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Kamel MS, Munds RA, Verma MS. The Quest for Immunity: Exploring Human Herpesviruses as Vaccine Vectors. Int J Mol Sci 2023; 24:16112. [PMID: 38003300 PMCID: PMC10671728 DOI: 10.3390/ijms242216112] [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: 10/05/2023] [Revised: 10/31/2023] [Accepted: 11/05/2023] [Indexed: 11/26/2023] Open
Abstract
Herpesviruses are large DNA viruses that have long been used as powerful gene therapy tools. In recent years, the ability of herpesviruses to stimulate both innate and adaptive immune responses has led to their transition to various applications as vaccine vectors. This vaccinology branch is growing at an unprecedented and accelerated rate. To date, human herpesvirus-based vectors have been used in vaccines to combat a variety of infectious agents, including the Ebola virus, foot and mouth disease virus, and human immunodeficiency viruses. Additionally, these vectors are being tested as potential vaccines for cancer-associated antigens. Thanks to advances in recombinant DNA technology, immunology, and genomics, numerous steps in vaccine development have been greatly improved. A better understanding of herpesvirus biology and the interactions between these viruses and the host cells will undoubtedly foster the use of herpesvirus-based vaccine vectors in clinical settings. To overcome the existing drawbacks of these vectors, ongoing research is needed to further advance our knowledge of herpesvirus biology and to develop safer and more effective vaccine vectors. Advanced molecular virology and cell biology techniques must be used to better understand the mechanisms by which herpesviruses manipulate host cells and how viral gene expression is regulated during infection. In this review, we cover the underlying molecular structure of herpesviruses and the strategies used to engineer their genomes to optimize capacity and efficacy as vaccine vectors. Also, we assess the available data on the successful application of herpesvirus-based vaccines for combating diseases such as viral infections and the potential drawbacks and alternative approaches to surmount them.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mohamed S. Kamel
- Department of Agricultural and Biological Engineering, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907, USA
- Department of Medicine and Infectious Diseases, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Cairo University, Giza 11221, Egypt
| | - Rachel A. Munds
- Department of Agricultural and Biological Engineering, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907, USA
- Krishi Inc., West Lafayette, IN 47906, USA
| | - Mohit S. Verma
- Department of Agricultural and Biological Engineering, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907, USA
- Krishi Inc., West Lafayette, IN 47906, USA
- Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907, USA
- Birck Nanotechnology Center, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907, USA
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Smith SA, Walker-Hale N, Parins-Fukuchi CT. Compositional shifts associated with major evolutionary transitions in plants. THE NEW PHYTOLOGIST 2023; 239:2404-2415. [PMID: 37381083 DOI: 10.1111/nph.19099] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/10/2023] [Accepted: 06/04/2023] [Indexed: 06/30/2023]
Abstract
Heterogeneity in gene trees, morphological characters, and composition has been associated with several major plant clades. Here, we examine heterogeneity in composition across a large transcriptomic dataset of plants to better understand whether locations of shifts in composition are shared across gene regions and whether directions of shifts within clades are shared across gene regions. We estimate mixed models of composition for both nucleotide and amino acids across a recent large-scale transcriptomic dataset for plants. We find shifts in composition across both nucleotide and amino acid datasets, with more shifts detected in nucleotides. We find that Chlorophytes and lineages within experience the most shifts. However, many shifts occur at the origins of land, vascular, and seed plants. While genes in these clades do not typically share the same composition, they tend to shift in the same direction. We discuss potential causes of these patterns. Compositional heterogeneity has been highlighted as a potential problem for phylogenetic analysis, but the variation presented here highlights the need to further investigate these patterns for the signal of biological processes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Stephen A Smith
- Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, 48103, USA
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Belinky F, Bykova A, Yurchenko V, Rogozin IB. No evidence for widespread positive selection on double substitutions within codons in primates and yeasts. Front Genet 2022; 13:991249. [PMID: 36159983 PMCID: PMC9500374 DOI: 10.3389/fgene.2022.991249] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/11/2022] [Accepted: 08/29/2022] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Nucleotide substitutions in protein-coding genes can be divided into synonymous (S) and non-synonymous (N) ones that alter amino acids (including nonsense mutations causing stop codons). The S substitutions are expected to have little effect on function. The N substitutions almost always are affected by strong purifying selection that eliminates them from evolving populations. However, additional mutations of nearby bases can modulate the deleterious effect of single N substitutions and, thus, could be subjected to the positive selection. This effect has been demonstrated for mutations in the serine codons, stop codons and double N substitutions in prokaryotes. In all abovementioned cases, a novel technique was applied that allows elucidating the effects of selection on double substitutions considering mutational biases. Here, we applied the same technique to study double N substitutions in eukaryotic lineages of primates and yeast. We identified markedly fewer cases of purifying selection relative to prokaryotes and no evidence of codon double substitutions under positive selection. This is consistent with previous studies of serine codons in primates and yeast. In general, the obtained results strongly suggest that there are major differences between studied pro- and eukaryotes; double substitutions in primates and yeasts largely reflect mutational biases and are not hallmarks of selection. This is especially important in the context of detection of positive selection in codons because it has been suggested that multiple mutations in codons cause false inferences of lineage-specific site positive selection. It is likely that this concern is applicable to previously studied prokaryotes but not to primates and yeasts where markedly fewer double substitutions are affected by positive selection.
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Affiliation(s)
- Frida Belinky
- National Center for Biotechnology Information, National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, United States
| | - Anastassia Bykova
- Life Science Research Centre, Faculty of Science, University of Ostrava, Ostrava, Czech Republic
| | - Vyacheslav Yurchenko
- Life Science Research Centre, Faculty of Science, University of Ostrava, Ostrava, Czech Republic
- *Correspondence: Vyacheslav Yurchenko, ; Igor B. Rogozin,
| | - Igor B. Rogozin
- National Center for Biotechnology Information, National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, United States
- *Correspondence: Vyacheslav Yurchenko, ; Igor B. Rogozin,
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Nyayanit DA, Yadav PD, Kharde R, Cherian S. Natural Selection Plays an Important Role in Shaping the Codon Usage of Structural Genes of the Viruses Belonging to the Coronaviridae Family. Viruses 2020; 13:v13010003. [PMID: 33375017 PMCID: PMC7821998 DOI: 10.3390/v13010003] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/15/2020] [Revised: 11/10/2020] [Accepted: 11/11/2020] [Indexed: 02/06/2023] Open
Abstract
Viruses belonging to the Coronaviridae family have a single-stranded positive-sense RNA with a poly-A tail. The genome has a length of ~29.9 kbps, which encodes for genes that are essential for cell survival and replication. Different evolutionary constraints constantly influence the codon usage bias (CUB) of different genes. A virus optimizes its codon usage to fit the host environment on which it savors. This study is a comprehensive analysis of the CUB for the different genes encoded by viruses of the Coronaviridae family. Different methods including relative synonymous codon usage (RSCU), an Effective number of codons (ENc), parity plot 2, and Neutrality plot, were adopted to analyze the factors responsible for the genetic evolution of the Coronaviridae family. Base composition and RSCU analyses demonstrated the presence of A-ended and U-ended codons being preferred in the 3rd codon position and are suggestive of mutational selection. The lesser ENc value for the spike ‘S’ gene suggests a higher bias in the codon usage of this gene compared to the other structural genes. Parity plot 2 and neutrality plot analyses demonstrate the role and the extent of mutational and natural selection towards the codon usage pattern. It was observed that the structural genes of the Coronaviridae family analyzed in this study were at the least under 84% influence of natural selection, implying a major role of natural selection in shaping the codon usage.
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Affiliation(s)
- Dimpal A. Nyayanit
- Maximum Containment Facility, ICMR-National Institute of Virology, Sus Road, Pashan, Pune 411021, India; (D.A.N.); (P.D.Y.); (R.K.)
| | - Pragya D. Yadav
- Maximum Containment Facility, ICMR-National Institute of Virology, Sus Road, Pashan, Pune 411021, India; (D.A.N.); (P.D.Y.); (R.K.)
| | - Rutuja Kharde
- Maximum Containment Facility, ICMR-National Institute of Virology, Sus Road, Pashan, Pune 411021, India; (D.A.N.); (P.D.Y.); (R.K.)
| | - Sarah Cherian
- Bioinformatics Group, ICMR-National Institute of Virology, Pune 411001, India
- Correspondence: or ; Tel.: +91-20-260061213
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Bose D, Mukhopadhyay S. Comparative genomics of a few members of the family Aquificaceae on the basis of their codon usage profile. GENE REPORTS 2019. [DOI: 10.1016/j.genrep.2018.11.003] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/30/2023]
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Merino N, Zhang S, Tomita M, Suzuki H. Comparative genomics of Bacteria commonly identified in the built environment. BMC Genomics 2019; 20:92. [PMID: 30691394 PMCID: PMC6350394 DOI: 10.1186/s12864-018-5389-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/13/2018] [Accepted: 12/18/2018] [Indexed: 02/01/2023] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND The microbial community of the built environment (BE) can impact the lives of people and has been studied for a variety of indoor, outdoor, underground, and extreme locations. Thus far, these microorganisms have mainly been investigated by culture-based methods or amplicon sequencing. However, both methods have limitations, complicating multi-study comparisons and limiting the knowledge gained regarding in-situ microbial lifestyles. A greater understanding of BE microorganisms can be achieved through basic information derived from the complete genome. Here, we investigate the level of diversity and genomic features (genome size, GC content, replication strand skew, and codon usage bias) from complete genomes of bacteria commonly identified in the BE, providing a first step towards understanding these bacterial lifestyles. RESULTS Here, we selected bacterial genera commonly identified in the BE (or "Common BE genomes") and compared them against other prokaryotic genera ("Other genomes"). The "Common BE genomes" were identified in various climates and in indoor, outdoor, underground, or extreme built environments. The diversity level of the 16S rRNA varied greatly between genera. The genome size, GC content and GC skew strength of the "Common BE genomes" were statistically larger than those of the "Other genomes" but were not practically significant. In contrast, the strength of selected codon usage bias (S value) was statistically higher with a large effect size in the "Common BE genomes" compared to the "Other genomes." CONCLUSION Of the four genomic features tested, the S value could play a more important role in understanding the lifestyles of bacteria living in the BE. This parameter could be indicative of bacterial growth rates, gene expression, and other factors, potentially affected by BE growth conditions (e.g., temperature, humidity, and nutrients). However, further experimental evidence, species-level BE studies, and classification by BE location is needed to define the relationship between genomic features and the lifestyles of BE bacteria more robustly.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nancy Merino
- Earth-Life Science Institute, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Ookayama, Meguro-ku, Tokyo, 152-8550, Japan.,Department of Earth Sciences, University of Southern California, Stauffer Hall of Science, Los Angeles, CA, 90089, USA
| | - Shu Zhang
- Global Research Center for Environment and Energy based on Nanomaterials Science, National Institute for Material Science, 1-1 Namiki, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, 305-0044, Japan.,Section of Infection and Immunity, Herman Ostrow School of Dentistry of USC, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, 90089-0641, USA
| | - Masaru Tomita
- Faculty of Environment and Information Studies, Keio University, Fujisawa, Kanagawa, 252-0882, Japan.,Institute for Advanced Biosciences, Keio University, Tsuruoka, Yamagata, 997-0035, Japan
| | - Haruo Suzuki
- Faculty of Environment and Information Studies, Keio University, Fujisawa, Kanagawa, 252-0882, Japan. .,Institute for Advanced Biosciences, Keio University, Tsuruoka, Yamagata, 997-0035, Japan.
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Pollo-Oliveira L, de Crécy-Lagard V. Can Protein Expression Be Regulated by Modulation of tRNA Modification Profiles? Biochemistry 2018; 58:355-362. [PMID: 30511849 DOI: 10.1021/acs.biochem.8b01035] [Citation(s) in RCA: 24] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/20/2022]
Abstract
tRNAs are the central adaptor molecules in translation. Their decoding properties are influenced by post-transcriptional modifications, particularly in the critical anticodon-stem-loop (ASL) region. Synonymous codon choice, also called codon usage bias, affects both translation efficiency and accuracy, and ASL modifications play key roles in both of these processes. In combination with a handful of historical examples, recent studies integrating ribosome profiling, proteomics, codon-usage analyses, and modification quantifications show that levels of tRNA modifications can change under stress, during development, or under specific metabolic conditions and can modulate the expression of specific genes. Deconvoluting the different responses (global or specific) to tRNA modification deficiencies can be difficult because of pleiotropic effects, but, as more cases emerge, it does seem that tRNA modification changes could add another layer of regulation in the transfer of information from DNA to protein.
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Affiliation(s)
- Leticia Pollo-Oliveira
- Department of Microbiology and Cell Science , University of Florida , Gainesville , Florida 32603 , United States
| | - Valérie de Crécy-Lagard
- Department of Microbiology and Cell Science , University of Florida , Gainesville , Florida 32603 , United States.,University of Florida Genetics Institute , Gainesville , Florida 32608 , United States
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Rao Y, Wang Z, Luo W, Sheng W, Zhang R, Chai X. Base composition is the primary factor responsible for the variation of amino acid usage in zebra finch (Taeniopygia guttata). PLoS One 2018; 13:e0204796. [PMID: 30517105 PMCID: PMC6281210 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0204796] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/12/2018] [Accepted: 09/15/2018] [Indexed: 11/19/2022] Open
Abstract
In the present study, we carried out an examination of the amino acid usage in the zebra finch (Taeniopygia guttata) proteome. We found that tRNA abundance, base composition, hydrophobicity and aromaticity, protein second structure, cysteine residue (Cys) content and protein molecular weight had significant impact on the amino acid usage of the zebra finch. The above factors explained the total variability of 22.85%, 25.37%, 10.91%, 5.06%, 4.21%, and 3.14%, respectively. Altogether, approximately 70% of the total variability in zebra finch could be explained by such factors. Comparison of the amino acid usage between zebra finch, chicken (Gallus gallus) and human (Homo sapiens) suggested that the average frequency of various amino acid usage is generally consistent among them. Correspondence analysis indicated that base composition was the primary factor affecting the amino acid usage in zebra finch. This trend was different from chicken, but similar to human. Other factors affecting the amino acid usage in zebra finch, such as isochore structure, protein second structure, Cys frequency and protein molecular weight also showed the similar trends with human. We do not know whether the similar amino acid usage trend between human and zebra finch is related to the distinctive neural and behavioral traits, but it is worth studying in depth.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yousheng Rao
- Department of Biological Technology, Nanchang Normal University, Nanchang, Jiangxi, China
- Jiang Xi Province Key Lab of Genetic Improvement of Indigenous Chicken Breeds, Nanchang, Jiangxi, China)
- * E-mail:
| | - Zhangfeng Wang
- Department of Biological Technology, Nanchang Normal University, Nanchang, Jiangxi, China
- Jiang Xi Province Key Lab of Genetic Improvement of Indigenous Chicken Breeds, Nanchang, Jiangxi, China)
| | - Wen Luo
- Jiang Xi Province Key Lab of Genetic Improvement of Indigenous Chicken Breeds, Nanchang, Jiangxi, China)
| | - Wentao Sheng
- Department of Biological Technology, Nanchang Normal University, Nanchang, Jiangxi, China
- Jiang Xi Province Key Lab of Genetic Improvement of Indigenous Chicken Breeds, Nanchang, Jiangxi, China)
| | - Rendian Zhang
- Department of Biological Technology, Nanchang Normal University, Nanchang, Jiangxi, China
- Jiang Xi Province Key Lab of Genetic Improvement of Indigenous Chicken Breeds, Nanchang, Jiangxi, China)
| | - Xuewen Chai
- Department of Biological Technology, Nanchang Normal University, Nanchang, Jiangxi, China
- Jiang Xi Province Key Lab of Genetic Improvement of Indigenous Chicken Breeds, Nanchang, Jiangxi, China)
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Tian J, Li Q, Chu X, Wu N. Presyncodon, a Web Server for Gene Design with the Evolutionary Information of the Expression Hosts. Int J Mol Sci 2018; 19:ijms19123872. [PMID: 30518113 PMCID: PMC6321224 DOI: 10.3390/ijms19123872] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/15/2018] [Revised: 11/29/2018] [Accepted: 12/03/2018] [Indexed: 01/05/2023] Open
Abstract
In the natural host, most of the synonymous codons of a gene have been evolutionarily selected and related to protein expression and function. However, for the design of a new gene, most of the existing codon optimization tools select the high-frequency-usage codons and neglect the contribution of the low-frequency-usage codons (rare codons) to the expression of the target gene in the host. In this study, we developed the method Presyncodon, available in a web version, to predict the gene code from a protein sequence, using built-in evolutionary information on a specific expression host. The synonymous codon-usage pattern of a peptide was studied from three genomic datasets (Escherichia coli, Bacillus subtilis, and Saccharomyces cerevisiae). Machine-learning models were constructed to predict a selection of synonymous codons (low- or high-frequency-usage codon) in a gene. This method could be easily and efficiently used to design new genes from protein sequences for optimal expression in three expression hosts (E. coli, B. subtilis, and S. cerevisiae). Presyncodon is free to academic and noncommercial users; accessible at http://www.mobioinfor.cn/presyncodon_www/index.html.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jian Tian
- Biotechnology Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural sciences, Beijing 100081, China.
| | - Qingbin Li
- Biotechnology Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural sciences, Beijing 100081, China.
- State Key Laboratory of Agrobiotechnology, College of Biological Sciences, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100081, China.
| | - Xiaoyu Chu
- Biotechnology Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural sciences, Beijing 100081, China.
| | - Ningfeng Wu
- Biotechnology Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural sciences, Beijing 100081, China.
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Urantówka AD, Kroczak A, Silva T, Padrón RZ, Gallardo NF, Blanch J, Blanch B, Mackiewicz P. New Insight into Parrots' Mitogenomes Indicates That Their Ancestor Contained a Duplicated Region. Mol Biol Evol 2018; 35:2989-3009. [PMID: 30304531 PMCID: PMC6278868 DOI: 10.1093/molbev/msy189] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/07/2023] Open
Abstract
Mitochondrial genomes of vertebrates are generally thought to evolve under strong selection for size reduction and gene order conservation. Therefore, a growing number of mitogenomes with duplicated regions changes our view on the genome evolution. Among Aves, order Psittaciformes (parrots) is especially noteworthy because of its large morphological, ecological, and taxonomical diversity, which offers an opportunity to study genome evolution in various aspects. Former analyses showed that tandem duplications comprising the control region with adjacent genes are restricted to several lineages in which the duplication occurred independently. However, using an appropriate polymerase chain reaction strategy, we demonstrate that early diverged parrot groups contain mitogenomes with the duplicated region. These findings together with mapping duplication data from other mitogenomes onto parrot phylogeny indicate that the duplication was an ancestral state for Psittaciformes. The state was inherited by main parrot groups and was lost several times in some lineages. The duplicated regions were subjected to concerted evolution with a frequency higher than the rate of speciation. The duplicated control regions may provide a selective advantage due to a more efficient initiation of replication or transcription and a larger number of replicating genomes per organelle, which may lead to a more effective energy production by mitochondria. The mitogenomic duplications were associated with phenotypic features and parrots with the duplicated region can live longer, show larger body mass as well as predispositions to a more active flight. The results have wider implications on the presence of duplications and their evolution in mitogenomes of other avian groups.
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Affiliation(s)
- Adam Dawid Urantówka
- Department of Genetics, Wroclaw University of Environmental and Life Sciences, Wroclaw, Poland
| | - Aleksandra Kroczak
- Department of Genomics, Faculty of Biotechnology, Wrocław University, Wrocław, Poland
| | | | | | | | - Julie Blanch
- Rosewood Bird Gardens & Breeding Farm, Rosewood, QLD, Australia
| | - Barry Blanch
- Rosewood Bird Gardens & Breeding Farm, Rosewood, QLD, Australia
| | - Paweł Mackiewicz
- Department of Genomics, Faculty of Biotechnology, Wrocław University, Wrocław, Poland
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Zhang R, Zhang L, Wang W, Zhang Z, Du H, Qu Z, Li XQ, Xiang H. Differences in Codon Usage Bias between Photosynthesis-Related Genes and Genetic System-Related Genes of Chloroplast Genomes in Cultivated and Wild Solanum Species. Int J Mol Sci 2018; 19:E3142. [PMID: 30322061 PMCID: PMC6213243 DOI: 10.3390/ijms19103142] [Citation(s) in RCA: 39] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/29/2018] [Revised: 09/30/2018] [Accepted: 10/04/2018] [Indexed: 12/20/2022] Open
Abstract
Solanum is one of the largest genera, including two important crops-potato (Solanum tuberosum) and tomato (Solanum lycopersicum). In this study we compared the chloroplast codon usage bias (CUB) among 12 Solanum species, between photosynthesis-related genes (Photo-genes) and genetic system-related genes (Genet-genes), and between cultivated species and wild relatives. The Photo-genes encode proteins for photosystems, the photosynthetic electron transport chain, and RuBisCO, while the Genet-genes encode proteins for ribosomal subunits, RNA polymerases, and maturases. The following findings about the Solanum chloroplast genome CUB were obtained: (1) the nucleotide composition, gene expression, and selective pressure are identified as the main factors affecting chloroplast CUB; (2) all these 12 chloroplast genomes prefer A/U over G/C and pyrimidines over purines at the third-base of codons; (3) Photo-genes have higher codon adaptation indexes than Genet-genes, indicative of a higher gene expression level and a stronger adaptation of Photo-genes; (4) gene function is the primary factor affecting CUB of Photo-genes but not Genet-genes; (5) Photo-genes prefer pyrimidine over purine, whereas Genet-genes favor purine over pyrimidine, at the third position of codons; (6) Photo-genes are mainly affected by the selective pressure, whereas Genet-genes are under the underlying mutational bias; (7) S. tuberosum is more similar with Solanum commersonii than with Solanum bulbocastanum; (8) S. lycopersicum is greatly different from the analyzed seven wild relatives; (9) the CUB in codons for valine, aspartic acid, and threonine are the same between the two crop species, S. tuberosum and S. lycopersicum. These findings suggest that the chloroplast CUB contributed to the differential requirement of gene expression activity and function between Photo-genes and Genet-genes and to the performance of cultivated potato and tomato.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ruizhi Zhang
- College of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, China.
| | - Li Zhang
- Department of Math and Information, China West Normal University, Nanchong, Sichuan 637000, China.
| | - Wei Wang
- College of Animal Science and Technology, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, China.
| | - Zhu Zhang
- College of Animal Science and Technology, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, China.
| | - Huihui Du
- College of Animal Science and Technology, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, China.
| | - Zheng Qu
- College of Animal Science and Technology, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, China.
| | - Xiu-Qing Li
- Fredericton Research and Development Centre, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, 850 Lincoln Road, Fredericton, NB E3B 4Z7, Canada.
| | - Heng Xiang
- College of Animal Science and Technology, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, China.
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Seligmann H, Warthi G. Genetic Code Optimization for Cotranslational Protein Folding: Codon Directional Asymmetry Correlates with Antiparallel Betasheets, tRNA Synthetase Classes. Comput Struct Biotechnol J 2017; 15:412-424. [PMID: 28924459 PMCID: PMC5591391 DOI: 10.1016/j.csbj.2017.08.001] [Citation(s) in RCA: 36] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/25/2017] [Revised: 07/20/2017] [Accepted: 08/05/2017] [Indexed: 12/14/2022] Open
Abstract
A new codon property, codon directional asymmetry in nucleotide content (CDA), reveals a biologically meaningful genetic code dimension: palindromic codons (first and last nucleotides identical, codon structure XZX) are symmetric (CDA = 0), codons with structures ZXX/XXZ are 5'/3' asymmetric (CDA = - 1/1; CDA = - 0.5/0.5 if Z and X are both purines or both pyrimidines, assigning negative/positive (-/+) signs is an arbitrary convention). Negative/positive CDAs associate with (a) Fujimoto's tetrahedral codon stereo-table; (b) tRNA synthetase class I/II (aminoacylate the 2'/3' hydroxyl group of the tRNA's last ribose, respectively); and (c) high/low antiparallel (not parallel) betasheet conformation parameters. Preliminary results suggest CDA-whole organism associations (body temperature, developmental stability, lifespan). Presumably, CDA impacts spatial kinetics of codon-anticodon interactions, affecting cotranslational protein folding. Some synonymous codons have opposite CDA sign (alanine, leucine, serine, and valine), putatively explaining how synonymous mutations sometimes affect protein function. Correlations between CDA and tRNA synthetase classes are weaker than between CDA and antiparallel betasheet conformation parameters. This effect is stronger for mitochondrial genetic codes, and potentially drives mitochondrial codon-amino acid reassignments. CDA reveals information ruling nucleotide-protein relations embedded in reversed (not reverse-complement) sequences (5'-ZXX-3'/5'-XXZ-3').
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Affiliation(s)
- Hervé Seligmann
- Aix-Marseille Univ, Unité de Recherche sur les Maladies Infectieuses et Tropicales Emergentes, UM 63, CNRS UMR7278, IRD 198, INSERM U1095, Institut Hospitalo-Universitaire Méditerranée-Infection, Marseille, Postal code 13385, France
- Dept. Ecol Evol Behav, Alexander Silberman Inst Life Sci, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, IL-91904 Jerusalem, Israel
| | - Ganesh Warthi
- Aix-Marseille Univ, Unité de Recherche sur les Maladies Infectieuses et Tropicales Emergentes, UM 63, CNRS UMR7278, IRD 198, INSERM U1095, Institut Hospitalo-Universitaire Méditerranée-Infection, Marseille, Postal code 13385, France
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Błażej P, Wnętrzak M, Grabińska M, Mackiewicz P. Representations of Search Spaces in the Problem of Mutational Pressure Optimization According to Protein-Coding Sequences. J Comput Biol 2017; 24:1089-1098. [PMID: 28414521 DOI: 10.1089/cmb.2017.0017] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/06/2023] Open
Abstract
The proper representation of the search space is the fundamental step in every optimization task, because it has a decisive impact on the quality of potential solutions. In particular, this problem appears when the search spaces are nonstandard and complex, with the large number of candidate solutions that differ from classical forms usually investigated. One of such spaces is the set of continuous-time, homogenous, and stationary Markov processes. They are commonly used to describe biological phenomena, for example, mutations in DNA sequences and their evolution. Because of the complexity of these processes, the representation of their search space is not an easy task but it is important for effective solving of the biological problems. One of them is optimality of mutational pressure acting on protein-coding sequences. Therefore, we described three representations of the search spaces and proposed several specific evolutionary operators that are used in evolutionary-based optimization algorithms to solve the biological problem of mutational pressure optimality. In addition, we gave a general formula for the fitness function, which can be used to measure the quality of potential solutions. The structures of these solutions are based on two models of DNA evolution described by substitution-rate matrices, which are commonly used in phylogenetic analyzes. The proposed representations have been successfully utilized in various issues, and the obtained results are very interesting from a biological point of view. For example, they show that mutational pressures are, to some extent, optimized to minimize cost of amino acid substitutions in proteins.
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Affiliation(s)
- Paweł Błażej
- Department of Genomics, Faculty of Biotechnology, University of Wrocław , Wrocław, Poland
| | - Małgorzata Wnętrzak
- Department of Genomics, Faculty of Biotechnology, University of Wrocław , Wrocław, Poland
| | - Małgorzata Grabińska
- Department of Genomics, Faculty of Biotechnology, University of Wrocław , Wrocław, Poland
| | - Paweł Mackiewicz
- Department of Genomics, Faculty of Biotechnology, University of Wrocław , Wrocław, Poland
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