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Demonstration of the shorter flagellin (flaA) gene of urease-positive thermophilic Campylobacter isolated from the natural environment in Northern Ireland.

The PCR amplicons (about 1450 bp in length) of flaA gene fragments of 11 isolates of urease-positive thermophilic Campylobacter (UPTC) isolated from the natural environment not including wild birds in Northern Ireland were demonstrated to be shorter than those of C. jejuni 81116 and six isolates of C. jejuni and C. coli (about 1700 bp) isolated in Northern Ireland and Japan. When the nucleotide lengths of the possible open reading frame (ORF) of the flaA genes were determined, those from the 11 UPTC isolates were estimated to be 1464-1503 bp, and those from the six C. jejuni and C. coli isolates and C. jejuni 81116 strain to be 1716-1728 bp. Nucleotide sequence and deduced amino acid sequence alignments of the possible ORFs demonstrated that the ORFs from the 11 UPTC isolates lack about 80 amino acid residues, mainly from the approximate residue numbers 390-470 of the large variable region in the flaA protein of the seven isolates of C. jejuni and C. coli, and do not have any internal termination codons. High amino acid sequence similarity of both amino- and carboxy-termini of the ORFs of the flaA gene was demonstrated between the 11 isolates of UPTC and the 7 isolates of C. jejuni and C. coli. The 11 UPTC isolates examined were strongly suggested to possess a shorter flaA gene without any internal termination codons.

Amino Acid Sequence↗

Amplification of ribosomal DNA of Anoplocephalidae: Anoplocephala perfoliata diagnosis by PCR as a possible alternative to coprological methods.

The diagnosis of tapeworm infections in horses relies on copro-diagnostic methods, which are time-consuming and of limited sensitivity for determination of the exact prevalence. The development of serological tests has slightly improved the detection of tapeworm infections, but more sensitive methods are still required. A polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-based approach may constitute a valuable tool to improve tapeworm diagnosis. Nuclear ribosomal DNA (rDNA) is a useful target for species and/or strain markers. Partial 18S, the internal transcribed spacer 1 (ITS-1), the 5.8S, the internal transcribed spacer 2 (ITS-2), and partial 28S rDNA of the equine tapeworms Anoplocephala perfoliata and Anoplocephaloides mamillana were amplified and sequenced. The lengths and GC contents of the regions sequenced were 2087-2091bp and 49.35-49.69% for A. perfoliata, and 2110-2119bp and 49.15-49.32% for A. mamillana, respectively. Sequence alignment and comparison of both taxa showed 79.3-80.2% identity. The lowest identities were found in the ITS regions with 39.9-43.5% for the ITS-1 and 59.5-61.2% for the ITS-2. No matches of the ITS-2 of A. perfoliata and A. mamillana were found with other species by BLAST search. For this reason, ITS-2 sequences seemed appropriate as accurate species markers and A. perfoliata ITS-2 primers were developed. The ITS-2 PCR enabled the detection of genomic DNA as low as 0.5 pgs. First efforts on the practical application of the PCR-based approach were made. A 6-mg fragment of a tapeworm proglottid was detected in 0.5 and 1g of faeces.

Animals↗

Prediction of the phenotypic effects of non-synonymous single nucleotide polymorphisms using structural and evolutionary information.

MOTIVATION: There has been great expectation that the knowledge of an individual's genotype will provide a basis for assessing susceptibility to diseases and designing individualized therapy. Non-synonymous single nucleotide polymorphisms (nsSNPs) that lead to an amino acid change in the protein product are of particular interest because they account for nearly half of the known genetic variations related to human inherited diseases. To facilitate the identification of disease-associated nsSNPs from a large number of neutral nsSNPs, it is important to develop computational tools to predict the phenotypic effects of nsSNPs. RESULTS: We prepared a training set based on the variant phenotypic annotation of the Swiss-Prot database and focused our analysis on nsSNPs having homologous 3D structures. Structural environment parameters derived from the 3D homologous structure as well as evolutionary information derived from the multiple sequence alignment were used as predictors. Two machine learning methods, support vector machine and random forest, were trained and evaluated. We compared the performance of our method with that of the SIFT algorithm, which is one of the best predictive methods to date. An unbiased evaluation study shows that for nsSNPs with sufficient evolutionary information (with not <10 homologous sequences), the performance of our method is comparable with the SIFT algorithm, while for nsSNPs with insufficient evolutionary information (<10 homologous sequences), our method outperforms the SIFT algorithm significantly. These findings indicate that incorporating structural information is critical to achieving good prediction accuracy when sufficient evolutionary information is not available. AVAILABILITY: The codes and curated dataset are available at http://compbio.utmem.edu/snp/dataset/

Algorithms↗

Identification of Pyrococcus furiosus amylopullulanase catalytic residues.

Pyrococcus furiosus amylopullulanase (PfAPU) belongs to glycosyl hydrolase family 57. Using sequence alignments of the known family 57 enzymes and site-directed mutagenesis, E291, D394, and E396 were identified as PfAPU putative catalytic residues. The apparent catalytic efficiencies (k(cat)/K(m)) of PfAPU mutants E291Q and D394N on pullulan were 123.0 and 24.4 times lower, respectively, than that of PfAPU. The activity of mutant E396Q on pullulan was too low to allow reliable determination of its catalytic efficiency. The apparent specific activities of these enzymes on starch also decreased 91.0 times (E291Q), 11.7 times (D394N), and 37.2 times (E396Q). The hydrolytic patterns for pullulan and starch were the same, while the hydrolysis rates differed as reported. Based on sequence alignment and a previous report, E291 is proposed as the catalytic nucleophile.

Amino Acid Sequence↗

The extracellular regions of PSMA and the transferrin receptor contain an aminopeptidase domain: implications for drug design.

The Aeromonas proteolytica aminopeptidase (AMP), Pseudomonas sp. (RS-16) carboxypeptidase G2 (CPG2), and Streptomyces griseus aminopeptidase (SGAP) are zinc dependent proteolytic enzymes with cocatalytic zinc ion centers and a conserved aminopeptidase fold. A BLAST search with the sequence of the solved AMP structure indicated that a similar domain could be found in prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA) and the transferrin receptor (TfR). When the PSMA or TfR sequence was input into the THREADER program, the top structural matches were SGAP and AMP confirming that these are structurally conserved domains. Optimal sequence alignment of PSMA and TfR using the known three-dimensional structures of AMP, CPG2, and SGAP shows that the critical amino acids involved in forming the catalytic pocket are conserved in PSMA but absent in the TfR. The specificity pocket in AMP is formed from four aromatic side chains and the equivalent region in CPG2/PSMA has a changed sequence pattern. Since CPG2 and PSMA are folate hydrolases, the changed specificity pocket leaves space to accommodate the large pteroate moiety of folic acid. In contrast, no enzyme function has been ascribed to the TfR.

Aeromonas↗

DNA sequence, structure, and phylogenetic relationship of the mitochondrial small-subunit rRNA from the red alga Chondrus crispus (Gigartinales rhodophytes).

The entire nucleotide sequence containing the small-subunit ribosomal RNA gene (SSU rRNA) from the mitochondrial genome of Chondrus crispus was determined. To our knowledge, this is the first sequence of a mitochondrial 16S-like rRNA from a red alga. The length of this gene is 1,376 nucleotides. Its secondary structure was constructed and compared with other known secondary structures from eubacteria and from mitochondria of land plants, green and brown algae, and fungi. Phylogenetic trees were built upon SSU rRNA sequence alignment from mitochondria and eubacteria. The results show that rhodophytes and chromophytes provide additional links in the evolution of mitochondria between the green plant lineage and the "nonplant" lineages.

Base Sequence↗

Molecular characterization of morphologically typical human calicivirus Sapporo.

Human calicivirus Sapporo (SV) has typical calicivirus morphology and causes acute gastroenteritis in children. The nucleotide sequence of 3.2 kb of the 3' end of SV was determined from a cloned cDNA. The 3' end of the SV genome is predicted to encode the RNA-dependent RNA polymerase region, the capsid protein and two small open reading frames. The nonstructural and capsid protein coding sequences in the SV genome are fused in a single open reading frame. The organization of these proteins in the SV sequence is similar to that of rabbit hemorrhagic disease virus and the recently described Manchester virus, and distinct from the genome organization of the prototype human calicivirus, Norwalk virus, that lacks typical calicivirus morphology and has been described as a small round structured virus (SRSV). Sequence analysis of the predicted capsid region showed that the SV capsid is longer by approximately 30 amino acids than the capsid of any of the SRSVs, and multiple sequence alignments showed that these additional amino acids are located in the variable region of the capsid protein. Expression of the capsid protein of SV in insect cells resulted in the self-assembly of virus-like particles that have a morphology similar to that of the native virus. This result shows that calicivirus morphology is determined by the primary sequence of the capsid protein.

Amino Acid Sequence↗

The helix-turn-helix motif of the coliphage 186 immunity repressor binds to two distinct recognition sequences.

The CI protein of coliphage 186 is responsible for maintaining the stable lysogenic state. To do this CI must recognize two distinct DNA sequences, termed A type sites and B type sites. Here we investigate whether CI contains two separate DNA binding motifs or whether CI has one motif that recognizes two different operator sequences. Sequence alignment with 186-like repressors predicts an N-terminal helix-turn-helix (HTH) motif, albeit with poor homology to a large master set of such motifs. The domain structure of CI was investigated by linker insertion mutagenesis and limited proteolysis. CI consists of an N-terminal domain, which weakly dimerizes and binds both A and B type sequences, and a C-terminal domain, which associates to octamers but is unable to bind DNA. A fusion protein consisting of the 186 N-terminal domain and the phage lambda oligomerization domain binds A and B type sequences more efficiently than the isolated 186 CI N-terminal domain, hence the 186 C-terminal domain likely mediates oligomerization and cooperativity. Site-directed mutation of the putative 186 HTH motif eliminates binding to both A and B type sites, supporting the idea that binding to the two distinct DNA sequences is mediated by a variant HTH motif.

Amino Acid Sequence↗

Efficiently detecting polymorphisms during the fragment assembly process.

MOTIVATION: Current genomic sequence assemblers assume that the input data is derived from a single, homogeneous source. However, recent whole-genome shotgun sequencing projects have violated this assumption, resulting in input fragments covering the same region of the genome whose sequences differ due to polymorphic variation in the population. While single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) do not pose a significant problem to state-of-the-art assembly methods, these methods do not handle insertion/deletion (indel) polymorphisms of more than a few bases. RESULTS: This paper describes an efficient method for detecting sequence discrepencies due to polymorphism that avoids resorting to global use of more costly, less stringent affine sequence alignments. Instead, the algorithm uses graph-based methods to determine the small set of fragments involved in each polymorphism and performs more sophisticated alignments only among fragments in that set. Results from the incorporation of this method into the Celera Assembler are reported for the D. melanogaster, H. sapiens, and M. musculus genomes.

Algorithms↗

The influence of the 5' codon context on translation termination in Bacillus subtilis and Escherichia coli is similar but different from Salmonella typhimurium.

The last two amino acids in the nascent peptide influence translation termination in E. coli (Mottagui-Tabar et al., 1994; Björnsson et al., 1996). We have compared the effects on termination in Escherichia coli, Bacillus subtilis and Salmonella typhimurium obtained by varying the -1 and -2 codons upstream of the weak UGAA stop signal. The peptide effect from the penultimate amino acid on translation termination in B. subtilis is similar to that seen in E. coli (with 66.5% RF-2 amino acid sequence similarity), whereas the influence in S. typhimurium (with 95.3% similarity to E. coli) is weaker. The effect of changing the -1 codon (P-site) is weaker in S. typhimurium as compared to those in E. coli and B. subtilis. RF-2s from E. coli and S. typhimurium have a threonine or alanine at position 246, respectively. This amino acid exchange in RF-2 can explain the difference in efficiency and toxicity during overexpression when E. coli and S. typhimurium are compared (Uno et al., 1996). However, B. subtilis RF-2 also has an alanine at that position, yet the sensitivity to the nascent peptide is similar to that in E. coli. Thus, the amino acid difference at position 246 in the RF-2 sequences cannot explain why termination in E. coli and B. subtilis is similar in peptide sensitivity while being different from that in S. typhimurium. Sequence alignments of RF-2 from the three bacteria show other regions of the molecule that could be involved in the functional interactions with the C-terminal end of the nascent peptide.

Amino Acid Sequence↗

MutDB: annotating human variation with functionally relevant data.

SUMMARY: We have developed a resource, MutDB (http://mutdb.org/), to aid in determining which single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) are likely to alter the function of their associated protein product. MutDB contains protein structure annotations and comparative genomic annotations for 8000 disease-associated mutations and SNPs found in the UCSC Annotated Genome and the human RefSeq gene set. MutDB provides interactive mutation maps at the gene and protein levels, and allows for ranking of their predicted functional consequences based on conservation in multiple sequence alignments. AVAILABILITY: http://mutdb.org/ SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: http://mutdb.org/about/about.html

Database Management Systems↗

Thirteen nodule-specific or nodule-enhanced genes encoding products homologous to cysteine cluster proteins or plant lipid transfer proteins are identified in Astragalus sinicus L. by suppressive subtractive hybridization.

Thirteen nodule-specific or nodule-enhanced genes have been revealed by suppressive subtractive hybridization (SSH) with two mRNA populations of infected and uninfected control roots of Astragalus sinicus. Eleven of them encode small polypeptides showing homology to cysteine cluster proteins (CCPs) that contain a putative signal peptide and conserved cysteine residues. Among these CCP-like genes, AsG257 codes for a homologue of the defensin 2 family and AsD255 contains a scorpion toxin-like domain at the C-terminus. Sequence analysis of a genomic AsD255 fragment which was isolated revealed that one intron separates the first exon encoding the signal peptide from the second exon encoding the cysteine cluster domain of this nodulin. Another two genes, AsE246 and AsIB259, encode two different products similar to lipid transfer proteins (LTPs). Virtual northern blot and reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) analysis indicated that the other genes except AsIB259 and AsC2411 were expressed exclusively in inoculated roots and that their expression was 2-4 d later than that of the leghaemoglobin (Lb) gene during nodule development. Transcription of AsIB259 was also detected in uninfected control roots but with a significant decline in expression and a temporal expression similar to Lb. AsC2411 had a basal expression in control roots identified by RT-PCR. Sequence alignment showed that the putative proteins AsE246 and AsIB259 show lower homology with LTPs from legumes than with those from other plants.

Alphaproteobacteria↗

New features of the Blocks Database servers.

Blocks are ungapped multiple sequence alignments representing conserved protein regions, and the Blocks Database consists of blocks from documented protein families. World Wide Web (http://www. blocks.fhcrc.org) and Email (blocks@blocks.fhcrc.org) servers provide tools for homology searching and for analyzing protein family relationships. New enhancements include a multiple alignment processor that extends the use of these tools to imported multiple alignments of families not present in the database and a PCR primer designer that implements a new strategy for gene isolation.

DNA Primers↗

Cloning, expression and subcellular localization of HN1 and HN1L genes, as well as characterization of their orthologs, defining an evolutionarily conserved gene family.

The present work reported the cloning and characterization of two novel human genes--HN1 (hematopoietic- and neurologic-expressed sequence 1) and HN1L (HN1-like gene) which are proposed to be involved in embryo development. HN1 is mapped on chromosome 17q25.2, with two transcripts (1.0 and 1.6 kb in length, respectively) due to alternative splicing. HN1 is expressed abundantly in testis and skeletal muscle among 16 human tissues, and it is localized in the nucleus indicated by GFP fusion expression. Western blot confirmed that HN1 encodes a 16.5-kDa protein. HN1L is on chromosome 16p13.3, with three splicing in the length of 2.0, 4.0 and 4.2 kb, respectively. HN1L is expressed in a variety of tissues such as liver, kidney, prostate, testis and uterus at varying levels. HN1L gene encodes a 20-kDa protein, which is localized in both the nucleus and cytoplasm. Fourteen of HN1 and sixteen of HN1L homologous genes in different species were determined and analyzed by BLAST searches. Silicon analyses of the 14 orthologous proteins of HN1 and 16 orthologous proteins of HN1L revealed that they share great conservation in vertebrate. Additionally, we identified nine pseudogenes of HN1 (six) and HN1L (three) in the genomes of the human, mouse and rat. Based on sequence alignments and phylogenetic analysis, all these homologous genes and pseudogenes were defined as a HN1 gene family.

Amino Acid Motifs↗

A decade of CASP: progress, bottlenecks and prognosis in protein structure prediction.

For the past ten years, CASP (Critical Assessment of Structure Prediction) has monitored the state of the art in modeling protein structure from sequence. During this period, there has been substantial progress in both comparative modeling of structure (using information from an evolutionarily related structural template) and template-free modeling. The quality of comparative models depends on the closeness of the evolutionary relationship on which they are based. Template-free modeling, although still very approximate, now produces topologically near correct models for some small proteins. Current major challenges are refining comparative models so that they match experimental accuracy, obtaining accurate sequence alignments for models based on remote evolutionary relationships, and extending template-free modeling methods so that they produce more accurate models, handle parts of comparative models not available from a template and deal with larger structures.

Algorithms↗

Human chromosome 19 and related regions in mouse: conservative and lineage-specific evolution.

To illuminate the function and evolutionary history of both genomes, we sequenced mouse DNA related to human chromosome 19. Comparative sequence alignments yielded confirmatory evidence for hypothetical genes and identified exons, regulatory elements, and candidate genes that were missed by other predictive methods. Chromosome-wide comparisons revealed a difference between single-copy HSA19 genes, which are overwhelmingly conserved in mouse, and genes residing in tandem familial clusters, which differ extensively in number, coding capacity, and organization between the two species. Finally, we sequenced breakpoints of all 15 evolutionary rearrangements, providing a view of the forces that drive chromosome evolution in mammals.

Animals↗

Refining structural and functional predictions for secretasome components by comparative sequence analysis.

Comparative sequence analysis of presenilins reveals the conserved transmembrane domain shared with leukocyte antigen CD47, possibly involved in signal transduction. Sensitive techniques of multiple sequence alignment extend the earlier observation of the aminopeptidase homology domain in nicastrin to suggest that this protein may be a catalytically active component of secretasome involved in proteolysis or co-proteolysis of presenilin or beta-amyloid.

Amino Acid Sequence↗

Molecular phylogenetic analysis of methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase family of proteins.

Methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase (MTHFR) family of proteins catalyze the conversion of 5,10-methylenetetrahydrofolate to 5-methyltetrahydrofolate. They contain a flavin adenine dinucleotide (FAD) as the cofactor and the enzyme in eukaryotes, except in yeast, is known to be allosterically regulated by S-adenosylmethionine. Some cardiovascular diseases, neural tube defects, neuropsychiatric diseases and certain type of cancers in humans are associated with certain polymorphisms of MTHFR. Here, we analyzed 57 of MTHFR polypeptide sequences by multiple sequence alignment and determined previously unrecognized conserved residues that may have a functional or structural importance. A previously unrecognized ATP synthase motif was found in all of the examined plant MTHFRs, suggesting a different functional capability to the plant MTHFRs in addition to the known function. On a phylogenetic tree built, eukaryotic MTHFR proteins formed a clear cluster separated from prokaryotic and archeal relatives. The sequence identities among the eukaryotic MTHFRs were less divergent than the bacterial MTHFRs.

Amino Acid Sequence↗