Department of Cellular and Integrative Physiology, University of Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha, Nebraska 68198, United States
| | - Morgan Carpenter
- CardiOmics Program, Center for Heart and Vascular Research and Department of Cellular and Integrative Physiology, University of Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha, Nebraska 68198, United States
| | - Melinda Wojtkiewicz
- CardiOmics Program, Center for Heart and Vascular Research and Department of Cellular and Integrative Physiology, University of Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha, Nebraska 68198, United States
| | - Rebekah L Gundry
- CardiOmics Program, Center for Heart and Vascular Research and Department of Cellular and Integrative Physiology, University of Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha, Nebraska 68198, United States
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Duo H, Chhabra R, Muthusamy V, Zunjare RU, Hossain F. Assessing sequence variation, haplotype analysis and molecular characterisation of aspartate kinase2 (ask2) gene regulating methionine biosynthesis in diverse maize inbreds. Mol Genet Genomics 2024; 299:7. [PMID: 38349549 DOI: 10.1007/s00438-024-02096-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/05/2023] [Accepted: 11/02/2023] [Indexed: 02/15/2024]
Abstract
Traditional maize grain is deficient in methionine, an essential amino acid required for proper growth and development in humans and poultry birds. Thus, development of high methionine maize (HMM) assumes great significance in alleviating malnutrition through sustainable and cost-effective approach. Of various genetic loci, aspartate kinase2 (ask2) gene plays a pivotal role in regulating methionine accumulation in maize. Here, we sequenced the entire ask2 gene of 5394 bp with 13 exons in five wild and five mutant maize inbreds to understand variation at nucleotide level. Sequence analysis revealed that an SNP in exon-13 caused thymine to adenine transversion giving rise to a favourable mutant allele associated with leucine to glutamine substitution in mutant ASK2 protein. Gene-based diversity analysis with 11 InDel markers grouped 48 diverse inbreds into three major clusters with an average genetic dissimilarity of 0.570 (range, 0.0-0.9). The average major allele frequency, gene diversity and PIC are 0.693, 0.408 and 0.341, respectively. A total of 45 haplotypes of the ask2 gene were identified among the maize inbreds. Evolutionary relationship analysis performed among 22 orthologues grouped them into five major clusters. The number of exons varied from 7 to 17, with length varying from 12 to 495 bp among orthologues. ASK2 protein with 565 amino acids was predicted to be in homo-dimeric state with lysine and tartaric acid as binding ligands. Amino acid kinase and ACT domains were found to be conserved in maize and orthologues. The study depicted the presence of enough genetic diversity in ask2 gene in maize, and development of HMM can be accelerated through introgression of favourable allele of ask2 into the parental lines of elite hybrids using molecular breeding.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hriipulou Duo
- ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi, India
| | - Rashmi Chhabra
- ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi, India
| | | | | | - Firoz Hossain
- ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi, India.
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7
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Guilvout I, Samsudin F, Huber RG, Bond PJ, Bardiaux B, Francetic O. Membrane platform protein PulF of the Klebsiella type II secretion system forms a trimeric ion channel essential for endopilus assembly and protein secretion. mBio 2024; 15:e0142323. [PMID: 38063437 PMCID: PMC10790770 DOI: 10.1128/mbio.01423-23] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/05/2023] [Accepted: 10/24/2023] [Indexed: 01/17/2024] Open
Abstract
IMPORTANCE Type IV pili and type II secretion systems are members of the widespread type IV filament (T4F) superfamily of nanomachines that assemble dynamic and versatile surface fibers in archaea and bacteria. The assembly and retraction of T4 filaments with diverse surface properties and functions require the plasma membrane platform proteins of the GspF/PilC superfamily. Generally considered dimeric, platform proteins are thought to function as passive transmitters of the mechanical energy generated by the ATPase motor, to somehow promote insertion of pilin subunits into the nascent pilus fibers. Here, we generate and experimentally validate structural predictions that support the trimeric state of a platform protein PulF from a type II secretion system. The PulF trimers form selective proton or sodium channels which might energize pilus assembly using the membrane potential. The conservation of the channel sequence and structural features implies a common mechanism for all T4F assembly systems. We propose a model of the oligomeric PulF-PulE ATPase complex that provides an essential framework to investigate and understand the pilus assembly mechanism.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ingrid Guilvout
- Institut Pasteur, Université Paris Cité, CNRS UMR 3528, Biochemistry of Macromolecular Interactions Unit, Paris, France
| | | | | | - Peter J. Bond
- Bioinformatics Institute (A-STAR), Singapore, Singapore
- Department of Biological Sciences, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore
| | - Benjamin Bardiaux
- Institut Pasteur, Université Paris Cité, CNRS UMR 3528, Structural Bioinformatics Unit, Paris, France
- Institut Pasteur, Université Paris Cité, CNRS UMR 3528, Bacterial Transmembrane Systems Unit, Paris, France
| | - Olivera Francetic
- Institut Pasteur, Université Paris Cité, CNRS UMR 3528, Biochemistry of Macromolecular Interactions Unit, Paris, France
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8
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Roy BG, Choi J, Fuchs MF. Predictive Modeling of Proteins Encoded by a Plant Virus Sheds a New Light on Their Structure and Inherent Multifunctionality. Biomolecules 2024; 14:62. [PMID: 38254661 PMCID: PMC10813169 DOI: 10.3390/biom14010062] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/29/2023] [Revised: 12/29/2023] [Accepted: 12/30/2023] [Indexed: 01/24/2024] Open
Abstract
Plant virus genomes encode proteins that are involved in replication, encapsidation, cell-to-cell, and long-distance movement, avoidance of host detection, counter-defense, and transmission from host to host, among other functions. Even though the multifunctionality of plant viral proteins is well documented, contemporary functional repertoires of individual proteins are incomplete. However, these can be enhanced by modeling tools. Here, predictive modeling of proteins encoded by the two genomic RNAs, i.e., RNA1 and RNA2, of grapevine fanleaf virus (GFLV) and their satellite RNAs by a suite of protein prediction software confirmed not only previously validated functions (suppressor of RNA silencing [VSR], viral genome-linked protein [VPg], protease [Pro], symptom determinant [Sd], homing protein [HP], movement protein [MP], coat protein [CP], and transmission determinant [Td]) and previously identified putative functions (helicase [Hel] and RNA-dependent RNA polymerase [Pol]), but also predicted novel functions with varying levels of confidence. These include a T3/T7-like RNA polymerase domain for protein 1AVSR, a short-chain reductase for protein 1BHel/VSR, a parathyroid hormone family domain for protein 1EPol/Sd, overlapping domains of unknown function and an ABC transporter domain for protein 2BMP, and DNA topoisomerase domains, transcription factor FBXO25 domain, or DNA Pol subunit cdc27 domain for the satellite RNA protein. Structural predictions for proteins 2AHP/Sd, 2BMP, and 3A? had low confidence, while predictions for proteins 1AVSR, 1BHel*/VSR, 1CVPg, 1DPro, 1EPol*/Sd, and 2CCP/Td retained higher confidence in at least one prediction. This research provided new insights into the structure and functions of GFLV proteins and their satellite protein. Future work is needed to validate these findings.
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Affiliation(s)
- Brandon G. Roy
- Plant Pathology and Plant-Microbe Biology Section, School of Integrative Plant Science, Cornell University, 15 Castle Creek Drive, Geneva, NY 14456, USA; (J.C.); (M.F.F.)
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Nielsen H. Protein Sorting Prediction. Methods Mol Biol 2024; 2715:27-63. [PMID: 37930519 DOI: 10.1007/978-1-0716-3445-5_2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/07/2023]
Abstract
Many computational methods are available for predicting protein sorting in bacteria. When comparing them, it is important to know that they can be grouped into three fundamentally different approaches: signal-based, global property-based, and homology-based prediction. In this chapter, the strengths and drawbacks of each of these approaches are described through many examples of methods that predict secretion, integration into membranes, or subcellular locations in general. The aim of this chapter is to provide a user-level introduction to the field with a minimum of computational theory.
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Affiliation(s)
- Henrik Nielsen
- Department of Health Technology, Technical University of Denmark, Lyngby, Denmark.
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Sigalas PP, Buchner P, Kröper A, Hawkesford MJ. The Functional Diversity of the High-Affinity Nitrate Transporter Gene Family in Hexaploid Wheat: Insights from Distinct Expression Profiles. Int J Mol Sci 2023; 25:509. [PMID: 38203680 PMCID: PMC10779101 DOI: 10.3390/ijms25010509] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/28/2023] [Revised: 12/22/2023] [Accepted: 12/23/2023] [Indexed: 01/12/2024] Open
Abstract
High-affinity nitrate transporters (NRT) are key components for nitrogen (N) acquisition and distribution within plants. However, insights on these transporters in wheat are scarce. This study presents a comprehensive analysis of the NRT2 and NRT3 gene families, where the aim is to shed light on their functionality and to evaluate their responses to N availability. A total of 53 NRT2s and 11 NRT3s were identified in the bread wheat genome, and these were grouped into different clades and homoeologous subgroups. The transcriptional dynamics of the identified NRT2 and NRT3 genes, in response to N starvation and nitrate resupply, were examined by RT-qPCR in the roots and shoots of hydroponically grown wheat plants through a time course experiment. Additionally, the spatial expression patterns of these genes were explored within the plant. The NRT2s of clade 1, TaNRT2.1-2.6, showed a root-specific expression and significant upregulation in response to N starvation, thus emphasizing a role in N acquisition. However, most of the clade 2 NRT2s displayed reduced expression under N-starved conditions. Nitrate resupply after N starvation revealed rapid responsiveness in TaNRT2.1-2.6, while clade 2 genes exhibited gradual induction, primarily in the roots. TaNRT2.18 was highly expressed in above-ground tissues and exhibited distinct nitrate-related response patterns for roots and shoots. The TaNRT3 gene expression closely paralleled the profiles of TaNRT2.1-2.6 in response to nitrate induction. These findings enhance the understanding of NRT2 and NRT3 involvement in nitrogen uptake and utilization, and they could have practical implications for improving nitrogen use efficiency. The study also recommends a standardized nomenclature for wheat NRT2 genes, thereby addressing prior naming inconsistencies.
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Affiliation(s)
- Petros P. Sigalas
- Rothamsted Research, West Common, Harpenden AL5 2JQ, UK; (P.B.); (M.J.H.)
| | - Peter Buchner
- Rothamsted Research, West Common, Harpenden AL5 2JQ, UK; (P.B.); (M.J.H.)
| | - Alex Kröper
- Faculty of Agronomy, University of Hohenheim, 70599 Stuttgart, Germany;
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Arkhipov DV, Lomin SN, Romanov GA. A Model of the Full-Length Cytokinin Receptor: New Insights and Prospects. Int J Mol Sci 2023; 25:73. [PMID: 38203244 PMCID: PMC10779265 DOI: 10.3390/ijms25010073] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/10/2023] [Revised: 12/11/2023] [Accepted: 12/15/2023] [Indexed: 01/12/2024] Open
Abstract
Cytokinins (CK) are one of the most important classes of phytohormones that regulate a wide range of processes in plants. A CK receptor, a sensor hybrid histidine kinase, was discovered more than 20 years ago, but the structural basis for its signaling is still a challenge for plant biologists. To date, only two fragments of the CK receptor structure, the sensory module and the receiver domain, were experimentally resolved. Some other regions were built up by molecular modeling based on structures of proteins homologous to CK receptors. However, in the long term, these data have proven insufficient for solving the structure of the full-sized CK receptor. The functional unit of CK receptor is the receptor dimer. In this article, a molecular structure of the dimeric form of the full-length CK receptor based on AlphaFold Multimer and ColabFold modeling is presented for the first time. Structural changes of the receptor upon interacting with phosphotransfer protein are visualized. According to mathematical simulation and available data, both types of dimeric receptor complexes with hormones, either half- or fully liganded, appear to be active in triggering signals. In addition, the prospects of using this and similar models to address remaining fundamental problems of CK signaling were outlined.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | - Georgy A. Romanov
- Timiryazev Institute of Plant Physiology, Russian Academy of Sciences, Botanicheskaya 35, 127276 Moscow, Russia; (D.V.A.); (S.N.L.)
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12
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Ghazikhani H, Butler G. Enhanced identification of membrane transport proteins: a hybrid approach combining ProtBERT-BFD and convolutional neural networks. J Integr Bioinform 2023; 0:jib-2022-0055. [PMID: 37497772 PMCID: PMC10389051 DOI: 10.1515/jib-2022-0055] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/02/2022] [Accepted: 06/21/2023] [Indexed: 07/28/2023] Open
Abstract
Transmembrane transport proteins (transporters) play a crucial role in the fundamental cellular processes of all organisms by facilitating the transport of hydrophilic substrates across hydrophobic membranes. Despite the availability of numerous membrane protein sequences, their structures and functions remain largely elusive. Recently, natural language processing (NLP) techniques have shown promise in the analysis of protein sequences. Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers (BERT) is an NLP technique adapted for proteins to learn contextual embeddings of individual amino acids within a protein sequence. Our previous strategy, TooT-BERT-T, differentiated transporters from non-transporters by employing a logistic regression classifier with fine-tuned representations from ProtBERT-BFD. In this study, we expand upon this approach by utilizing representations from ProtBERT, ProtBERT-BFD, and MembraneBERT in combination with classical classifiers. Additionally, we introduce TooT-BERT-CNN-T, a novel method that fine-tunes ProtBERT-BFD and discriminates transporters using a Convolutional Neural Network (CNN). Our experimental results reveal that CNN surpasses traditional classifiers in discriminating transporters from non-transporters, achieving an MCC of 0.89 and an accuracy of 95.1 % on the independent test set. This represents an improvement of 0.03 and 1.11 percentage points compared to TooT-BERT-T, respectively.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hamed Ghazikhani
- Department of Computer Science and Software Engineering, Concordia University, Montreal, Canada
| | - Gregory Butler
- Department of Computer Science and Software Engineering, Concordia University, Montreal, Canada
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13
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Tak U, Walth P, Whiteley AT. Bacterial cGAS-like enzymes produce 2',3'-cGAMP to activate an ion channel that restricts phage replication. BIORXIV : THE PREPRINT SERVER FOR BIOLOGY 2023:2023.07.24.550367. [PMID: 37546940 PMCID: PMC10402079 DOI: 10.1101/2023.07.24.550367] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 08/08/2023]
Abstract
The mammalian innate immune system uses cyclic GMP-AMP synthase (cGAS) to synthesize the cyclic dinucleotide 2',3'-cGAMP during antiviral and antitumor immune responses. 2',3'-cGAMP is a nucleotide second messenger that initiates inflammatory signaling by binding to and activating the stimulator of interferon genes (STING) receptor. Bacteria also encode cGAS/DncV-like nucleotidyltransferases (CD-NTases) that produce nucleotide second messengers to initiate antiviral (antiphage) signaling. Bacterial CD-NTases produce a wide range of cyclic oligonucleotides but have not been documented to produce 2',3'-cGAMP. Here we discovered bacterial CD-NTases that produce 2',3'-cGAMP to restrict phage replication. Bacterial 2',3'-cGAMP binds to CD-NTase associated protein 14 (Cap14), a transmembrane protein of unknown function. Using electrophysiology, we show that Cap14 is a chloride-selective ion channel that is activated by 2',3'-cGAMP binding. Cap14 adopts a modular architecture, with an N-terminal transmembrane domain and a C-terminal nucleotide-binding SAVED domain. Domain-swapping experiments demonstrated the Cap14 transmembrane region could be substituted with a nuclease, thereby generating a biosensor that is selective for 2',3'-cGAMP. This study reveals that 2',3'-cGAMP signaling extends beyond metazoa to bacteria. Further, our findings suggest that transmembrane proteins of unknown function in bacterial immune pathways may broadly function as nucleotide-gated ion channels.
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Affiliation(s)
- Uday Tak
- Department of Biochemistry, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, CO, USA
| | - Peace Walth
- Department of Biochemistry, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, CO, USA
| | - Aaron T. Whiteley
- Department of Biochemistry, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, CO, USA
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14
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Aziz MA, Sabeem M, Kutty MS, Rahman S, Alneyadi MK, Alkaabi AB, Almeqbali ES, Brini F, Vijayan R, Masmoudi K. Enzyme stabilization and thermotolerance function of the intrinsically disordered LEA2 proteins from date palm. Sci Rep 2023; 13:11878. [PMID: 37482543 PMCID: PMC10363547 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-023-38426-w] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/20/2023] [Accepted: 07/07/2023] [Indexed: 07/25/2023] Open
Abstract
In date palm, the LEA2 genes are of abundance with sixty-two members that are nearly all ubiquitous. However, their functions and interactions with potential target molecules are largely unexplored. In this study, five date palm LEA2 genes, PdLEA2.2, PdLEA2.3, PdLEA2.4, PdLEA2.6, and PdLEA2.7 were cloned, sequenced, and three of them, PdLEA2.2, PdLEA2.3, and PdLEA2.4 were functionally characterized for their effects on the thermostability of two distinct enzymes, lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) and β-glucosidase (bglG) in vitro. Overall, PdLEA2.3 and PdLEA2.4 were moderately hydrophilic, PdLEA2.7 was slightly hydrophobic, and PdLEA2.2 and PdLEA2.6 were neither. Sequence and structure prediction indicated the presence of a stretch of hydrophobic residues near the N-terminus that could potentially form a transmembrane helix in PdLEA2.2, PdLEA2.4, PdLEA2.6 and PdLEA2.7. In addition to the transmembrane helix, secondary and tertiary structures prediction showed the presence of a disordered region followed by a stacked β-sheet region in all the PdLEA2 proteins. Moreover, three purified recombinant PdLEA2 proteins were produced in vitro, and their presence in the LDH enzymatic reaction enhanced the activity and reduced the aggregate formation of LDH under the heat stress. In the bglG enzymatic assays, PdLEA2 proteins further displayed their capacity to preserve and stabilize the bglG enzymatic activity.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mughair Abdul Aziz
- Department of Integrative Agriculture, College of Agriculture and Veterinary Medicine, United Arab, Emirates University, Al‑Ain, Abu‑Dhabi, UAE
| | - Miloofer Sabeem
- Department of Integrative Agriculture, College of Agriculture and Veterinary Medicine, United Arab, Emirates University, Al‑Ain, Abu‑Dhabi, UAE
| | - M Sangeeta Kutty
- Department of Vegetable Science, College of Agriculture, Kerala Agricultural University, Vellanikkara, Thrissur, 680656, India
| | - Shafeeq Rahman
- Department of Integrative Agriculture, College of Agriculture and Veterinary Medicine, United Arab, Emirates University, Al‑Ain, Abu‑Dhabi, UAE
| | - Maitha Khalfan Alneyadi
- Department of Integrative Agriculture, College of Agriculture and Veterinary Medicine, United Arab, Emirates University, Al‑Ain, Abu‑Dhabi, UAE
| | - Alia Binghushoom Alkaabi
- Department of Integrative Agriculture, College of Agriculture and Veterinary Medicine, United Arab, Emirates University, Al‑Ain, Abu‑Dhabi, UAE
| | - Eiman Saeed Almeqbali
- Department of Integrative Agriculture, College of Agriculture and Veterinary Medicine, United Arab, Emirates University, Al‑Ain, Abu‑Dhabi, UAE
| | - Faical Brini
- Biotechnology and Plant Improvement Laboratory, Centre of Biotechnology of Sfax (CBS)/ University of Sfax, Sfax, Tunisia
| | - Ranjit Vijayan
- Department of Biology, College of Science, United Arab Emirates University, Al‑Ain, Abu‑Dhabi, UAE
| | - Khaled Masmoudi
- Department of Integrative Agriculture, College of Agriculture and Veterinary Medicine, United Arab, Emirates University, Al‑Ain, Abu‑Dhabi, UAE.
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15
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Batth TS, Simonsen JL, Hernández-Rollán C, Brander S, Morth JP, Johansen KS, Nørholm MHH, Hoof JB, Olsen JV. A seven-transmembrane methyltransferase catalysing N-terminal histidine methylation of lytic polysaccharide monooxygenases. Nat Commun 2023; 14:4202. [PMID: 37452022 PMCID: PMC10349129 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-39875-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/06/2022] [Accepted: 06/29/2023] [Indexed: 07/18/2023] Open
Abstract
Lytic polysaccharide monooxygenases (LPMOs) are oxidative enzymes that help break down lignocellulose, making them highly attractive for improving biomass utilization in industrial biotechnology. The catalytically essential N-terminal histidine (His1) of LPMOs is post-translationally modified by methylation in filamentous fungi to protect them from auto-oxidative inactivation, however, the responsible methyltransferase enzyme is unknown. Using mass-spectrometry-based quantitative proteomics in combination with systematic CRISPR/Cas9 knockout screening in Aspergillus nidulans, we identify the N-terminal histidine methyltransferase (NHMT) encoded by the gene AN4663. Targeted proteomics confirm that NHMT was solely responsible for His1 methylation of LPMOs. NHMT is predicted to encode a unique seven-transmembrane segment anchoring a soluble methyltransferase domain. Co-localization studies show endoplasmic reticulum residence of NHMT and co-expression in the industrial production yeast Komagataella phaffii with LPMOs results in His1 methylation of the LPMOs. This demonstrates the biotechnological potential of recombinant production of proteins and peptides harbouring this specific post-translational modification.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tanveer S Batth
- The Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Protein Research, University of Copenhagen Denmark, Copenhagen, Denmark.
| | - Jonas L Simonsen
- The Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Protein Research, University of Copenhagen Denmark, Copenhagen, Denmark
- Department of Biotechnology and Biomedicine, Technical University of Denmark, Kongens Lyngby, Denmark
| | - Cristina Hernández-Rollán
- The Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Biosustainability, Technical University of Denmark, Kongens Lyngby, Denmark
| | - Søren Brander
- Department of Geosciences and Natural Resource Management, University of Copenhagen, Frederiksberg, Denmark
| | - Jens Preben Morth
- Department of Biotechnology and Biomedicine, Technical University of Denmark, Kongens Lyngby, Denmark
| | - Katja S Johansen
- Department of Geosciences and Natural Resource Management, University of Copenhagen, Frederiksberg, Denmark
| | - Morten H H Nørholm
- The Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Biosustainability, Technical University of Denmark, Kongens Lyngby, Denmark.
| | - Jakob B Hoof
- Department of Biotechnology and Biomedicine, Technical University of Denmark, Kongens Lyngby, Denmark.
| | - Jesper V Olsen
- The Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Protein Research, University of Copenhagen Denmark, Copenhagen, Denmark.
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16
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Hussain MA, Hassan MM, Bashir BA, Gamar TA, Gasmalbari E, Mohamed AO, Osman W, Sherif AE, Elgaml A, Alhaddad AA, Ghazawi KF, Miski SF, Ainousah BE, Andijani YS, Ibrahim SRM, Mohamed GA, Ashour A. Potential Therapeutic Target and Vaccines for SARS-CoV-2. Pathogens 2023; 12:926. [PMID: 37513773 PMCID: PMC10386482 DOI: 10.3390/pathogens12070926] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/13/2023] [Revised: 07/06/2023] [Accepted: 07/07/2023] [Indexed: 07/30/2023] Open
Abstract
The coronavirus has become the most interesting virus for scientists because of the recently emerging deadly SARS-CoV-2. This study aimed to understand the behavior of SARS-CoV-2 through the comparative genomic analysis with the closest one among the seven species of coronavirus that infect humans. The genomes of coronavirus species that infect humans were retrieved from NCBI, and then subjected to comparative genomic analysis using different bioinformatics tools. The study revealed that SARS-CoV-2 is the most similar to SARS-CoV among the coronavirus species. The core genes were shared by the two genomes, but there were some genes, found in one of them but not in both, such as ORF8, which is found in SARS-CoV-2. The ORF8 protein of SARS-CoV-2 could be considered as a good therapeutic target for stopping viral transmission, as it was predicted to be a transmembrane protein, which is responsible for interspecies transmission. This is supported by the molecular interaction of ORF8 with both the ORF7 protein, which contains a transmembrane domain that is essential to retaining the protein in the Golgi compartment, and the S protein, which facilitates the entry of the coronavirus into host cells. ORF1ab, ORF1a, ORF8, and S proteins of SARS-CoV-2 could be immunogenic and capable of evoking an immune response, which means that these four proteins could be considered a potential vaccine source. Overall, SARS-CoV-2 is most related to SARS-CoV. ORF8 could be considered a potential therapeutic target for stopping viral transmission, and ORF1ab, ORF1a, ORF8, and the S proteins of SARS-CoV-2 could be utilized as a potential vaccine source.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mohamed A Hussain
- Department of Pharmaceutical Microbiology, Faculty of Pharmacy, International University of Africa, Khartoum 11111, Sudan
| | - Mohamed M Hassan
- Department of Hematology, Faculty of Medical Laboratory Science, National University, Khartoum 11111, Sudan
| | - Bashir Abdrhman Bashir
- Department of Hematology, Faculty of Medical Laboratory Sciences, Port Sudan Ahlia College, Port Sudan 33312, Sudan
| | - Tarig A Gamar
- Department of Medical Parasitology, Faculty of Medical Laboratory Sciences, University of Sciences and Technology, Khartoum North 13311, Sudan
| | - Elmuaiz Gasmalbari
- Faculty of Medicine, Omdurman Islamic University, Al Khartoum 14415, Sudan
| | - Ahmed Osman Mohamed
- Department of Pharmaceutical Microbiology, Faculty of Pharmacy, International University of Africa, Khartoum 11111, Sudan
| | - Wadah Osman
- Department of Pharmacognosy, Faculty of Pharmacy, Prince Sattam Bin Abdulaziz University, Al-Kharj 11942, Saudi Arabia
- Department of Pharmacognosy, Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Khartoum, Al-Qasr Ave, Khartoum 11111, Sudan
| | - Asmaa E Sherif
- Department of Pharmacognosy, Faculty of Pharmacy, Prince Sattam Bin Abdulaziz University, Al-Kharj 11942, Saudi Arabia
- Department of Pharmacognosy, Faculty of Pharmacy, Mansoura University, Mansoura 35511, Egypt
| | - Abdelaziz Elgaml
- Microbiology and Immunology Department, Faculty of Pharmacy, Mansoura University, Mansoura 35511, Egypt
- Microbiology and Immunology Department, Faculty of Pharmacy, Horus University, New Damietta 34517, Egypt
| | - Aisha A Alhaddad
- Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, College of Pharmacy, Taibah University, Al-Madinah Al-Munawwarah 30078, Saudi Arabia
| | - Kholoud F Ghazawi
- Clinical Pharmacy Department, College of Pharmacy, Umm Al-Qura University, Makkah 24382, Saudi Arabia
| | - Samar F Miski
- Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, College of Pharmacy, Taibah University, Al-Madinah Al-Munawwarah 30078, Saudi Arabia
| | - Bayan E Ainousah
- Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, Faculty of Pharmacy, Umm Al-Qura University, Makkah 21955, Saudi Arabia
| | - Yusra Saleh Andijani
- Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, College of Pharmacy, Taibah University, Al-Madinah Al-Munawwarah 30078, Saudi Arabia
| | - Sabrin R M Ibrahim
- Preparatory Year Program, Department of Chemistry, Batterjee Medical College, Jeddah 21442, Saudi Arabia
- Department of Pharmacognosy, Faculty of Pharmacy, Assiut University, Assiut 71526, Egypt
| | - Gamal A Mohamed
- Department of Natural Products and Alternative Medicine, Faculty of Pharmacy, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah 21589, Saudi Arabia
| | - Ahmed Ashour
- Department of Pharmacognosy, Faculty of Pharmacy, Prince Sattam Bin Abdulaziz University, Al-Kharj 11942, Saudi Arabia
- Department of Pharmacognosy, Faculty of Pharmacy, Mansoura University, Mansoura 35511, Egypt
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17
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Abbo SR, de Almeida JPP, Olmo RP, Balvers C, Griep JS, Linthout C, Koenraadt CJM, Silva BM, Fros JJ, Aguiar ERGR, Marois E, Pijlman GP, Marques JT. The virome of the invasive Asian bush mosquito Aedes japonicus in Europe. Virus Evol 2023; 9:vead041. [PMID: 37636319 PMCID: PMC10460169 DOI: 10.1093/ve/vead041] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/05/2023] [Revised: 06/05/2023] [Accepted: 06/30/2023] [Indexed: 08/29/2023] Open
Abstract
The Asian bush mosquito Aedes japonicus is rapidly invading North America and Europe. Due to its potential to transmit multiple pathogenic arthropod-borne (arbo)viruses including Zika virus, West Nile virus, and chikungunya virus, it is important to understand the biology of this vector mosquito in more detail. In addition to arboviruses, mosquitoes can also carry insect-specific viruses that are receiving increasing attention due to their potential effects on host physiology and arbovirus transmission. In this study, we characterized the collection of viruses, referred to as the virome, circulating in Ae. japonicus populations in the Netherlands and France. Applying a small RNA-based metagenomic approach to Ae. japonicus, we uncovered a distinct group of viruses present in samples from both the Netherlands and France. These included one known virus, Ae. japonicus narnavirus 1 (AejapNV1), and three new virus species that we named Ae. japonicus totivirus 1 (AejapTV1), Ae. japonicus anphevirus 1 (AejapAV1) and Ae. japonicus bunyavirus 1 (AejapBV1). We also discovered sequences that were presumably derived from two additional novel viruses: Ae. japonicus bunyavirus 2 (AejapBV2) and Ae. japonicus rhabdovirus 1 (AejapRV1). All six viruses induced strong RNA interference responses, including the production of twenty-one nucleotide-sized small interfering RNAs, a signature of active replication in the host. Notably, AejapBV1 and AejapBV2 belong to different viral families; however, no RNA-dependent RNA polymerase sequence has been found for AejapBV2. Intriguingly, our small RNA-based approach identified an ∼1-kb long ambigrammatic RNA that is associated with AejapNV1 as a secondary segment but showed no similarity to any sequence in public databases. We confirmed the presence of AejapNV1 primary and secondary segments, AejapTV1, AejapAV1, and AejapBV1 by reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (PCR) in wild-caught Ae. japonicus mosquitoes. AejapNV1 and AejapTV1 were found at high prevalence (87-100 per cent) in adult females, adult males, and larvae. Using a small RNA-based, sequence-independent metagenomic strategy, we uncovered a conserved and prevalent virome among Ae. japonicus mosquito populations. The high prevalence of AejapNV1 and AejapTV1 across all tested mosquito life stages suggests that these viruses are intimately associated with Ae. japonicus.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sandra R Abbo
- Laboratory of Virology, Wageningen University & Research, Droevendaalsesteeg 4, Wageningen 6708 PB, The Netherlands
| | - João P P de Almeida
- Department of Biochemistry and Immunology, Instituto de Ciências Biológicas, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Av. Antonio Carlos 6627, Belo Horizonte 31270-901, Brazil
| | - Roenick P Olmo
- Insect Models of Innate Immunity, Université de Strasbourg, CNRS UPR9022, INSERM U1257, 2 Allee Konrad Roentgen, Strasbourg 67000, France
| | - Carlijn Balvers
- Laboratory of Virology, Wageningen University & Research, Droevendaalsesteeg 4, Wageningen 6708 PB, The Netherlands
- Laboratory of Entomology, Wageningen University & Research, Droevendaalsesteeg 4, Wageningen 6708 PB, The Netherlands
| | - Jet S Griep
- Laboratory of Virology, Wageningen University & Research, Droevendaalsesteeg 4, Wageningen 6708 PB, The Netherlands
- Laboratory of Entomology, Wageningen University & Research, Droevendaalsesteeg 4, Wageningen 6708 PB, The Netherlands
| | - Charlotte Linthout
- Laboratory of Entomology, Wageningen University & Research, Droevendaalsesteeg 4, Wageningen 6708 PB, The Netherlands
| | - Constantianus J M Koenraadt
- Laboratory of Entomology, Wageningen University & Research, Droevendaalsesteeg 4, Wageningen 6708 PB, The Netherlands
| | - Bruno M Silva
- Department of Biochemistry and Immunology, Instituto de Ciências Biológicas, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Av. Antonio Carlos 6627, Belo Horizonte 31270-901, Brazil
| | - Jelke J Fros
- Laboratory of Virology, Wageningen University & Research, Droevendaalsesteeg 4, Wageningen 6708 PB, The Netherlands
| | - Eric R G R Aguiar
- Department of Biochemistry and Immunology, Instituto de Ciências Biológicas, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Av. Antonio Carlos 6627, Belo Horizonte 31270-901, Brazil
- Department of Biological Science, Center of Biotechnology and Genetics, State University of Santa Cruz, Rod. Jorge Amado Km 16, Ilhéus 45662-900, Brazil
| | - Eric Marois
- Insect Models of Innate Immunity, Université de Strasbourg, CNRS UPR9022, INSERM U1257, 2 Allee Konrad Roentgen, Strasbourg 67000, France
| | - Gorben P Pijlman
- Laboratory of Virology, Wageningen University & Research, Droevendaalsesteeg 4, Wageningen 6708 PB, The Netherlands
| | - João T Marques
- Department of Biochemistry and Immunology, Instituto de Ciências Biológicas, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Av. Antonio Carlos 6627, Belo Horizonte 31270-901, Brazil
- Insect Models of Innate Immunity, Université de Strasbourg, CNRS UPR9022, INSERM U1257, 2 Allee Konrad Roentgen, Strasbourg 67000, France
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18
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Conners R, León-Quezada RI, McLaren M, Bennett NJ, Daum B, Rakonjac J, Gold VAM. Cryo-electron microscopy of the f1 filamentous phage reveals insights into viral infection and assembly. Nat Commun 2023; 14:2724. [PMID: 37169795 PMCID: PMC10175506 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-37915-w] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 8.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/21/2022] [Accepted: 04/04/2023] [Indexed: 05/13/2023] Open
Abstract
Phages are viruses that infect bacteria and dominate every ecosystem on our planet. As well as impacting microbial ecology, physiology and evolution, phages are exploited as tools in molecular biology and biotechnology. This is particularly true for the Ff (f1, fd or M13) phages, which represent a widely distributed group of filamentous viruses. Over nearly five decades, Ffs have seen an extraordinary range of applications, yet the complete structure of the phage capsid and consequently the mechanisms of infection and assembly remain largely mysterious. In this work, we use cryo-electron microscopy and a highly efficient system for production of short Ff-derived nanorods to determine a structure of a filamentous virus including the tips. We show that structure combined with mutagenesis can identify phage domains that are important in bacterial attack and for release of new progeny, allowing new models to be proposed for the phage lifecycle.
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Affiliation(s)
- Rebecca Conners
- Living Systems Institute, University of Exeter, Stocker Road, Exeter, EX4 4QD, UK
- Faculty of Health and Life Sciences, University of Exeter, Exeter, EX4 4QD, UK
| | - Rayén Ignacia León-Quezada
- School of Natural Sciences, Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand
- Nanophage Technologies, Palmerston North, New Zealand
| | - Mathew McLaren
- Living Systems Institute, University of Exeter, Stocker Road, Exeter, EX4 4QD, UK
- Faculty of Health and Life Sciences, University of Exeter, Exeter, EX4 4QD, UK
| | - Nicholas J Bennett
- School of Natural Sciences, Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand
| | - Bertram Daum
- Living Systems Institute, University of Exeter, Stocker Road, Exeter, EX4 4QD, UK
- Faculty of Health and Life Sciences, University of Exeter, Exeter, EX4 4QD, UK
| | - Jasna Rakonjac
- School of Natural Sciences, Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand.
- Nanophage Technologies, Palmerston North, New Zealand.
| | - Vicki A M Gold
- Living Systems Institute, University of Exeter, Stocker Road, Exeter, EX4 4QD, UK.
- Faculty of Health and Life Sciences, University of Exeter, Exeter, EX4 4QD, UK.
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19
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Mohammadi S, Leduc A, Charette SJ, Barbeau J, Vincent AT. Amino acid substitutions in specific proteins correlate with farnesol unresponsiveness in Candida albicans. BMC Genomics 2023; 24:93. [PMID: 36859182 PMCID: PMC9979538 DOI: 10.1186/s12864-023-09174-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/26/2022] [Accepted: 02/09/2023] [Indexed: 03/03/2023] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND The quorum-sensing molecule farnesol, in opportunistic yeast Candida albicans, modulates its dimorphic switch between yeast and hyphal forms, and biofilm formation. Although there is an increasing interest in farnesol as a potential antifungal drug, the molecular mechanism by which C. albicans responds to this molecule is still not fully understood. RESULTS A comparative genomic analysis between C. albicans strains that are naturally unresponsive to 30 µM of farnesol on TYE plates at 37 °C versus responsive strains uncovered new molecular determinants involved in the response to farnesol. While no signature gene was identified, amino acid changes in specific proteins were shown to correlate with the unresponsiveness to farnesol, particularly with substitutions in proteins known to be involved in the farnesol response. Although amino acid changes occur primarily in disordered regions of proteins, some amino acid changes were also found in known domains. Finally, the genomic investigation of intermediate-response strains showed that the non-response to farnesol occurs gradually following the successive accumulation of amino acid changes at specific positions. CONCLUSION It is known that large genomic changes, such as recombinations and gene flow (losses and gains), can cause major phenotypic changes in pathogens. However, it is still not well known or documented how more subtle changes, such as amino acid substitutions, play a role in the adaptation of pathogens. The present study shows that amino acid changes can modulate C. albicans yeast's response to farnesol. This study also improves our understanding of the network of proteins involved in the response to farnesol, and of the involvement of amino acid substitutions in cellular behavior.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sima Mohammadi
- grid.23856.3a0000 0004 1936 8390Département des sciences animales, Faculté des sciences de l’agriculture et de l’alimentation, Université Laval, Pavillon Paul-Comtois, 2425 rue de l’Agriculture, G1V 0A6 Quebec City, QC Canada ,grid.23856.3a0000 0004 1936 8390Institut de biologie intégrative et des systèmes, Université Laval, Quebec City, QC Canada
| | - Annie Leduc
- grid.14848.310000 0001 2292 3357Département de stomatologie, Faculté de Médecine Dentaire, Université de Montréal, Montreal City, QC Canada
| | - Steve J. Charette
- grid.23856.3a0000 0004 1936 8390Institut de biologie intégrative et des systèmes, Université Laval, Quebec City, QC Canada ,grid.421142.00000 0000 8521 1798Centre de recherche de l’Institut universitaire de cardiologie et de pneumologie de Québec, Quebec City, QC Canada ,grid.23856.3a0000 0004 1936 8390Département de biochimie, de microbiologie et de bio-informatique, Université Laval, Quebec City, QC Canada
| | - Jean Barbeau
- grid.14848.310000 0001 2292 3357Département de stomatologie, Faculté de Médecine Dentaire, Université de Montréal, Montreal City, QC Canada
| | - Antony T. Vincent
- grid.23856.3a0000 0004 1936 8390Département des sciences animales, Faculté des sciences de l’agriculture et de l’alimentation, Université Laval, Pavillon Paul-Comtois, 2425 rue de l’Agriculture, G1V 0A6 Quebec City, QC Canada ,grid.23856.3a0000 0004 1936 8390Institut de biologie intégrative et des systèmes, Université Laval, Quebec City, QC Canada
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20
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Südfeld C, Kiyani A, Wefelmeier K, Wijffels RH, Barbosa MJ, D’Adamo S. Expression of glycerol-3-phosphate acyltransferase increases non-polar lipid accumulation in Nannochloropsis oceanica. Microb Cell Fact 2023; 22:12. [PMID: 36647076 PMCID: PMC9844033 DOI: 10.1186/s12934-022-01987-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/03/2022] [Accepted: 12/09/2022] [Indexed: 01/18/2023] Open
Abstract
Microalgae are considered a suitable production platform for high-value lipids and oleochemicals. Several species including Nannochloropsis oceanica produce large amounts of essential [Formula: see text]-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) which are integral components of food and feed and have been associated with health-promoting effects. N. oceanica can further accumulate high contents of non-polar lipids with chemical properties that render them a potential replacement for plant oils such as palm oil. However, biomass and lipid productivities obtained with microalgae need to be improved to reach commercial feasibility. Genetic engineering can improve biomass and lipid productivities, for instance by increasing carbon flux to lipids. Here, we report the overexpression of glycerol-3-phosphate acyltransferase (GPAT) in N. oceanica during favorable growth conditions as a strategy to increase non-polar lipid content. Transformants overproducing either an endogenous (NoGPAT) or a heterologous (Acutodesmus obliquus GPAT) GPAT enzyme targeted to the endoplasmic reticulum had up to 42% and 51% increased non-polar lipid contents, respectively, compared to the wild type. Biomass productivities of transformant strains were not substantially impaired, resulting in lipid productivities that were increased by up to 37% and 42% for NoGPAT and AoGPAT transformants, respectively. When exposed to nutrient stress, transformants and wild type had similar lipid contents, suggesting that GPAT enzyme exerts strong flux control on lipid synthesis in N. oceanica under favorable growth conditions. NoGPAT transformants further accumulated PUFAs in non-polar lipids, reaching a total of 6.8% PUFAs per biomass, an increase of 24% relative to the wild type. Overall, our results indicate that GPAT is an interesting target for engineering of lipid metabolism in microalgae, in order to improve non-polar lipid and PUFAs accumulation in microalgae.
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Affiliation(s)
- Christian Südfeld
- grid.4818.50000 0001 0791 5666Wageningen University, Bioprocess Engineering, PO Box 16, 6700 AA Wageningen, Netherlands
| | - Aamna Kiyani
- grid.4818.50000 0001 0791 5666Wageningen University, Bioprocess Engineering, PO Box 16, 6700 AA Wageningen, Netherlands ,grid.412621.20000 0001 2215 1297Department of Microbiology, Quaid-I-Azam University, Islamabad, 45320 Pakistan
| | - Katrin Wefelmeier
- grid.4818.50000 0001 0791 5666Wageningen University, Bioprocess Engineering, PO Box 16, 6700 AA Wageningen, Netherlands
| | - René H. Wijffels
- grid.4818.50000 0001 0791 5666Wageningen University, Bioprocess Engineering, PO Box 16, 6700 AA Wageningen, Netherlands ,grid.465487.cFaculty of Biosciences and Aquaculture, Nord University, N-8049 Bodø, Norway
| | - Maria J. Barbosa
- grid.4818.50000 0001 0791 5666Wageningen University, Bioprocess Engineering, PO Box 16, 6700 AA Wageningen, Netherlands
| | - Sarah D’Adamo
- grid.4818.50000 0001 0791 5666Wageningen University, Bioprocess Engineering, PO Box 16, 6700 AA Wageningen, Netherlands
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21
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Floch A, Lomas-Francis C, Vege S, Burgos A, Hoffman R, Cusick R, de Brevern AG, Westhoff CM. Two new Scianna variants causing loss of high prevalence antigens: ERMAP model and 3D analysis of the antigens. Transfusion 2023; 63:230-238. [PMID: 36349441 DOI: 10.1111/trf.17182] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/15/2022] [Revised: 10/20/2022] [Accepted: 10/28/2022] [Indexed: 11/11/2022]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Scianna (Sc) antigens, seven high and two of low prevalence, are expressed on erythrocyte membrane-associated protein (ERMAP). We investigated SC (ERMAP) in individuals who made antibodies to high prevalence Scianna antigens, and propose a 3D model for ERMAP to precisely localize the residues associated with the known antigens. METHODS Serological testing and DNA sequencing was performed by standard methods. A 3D structural model was built using a multi-template homology approach. Protein structures representing missense variants associated with the loss or gain of an antigen were generated. Residue accessibility and intraprotein interactions were compared with the wild-type protein. RESULTS Two new SC alleles, one with c.349C > T (p.Arg117Cys) in a woman from South India with anti-Sc3 in her plasma, and a c.217_219delinsTGT (p.Arg73Cys) in an African-American woman with an antibody to a new high prevalence antigen, termed SCAC, were identified. Six structural templates were used to model ERMAP. 3D analysis showed that residues key for Scianna antigen expression were all exposed at the surface of the extracellular domain. The p.Arg117Cys change was predicted to abolish interactions between residues 93 and 117, with no compensating interactions. CONCLUSION We confirm the extracellular location of Scianna residues responsible for antigen expression which predicts direct accessibility to antibodies. Loss of intraprotein interactions appear to be responsible for a Sc null and production of anti-Sc3 with p.117Cys, SC*01 N.03, and for loss of a high prevalence antigen with p.73Cys, termed SCAC for Sc Arg to Cys. Comparative modeling aids our understanding of new alleles and Scianna antigen expression.
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Affiliation(s)
- Aline Floch
- Immunohematology and Genomics Laboratory, New York Blood Center, New York City, New York, USA.,Laboratoire de Biologie Medicale de Reference en Immunohematologie Moleculaire, Etablissement francais du sang Ile-de-France, Creteil, France.,Univ Paris Est Creteil, INSERM U955 Equipe « Transfusion et maladies du globule rouge », IMRB, Creteil, France
| | - Christine Lomas-Francis
- Immunohematology and Genomics Laboratory, New York Blood Center, New York City, New York, USA
| | - Sunitha Vege
- Immunohematology and Genomics Laboratory, New York Blood Center, New York City, New York, USA
| | - Anna Burgos
- Immunohematology and Genomics Laboratory, New York Blood Center, New York City, New York, USA
| | - Roser Hoffman
- Vitalant Reference and Transfusion Services, Tempe, Arizona, USA
| | | | - Alexandre G de Brevern
- Université Paris Cité, Biologie Intégrée du Globule Rouge UMR_S1134, Inserm, Université de la Réunion, Université des Antilles, Paris, France
| | - Connie M Westhoff
- Immunohematology and Genomics Laboratory, New York Blood Center, New York City, New York, USA
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22
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Polanco C, Uversky VN, Huberman A, Vargas-Alarcón G, Castañón González JA, Buhse T, Hernández Lemus E, Rios Castro M, López Oliva EJ, Solís Nájera SE. Bioinformatics-based Characterization of the Sequence Variability of
Zika Virus Polyprotein and Envelope Protein (E). Evol Bioinform Online 2022; 18:11769343221130730. [PMCID: PMC9623037 DOI: 10.1177/11769343221130730] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/22/2022] [Accepted: 09/12/2022] [Indexed: 11/17/2022] Open
Abstract
Background: Zika virus, which is widely spread and infects humans through the bites of
Aedes albopictus and Aedes aegypti
female mosquitoes, represents a serious global health issue. Objective: The objective of the present study is to computationally characterize Zika
virus polyproteins (UniProt Name: PRO_0000443018 [residues 1-3423],
PRO_0000445659 [residues 1-3423] and PRO_0000435828 [residues 1-3419]) and
their envelope proteins using their physico-chemical properties. Methods: To achieve this, the Polarity Index Method (PIM) profile and the Protein
Intrinsic Disorder Predisposition (PIDP) profile of 3 main groups of
proteins were evaluated: structural proteins extracted from specific
Databases, Zika virus polyproteins, and their envelope proteins (E)
extracted from UniProt Database. Once the PIM profile of the Zika virus
envelope proteins (E) was obtained and since the Zika virus polyproteins
were also identified with this profile, the proteins defined as “reviewed
proteins” extracted from the UniProt Database were searched
for the similar PIM profile. Finally, the difference between the PIM
profiles of the Zika virus polyproteins and their envelope proteins (E) was
tested using 2 non-parametric statistical tests. Results: It was found and tested that the PIM profile is an efficient discriminant
that allows obtaining a “computational fingerprint” of each Zika virus
polyprotein from its envelope protein (E). Conclusion: PIM profile represents a computational tool, which can be used to effectively
discover Zika virus polyproteins from Databases, from their envelope
proteins (E) sequences.
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Affiliation(s)
- Carlos Polanco
- Department of Electromechanical
Instrumentation, Instituto Nacional de Cardiología “Ignacio Chávez,” México City,
México,Department of Mathematics, Faculty of
Sciences, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, México City, México,Carlos Polanco, Department of
Electromechanical Instrumentation, Instituto Nacional de Cardiología “Ignacio
Chávez,” Juan Badiano 1 Tlalpan, México City 14800, México.
| | - Vladimir N Uversky
- Department of Molecular Medicine and
USF Health Byrd Alzheimer’s Research Institute, Morsani College of Medicine,
University of South Florida, Tampa, FL, USA,Protein Research Group, Institute for
Biological Instrumentation of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Federal Research
Center “Pushchino Scientific Center for Biological Research of the Russian Academy
of Sciences,” Pushchino, Moscow Region, Russia
| | - Alberto Huberman
- Department of Biochemistry, Instituto
Nacional de Ciencias Médicas y Nutrición “Salvador Zubirán”, México City,
México
| | | | | | - Thomas Buhse
- Chemical Research Center, Universidad
Autónoma del Estado de Morelos, Cuernavaca, Morelos, México
| | - Enrique Hernández Lemus
- Department of Computational Genomics,
Instituto Nacional de Medicina Genómica, México City, México
| | - Martha Rios Castro
- Department of Electromechanical
Instrumentation, Instituto Nacional de Cardiología “Ignacio Chávez,” México City,
México
| | - Erika Jeannette López Oliva
- Department of Electromechanical
Instrumentation, Instituto Nacional de Cardiología “Ignacio Chávez,” México City,
México
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23
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Wöhnke E, Cackett G, Werner F, Blome S, Mettenleiter TC, Karger A. Proteome Analysis of Swine Macrophages after Infection with Two Genotype II African Swine Fever Isolates of Different Pathogenicity. Viruses 2022; 14:v14102140. [PMID: 36298696 PMCID: PMC9607119 DOI: 10.3390/v14102140] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/07/2022] [Revised: 09/25/2022] [Accepted: 09/26/2022] [Indexed: 11/17/2022] Open
Abstract
Since the introduction of a highly pathogenic genotype II isolate of the African swine fever virus (ASFV) into Georgia in 2007, African swine fever (ASF) has gone panzootic. Outbreaks have been reported in Europe, Asia and, more recently, Latin America. Thus, ASFV has become a major threat to the pig industry worldwide, as broadly applicable vaccines are not available. While the majority of ASFV strains show high virulence in domestic pigs and wild boar, variations within the ASFV genome have resulted in the emergence of attenuated strains with low or moderate virulence. However, the molecular basis of the differences in virulence has not yet been discovered. To reveal virulence-associated protein expression patterns, we analysed the proteomes of the natural target cells of ASFV, primary porcine macrophages, after infection with two genotype II ASFV strains displaying high (Armenia 2008) and moderate (Estonia 2014) virulence using quantitative mass spectrometry. Very similar expression patterns were observed for the viral genes, and any differences were limited to the deletions within the Estonia 2014 genome. In addition to the canonical ASFV proteins, twelve novel protein products from recently described transcripts were confirmed in both isolates. Pathway analyses showed that both isolates evoked a similar host proteome response, despite their difference in virulence. However, subtle differences in the manipulation of the proteins involved in the proinflammatory response mediated by the MAPK14/p38 signalling cascade were observed.
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Affiliation(s)
- Elisabeth Wöhnke
- Institute of Molecular Virology and Cell Biology, Friedrich-Loeffler-Institut, Federal Research Institute for Animal Health, Südufer 10, 17493 Greifswald, Germany
| | - Gwenny Cackett
- Institute for Structural and Molecular Biology, Darwin Building, University College London, Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT, UK
| | - Finn Werner
- Institute for Structural and Molecular Biology, Darwin Building, University College London, Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT, UK
| | - Sandra Blome
- Institute of Diagnostic Virology, Friedrich-Loeffler-Institut, Federal Research Institute for Animal Health, Südufer 10, 17493 Greifswald, Germany
| | - Thomas C. Mettenleiter
- Friedrich-Loeffler-Institut, Federal Research Institute for Animal Health, Südufer 10, 17493 Greifswald, Germany
| | - Axel Karger
- Institute of Molecular Virology and Cell Biology, Friedrich-Loeffler-Institut, Federal Research Institute for Animal Health, Südufer 10, 17493 Greifswald, Germany
- Correspondence: ; Tel.: +49-38351-7-1247
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24
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Meek RW, Brockerman J, Fordwour OB, Zandberg WF, Davies GJ, Vocadlo DJ. The primary familial brain calcification-associated protein MYORG is an α-galactosidase with restricted substrate specificity. PLoS Biol 2022; 20:e3001764. [PMID: 36129849 PMCID: PMC9491548 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pbio.3001764] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/28/2022] [Accepted: 07/25/2022] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
Primary familial brain calcification (PFBC) is characterised by abnormal deposits of calcium phosphate within various regions of the brain that are associated with severe cognitive impairments, psychiatric conditions, and movement disorders. Recent studies in diverse populations have shown a link between mutations in myogenesis-regulating glycosidase (MYORG) and the development of this disease. MYORG is a member of glycoside hydrolase (GH) family 31 (GH31) and, like the other mammalian GH31 enzyme α-glucosidase II, this enzyme is found in the lumen of the endoplasmic reticulum (ER). Though presumed to act as an α-glucosidase due to its localization and sequence relatedness to α-glucosidase II, MYORG has never been shown to exhibit catalytic activity. Here, we show that MYORG is an α-galactosidase and present the high-resolution crystal structure of MYORG in complex with substrate and inhibitor. Using these structures, we map detrimental mutations that are associated with MYORG-associated brain calcification and define how these mutations may drive disease progression through loss of enzymatic activity. Finally, we also detail the thermal stabilisation of MYORG afforded by a clinically approved small molecule ligand, opening the possibility of using pharmacological chaperones to enhance the activity of mutant forms of MYORG. MYORG is an enzyme genetically linked to primary familial brain calcification that has historically been presumed to act as an α-glucosidase. This study describes the crystal structure of dimeric MYORG and, surprisingly, reveals it to be an α-galactosidase with restricted specificity.
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Affiliation(s)
- Richard W. Meek
- Department of Chemistry. University of York, York, United Kingdom
| | - Jacob Brockerman
- Department of Molecular Biology and Biochemistry, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada
- Department of Chemistry, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada
| | - Osei B. Fordwour
- Department of Chemistry, Irving K. Barber Faculty of Science, University of British Columbia, Kelowna, British Columbia, Canada
| | - Wesley F. Zandberg
- Department of Chemistry, Irving K. Barber Faculty of Science, University of British Columbia, Kelowna, British Columbia, Canada
| | - Gideon J. Davies
- Department of Chemistry. University of York, York, United Kingdom
- * E-mail: (GJD); (DJV)
| | - David J. Vocadlo
- Department of Molecular Biology and Biochemistry, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada
- Department of Chemistry, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada
- * E-mail: (GJD); (DJV)
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25
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Mahmoud NA, Elshafei AM, Almofti YA. A novel strategy for developing vaccine candidate against Jaagsiekte sheep retrovirus from the envelope and gag proteins: an in-silico approach. BMC Vet Res 2022; 18:343. [PMID: 36085036 PMCID: PMC9463060 DOI: 10.1186/s12917-022-03431-0] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/09/2022] [Accepted: 08/29/2022] [Indexed: 11/26/2022] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Sheep pulmonary adenocarcinoma (OPA) is a contagious lung cancer of sheep caused by the Jaagsiekte retrovirus (JSRV). OPA typically has a serious economic impact worldwide. A vaccine has yet to be developed, even though the disease has been globally spread, along with its complications. This study aimed to construct an effective multi-epitopes vaccine against JSRV eliciting B and T lymphocytes using immunoinformatics tools. RESULTS The designed vaccine was composed of 499 amino acids. Before the vaccine was computationally validated, all critical parameters were taken into consideration; including antigenicity, allergenicity, toxicity, and stability. The physiochemical properties of the vaccine displayed an isoelectric point of 9.88. According to the Instability Index (II), the vaccine was stable at 28.28. The vaccine scored 56.51 on the aliphatic index and -0.731 on the GRAVY, indicating that the vaccine was hydrophilic. The RaptorX server was used to predict the vaccine's tertiary structure, the GalaxyWEB server refined the structure, and the Ramachandran plot and the ProSA-web server validated the vaccine's tertiary structure. Protein-sol and the SOLPro servers showed the solubility of the vaccine. Moreover, the high mobile regions in the vaccine's structure were reduced and the vaccine's stability was improved by disulfide engineering. Also, the vaccine construct was docked with an ovine MHC-1 allele and showed efficient binding energy. Immune simulation remarkably showed high levels of immunoglobulins, T lymphocytes, and INF-γ secretions. The molecular dynamic simulation provided the stability of the constructed vaccine. Finally, the vaccine was back-transcribed into a DNA sequence and cloned into a pET-30a ( +) vector to affirm the potency of translation and microbial expression. CONCLUSION A novel multi-epitopes vaccine construct against JSRV, was formed from B and T lymphocytes epitopes, and was produced with potential protection. This study might help in controlling and eradicating OPA.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nuha Amin Mahmoud
- Department of Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology/ Faculty of Medicine and Surgery, National University, Khartoum, Sudan
| | - Abdelmajeed M Elshafei
- Department of Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology/ Faculty of Medicine and Surgery, National University, Khartoum, Sudan
| | - Yassir A Almofti
- Department of Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology/ Faculty of Medicine and Surgery, National University, Khartoum, Sudan.
- Department of Molecular Biology and Bioinformatics, College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Bahri, Khartoum, Sudan.
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26
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Domínguez-Martín MA, López-Lozano A, Melero-Rubio Y, Gómez-Baena G, Jiménez-Estrada JA, Kukil K, Diez J, García-Fernández JM. Marine Synechococcus sp. Strain WH7803 Shows Specific Adaptative Responses to Assimilate Nanomolar Concentrations of Nitrate. Microbiol Spectr 2022; 10:e0018722. [PMID: 35852322 PMCID: PMC9430850 DOI: 10.1128/spectrum.00187-22] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/21/2022] [Accepted: 06/24/2022] [Indexed: 11/20/2022] Open
Abstract
Marine Synechococcus, together with Prochlorococcus, contribute to a significant proportion of the primary production on Earth. The spatial distribution of these two groups of marine picocyanobacteria depends on different factors such as nutrient availability and temperature. Some Synechococcus ecotypes thrive in mesotrophic and moderately oligotrophic waters, where they exploit both oxidized and reduced forms of nitrogen. Here, we present a comprehensive study, which includes transcriptomic and proteomic analyses of the response of Synechococcus sp. strain WH7803 to nanomolar concentrations of nitrate, compared to micromolar ammonium or nitrogen starvation. We found that Synechococcus has a specific response to a nanomolar nitrate concentration that differs from the response shown under nitrogen starvation or the presence of standard concentrations of either ammonium or nitrate. This fact suggests that the particular response to the uptake of nanomolar concentrations of nitrate could be an evolutionary advantage for marine Synechococcus against Prochlorococcus in the natural environment. IMPORTANCE Marine Synechococcus are a very abundant group of photosynthetic organisms on our planet. Previous studies have shown blooms of these organisms when nanomolar concentrations of nitrate become available. We have assessed the effect of nanomolar nitrate concentrations by studying the transcriptome and proteome of Synechococcus sp. WH7803, together with some physiological parameters. We found evidence that Synechococcus sp. strain WH7803 does sense and react to nanomolar concentrations of nitrate, suggesting the occurrence of specific adaptive mechanisms to allow their utilization. Thus, very low concentrations of nitrate in the ocean seem to be a significant nitrogen source for marine picocyanobacteria.
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Grants
- Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovacion, Government of Spain (cofunded by the FEDER program, European Union)
- Consejeria de Conocimiento, Investigacion y Universidad, Junta de Andalucia (Spain), cofunded by the FEDER program (European Union)
- Universidad de Cordoba (Spain), Programa Propio de Investigacion
- Junta de Andalucia (Spain), Programa Operativo de Empleo Juvenil, cofunded by the FEDER programme (European Union)
- Consejería de Transformación Económica, Industria, Conocimiento y Universidades, Junta de Andalucia (Spain), cofunded by the FEDER program (European Union)
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Affiliation(s)
- María Agustina Domínguez-Martín
- Departamento de Bioquímica y Biología Molecular, Campus de Excelencia Internacional Agroalimentario CeiA3, Universidad de Córdoba, Córdoba, Spain
| | - Antonio López-Lozano
- Departamento de Bioquímica y Biología Molecular, Campus de Excelencia Internacional Agroalimentario CeiA3, Universidad de Córdoba, Córdoba, Spain
| | - Yesica Melero-Rubio
- Departamento de Bioquímica y Biología Molecular, Campus de Excelencia Internacional Agroalimentario CeiA3, Universidad de Córdoba, Córdoba, Spain
| | - Guadalupe Gómez-Baena
- Departamento de Bioquímica y Biología Molecular, Campus de Excelencia Internacional Agroalimentario CeiA3, Universidad de Córdoba, Córdoba, Spain
| | - Juan Andrés Jiménez-Estrada
- Departamento de Bioquímica y Biología Molecular, Campus de Excelencia Internacional Agroalimentario CeiA3, Universidad de Córdoba, Córdoba, Spain
| | - Kateryna Kukil
- Departamento de Bioquímica y Biología Molecular, Campus de Excelencia Internacional Agroalimentario CeiA3, Universidad de Córdoba, Córdoba, Spain
| | - Jesús Diez
- Departamento de Bioquímica y Biología Molecular, Campus de Excelencia Internacional Agroalimentario CeiA3, Universidad de Córdoba, Córdoba, Spain
| | - José Manuel García-Fernández
- Departamento de Bioquímica y Biología Molecular, Campus de Excelencia Internacional Agroalimentario CeiA3, Universidad de Córdoba, Córdoba, Spain
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27
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Bernhofer M, Rost B. TMbed: transmembrane proteins predicted through language model embeddings. BMC Bioinformatics 2022; 23:326. [PMID: 35941534 PMCID: PMC9358067 DOI: 10.1186/s12859-022-04873-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 8.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/12/2022] [Accepted: 08/03/2022] [Indexed: 12/30/2022] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Despite the immense importance of transmembrane proteins (TMP) for molecular biology and medicine, experimental 3D structures for TMPs remain about 4-5 times underrepresented compared to non-TMPs. Today's top methods such as AlphaFold2 accurately predict 3D structures for many TMPs, but annotating transmembrane regions remains a limiting step for proteome-wide predictions. RESULTS Here, we present TMbed, a novel method inputting embeddings from protein Language Models (pLMs, here ProtT5), to predict for each residue one of four classes: transmembrane helix (TMH), transmembrane strand (TMB), signal peptide, or other. TMbed completes predictions for entire proteomes within hours on a single consumer-grade desktop machine at performance levels similar or better than methods, which are using evolutionary information from multiple sequence alignments (MSAs) of protein families. On the per-protein level, TMbed correctly identified 94 ± 8% of the beta barrel TMPs (53 of 57) and 98 ± 1% of the alpha helical TMPs (557 of 571) in a non-redundant data set, at false positive rates well below 1% (erred on 30 of 5654 non-membrane proteins). On the per-segment level, TMbed correctly placed, on average, 9 of 10 transmembrane segments within five residues of the experimental observation. Our method can handle sequences of up to 4200 residues on standard graphics cards used in desktop PCs (e.g., NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060). CONCLUSIONS Based on embeddings from pLMs and two novel filters (Gaussian and Viterbi), TMbed predicts alpha helical and beta barrel TMPs at least as accurately as any other method but at lower false positive rates. Given the few false positives and its outstanding speed, TMbed might be ideal to sieve through millions of 3D structures soon to be predicted, e.g., by AlphaFold2.
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Affiliation(s)
- Michael Bernhofer
- Department of Informatics, Bioinformatics and Computational Biology ‑ i12, Technical University of Munich (TUM), Boltzmannstr. 3, 85748, Garching, Germany. .,TUM Graduate School, Center of Doctoral Studies in Informatics and its Applications (CeDoSIA), Boltzmannstr. 11, 85748, Garching, Germany.
| | - Burkhard Rost
- Department of Informatics, Bioinformatics and Computational Biology ‑ i12, Technical University of Munich (TUM), Boltzmannstr. 3, 85748, Garching, Germany.,Institute for Advanced Study (TUM-IAS), Lichtenbergstr. 2a, 85748, Garching, Germany.,TUM School of Life Sciences Weihenstephan (TUM-WZW), Alte Akademie 8, Freising, Germany
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28
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Gonda I, Milavski R, Adler C, Abu-Abied M, Tal O, Faigenboim A, Chaimovitsh D, Dudai N. Genome-based high-resolution mapping of fusarium wilt resistance in sweet basil. PLANT SCIENCE : AN INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF EXPERIMENTAL PLANT BIOLOGY 2022; 321:111316. [PMID: 35696916 DOI: 10.1016/j.plantsci.2022.111316] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/26/2022] [Revised: 04/05/2022] [Accepted: 05/07/2022] [Indexed: 06/15/2023]
Abstract
Fusarium wilt of basil is a disease of sweet basil (Ocimum basilicum L.) plants caused by the fungus Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. basilici (FOB). Although resistant cultivars were released > 20 years ago, the underlying mechanism and the genes controlling the resistance remain unknown. We used genetic mapping to elucidate FOB resistance in an F2 population derived from a cross between resistant and susceptible cultivars. We performed genotyping by sequencing of 173 offspring and aligning the data to the sweet basil reference genome. In total, 23,411 polymorphic sites were detected, and a single quantitative trait locus (QTL) for FOB resistance was found. The confidence interval was < 600 kbp, harboring only 60 genes, including a cluster of putative disease-resistance genes. Based on homology to a fusarium resistance protein from wild tomato, we also investigated a candidate resistance gene that encodes a transmembrane leucine-rich repeat - receptor-like kinase - ubiquitin-like protease (LRR-RLK-ULP). Sequence analysis of that gene in the susceptible parent vs. the resistant parent revealed multiple indels, including an insertion of 20 amino acids next to the transmembrane domain, which might alter its functionality. Our findings suggest that this LRR-RLK-ULP might be responsible for FOB resistance in sweet basil and demonstrate the usefulness of the recently sequenced basil genome for QTL mapping and gene mining.
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Affiliation(s)
- Itay Gonda
- Newe Ya'ar Research Center, Agricultural Research Organization, Volcani Institute, Ramat Yishay 30095, Israel
| | - Renana Milavski
- Newe Ya'ar Research Center, Agricultural Research Organization, Volcani Institute, Ramat Yishay 30095, Israel; Robert H. Smith Faculty of Agriculture, Food and Environment, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Rehovot 76100, Israel
| | - Chen Adler
- Newe Ya'ar Research Center, Agricultural Research Organization, Volcani Institute, Ramat Yishay 30095, Israel
| | - Mohamad Abu-Abied
- Newe Ya'ar Research Center, Agricultural Research Organization, Volcani Institute, Ramat Yishay 30095, Israel
| | - Ofir Tal
- Newe Ya'ar Research Center, Agricultural Research Organization, Volcani Institute, Ramat Yishay 30095, Israel
| | - Adi Faigenboim
- Newe Ya'ar Research Center, Agricultural Research Organization, Volcani Institute, Ramat Yishay 30095, Israel
| | - David Chaimovitsh
- Newe Ya'ar Research Center, Agricultural Research Organization, Volcani Institute, Ramat Yishay 30095, Israel
| | - Nativ Dudai
- Newe Ya'ar Research Center, Agricultural Research Organization, Volcani Institute, Ramat Yishay 30095, Israel; Robert H. Smith Faculty of Agriculture, Food and Environment, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Rehovot 76100, Israel.
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29
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Luo Z, Xiong J, Xia H, Wang L, Hou G, Li Z, Li J, Zhou H, Li T, Luo L. Pentatricopeptide Repeat Gene-Mediated Mitochondrial RNA Editing Impacts on Rice Drought Tolerance. FRONTIERS IN PLANT SCIENCE 2022; 13:926285. [PMID: 35928709 PMCID: PMC9343880 DOI: 10.3389/fpls.2022.926285] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/22/2022] [Accepted: 06/21/2022] [Indexed: 05/27/2023]
Abstract
Mitochondrial RNA editing plays crucial roles in the plant development and environmental adaptation. Pentatricopeptide repeat (PPR) genes, which are involved in the regulating mitochondrial RNA editing, are potential gene resources in the improvement of rice drought tolerance. In this study, we investigated genome-wide mitochondrial RNA editing in response to drought between upland and lowland rice. Responses of mitochondrial RNA editing to drought exhibit site-specific and genotype-specific patterns. We detected 22 and 57 ecotype-differentiated editing sites under well-watered and drought-treated conditions, respectively. Interestingly, the RNA editing efficiency was positively correlated with many agronomic traits, while it was negatively correlated with drought tolerance. We further selected two mitochondrial-localized PPR proteins, PPR035 and PPR406, to validate their functions in drought tolerance. PPR035 regulated RNA editing at rps4-926 and orfX-406, while PPR406 regulated RNA editing at orfX-355. The defectiveness in RNA editing at these sites had no apparent penalties in rice respiration and vegetative growth. Meanwhile, the knockout mutants of ppr035 and ppr406 show enhanced drought- and salt tolerance. PPR035 and PPR406 were under the balancing selection in upland rice and highly differentiated between upland and lowland rice ecotypes. The upland-dominant haplotypes of PPR035 and PPR406 shall contribute to the better drought tolerance in upland rice. They have great prospective in the improvement of rice drought tolerance.
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Affiliation(s)
- Zhi Luo
- College of Plant Sciences & Technology, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, China
- Shanghai Collaborative Innovation Center of Agri-Seeds (SCCAS), Shanghai Agrobiological Gene Center, Shanghai, China
| | - Jie Xiong
- College of Plant Sciences & Technology, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, China
- Shanghai Collaborative Innovation Center of Agri-Seeds (SCCAS), Shanghai Agrobiological Gene Center, Shanghai, China
| | - Hui Xia
- College of Plant Sciences & Technology, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, China
- Shanghai Collaborative Innovation Center of Agri-Seeds (SCCAS), Shanghai Agrobiological Gene Center, Shanghai, China
- Key Laboratory of Grain Crop Genetic Resources Evaluation and Utilization, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Shanghai, China
| | - Lei Wang
- College of Plant Sciences & Technology, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, China
- Key Laboratory of Grain Crop Genetic Resources Evaluation and Utilization, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Shanghai, China
| | - Guihua Hou
- College of Plant Sciences & Technology, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, China
- Shanghai Collaborative Innovation Center of Agri-Seeds (SCCAS), Shanghai Agrobiological Gene Center, Shanghai, China
| | - Zhaoyang Li
- College of Plant Sciences & Technology, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, China
- Shanghai Collaborative Innovation Center of Agri-Seeds (SCCAS), Shanghai Agrobiological Gene Center, Shanghai, China
| | - Jing Li
- College of Plant Sciences & Technology, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, China
- Shanghai Collaborative Innovation Center of Agri-Seeds (SCCAS), Shanghai Agrobiological Gene Center, Shanghai, China
| | - Hengling Zhou
- College of Plant Sciences & Technology, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, China
- Shanghai Collaborative Innovation Center of Agri-Seeds (SCCAS), Shanghai Agrobiological Gene Center, Shanghai, China
| | - Tianfei Li
- College of Plant Sciences & Technology, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, China
- Key Laboratory of Grain Crop Genetic Resources Evaluation and Utilization, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Shanghai, China
| | - Lijun Luo
- College of Plant Sciences & Technology, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, China
- Shanghai Collaborative Innovation Center of Agri-Seeds (SCCAS), Shanghai Agrobiological Gene Center, Shanghai, China
- Key Laboratory of Grain Crop Genetic Resources Evaluation and Utilization, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Shanghai, China
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Shigemizu D, Asanomi Y, Akiyama S, Higaki S, Sakurai T, Ito K, Niida S, Ozaki K. Network-based meta-analysis and the candidate gene association studies reveal novel ethnicity-specific variants in MFSD3 and MRPL43 associated with dementia with Lewy bodies. Am J Med Genet B Neuropsychiatr Genet 2022; 189:139-150. [PMID: 35765761 PMCID: PMC9543256 DOI: 10.1002/ajmg.b.32908] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/07/2021] [Revised: 01/18/2022] [Accepted: 06/14/2022] [Indexed: 11/06/2022]
Abstract
Dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB) is the second most common form of neurodegenerative dementia in elderly people, following Alzheimer's disease. Only three genes, SNCA (α-synuclein), APOE (apolipoprotein E), and GBA (glucosylceramidase), have been convincingly demonstrated to be associated with DLB. Here, we applied whole-genome sequencing to blood samples from 61 DLB patients and 45 cognitively normal controls. We used accumulation of candidate mutations to detect novel DLB-associated genes. Subsequent single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) genotyping and association studies in a large number of samples from Japanese individuals revealed novel heterozygous variants in MFSD3 (rs143475431, c.888T>A:p.C296*; n = 5,421, p = 0.00063) and MRPL43 (chr10:102746730, c.241A>C:p.N81H; n = 4,782, p = 0.0029). We further found that the MFSD3 variant increased plasma levels of butyrylcholinesterase (n = 1,206, p = 0.029). We believe that our findings will contribute to the understanding of DLB and provide insight into its pathogenic mechanism for future studies.
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Affiliation(s)
- Daichi Shigemizu
- Medical Genome Center, Research InstituteNational Center for Geriatrics and GerontologyObuAichiJapan
- RIKEN Center for Integrative Medical SciencesYokohamaKanagawaJapan
| | - Yuya Asanomi
- Medical Genome Center, Research InstituteNational Center for Geriatrics and GerontologyObuAichiJapan
| | - Shintaro Akiyama
- Medical Genome Center, Research InstituteNational Center for Geriatrics and GerontologyObuAichiJapan
| | - Sayuri Higaki
- Medical Genome Center, Research InstituteNational Center for Geriatrics and GerontologyObuAichiJapan
| | - Takashi Sakurai
- Department of Prevention and Care Science, Center for Development of Advanced Medicine for Dementia, Research InstituteNational Center for Geriatrics and GerontologyObuAichiJapan
- Department of Cognitive and Behavioral ScienceNagoya University Graduate School of MedicineNagoyaAichiJapan
| | - Kengo Ito
- National Center for Geriatrics and GerontologyObuAichiJapan
| | - Shumpei Niida
- Core Facility Administration, Research InstituteNational Center for Geriatrics and GerontologyObuAichiJapan
| | - Kouichi Ozaki
- Medical Genome Center, Research InstituteNational Center for Geriatrics and GerontologyObuAichiJapan
- RIKEN Center for Integrative Medical SciencesYokohamaKanagawaJapan
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31
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Tassé M, Choquette T, Angers A, Stewart DT, Pante E, Breton S. The longest mitochondrial protein in metazoans is encoded by the male-transmitted mitogenome of the bivalve Scrobicularia plana. Biol Lett 2022; 18:20220122. [PMID: 35673874 PMCID: PMC9174706 DOI: 10.1098/rsbl.2022.0122] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/23/2022] Open
Abstract
Cytochrome c oxidase subunit II (COX2) is one of the three mitochondrially encoded proteins of the complex IV of the respiratory chain that catalyses the reduction of oxygen to water. The cox2 gene spans about 690 base pairs in most animal species and produces a protein composed of approximately 230 amino acids. We discovered an extreme departure from this pattern in the male-transmitted mitogenome of the bivalve Scrobicularia plana with doubly uniparental inheritance (DUI) of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA), which possesses an important in-frame insertion of approximately 4.8 kb in its cox2 gene. This feature—an enlarged male cox2 gene—is found in many species with DUI; the COX2 protein can be up to 420 amino acids long. Through RT-PCRs, immunoassays and comparative genetics, the evolution and functionality of this insertion in S. plana were characterized. The in-frame insertion is conserved among individuals from different populations and bears the signature of purifying selection seemingly indicating maintenance of functionality. Its transcription and translation were confirmed: this gene produces a polypeptide of 1892 amino acids, making it the largest metazoan COX2 protein known to date. We hypothesize that these extreme modifications in the COX2 protein affect the metabolism of mitochondria containing the male-transmitted mtDNA in Scrobicularia plana.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mélanie Tassé
- Département de sciences biologiques, Université de Montréal, Montréal, QC, Canada
| | - Thierry Choquette
- Département de sciences biologiques, Université de Montréal, Montréal, QC, Canada
| | - Annie Angers
- Département de sciences biologiques, Université de Montréal, Montréal, QC, Canada
| | | | - Eric Pante
- Littoral, Environnement et Sociétés (LIENSs), UMR 7266 CNRS-La Rochelle Université, 2 rue Olympe de Gouges, 17000 La Rochelle, France
| | - Sophie Breton
- Département de sciences biologiques, Université de Montréal, Montréal, QC, Canada
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Skeffington AW, Gentzel M, Ohara A, Milentyev A, Heintze C, Böttcher L, Görlich S, Shevchenko A, Poulsen N, Kröger N. Shedding light on silica biomineralization by comparative analysis of the silica-associated proteomes from three diatom species. THE PLANT JOURNAL : FOR CELL AND MOLECULAR BIOLOGY 2022; 110:1700-1716. [PMID: 35403318 DOI: 10.1111/tpj.15765] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/29/2021] [Revised: 03/17/2022] [Accepted: 04/03/2022] [Indexed: 06/14/2023]
Abstract
Morphogenesis of the intricate patterns of diatom silica cell walls is a protein-guided process, yet to date only very few such silica biomineralization proteins have been identified. Therefore, it is currently unknown whether all diatoms share conserved proteins of a basal silica forming machinery, and whether unique proteins are responsible for the morphogenesis of species-specific silica patterns. To answer these questions, we extracted proteins from the silica of three diatom species (Thalassiosira pseudonana, Thalassiosira oceanica, and Cyclotella cryptica) by complete demineralization of the cell walls. Liquid chromatography coupled with tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) analysis of the extracts identified 92 proteins that we name 'soluble silicome proteins' (SSPs). Surprisingly, no SSPs are common to all three species, and most SSPs showed very low similarity to one another in sequence alignments. In-depth bioinformatics analyses revealed that SSPs could be grouped into distinct classes based on short unconventional sequence motifs whose functions are yet unknown. The results from the in vivo localization of selected SSPs indicates that proteins, which lack sequence homology but share unconventional sequence motifs may exert similar functions in the morphogenesis of the diatom silica cell wall.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alastair W Skeffington
- Max-Planck-Institute of Molecular Plant Physiology, 14476, Potsdam, Germany
- B CUBE Center for Molecular Bioengineering, TU Dresden, 01307, Dresden, Germany
| | - Marc Gentzel
- Center for Cellular and Molecular Bioengineering, TU Dresden, 01307, Dresden, Germany
| | - Andre Ohara
- B CUBE Center for Molecular Bioengineering, TU Dresden, 01307, Dresden, Germany
| | - Alexander Milentyev
- Max-Planck-Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics, 01307, Dresden, Germany
| | - Christoph Heintze
- B CUBE Center for Molecular Bioengineering, TU Dresden, 01307, Dresden, Germany
| | - Lorenz Böttcher
- B CUBE Center for Molecular Bioengineering, TU Dresden, 01307, Dresden, Germany
| | - Stefan Görlich
- B CUBE Center for Molecular Bioengineering, TU Dresden, 01307, Dresden, Germany
| | - Andrej Shevchenko
- Max-Planck-Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics, 01307, Dresden, Germany
| | - Nicole Poulsen
- B CUBE Center for Molecular Bioengineering, TU Dresden, 01307, Dresden, Germany
| | - Nils Kröger
- B CUBE Center for Molecular Bioengineering, TU Dresden, 01307, Dresden, Germany
- Cluster of Excellence Physics of Life, TU Dresden, 01062, Dresden, Germany
- Faculty of Chemistry and Food Chemistry, TU Dresden, 01062, Dresden, Germany
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Berger TM, Michaelis C, Probst I, Sagmeister T, Petrowitsch L, Puchner S, Pavkov-Keller T, Gesslbauer B, Grohmann E, Keller W. Small Things Matter: The 11.6-kDa TraB Protein is Crucial for Antibiotic Resistance Transfer Among Enterococci. Front Mol Biosci 2022; 9:867136. [PMID: 35547396 PMCID: PMC9083827 DOI: 10.3389/fmolb.2022.867136] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/31/2022] [Accepted: 03/14/2022] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
Conjugative transfer is the most important means for spreading antibiotic resistance genes. It is used by Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria, and archaea as well. Conjugative transfer is mediated by molecular membrane-spanning nanomachines, so called Type 4 Secretion Systems (T4SS). The T4SS of the broad-host-range inc18-plasmid pIP501 is organized in a single operon encoding 15 putative transfer proteins. pIP501 was originally isolated from a clinical Streptococcus agalactiae strain but is mainly found in Enterococci. In this study, we demonstrate that the small transmembrane protein TraB is essential for pIP501 transfer. Complementation of a markerless pIP501∆traB knockout by traB lacking its secretion signal sequence did not fully restore conjugative transfer. Pull-downs with Strep-tagged TraB demonstrated interactions of TraB with the putative mating pair formation proteins, TraF, TraH, TraK, TraM, and with the lytic transglycosylase TraG. As TraB is the only putative mating pair formation complex protein containing a secretion signal sequence, we speculate on its role as T4SS recruitment factor. Moreover, structural features of TraB and TraB orthologs are presented, making an essential role of TraB-like proteins in antibiotic resistance transfer among Firmicutes likely.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tamara M.I. Berger
- Institute of Molecular Biosciences, Department of Structural Biology, University of Graz, Graz, Austria
| | - Claudia Michaelis
- Faculty of Life Sciences and Technology, Department of Microbiology, Berliner Hochschule für Technik, Berlin, Germany
| | - Ines Probst
- Division of Infectious Diseases, University Medical Center Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany
| | - Theo Sagmeister
- Institute of Molecular Biosciences, Department of Structural Biology, University of Graz, Graz, Austria
| | - Lukas Petrowitsch
- Institute of Molecular Biosciences, Department of Structural Biology, University of Graz, Graz, Austria
| | - Sandra Puchner
- Faculty of Life Sciences and Technology, Department of Microbiology, Berliner Hochschule für Technik, Berlin, Germany
| | - Tea Pavkov-Keller
- Institute of Molecular Biosciences, Department of Structural Biology, University of Graz, Graz, Austria
- Field of Excellence BioHealth, University of Graz, Graz, Austria
- BioTechMed-Graz, Graz, Austria
| | - Bernd Gesslbauer
- Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Division of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, University of Graz, Graz, Austria
| | - Elisabeth Grohmann
- Faculty of Life Sciences and Technology, Department of Microbiology, Berliner Hochschule für Technik, Berlin, Germany
| | - Walter Keller
- Institute of Molecular Biosciences, Department of Structural Biology, University of Graz, Graz, Austria
- Field of Excellence BioHealth, University of Graz, Graz, Austria
- BioTechMed-Graz, Graz, Austria
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A Vaccine Construction against COVID-19-Associated Mucormycosis Contrived with Immunoinformatics-Based Scavenging of Potential Mucoralean Epitopes. Vaccines (Basel) 2022; 10:vaccines10050664. [PMID: 35632420 PMCID: PMC9147184 DOI: 10.3390/vaccines10050664] [Citation(s) in RCA: 24] [Impact Index Per Article: 12.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/24/2022] [Revised: 04/16/2022] [Accepted: 04/19/2022] [Indexed: 01/09/2023] Open
Abstract
Mucormycosis is a group of infections, caused by multiple fungal species, which affect many human organs and is lethal in immunocompromised patients. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the current wave of mucormycosis is a challenge to medical professionals as its effects are multiplied because of the severity of COVID-19 infection. The variant of concern, Omicron, has been linked to fatal mucormycosis infections in the US and Asia. Consequently, current postdiagnostic treatments of mucormycosis have been rendered unsatisfactory. In this hour of need, a preinfection cure is needed that may prevent lethal infections in immunocompromised individuals. This study proposes a potential vaccine construct targeting mucor and rhizopus species responsible for mucormycosis infections, providing immunoprotection to immunocompromised patients. The vaccine construct, with an antigenicity score of 0.75 covering, on average, 92-98% of the world population, was designed using an immunoinformatics approach. Molecular interactions with major histocompatibility complex-1 (MHC-I), Toll-like receptors-2 (TLR2), and glucose-regulated protein 78 (GRP78), with scores of -896.0, -948.4, and -925.0, respectively, demonstrated its potential to bind with the human immune receptors. It elicited a strong predicted innate and adaptive immune response in the form of helper T (Th) cells, cytotoxic T (TC) cells, B cells, natural killer (NK) cells, and macrophages. The vaccine cloned in the pBR322 vector showed positive amplification, further solidifying its stability and potential. The proposed construct holds a promising approach as the first step towards an antimucormycosis vaccine and may contribute to minimizing postdiagnostic burdens and failures.
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Wang L, Zhong H, Xue Z, Wang Y. Improving the topology prediction of α-helical transmembrane proteins with deep transfer learning. Comput Struct Biotechnol J 2022; 20:1993-2000. [PMID: 35521551 PMCID: PMC9062415 DOI: 10.1016/j.csbj.2022.04.024] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/16/2021] [Revised: 04/09/2022] [Accepted: 04/17/2022] [Indexed: 11/11/2022] Open
Abstract
Transmembrane proteins (TMPs) are essential for cell recognition and communication, and they serve as important drug targets in humans. Transmembrane proteins' 3D structures are critical for determining their functions and drug design but are hard to determine even by experimental methods. Although some computational methods have been developed to predict transmembrane helices (TMHs) and orientation, there is still room for improvement. Considering that the pre-trained language model can make full use of massive unlabeled protein sequences to obtain latent feature representation for TMPs and reduce the dependence on evolutionary information, we proposed DeepTMpred, which used pre-trained self-supervised language models called ESM, convolutional neural networks, attentive neural network and conditional random fields for alpha-TMP topology prediction. Compared with the current state-of-the-art tools on a non-redundant dataset of TMPs, DeepTMpred demonstrated superior predictive performance in most evaluation metrics, especially at the TMH level. Furthermore, DeepTMpred could also obtain reliable prediction results for TMPs without much evolutionary feature in a few seconds. A tutorial on how to use DeepTMpred can be found in the colab notebook (https://colab.research.google.com/github/ISYSLAB-HUST/DeepTMpred/blob/master/notebook/test.ipynb).
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36
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Characterization and Distribution of Kisspeptins, Kisspeptin Receptors, GnIH, and GnRH1 in the Brain of the Protogynous Bluehead Wrasse (Thalassoma bifasciatum). J Chem Neuroanat 2022; 121:102087. [DOI: 10.1016/j.jchemneu.2022.102087] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/06/2021] [Revised: 02/14/2022] [Accepted: 03/08/2022] [Indexed: 11/18/2022]
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Das P, Xu WK, Gautam AKS, Lozano MM, Dudley JP. A Retrotranslocation Assay That Predicts Defective VCP/p97-Mediated Trafficking of a Retroviral Signal Peptide. mBio 2022; 13:e0295321. [PMID: 35089078 PMCID: PMC8725593 DOI: 10.1128/mbio.02953-21] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/05/2021] [Accepted: 11/18/2021] [Indexed: 12/12/2022] Open
Abstract
Studies of viral replication have provided critical insights into host processes, including protein trafficking and turnover. Mouse mammary tumor virus (MMTV) is a betaretrovirus that encodes a functional 98-amino-acid signal peptide (SP). MMTV SP is generated from both Rem and envelope precursor proteins by signal peptidase cleavage in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) membrane. We previously showed that SP functions as a human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) Rev-like protein that is dependent on the AAA ATPase valosin-containing protein (VCP)/p97 to subvert ER-associated degradation (ERAD). SP contains a nuclear localization sequence (NLS)/nucleolar localization sequence (NoLS) within the N-terminal 45 amino acids. To directly determine the SP regions needed for membrane extraction and trafficking, we developed a quantitative retrotranslocation assay with biotin acceptor peptide (BAP)-tagged SP proteins. Use of alanine substitution mutants of BAP-tagged MMTV SP in retrotranslocation assays revealed that mutation of amino acids 57 and 58 (M57-58) interfered with ER membrane extraction, whereas adjacent mutations did not. The M57-58 mutant also showed reduced interaction with VCP/p97 in coimmunoprecipitation experiments. Using transfection and reporter assays to measure activity of BAP-tagged proteins, both M57-58 and an adjacent mutant (M59-61) were functionally defective compared to wild-type SP. Confocal microscopy revealed defects in SP nuclear trafficking and abnormal localization of both M57-58 and M59-61. Furthermore, purified glutathione S-transferase (GST)-tagged M57-58 and M59-61 demonstrated reduced ability to oligomerize compared to tagged wild-type SP. These experiments suggest that SP amino acids 57 and 58 are critical for VCP/p97 interaction and retrotranslocation, whereas residues 57 to 61 are critical for oligomerization and nuclear trafficking independent of the NLS/NoLS. Our results emphasize the complex host interactions with long signal peptides. IMPORTANCE Endoplasmic reticulum-associated degradation (ERAD) is a form of cellular protein quality control that is manipulated by viruses, including the betaretrovirus, mouse mammary tumor virus (MMTV). MMTV-encoded signal peptide (SP) has been shown to interact with an essential ERAD factor, VCP/p97 ATPase, to mediate its extraction from the ER membrane, also known as retrotranslocation, for RNA binding and nuclear function. In this paper, we developed a quantitative retrotranslocation assay that identified an SP substitution mutant, which is defective for VCP interaction as well as nuclear trafficking, oligomer formation, and function. An adjacent SP mutant was competent for retrotranslocation and VCP interaction but shared the other defects. Our results revealed the requirement for VCP during SP trafficking and the complex cellular pathways used by long signal peptides.
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Affiliation(s)
- Poulami Das
- Department of Molecular Biosciences, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas, USA
- LaMontagne Center for Infectious Disease, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas, USA
| | - Wendy Kaichun Xu
- Department of Molecular Biosciences, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas, USA
- LaMontagne Center for Infectious Disease, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas, USA
| | - Amit Kumar Singh Gautam
- Department of Molecular Biosciences, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas, USA
- LaMontagne Center for Infectious Disease, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas, USA
| | - Mary M. Lozano
- Department of Molecular Biosciences, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas, USA
- LaMontagne Center for Infectious Disease, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas, USA
| | - Jaquelin P. Dudley
- Department of Molecular Biosciences, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas, USA
- LaMontagne Center for Infectious Disease, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas, USA
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38
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Liu S, Li S, Krezel AM, Li W. Stabilization and structure determination of integral membrane proteins by termini restraining. Nat Protoc 2022; 17:540-565. [PMID: 35039670 DOI: 10.1038/s41596-021-00656-5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/14/2021] [Accepted: 11/05/2021] [Indexed: 12/28/2022]
Abstract
Integral membrane proteins isolated from cellular environment often lose activity and native conformation required for functional analyses and structural studies. Even in their native state, they lack sufficient surfaces to form crystal contacts. Furthermore, most of them are too small for cryogenic electron microscopy detection and too big for solution NMR. To overcome these difficulties, we recently developed a strategy to stabilize the folded state of membrane proteins by restraining their two termini with a self-assembling protein coupler. The termini-restrained membrane proteins from distinct functional families retain their activities and show increased stability and yield. This strategy enables their structure determination at near-atomic resolution by facilitating the entire pipeline from crystallization, crystal identification, diffraction enhancement and phase determination, to electron density improvement. Furthermore, stabilization of membrane proteins enables their biochemical and biophysical characterization. Here we present the protocol of membrane protein engineering (2 weeks), quality assessment (1-2 weeks), protein production (1-6 weeks), crystallization (1-2 weeks), diffraction improvement (1-3 months) and crystallographic data analysis (1 week). This protocol is intended not only for structural biologists, but also for biochemists, biophysicists and pharmaceutical scientists whose research focuses on membrane proteins.
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Affiliation(s)
- Shixuan Liu
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO, USA
| | - Shuang Li
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO, USA
| | - Andrzej M Krezel
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO, USA
| | - Weikai Li
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO, USA.
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39
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Kumar P, Bhardwaj T, Garg N, Giri R. Microsecond simulations and CD spectroscopy reveals the intrinsically disordered nature of SARS-CoV-2 spike-C-terminal cytoplasmic tail (residues 1242-1273) in isolation. Virology 2022; 566:42-55. [PMID: 34864296 PMCID: PMC8626822 DOI: 10.1016/j.virol.2021.11.005] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/12/2021] [Revised: 11/01/2021] [Accepted: 11/17/2021] [Indexed: 01/04/2023]
Abstract
All available SARS-CoV-2 spike protein crystal and cryo-EM structures have shown missing electron densities for cytosolic C-terminal regions (CTR). Generally, the missing electron densities point towards the intrinsically disordered nature of the protein region (IDPR). This curiosity has led us to investigate the cytosolic CTR of the spike glycoprotein of SARS-CoV-2 in isolation. The spike CTR is supposed to be from 1235 to 1273 residues or 1242-1273 residues based on our used prediction. Therefore, we have demonstrated the structural conformation of cytosolic region and its dynamics through computer simulations up to microsecond timescale using OPLS and CHARMM forcefields. The simulations have revealed the unstructured conformation of cytosolic region. Further, we have validated our computational observations with circular dichroism (CD) spectroscopy-based experiments and found its signature spectra at 198 nm. We believe that our findings will surely help in understanding the structure-function relationship of the spike protein's cytosolic region.
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Affiliation(s)
- Prateek Kumar
- School of Basic Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology Mandi, VPO Kamand, Himachal Pradesh, 175005, India
| | - Taniya Bhardwaj
- School of Basic Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology Mandi, VPO Kamand, Himachal Pradesh, 175005, India
| | - Neha Garg
- Department of Medicinal Chemistry, Faculty of Ayurveda, Institute of Medical Sciences, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, 221005, India
| | - Rajanish Giri
- School of Basic Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology Mandi, VPO Kamand, Himachal Pradesh, 175005, India,Corresponding author
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Greener JG, Kandathil SM, Moffat L, Jones DT. A guide to machine learning for biologists. Nat Rev Mol Cell Biol 2022; 23:40-55. [PMID: 34518686 DOI: 10.1038/s41580-021-00407-0] [Citation(s) in RCA: 485] [Impact Index Per Article: 242.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 07/23/2021] [Indexed: 02/08/2023]
Abstract
The expanding scale and inherent complexity of biological data have encouraged a growing use of machine learning in biology to build informative and predictive models of the underlying biological processes. All machine learning techniques fit models to data; however, the specific methods are quite varied and can at first glance seem bewildering. In this Review, we aim to provide readers with a gentle introduction to a few key machine learning techniques, including the most recently developed and widely used techniques involving deep neural networks. We describe how different techniques may be suited to specific types of biological data, and also discuss some best practices and points to consider when one is embarking on experiments involving machine learning. Some emerging directions in machine learning methodology are also discussed.
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Affiliation(s)
- Joe G Greener
- Department of Computer Science, University College London, London, UK
| | - Shaun M Kandathil
- Department of Computer Science, University College London, London, UK
| | - Lewis Moffat
- Department of Computer Science, University College London, London, UK
| | - David T Jones
- Department of Computer Science, University College London, London, UK.
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Significant genes in response to low temperature in Penaeus chinensis screened from multiple groups of transcriptome comparison. J Therm Biol 2022; 107:103198. [DOI: 10.1016/j.jtherbio.2022.103198] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/03/2021] [Revised: 01/13/2022] [Accepted: 01/21/2022] [Indexed: 01/21/2023]
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Yang Y, Yu J, Liu Z, Wang X, Wang H, Ma Z, Xu D. An Improved Topology Prediction of Alpha-Helical Transmembrane Protein Based on Deep Multi-Scale Convolutional Neural Network. IEEE/ACM TRANSACTIONS ON COMPUTATIONAL BIOLOGY AND BIOINFORMATICS 2022; 19:295-304. [PMID: 32750879 DOI: 10.1109/tcbb.2020.3005813] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/11/2023]
Abstract
Alpha-helical proteins ( αTMPs) are essential in various biological processes. Despite their tertiary structures are crucial for revealing complex functions, experimental structure determination remains challenging and costly. In the past decades, various sequence-based topology prediction methods have been developed to bridge the gap between the sequences and structures by characterizing the structural features, but significant improvements are still required. Deep learning brings a great opportunity for its powerful representation learning capability from limited original data. In this work, we improved our αTMP topology prediction method DMCTOP using deep learning, which composed of two deep convolutional blocks to simultaneously extract local and global contextual features. Consequently, the inputs were simplified to reflect the original features of the sequence, including a protein sequence feature and an evolutionary conservation feature. DMCTOP can efficiently and accurately identify all topological types and the N-terminal orientation for an αTMP sequence. To validate the effectiveness of our method, we benchmarked DMCTOP against 13 peer methods according to the whole sequence, the transmembrane segment and the traditional criterion in testing experiments. All the results reveal that our method achieved the highest prediction accuracy and outperformed all the previous methods. The method is available at https://icdtools.nenu.edu.cn/dmctop.
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Duart G, Lamb J, Ortiz-Mateu J, Elofsson A, Mingarro I. Intra-helical salt bridge contribution to membrane protein insertion. J Mol Biol 2022; 434:167467. [DOI: 10.1016/j.jmb.2022.167467] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/06/2021] [Revised: 12/22/2021] [Accepted: 01/20/2022] [Indexed: 01/17/2023]
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In Silico Analysis of Dengue Virus Serotype 2 Mutations Detected at the Intrahost Level in Patients with Different Clinical Outcomes. Microbiol Spectr 2021; 9:e0025621. [PMID: 34468189 PMCID: PMC8557815 DOI: 10.1128/spectrum.00256-21] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/14/2022] Open
Abstract
Intrahost genetic diversity is thought to facilitate arbovirus adaptation to changing environments and hosts, and it may also be linked to viral pathogenesis. Intending to shed light on the viral determinants for severe dengue pathogenesis, we previously analyzed the DENV-2 intrahost genetic diversity in 68 patients clinically classified as dengue fever (n = 31), dengue with warning signs (n = 19), and severe dengue (n = 18), performing viral whole-genome deep sequencing from clinical samples with an amplicon-free approach. From it, we identified a set of 141 relevant mutations distributed throughout the viral genome that deserved further attention. Therefore, we employed molecular modeling to recreate three-dimensional models of the viral proteins and secondary RNA structures to map the mutations and assess their potential effects. Results showed that, in general lines, disruptive variants were identified primarily among dengue fever cases. In contrast, potential immune-escape variants were associated mainly with warning signs and severe cases, in line with the latter's longer intrahost evolution times. Furthermore, several mutations were located on protein-surface regions, with no associated function. They could represent sites of further investigation, as the interaction of viral and host proteins is critical for both host immunomodulation and virus hijacking of the cellular machinery. The present analysis provides new information about the implications of the intrahost genetic diversity of DENV-2, contributing to the knowledge about the viral factors possibly involved in its pathogenesis within the human host. Strengthening our results with functional studies could allow many of these variants to be considered in the design of therapeutic or prophylactic compounds and the improvement of diagnostic assays. IMPORTANCE Previous evidence showed that intrahost genetic diversity in arboviruses may be linked to viral pathogenesis and that one or a few amino acid replacements within a single protein are enough to modify a biological feature of an RNA virus. To assess dengue virus serotype 2 determinants potentially involved in pathogenesis, we previously analyzed the intrahost genetic diversity of the virus in patients with different clinical outcomes and identified a set of 141 mutations that deserved further study. Thus, through a molecular modeling approach, we showed that disruptive variants were identified primarily among cases with mild dengue fever, while potential immune-escape variants were mainly associated with cases of greater severity. We believe that some of the variants pointed out in this study were attractive enough to be potentially considered in future intelligent designs of therapeutic or prophylactic compounds or the improvement of diagnostic tools. The present analysis provides new information about DENV-2 viral factors possibly involved in its pathogenesis within the human host.
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Kumar A, Kumar P, Saumya KU, Giri R. Investigating the conformational dynamics of SARS-CoV-2 NSP6 protein with emphasis on non-transmembrane 91-112 & 231-290 regions. Microb Pathog 2021; 161:105236. [PMID: 34648928 PMCID: PMC8505028 DOI: 10.1016/j.micpath.2021.105236] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/07/2021] [Revised: 10/05/2021] [Accepted: 10/06/2021] [Indexed: 12/05/2022]
Abstract
The NSP6 protein of SARS-CoV-2 is a transmembrane protein, with some regions lying outside the membrane. Besides a brief role of NSP6 in autophagosome formation, this is not studied significantly. Also, there is no structural information available to date. Based on the prediction by TMHMM server for transmembrane prediction, it is found that the N-terminal residues (1-11), middle region residues (91–112), and C-terminal residues (231–290) lies outside the membrane. Molecular Dynamics (MD) simulations showed that NSP6 consists of helical structures. In contrast, the membrane outside lying region (91–112) showed partial helicity, which was further used as a model and obtained disordered type conformation during 1.5 μs. Additionally, a 200ns simulation study of residues 231–290 have shown significant conformational changes. As compared to helical and beta-sheet conformations in its structure model, the 200ns simulation resulted in the loss of beta-sheet structures while helical regions remained intact. Further, we have experimentally characterized the residue 91–112 by using reductionist approaches. CD spectroscopy suggests that the NSP6 (91–112) is disordered-like region in isolation, which gains helical conformation in different biological mimic environmental conditions. These studies can be helpful to study NSP6 (91–112) interactions with host proteins, where different protein conformations might play a significant role. The present study adds up more information about the NSP6 protein aspect, which could be exploited for its host protein interaction and pathogenesis.
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Affiliation(s)
- Amit Kumar
- School of Basic Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology Mandi, VPO Kamand, Himachal Pradesh, 175005, India
| | - Prateek Kumar
- School of Basic Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology Mandi, VPO Kamand, Himachal Pradesh, 175005, India
| | - Kumar Udit Saumya
- School of Basic Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology Mandi, VPO Kamand, Himachal Pradesh, 175005, India
| | - Rajanish Giri
- School of Basic Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology Mandi, VPO Kamand, Himachal Pradesh, 175005, India.
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Dubey S, Majumder P, Penmatsa A, Sardesai AA. Topological analyses of the L-lysine exporter LysO reveal a critical role for a conserved pair of intramembrane solvent-exposed acidic residues. J Biol Chem 2021; 297:101168. [PMID: 34487760 PMCID: PMC8498466 DOI: 10.1016/j.jbc.2021.101168] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/07/2021] [Revised: 08/30/2021] [Accepted: 09/02/2021] [Indexed: 11/16/2022] Open
Abstract
LysO, a prototypical member of the LysO family, mediates export of L-lysine (Lys) and resistance to the toxic Lys antimetabolite, L-thialysine (Thl) in Escherichia coli. Here, we have addressed unknown aspects of LysO function pertaining to its membrane topology and the mechanism by which it mediates Lys/Thl export. Using substituted cysteine (Cys) accessibility, here we delineated the membrane topology of LysO. Our studies support a model in which both the N- and C-termini of LysO are present at the periplasmic face of the membrane with a transmembrane (TM) domain comprising eight TM segments (TMSs) between them. In addition, a feature of intramembrane solvent exposure in LysO is inferred with the identification of membrane-located solvent-exposed Cys residues. Isosteric substitutions of a pair of conserved acidic residues, one E233, located in the solvent-exposed TMS7 and the other D261, in a solvent-exposed intramembrane segment located between TMS7 and TMS8, abolished LysO function in vivo. Thl, but not Lys, elicited proton release in inside-out membrane vesicles, a process requiring the presence of both E233 and D261. We postulate that Thl may be exported in antiport with H+ and that Lys may be a low-affinity export substrate. Our findings are compatible with a physiological scenario wherein in vivo LysO exports the naturally occurring antimetabolite Thl with higher affinity over the essential cellular metabolite Lys, thus affording protection from Thl toxicity and limiting wasteful export of Lys.
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Affiliation(s)
- Swati Dubey
- Laboratory of Bacterial Genetics, Centre for DNA Fingerprinting and Diagnostics, Hyderabad, India; Graduate Studies, Manipal Academy of Higher Education, Manipal, India
| | - Puja Majumder
- Molecular Biophysics Unit, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India
| | - Aravind Penmatsa
- Molecular Biophysics Unit, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India
| | - Abhijit A Sardesai
- Laboratory of Bacterial Genetics, Centre for DNA Fingerprinting and Diagnostics, Hyderabad, India.
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Zhao P, Zheng X, Yu Y, Hou Z, Diao C, Wang H, Kang H, Ning C, Li J, Feng W, Wang W, Liu GE, Li B, Smith J, Chamba Y, Liu JF. Mining Unknown Porcine Protein Isoforms by Tissue-based Map of Proteome Enhances Pig Genome Annotation. GENOMICS, PROTEOMICS & BIOINFORMATICS 2021; 19:772-786. [PMID: 33631433 PMCID: PMC9170766 DOI: 10.1016/j.gpb.2021.02.002] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/14/2018] [Revised: 09/05/2019] [Accepted: 11/29/2019] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
Abstract
A lack of the complete pig proteome has left a gap in our knowledge of the pig genome and has restricted the feasibility of using pigs as a biomedical model. In this study, we developed a tissue-based proteome map using 34 major normal pig tissues. A total of 5841 unknown protein isoforms were identified and systematically characterized, including 2225 novel protein isoforms, 669 protein isoforms from 460 genes symbolized beginning with LOC, and 2947 protein isoforms without clear NCBI annotation in the current pig reference genome. These newly identified protein isoforms were functionally annotated through profiling the pig transcriptome with high-throughput RNA sequencing of the same pig tissues, further improving the genome annotation of the corresponding protein-coding genes. Combining the well-annotated genes that have parallel expression pattern and subcellular witness, we predicted the tissue-related subcellularlocations and potential functions for these unknown proteins. Finally, we mined 3081 orthologous genes for 52.7% of unknown protein isoforms across multiple species, referring to 68 KEGG pathways as well as 23 disease signaling pathways. These findings provide valuable insights and a rich resource for enhancing studies of pig genomics and biology, as well as biomedical model application to human medicine.
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Affiliation(s)
- Pengju Zhao
- National Engineering Laboratory for Animal Breeding, Key Laboratory of Animal Genetics, Breeding and Reproduction, Ministry of Agriculture, College of Animal Science and Technology, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100193, China
| | - Xianrui Zheng
- National Engineering Laboratory for Animal Breeding, Key Laboratory of Animal Genetics, Breeding and Reproduction, Ministry of Agriculture, College of Animal Science and Technology, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100193, China
| | - Ying Yu
- National Engineering Laboratory for Animal Breeding, Key Laboratory of Animal Genetics, Breeding and Reproduction, Ministry of Agriculture, College of Animal Science and Technology, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100193, China
| | - Zhuocheng Hou
- National Engineering Laboratory for Animal Breeding, Key Laboratory of Animal Genetics, Breeding and Reproduction, Ministry of Agriculture, College of Animal Science and Technology, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100193, China
| | - Chenguang Diao
- National Engineering Laboratory for Animal Breeding, Key Laboratory of Animal Genetics, Breeding and Reproduction, Ministry of Agriculture, College of Animal Science and Technology, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100193, China
| | - Haifei Wang
- National Engineering Laboratory for Animal Breeding, Key Laboratory of Animal Genetics, Breeding and Reproduction, Ministry of Agriculture, College of Animal Science and Technology, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100193, China
| | - Huimin Kang
- National Engineering Laboratory for Animal Breeding, Key Laboratory of Animal Genetics, Breeding and Reproduction, Ministry of Agriculture, College of Animal Science and Technology, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100193, China
| | - Chao Ning
- National Engineering Laboratory for Animal Breeding, Key Laboratory of Animal Genetics, Breeding and Reproduction, Ministry of Agriculture, College of Animal Science and Technology, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100193, China
| | - Junhui Li
- National Engineering Laboratory for Animal Breeding, Key Laboratory of Animal Genetics, Breeding and Reproduction, Ministry of Agriculture, College of Animal Science and Technology, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100193, China
| | - Wen Feng
- National Engineering Laboratory for Animal Breeding, Key Laboratory of Animal Genetics, Breeding and Reproduction, Ministry of Agriculture, College of Animal Science and Technology, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100193, China
| | - Wen Wang
- Center for Ecological and Environmental Sciences, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi'an 710072, China
| | - George E Liu
- Animal Genomics and Improvement Laboratory, Beltsville Agricultural Research Center, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Beltsville, MD 20705, USA
| | - Bugao Li
- Department of Animal Sciences and Veterinary Medicine, Shanxi Agricultural University, Taigu 030801, China
| | - Jacqueline Smith
- The Roslin Institute and Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies, University of Edinburgh, Easter Bush, Midlothian EH25 9RG, UK
| | - Yangzom Chamba
- Tibet Agriculture and Animal Husbandry College, Linzhi 860000, China
| | - Jian-Feng Liu
- National Engineering Laboratory for Animal Breeding, Key Laboratory of Animal Genetics, Breeding and Reproduction, Ministry of Agriculture, College of Animal Science and Technology, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100193, China.
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Szymczak-Cendlak M, Gołębiowski M, Chowański S, Pacholska-Bogalska J, Marciniak P, Rosiński G, Słocińska M. Sulfakinins influence lipid composition and insulin-like peptides level in oenocytes of Zophobas atratus beetles. J Comp Physiol B 2021; 192:15-25. [PMID: 34415387 PMCID: PMC8816747 DOI: 10.1007/s00360-021-01398-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/26/2021] [Revised: 07/28/2021] [Accepted: 08/07/2021] [Indexed: 12/05/2022]
Abstract
Insect sulfakinins are pleiotropic neuropeptides with the homology to vertebrate gastrin/cholecystokinin peptide family. They have been identified in many insect species and affect different metabolic processes. They have a strong influence on feeding and digestion as well as on carbohydrate and lipid processing. Our study reveals that sulfakinins influence fatty acids composition in Zophobas atratus oenocytes and regulate insulin-like peptides (ILPs) level in these cells. Oenocytes are cells responsible for maintenance of the body homeostasis and have an important role in the regulation of intermediary metabolism, especially of lipids. To analyze the lipid composition in oenocytes after sulfakinins injections we used gas chromatography combined with mass spectrometry and for ILPs level determination an immunoenzymatic test was used. Because sulfakinin peptides and their receptors are the main components of sulfakinin signaling, we also analyzed the presence of sulfakinin receptor transcript (SKR2) in insect tissues. We have identified for the first time the sulfakinin receptor transcript (SKR2) in insect oenocytes and found its distribution more widespread in the peripheral tissues (gut, fat body and haemolymph) as well as in the nervous and neuro-endocrine systems (brain, ventral nerve cord, corpora cardiaca/corpora allata CC/CA) of Z. atratus larvae. The presence of sulfakinin receptor transcript (SKR2) in oenocytes suggests that observed effects on oenocytes lipid and ILPs content may result from direction action of these peptides on oenocytes.
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Affiliation(s)
- M Szymczak-Cendlak
- Department of Animal Physiology and Developmental Biology, Faculty of Biology, Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, ul. Uniwersytetu Poznańskiego 6, 61-614, Poznań, Poland.
| | - M Gołębiowski
- Laboratory of Analysis of Natural Compounds, Department of Environmental Analysis, Faculty of Chemistry, University of Gdańsk, ul. Wita Stwosza 63, 80-308, Gdańsk, Poland
| | - S Chowański
- Department of Animal Physiology and Developmental Biology, Faculty of Biology, Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, ul. Uniwersytetu Poznańskiego 6, 61-614, Poznań, Poland.
| | - J Pacholska-Bogalska
- Department of Animal Physiology and Developmental Biology, Faculty of Biology, Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, ul. Uniwersytetu Poznańskiego 6, 61-614, Poznań, Poland
| | - P Marciniak
- Department of Animal Physiology and Developmental Biology, Faculty of Biology, Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, ul. Uniwersytetu Poznańskiego 6, 61-614, Poznań, Poland
| | - G Rosiński
- Department of Animal Physiology and Developmental Biology, Faculty of Biology, Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, ul. Uniwersytetu Poznańskiego 6, 61-614, Poznań, Poland
| | - M Słocińska
- Department of Animal Physiology and Developmental Biology, Faculty of Biology, Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, ul. Uniwersytetu Poznańskiego 6, 61-614, Poznań, Poland
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Abstract
Secreted proteins play important roles in several biological processes such as growth, proliferation differentiation, cell-cell communication, migration, and apoptosis; moreover, these extracellular molecules mediate homeostasis by influencing the cross-talking within the surrounding tissues. Currently, the research area of cell secretome has become of great interest since the profiling of secreted proteins could be essential for the biomarker discovery and for the identification of new therapeutic strategies. Several bioinformatic platforms have been implemented for the in silico characterization of secreted proteins: this chapter describes a typical workflow for the analysis of proteins secreted by cultured cells through bioinformatic approaches. Central issue is related to discrimination between proteins secreted by classical and non-classical pathways. Therefore, specific prediction tools for the classification of candidate secreted proteins are here presented.
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50
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Urbański A, Konopińska N, Lubawy J, Walkowiak-Nowicka K, Marciniak P, Rolff J. A possible role of tachykinin-related peptide on an immune system activity of mealworm beetle, Tenebrio molitor L. DEVELOPMENTAL AND COMPARATIVE IMMUNOLOGY 2021; 120:104065. [PMID: 33705792 DOI: 10.1016/j.dci.2021.104065] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/06/2021] [Revised: 02/19/2021] [Accepted: 03/02/2021] [Indexed: 06/12/2023]
Abstract
Tachykinin-related peptides (TRPs) are important neuropeptides. Here we show that they affect the insect immune system, especially the cellular response. We also identify and predict the sequence and structure of the tachykinin-related peptide receptor (TRPR) and confirm the presence of expression of gene encoding TRPR on Tenebrio molitor haemocytes. After application of the Tenmo-TRP-7 in T. molitor the number of circulating haemocytes increased and the number of haemocytes participating in phagocytosis of latex beads decreased in a dose- and time-dependent fashion. Also, Tenmo-TRP-7 affects the adhesion ability of haemocytes. Six hours after injection of Tenmo-TRP-7, a decrease of haemocyte surface area was observed under both tested Tenmo-TRP-7 concentrations (10-7 and 10-5 M). The opposite effect was reported 24 h after injection, which indicates that the influence of Tenmo-TRP-7 on modulation of haemocyte behaviour differs at different stages of stress response. Tenmo-TRP-7 application also resulted in increased phenoloxidase activity 6 and 24 h after injection. The assessment of DNA integrity of haemocytes showed that the injection of Tenmo-TRP-7 at 10-7 M led to a decrease in DNA damage compared to control individuals. This effect was only visible 6 h after Tenmo-TRP-7 application. After 24 h, Tenmo-TRP-7 injection increased DNA damage. We also confirmed the expression of immune-related genes in nervous tissue of T. molitor. Transcripts for genes encoding receptors participating in pathogen recognition processes and antimicrobial peptides were detected in T. molitor brain, retrocerebral complex and ventral nerve cord. These results may indicate a role of the insect nervous system in pathogen recognition and modulation of immune response similar to vertebrates. Taken together, our results support the notion that tachykinin-related peptides probably play an important role in the regulation of the insect immune system. Moreover, some resemblances with action of tachykinin-related peptides and substance P showed that insects can be potential model organisms for analysis of hormonal regulation of conserved innate immune mechanisms.
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Affiliation(s)
- A Urbański
- Department of Animal Physiology and Developmental Biology, Adam Mickiewicz University, Uniwersytetu Poznańskiego Str. 6, 61-614, Poznań, Poland; HiProMine S.A, Poznańska Str. 8, 62-023, Robakowo, Poland.
| | - N Konopińska
- Department of Animal Physiology and Developmental Biology, Adam Mickiewicz University, Uniwersytetu Poznańskiego Str. 6, 61-614, Poznań, Poland
| | - J Lubawy
- Department of Animal Physiology and Developmental Biology, Adam Mickiewicz University, Uniwersytetu Poznańskiego Str. 6, 61-614, Poznań, Poland
| | - K Walkowiak-Nowicka
- Department of Animal Physiology and Developmental Biology, Adam Mickiewicz University, Uniwersytetu Poznańskiego Str. 6, 61-614, Poznań, Poland
| | - P Marciniak
- Department of Animal Physiology and Developmental Biology, Adam Mickiewicz University, Uniwersytetu Poznańskiego Str. 6, 61-614, Poznań, Poland
| | - J Rolff
- Evolutionary Biology, Institute for Biology, Freie Universität Berlin, Königin-Luise-Str. 1-3, 14195, Berlin, Germany; Berlin-Brandenburg Institute of Advanced Biodiversity Research (BBIB), Königin-Luise-Str. 2-4, 14195, Berlin, Germany
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