基于堆积协变信息与最小自由能预测含伪结的RNA二级结构

RNA伪结预测是RNA研究的一个难点问题。文中提出一种基于堆积协变信息与最小自由能的RNA伪结预测方法。该方法使用已知结构的RNA比对序列(ClustalW比对和结构比对)测试此方法, 侧重考虑相邻碱基对之间相互作用形成的堆积协变信息, 并结合最小自由能方法对碱基配对综合评分, 通过逐步迭代求得含伪结的RNA二级结构。结果表明, 此方法能正确预测伪结, 其平均敏感性和特异性优于参考算法, 并且结构比对的预测性能比ClustalW比对的预测性能更加稳定。文中同时讨论了不同协变信息权重因子对预测性能的影响, 发现权重因子比值在l1: l2=5:1时, 预测性能达到最优。     

基于堆积协变信息与最小自由能预测含伪结的RNA二级结构

RNA伪结预测是RNA研究的一个难点问题。文中提出一种基于堆积协变信息与最小自由能的RNA伪结预测方法。该方法使用已知结构的RNA比对序列(ClustalW比对和结构比对)测试此方法, 侧重考虑相邻碱基对之间相互作用形成的堆积协变信息, 并结合最小自由能方法对碱基配对综合评分, 通过逐步迭代求得含伪结的RNA二级结构。结果表明, 此方法能正确预测伪结, 其平均敏感性和特异性优于参考算法, 并且结构比对的预测性能比ClustalW比对的预测性能更加稳定。文中同时讨论了不同协变信息权重因子对预测性能的影响, 发现权重因子比值在l1: l2=5:1时, 预测性能达到最优。     

基于结构信息的RNA多序列比对

多序列比对是生物信息学中重要的基础研究内容,对各种RNA序列分析方法而言,这也是非常重要的一步。不像DNA和蛋白质,许多功能RNA分子的序列保守性要远差于其结构的保守性,因此,对RNA的分析研究要求其多序列比对不仅要考虑序列信息,而且要充分考虑到其结构信息。本文提出了一种考虑了结构信息的同源RNA多序列比对算法,它先利用热力学方法计算出每条序列的配对概率矩阵,得到结构信息,由此构造各条序列的结构信息矢量,结合传统序列比对方法,提出优化目标函数,采用动态规划算法和渐进比对得到最后的多序列比对。试验证实该方法的有效性。     

基于多样性指标的分枝杆菌蛋白质亚细胞定位预测

由于蛋白质亚细胞位置与其一级序列存在很强的相关性,利用多样性增量来描述蛋白质之间氨基酸组分和二肽组分的相似程度,采用修正的马氏判别式（这里称为IDQD方法）对分枝杆菌蛋白质的亚细胞位置进行了预测。利用Jackknife检验对不同序列相似度下的蛋白质数据集进行了预测研究,结果显示,当数据集的序列相似度小于等于70％时,算法的预测精度稳定在75％左右。在对整体852条蛋白质的预测成功率达到87．7％,这一结果优于已有算法的预测精度,说明IDQD是一种有效的分枝杆菌蛋白质亚细胞预测方法。     

构建基于折叠核心的全α类蛋白取代矩阵

氨基酸残基取代矩阵是影响多序列比对效果的重要因素,现有的取代矩阵对低相似序列的比对性能较低.在已有的 BLOSUM 取代矩阵算法基础上,定义了基于蛋白质折叠核心结构的序列 结构数据块;提出一种新的基于全α类蛋白质折叠核心结构的氨基酸残基取代矩阵——TOPSSUM25,用于提高低相似度序列的比对效果.将矩阵TOPSSUM25导入多序列比对程序,对相似性小于25%的一组四螺旋束序列 结构数据块的测试结果表明,基于 TOPSSUM25的多序列比对效果明显优于BLOSUM30矩阵;基于一个BAliBASE子集的比对检验也进一步表明, TOPSSUM25在全α类蛋白质的两两序列比对上优于BLOSUM30矩阵.研究结果可为进一步的阐明低同源蛋白质序列 结构 功能关系提供帮助.     

基于最小自由能和协变信息预测带伪结RNA二级结构的迭代化方法

多数RNA分子的结构在进化中是高度保守的, 其中很多包含伪结。而RNA伪结的预测一直是一个棘手问题, 很多RNA 二级结构预测算法都不能预测伪结。文章提出一种基于迭代法预测带伪结RNA 二级结构的新方法。该方法在给潜在碱基对打分时综合了热力学和协变信息, 通过基于最小自由能RNA折叠算法的多次迭代选出所有的碱基对。测试结果表明: 此方法几乎能预测到所有的伪结。与其他方法相比, 敏感度接近最优, 而特异性达到最优。     

多序列渐进式比对算法研究与比较

多序列比对是一种重要的生物信息学工具,在生物的进化分析以及蛋白质的结构预测方面有着重要的应用。以ClustalW为代表的渐进式多序列比对算法在这个领域取得了很大的成功,成为应用最为广泛的多序列比对程序。但其固有的缺陷阻碍了比对精度的进一步提高,近年来出现了许多渐进式比对算法的改进算法,并取得良好的效果。本文选取了其中比较有代表性的几种算法对其基本比对思想予以描述,并且利用多序列比对程序平台BAliBASE和仿真程序ROSE对它们的精度和速度分别进行了比较和评价。     

非编码RNA的生物信息学研究方法:RNA结构预测及其应用

近10多年来的研究逐步揭示了RNA的各种生物学功能。RNA不仅是信息从DNA传递到蛋白质的中间体,还直接参与基因沉默、表观遗传学修饰等生物学过程。单链的RNA在体内通过碱基配对折叠成一定的二级结构。介绍了现在预测RNA二级结构的主要算法及其应用,其中包括基于热力学、同源比对和统计学习的各种算法,以及如何引入实验数据辅助预测。二级结构预测算法被广泛用于寻找RNA功能单元和预测新非编码RNA等各种问题。如何利用高通量实验数据帮助结构预测,探索长非编码RNA功能,研究RNA与蛋白质相互作用,是RNA二级结构预测算法和应用的一些前沿方向。     

参数序列比对算法研究

序列比对是生物信息学中的一项重要任务,通过序列比对可以发现生物序列中的功能、结构和进化的信息。序列比对结果的生物学意义与所选择的匹配、不匹配、插入和删除以及空隙的罚分函数密切相关。现介绍一种参数序列比对方法,该方法把最佳比对作为权值和罚分的函数,可以系统地得到参数的选择对最佳比对结果的影响。然后将其应用于RNA序列比对,分析不同的参数选择对序列比对结果的影响。最后指出参数序列比对算法的应用以及未来的发展方向。     

基于Progressive多序列比对方法的求解多序列比对的启发式算法

在生物信息学研究中,生物序列比对问题占有重要的地位。多序列比对问题是一个NPC问题,由于时间和空间的限制不能够求出精确解。文中简要介绍了Feng和Doolittle提出的多序列比对算法的基本思想,并改进了该算法使之具有更好的比对精度。实验结果表明,新算法对解决一般的progressive多序列比对方法中遇到的局部最优问题有较好的效果。     

Consensus folding of unaligned RNA sequences revisited.

As one of the earliest problems in computational biology, RNA secondary structure prediction (sometimes referred to as "RNA folding") problem has attracted attention again, thanks to the recent discoveries of many novel non-coding RNA molecules. The two common approaches to this problem are de novo prediction of RNA secondary structure based on energy minimization and the consensus folding approach (computing the common secondary structure for a set of unaligned RNA sequences). Consensus folding algorithms work well when the correct seed alignment is part of the input to the problem. However, seed alignment itself is a challenging problem for diverged RNA families. In this paper, we propose a novel framework to predict the common secondary structure for unaligned RNA sequences. By matching putative stacks in RNA sequences, we make use of both primary sequence information and thermodynamic stability for prediction at the same time. We show that our method can predict the correct common RNA secondary structures even when we are given only a limited number of unaligned RNA sequences, and it outperforms current algorithms in sensitivity and accuracy.     

Empirical comparison of cross-platform normalization methods for gene expression data

Background

The prediction of secondary structure, i.e. the set of canonical base pairs between nucleotides, is a first step in developing an understanding of the function of an RNA sequence. The most accurate computational methods predict conserved structures for a set of homologous RNA sequences. These methods usually suffer from high computational complexity. In this paper, TurboFold, a novel and efficient method for secondary structure prediction for multiple RNA sequences, is presented.

Results

TurboFold takes, as input, a set of homologous RNA sequences and outputs estimates of the base pairing probabilities for each sequence. The base pairing probabilities for a sequence are estimated by combining intrinsic information, derived from the sequence itself via the nearest neighbor thermodynamic model, with extrinsic information, derived from the other sequences in the input set. For a given sequence, the extrinsic information is computed by using pairwise-sequence-alignment-based probabilities for co-incidence with each of the other sequences, along with estimated base pairing probabilities, from the previous iteration, for the other sequences. The extrinsic information is introduced as free energy modifications for base pairing in a partition function computation based on the nearest neighbor thermodynamic model. This process yields updated estimates of base pairing probability. The updated base pairing probabilities in turn are used to recompute extrinsic information, resulting in the overall iterative estimation procedure that defines TurboFold. TurboFold is benchmarked on a number of ncRNA datasets and compared against alternative secondary structure prediction methods. The iterative procedure in TurboFold is shown to improve estimates of base pairing probability with each iteration, though only small gains are obtained beyond three iterations. Secondary structures composed of base pairs with estimated probabilities higher than a significance threshold are shown to be more accurate for TurboFold than for alternative methods that estimate base pairing probabilities. TurboFold-MEA, which uses base pairing probabilities from TurboFold in a maximum expected accuracy algorithm for secondary structure prediction, has accuracy comparable to the best performing secondary structure prediction methods. The computational and memory requirements for TurboFold are modest and, in terms of sequence length and number of sequences, scale much more favorably than joint alignment and folding algorithms.

Conclusions

TurboFold is an iterative probabilistic method for predicting secondary structures for multiple RNA sequences that efficiently and accurately combines the information from the comparative analysis between sequences with the thermodynamic folding model. Unlike most other multi-sequence structure prediction methods, TurboFold does not enforce strict commonality of structures and is therefore useful for predicting structures for homologous sequences that have diverged significantly. TurboFold can be downloaded as part of the RNAstructure package at http://rna.urmc.rochester.edu.     

RNA global alignment in the joint sequence–structure space using elastic shape analysis

The functions of RNAs, like proteins, are determined by their structures, which, in turn, are determined by their sequences. Comparison/alignment of RNA molecules provides an effective means to predict their functions and understand their evolutionary relationships. For RNA sequence alignment, most methods developed for protein and DNA sequence alignment can be directly applied. RNA 3-dimensional structure alignment, on the other hand, tends to be more difficult than protein structure alignment due to the lack of regular secondary structures as observed in proteins. Most of the existing RNA 3D structure alignment methods use only the backbone geometry and ignore the sequence information. Using both the sequence and backbone geometry information in RNA alignment may not only produce more accurate classification, but also deepen our understanding of the sequence–structure–function relationship of RNA molecules. In this study, we developed a new RNA alignment method based on elastic shape analysis (ESA). ESA treats RNA structures as three dimensional curves with sequence information encoded on additional dimensions so that the alignment can be performed in the joint sequence–structure space. The similarity between two RNA molecules is quantified by a formal distance, geodesic distance. Based on ESA, a rigorous mathematical framework can be built for RNA structure comparison. Means and covariances of full structures can be defined and computed, and probability distributions on spaces of such structures can be constructed for a group of RNAs. Our method was further applied to predict functions of RNA molecules and showed superior performance compared with previous methods when tested on benchmark datasets. The programs are available at http://stat.fsu.edu/ ∼jinfeng/ESA.html.     

RNA secondary structure prediction based on free energy and phylogenetic analysis.

We describe a computational method for the prediction of RNA secondary structure that uses a combination of free energy and comparative sequence analysis strategies. Using a homology-based sequence alignment as a starting point, all favorable pairings with respect to the Turner energy function are identified. Each potentially paired region within a multiple sequence alignment is scored using a function that combines both predicted free energy and sequence covariation with optimized weightings. High scoring regions are ranked and sequentially incorporated to define a growing secondary structure. Using a single set of optimized parameters, it is possible to accurately predict the foldings of several test RNAs defined previously by extensive phylogenetic and experimental data (including tRNA, 5 S rRNA, SRP RNA, tmRNA, and 16 S rRNA). The algorithm correctly predicts approximately 80% of the secondary structure. A range of parameters have been tested to define the minimal sequence information content required to accurately predict secondary structure and to assess the importance of individual terms in the prediction scheme. This analysis indicates that prediction accuracy most strongly depends upon covariational information and only weakly on the energetic terms. However, relatively few sequences prove sufficient to provide the covariational information required for an accurate prediction. Secondary structures can be accurately defined by alignments with as few as five sequences and predictions improve only moderately with the inclusion of additional sequences.     

RNA secondary structure prediction from sequence alignments using a network of k-nearest neighbor classifiers

We present a machine learning method (a hierarchical network of k-nearest neighbor classifiers) that uses an RNA sequence alignment in order to predict a consensus RNA secondary structure. The input to the network is the mutual information, the fraction of complementary nucleotides, and a novel consensus RNAfold secondary structure prediction of a pair of alignment columns and its nearest neighbors. Given this input, the network computes a prediction as to whether a particular pair of alignment columns corresponds to a base pair. By using a comprehensive test set of 49 RFAM alignments, the program KNetFold achieves an average Matthews correlation coefficient of 0.81. This is a significant improvement compared with the secondary structure prediction methods PFOLD and RNAalifold. By using the example of archaeal RNase P, we show that the program can also predict pseudoknot interactions.     

A new approach to prediction of short-range conformational propensities in proteins

MOTIVATION: Knowledge-based potentials are valuable tools for protein structure modeling and evaluation of the quality of the structure prediction obtained by a variety of methods. Potentials of such type could be significantly enhanced by a proper exploitation of the evolutionary information encoded in related protein sequences. The new potentials could be valuable components of threading algorithms, ab-initio protein structure prediction, comparative modeling and structure modeling based on fragmentary experimental data. RESULTS: A new potential for scoring local protein geometry is designed and evaluated. The approach is based on the similarity of short protein fragments measured by an alignment of their sequence profiles. Sequence specificity of the resulting energy function has been compared with the specificity of simpler potentials using gapless threading and the ability to predict specific geometry of protein fragments. Significant improvement in threading sensitivity and in the ability to generate sequence-specific protein-like conformations has been achieved.