PubMed Health⌕ Search
Home/Archive/PubMed

PubMed · 15972003

Linking experimental results, biological networks and sequence analysis methods using Ontologies and Generalised Data Structures.

Jacob Koehler·Chris Rawlings·Paul Verrier·Rowan Mitchell·Andre Skusa·Alexander Ruegg·Stephan Philippi
View original source ↗Export metadata ↓

Abstract

The structure of a closely integrated data warehouse is described that is designed to link different types and varying numbers of biological networks, sequence analysis methods and experimental results such as those coming from microarrays. The data schema is inspired by a combination of graph based methods and generalised data structures and makes use of ontologies and meta-data. The core idea is to consider and store biological networks as graphs, and to use generalised data structures (GDS) for the storage of further relevant information. This is possible because many biological networks can be stored as graphs: protein interactions, signal transduction networks, metabolic pathways, gene regulatory networks etc. Nodes in biological graphs represent entities such as promoters, proteins, genes and transcripts whereas the edges of such graphs specify how the nodes are related. The semantics of the nodes and edges are defined using ontologies of node and relation types. Besides generic attributes that most biological entities possess (name, attribute description), further information is stored using generalised data structures. By directly linking to underlying sequences (exons, introns, promoters, amino acid sequences) in a systematic way, close interoperability to sequence analysis methods can be achieved. This approach allows us to store, query and update a wide variety of biological information in a way that is semantically compact without requiring changes at the database schema level when new kinds of biological information is added. We describe how this datawarehouse is being implemented by extending the text-mining framework ONDEX to link, support and complement different bioinformatics applications and research activities such as microarray analysis, sequence analysis and modelling/simulation of biological systems. The system is developed under the GPL license and can be downloaded from http://sourceforge.net/projects/ondex/

Explore related subjects

AlgorithmsAnimalsBiologyComputational BiologyDatabase Management SystemsDatabases, FactualDatabases, GeneticDatabases, ProteinGene Expression ProfilingGenomeHumansInformation Storage and RetrievalMacromolecular SubstancesMicroarray AnalysisProteinsRNA, MessengerSoftwareSystems BiologyJournal ArticleResearch Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

Keep this discovery

Explore connections, maps & timelines

BibTeXRIS

Jacob Koehler, Chris Rawlings, Paul Verrier, Rowan Mitchell, Andre Skusa, Alexander Ruegg, Stephan Philippi. 2005. Linking experimental results, biological networks and sequence analysis methods using Ontologies and Generalised Data Structures.. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15972003/

Cite the original work for its findings. Save a collection to share your selection of sources.

KEEP EXPLORING

Related citations

PubMed2026

A note on a generalized single step theory for any number of hierarchical genomic matrices.

BACKGROUND: The Single Step algorithm allows combining information from genotyped and un-genotyped individuals, provided they are connected by a pedigree. However, current single step theory is limited to a single list of markers. RESULTS: We present a generalized single step (GSS) method that can accommodate any number of hierarchical molecular datasets (e.g. sequence, high and low density arrays) and pedigree, avoiding imputation. We prove that a similar efficient inversion algorithm exists. The method is recursive, starting with the highest marker density scenario. We illustrate the method with simulation and show that GSS can increase predictive accuracy compared to standard single step. R code is provided so that custom scenarios can be easily compared, either with simulated or real data. CONCLUSION: The method developed generalizes extant single step theory to any number of hierarchical molecular relationship matrices, broadening the scenarios where single step can be applied. A topic of particular interest can be ecology field data or human populations where pedigree is not available, but where samples sequenced and genotyped at different densities can exist. GSS can also be a useful tool to optimize allocation of genotyping and / or sequencing resources.

Algorithms↗
PubMed2026

cgDist: Nucleotide-level distance calculation from cgMLST allelic profiles.

Bacterial genomic surveillance requires balancing computational efficiency with genetic resolution for effective cluster investigation. cgMLST distance calculations treat all allelic differences as equivalent units, obscuring nucleotide-level variation. Furthermore, single nucleotide polymorphism-based pipelines provide finer resolution at substantially higher computational cost, which limits their routine deployment in surveillance laboratories. We present cgDist, an algorithm that calculates nucleotide-level distances directly from cgMLST allelic profiles, providing finer resolution than allele-count distances by leveraging within-allele nucleotide variation. The cache architecture stores alignment statistics, enabling distance calculation modes without computation and supporting both dataset-specific and schema-complete cache generation. This design enables incremental surveillance analysis, with performance benefits as laboratories accumulate alignment data. cgDist functions as a precision 'zoom lens' for the investigation of clusters identified through initial cgMLST screening. Rather than restructuring population relationships, this targeted approach concentrates enhanced resolution where it is most informative. The algorithm ensures that cgDist distances are greater than or equal to corresponding cgMLST distances, preserving epidemiological interpretability while adding genetic discrimination. By increasing resolution within identified clusters, cgDist may also support outbreak investigation, a potential application that remains to be evaluated on outbreak-derived data.

Algorithms↗
PubMed2026

Theseus: fast and optimal affine-gap sequence-to-graph alignment.

MOTIVATION: Sequence-to-graph alignment is a central problem in bioinformatics, with applications in multiple sequence alignment (MSA) and pangenome analysis, among others. However, current algorithms for optimal affine-gap alignment impose high memory and computational requirements, limiting their scalability to aligning long sequences to complex graphs. Practical solutions partially address this problem using heuristic strategies that ultimately trade off optimality for speed. RESULTS: This work presents Theseus, a novel, fast, and optimal affine-gap sequence-to-graph alignment algorithm. Theseus leverages similarities between genomic sequences to accelerate the alignment computation and reduces the overall memory requirements without compromising optimality. To that end, Theseus processes only a subset of the dynamic programming cells, using a sparse-data strategy that enables efficient sequence-to-graph alignment. Moreover, our algorithm supports optimal affine-gap alignment on arbitrary directed graphs, including those with cycles. We evaluate Theseus on two key problems: MSA and pangenome read mapping. For MSA, we compare it against SPOA, abPOA, and POASTA. Theseus is 1.6× to 17.6× faster than POASTA, and 7.3× faster, on average, than SPOA, both optimal aligners. Compared with abPOA, Theseus ensures optimality and scales to the largest problems. For pangenome read mapping, we benchmark Theseus against the alignment stage of the mapping tool vg map, along with the alignment kernels of SPOA, abPOA, and POASTA. Theseus outperforms the other methods, showing a 1.9× to 16.9× speedup on short reads. Moreover, Theseus is 1.5× to 36.3× faster than vg when aligning against synthetic cyclic graphs. AVAILABILITY AND IMPLEMENTATION: Theseus code and documentation are publicly available at https://github.com/albertjimenezbl/theseus-lib.

Algorithms↗