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Zhaoxi Ke

Publications and source records attributed to Zhaoxi Ke.

3 recordsLinked to original sources

CDD: a conserved domain database for interactive domain family analysis.

The conserved domain database (CDD) is part of NCBI's Entrez database system and serves as a primary resource for the annotation of conserved domain footprints on protein sequences in Entrez. Entrez's global query interface can be accessed at http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/Entrez and will search CDD and many other databases. Domain annotation for proteins in Entrez has been pre-computed and is readily available in the form of 'Conserved Domain' links. Novel protein sequences can be scanned against CDD using the CD-Search service; this service searches databases of CDD-derived profile models with protein sequence queries using BLAST heuristics, at http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/Structure/cdd/wrpsb.cgi. Protein query sequences submitted to NCBI's protein BLAST search service are scanned for conserved domain signatures by default. The CDD collection contains models imported from Pfam, SMART and COG, as well as domain models curated at NCBI. NCBI curated models are organized into hierarchies of domains related by common descent. Here we report on the status of the curation effort and present a novel helper application, CDTree, which enables users of the CDD resource to examine curated hierarchies. More importantly, CDD and CDTree used in concert, serve as a powerful tool in protein classification, as they allow users to analyze protein sequences in the context of domain family hierarchies.

Amino Acid Sequence↗

CDD: a Conserved Domain Database for protein classification.

The Conserved Domain Database (CDD) is the protein classification component of NCBI's Entrez query and retrieval system. CDD is linked to other Entrez databases such as Proteins, Taxonomy and PubMed, and can be accessed at http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=cdd. CD-Search, which is available at http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/Structure/cdd/wrpsb.cgi, is a fast, interactive tool to identify conserved domains in new protein sequences. CD-Search results for protein sequences in Entrez are pre-computed to provide links between proteins and domain models, and computational annotation visible upon request. Protein-protein queries submitted to NCBI's BLAST search service at http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/BLAST are scanned for the presence of conserved domains by default. While CDD started out as essentially a mirror of publicly available domain alignment collections, such as SMART, Pfam and COG, we have continued an effort to update, and in some cases replace these models with domain hierarchies curated at the NCBI. Here, we report on the progress of the curation effort and associated improvements in the functionality of the CDD information retrieval system.

Amino Acid Sequence↗

The genome sequence of the malaria mosquito Anopheles gambiae.

Anopheles gambiae is the principal vector of malaria, a disease that afflicts more than 500 million people and causes more than 1 million deaths each year. Tenfold shotgun sequence coverage was obtained from the PEST strain of A. gambiae and assembled into scaffolds that span 278 million base pairs. A total of 91% of the genome was organized in 303 scaffolds; the largest scaffold was 23.1 million base pairs. There was substantial genetic variation within this strain, and the apparent existence of two haplotypes of approximately equal frequency ("dual haplotypes") in a substantial fraction of the genome likely reflects the outbred nature of the PEST strain. The sequence produced a conservative inference of more than 400,000 single-nucleotide polymorphisms that showed a markedly bimodal density distribution. Analysis of the genome sequence revealed strong evidence for about 14,000 protein-encoding transcripts. Prominent expansions in specific families of proteins likely involved in cell adhesion and immunity were noted. An expressed sequence tag analysis of genes regulated by blood feeding provided insights into the physiological adaptations of a hematophagous insect.

Animals↗