基于直向同源序列的比较基因组学研究

直向同源序列在不同的物种中具有相近甚至相同的功能、相似的调控途径, 扮演相似甚至相同的角色, 而且, 绝大多数核心生物功能就是由相当数量的直向同源基因所承担, 它是基因组序列的功能注释与分析中最可靠的选择, 其特殊的生物学特性决定: 利用直向同源序列开展比较基因组学研究, 必将为探测不同生物在进化过程中重要功能基因的出现、表达和丢失提供线索。文章从直向同源基因的基本特性、直向同源序列与比较基因组学的关系、应用直向同源序列开展比较基因组学相关研究方法、现状等展开综述。关键词: 直向同源; 比较基因组学; 生物学特性; 数据库     

生物多样性事业需要科学、可操作的物种概念

物种概念(species concept)是生物学家们持续关注的中心问题。物种概念决定物种划分, 而物种划分的合理性关系到生物多样性的研究、保护和可持续利用。本文把现有较流行的物种概念分为6类, 并对它们予以述评后指出: 虽然生物学物种概念、遗传学物种概念、进化物种概念、系统发生物种概念等从不同方面认识了物种的客观真实性和物种的本质, 但在实践中都难以操作。绝大多数物种是由分类学家划分的, 但目前所有的分类学物种概念都包含有不同程度的主观因素, 从而造成物种划分的人为性, 对生物多样性研究造成负面影响。因此, 生物多样性事业需要科学、可操作的物种概念。本文在吸收了生物学物种概念、遗传学物种概念、进化物种概念以及系统发生物种概念等的长处, 也分析了它们的不足和问题的基础上提出一个新的物种概念, 即形态-生物学物种概念。最后, 以芍药属(Paeonia)几个物种的处理为例, 说明这一新的物种概念是可操作的, 划分的物种在形态上区别分明, 易于鉴别。更重要的是, 其结果得到基于25或26个单拷贝或寡拷贝核基因DNA序列所作的系统发生分析的强有力支持。各个物种在系统发生树上形成单系和独立的谱系, 表明其间各自形成独立的基因库, 没有基因交换, 它们独立进化, 有各自的生态位和独立的分布区。因此, 利用这一新的物种概念能够达到预期目标。     

脊椎动物线粒体DNA的基因重排

将GenBank上已公布的321种脊椎动物mtDNA全序列,按纲整理归类,绘制基因排布图并进行比对。比对结果表明：81个物种的mtDNA中观察到基因重排现象,涉及脊椎动物各纲,其中9个物种同时存在基因顺序变化和基因倒置现象,所有的基因重排都涉及tRNA的变化。脊椎动物mtDNA基因顺序变化可分为3类：1)邻接的基因或片段的位置交换;2)接近于控制序列或轻链起始位点的基因或片段的位置变化,有时还伴随着控制序列的倍增;3)I-Q-M区域的变化。所有鸟类、蛇类、鳄类和有袋类的mtDNA具有各自独特的基因排列顺序。基因倒置现象常见于鱼类和哺乳类,且多表现为tRNA从轻链往重链上迁移。本文就这些基因重排现象、发生重排的机制和mtDNA基因重排在系统发生研究中的应用做一简要概述。     

分离自印度洋深海沉积物的部分链霉菌分离株多位点序列分析

【目的】采用多位点序列分析方法,研究印度洋3 000 m以下深海沉积物中分离得到的16S rRNA基因比对高度相似的链霉菌菌株的种间系统发育关系,同时探讨各管家基因及多基因聚类分析后的种间区分能力。【方法】以分离自印度洋深海沉积物的7株Streptomyces albidoflavus,11株Streptomyces cavourensis,16株Streptomyces pratensis为研究对象,以16S rRNA、atpD、recA和rpoB基因片段为标记,通过PCR扩增、测序,获得序列。同时从NCBI上下载5株S.pratensis上述4个基因的序列,将所有序列在MLST网站进行比对,并构建系统进化树进行比较。【结果】S.pratensis各菌株种内比较发现,16S rRNA基因构建的系统进化树中相同基因型的菌株没有聚在一起,系统进化树不稳定,区分度不高。其余3个构建的系统进化树稳定,菌株的聚类关系与MLST数据库得到的基因型一致。同时,多基因聚类分析后将菌株分为6个类群。在3个种的种间多位点序列比较中,除区分度明显增加、进化树更加稳定以外,还发现rec A基因进化上比较特殊的菌株。【结论】多位点序列分析将实验菌株分为很多不同的类型,成功地将所分离的链霉菌进行了更细的分类,同时也找到部分菌株在个别基因上差异较大。此方法可以用于相近种的快速鉴定。     

文蛤MmASS基因克隆及生物信息学分析

利用RACE技术克隆获得文蛤精氨酸琥珀酸合成酶基因(MmASS)的cDNA序列全长,该基因全长为1 588 bp,共编码415个氨基酸,分子量为46.81 kD,理论等电点pI为5.51。预测蛋白序列包含6个保守区域,主要集中了ATP结合位点、天门冬氨酸L-Asp结合位点以及瓜氨酸L-Cit结合位点。氨基酸序列比对结果显示,MmASS蛋白序列的保守功能域与其他物种具有较高的相似度,说明该基因高度保守,可能与其他物种的ASS基因具有相似的功能。系统进化树分析结果表明,MmASS的预测蛋白序列与缢蛏、贻贝、牡蛎等双壳贝类的亲缘关系最近,符合进化规律。亚细胞定位预测结果显示,MmASS定位于细胞质的可能性最大。MmASS不同组织的表达特征结果显示,该基因在各个组织中广泛存在,在文蛤鳃组织中的表达量最高(P<0.05),其次是肝胰腺组织,由此推测MmASS参与调节文蛤各个组织的生理活动,可能在文蛤的免疫防御机制中发挥重要功能。     

基于涉案兽类12S rRNA基因的NCBI数据库序列可靠性分析

本研究以常用于动物种属鉴定的12S rRNA基因位点为研究对象,利用所测得的17种常见涉案兽类12S rRNA基因部分片段序列及NCBI数据库中下载的该物种DNA序列及其近缘物种DNA序列,构建系统进化树。根据进化树的聚类情况,判断NCBI数据库中的相关基因序列或物种名称的正确性,并对其中错误序列的登陆号进行标记,以防对后续涉案动物的准确鉴定造成影响。分别从17种常见涉案兽类(共26份样本)中提取线粒体DNA,并利用通用引物扩增线粒体DNA上的12S rRNA基因部分片段并进行测序分析。通过NCBI数据库的Blast比对功能,筛选出与本研究物种同源性由高到低的物种,并从NCBI基因数据库中下载此类近缘物种的12S rRNA基因序列共351条,利用MEGA7.0软件构建该物种及其近缘物种系统进化树。通过比对发现NCBI中登录号为KP202279等3个序列所对应物种拉丁名错误。登录号为AY184436等11个序列所对应物种拉丁名可能存在疑问。GenBank中某些物种拉丁名有同种异名现象。因此,NCBI数据库数据可靠性有待进一步验证,只能作为涉案物种鉴定的参考数据之一,可借助构建系统进化树等方法来确认其结果的准确性。     

球孢白僵菌线粒体序列分析及系统进化树构建

线粒体是真核细胞的重要的细胞器,在细胞能量代谢和细胞衰老方面扮演了重要角色,同时也是研究物种进化关系的重要资源。本文应用球孢白僵菌的线粒体序列分析了白僵菌与粪壳菌纲其他11属的13种真菌间的进化关系,为阐明球孢白僵菌的进化地位提供了新的论据。线粒体编码的rnl,rns,25个tRNAs和14个蛋白质基因均由同一条链编码,大部分的tRNA分布为三个tRNA簇,这与粪壳菌纲的其他物种相似。与NCBI上公布的序列比对发现球孢白僵菌线粒体序列与蝇蚧霉线粒体序列最相似,相似率达73%,用14个蛋白编码基因通过邻接法(Neighbor-joint)和最大简约法(Maximum parsimony)构建的系统进化树也得到相同结论,其支持率均为100%。     

牦牛Myf-5基因的克隆测序及其系统进化研究

本研究对牦牛(九龙牦牛)的生肌决定因子5(Myf-5)基因进行了T-A克隆测序和分析,并与多个物种的相应基因编码区核苷酸序列、氨基酸序列进行了比对分析,构建了物种间的系统进化树.结果 表明:①牦牛的Myf-5基因大小为3313 bp,由3个外显子和2个内含子组成,与普通牛等9个物种比较,在基因大小上有较大的差异,但外显子和内含子的组成一致.②牦牛、大额牛、瘤牛、水牛、普通牛、人、恒河猴、黑猩猩、狗、家鼠、软体贝壳、鸡、斑马鱼等物种间Myf-5基因编码区的核苷酸序列同源性较高,其中,牦牛、大额牛、瘤牛、水牛、普通牛间的同源性最高,达98.4%以上,说明Myf-5基因编码区核苷酸序列在动物物种间具有较高的保守性.③牦牛、大额牛、瘤牛、水牛、普通牛、黑猩猩、恒河猴、人、狗、家鼠、软体贝壳、鸡、斑马鱼等物种间Myf-5基因编码蛋白的氨基酸序列具有较高的同源性,保守性强,这一结果与编码区核苷酸序列的比对结果基本一致.④根据核苷酸序列,用NJ法构建的牦牛、大额牛、瘤牛、水牛、普通牛、人、恒河猴、黑猩猩、狗、家鼠、软体贝壳、鸡、斑马鱼等13个物种的分子系统进化树显示:牦牛、普通牛、瘤牛、水牛和大额牛在较近的亲缘关系下聚为一大类,人、黑猩猩和恒河猴聚为另一大类,然后这两类再和其他物种相聚.这一分类结果与各物种的动物学分类结果和血液蛋白、mtDNA水平上的聚类结果基本一致,支持牦牛、普通牛和瘤牛3个物种间不应该是属间或亚属间关系,而应是同一属下的不同种,将牦牛、普通牛和瘤牛划分在同一个属--牛属(Bos),而将水牛划分在另一个单独的属的观点.同时也显示该基因序列适合用于动物学分类.     

基于支持向量机分类的RNA共同二级结构预测

比较序列分析作为RNA二级结构预测的最可靠途径, 已经发展出许多算法。将基于此方法的结构预测视为一个二值分类问题: 根据序列比对给出的可用信息, 判断比对中任意两列能否构成碱基对。分类器采用支持向量机方法, 特征向量包括共变信息、热力学信息和碱基互补比例。考虑到共变信息对序列相似性的要求, 通过引入一个序列相似度影响因子, 来调整不同序列相似度情况下共变信息和热力学信息对预测过程的影响, 提高了预测精度。通过49组Rfam-seed比对的验证, 显示了该方法的有效性, 算法的预测精度优于多数同类算法, 并且可以预测简单的假节。     

五种鲟鱼线粒体控制区异质性和系统发育分析

利用保守引物得到五种鲟鱼的线粒体DNA（mtDNA）控制区（D-loop）全长,长度在795~813 bp。序列中包括了CBS（conserved sequence block）和TAS（termination-associated sequence）区域。利用最大似然法、最大简约法和贝叶斯法构建了系统发育树,发育树分成两枝,呈现明显的生物地理分布。分析表明,现有的鳇属鱼类不是单系群起源。五种鲟鱼D-loop序列都存在长度和数目不等串联重复序列,长度在78~82 bp之间,重复序列拷贝数在4~6次不等,因此造成了mtDNA广泛的异质性现象。不同种类的重复序列单元十分相似,达氏鳇和史氏鲟重复序列单元相似度为82.93%,西伯利亚鲟和俄罗斯鲟重复序列单元相似度为90.59%。在串联重复序列后是一段不完全重复序列。通过与已有同种的重复序列比对发现不同鲟鱼重复序列相同,不同地理区域相同物种的重复序列可能发生过分子内重组。这些表明重复序列在鲟鱼进化上具有相关意义,推测重复序列可能产生在种分化前,重组发生在种分化后。     

Computational methods for Gene Orthology inference

Accurate inference of orthologous genes is a pre-requisite for most comparative genomics studies, and is also important for functional annotation of new genomes. Identification of orthologous gene sets typically involves phylogenetic tree analysis, heuristic algorithms based on sequence conservation, synteny analysis, or some combination of these approaches. The most direct tree-based methods typically rely on the comparison of an individual gene tree with a species tree. Once the two trees are accurately constructed, orthologs are straightforwardly identified by the definition of orthology as those homologs that are related by speciation, rather than gene duplication, at their most recent point of origin. Although ideal for the purpose of orthology identification in principle, phylogenetic trees are computationally expensive to construct for large numbers of genes and genomes, and they often contain errors, especially at large evolutionary distances. Moreover, in many organisms, in particular prokaryotes and viruses, evolution does not appear to have followed a simple 'tree-like' mode, which makes conventional tree reconciliation inapplicable. Other, heuristic methods identify probable orthologs as the closest homologous pairs or groups of genes in a set of organisms. These approaches are faster and easier to automate than tree-based methods, with efficient implementations provided by graph-theoretical algorithms enabling comparisons of thousands of genomes. Comparisons of these two approaches show that, despite conceptual differences, they produce similar sets of orthologs, especially at short evolutionary distances. Synteny also can aid in identification of orthologs. Often, tree-based, sequence similarity- and synteny-based approaches can be combined into flexible hybrid methods.     

植物LEAFY 同源基因的研究进展

本文就近10年来LEAFY(简写为LFY)同源基因的研究进展做了综合分析。通过对19种植物中已分离到的LFY同源基因的序列比较分析发现: LFY同源基因编码区核苷酸和氨基酸序列同源性都较高;在双子叶植物基因组中, 拷贝数却有所不同。该基因的表达特性显示其在不同植物中表达的时间和空间有所差异。根据已知序列推导的氨基酸序列构建的系统进化树表明, 单子叶植物与裸子植物的亲缘关系近于双子叶与裸子植物的亲缘关系。上述研究资料为植物成花机理研究提供了重要参考, 且在研究植物系统进化方面也具有重要的意义。     

Testing the ortholog conjecture with comparative functional genomic data from mammals

A common assumption in comparative genomics is that orthologous genes share greater functional similarity than do paralogous genes (the "ortholog conjecture"). Many methods used to computationally predict protein function are based on this assumption, even though it is largely untested. Here we present the first large-scale test of the ortholog conjecture using comparative functional genomic data from human and mouse. We use the experimentally derived functions of more than 8,900 genes, as well as an independent microarray dataset, to directly assess our ability to predict function using both orthologs and paralogs. Both datasets show that paralogs are often a much better predictor of function than are orthologs, even at lower sequence identities. Among paralogs, those found within the same species are consistently more functionally similar than those found in a different species. We also find that paralogous pairs residing on the same chromosome are more functionally similar than those on different chromosomes, perhaps due to higher levels of interlocus gene conversion between these pairs. In addition to offering implications for the computational prediction of protein function, our results shed light on the relationship between sequence divergence and functional divergence. We conclude that the most important factor in the evolution of function is not amino acid sequence, but rather the cellular context in which proteins act.     

BranchClust: a phylogenetic algorithm for selecting gene families

Background  

Automated methods for assembling families of orthologous genes include those based on sequence similarity scores and those based on phylogenetic approaches. The first are easy to automate but usually they do not distinguish between paralogs and orthologs or have restriction on the number of taxa. Phylogenetic methods often are based on reconciliation of a gene tree with a known rooted species tree; a limitation of this approach, especially in case of prokaryotes, is that the species tree is often unknown, and that from the analyses of single gene families the branching order between related organisms frequently is unresolved.     

Complete mitochondrial genome of the grass carp (Ctenopharyngodon idella, Teleostei): insight into its phylogenic position within Cyprinidae

Genome comparison has shed light on many fields of both basic and applied research, including the study of species phylogeny. Grass carp (Ctenopharyngodon idella) belongs to Cyprinidae, the largest freshwater fish family; but which subfamily it belongs to remains a controversial issue. In this study, the complete mitochondrial genome (mitogenome) sequence of grass carp was determined and phylogenetic analyses of all mitochondrial protein-coding genes and a nuclear gene (RAG 2) were conducted to explore the evolutionary relationship of grass carp with other cyprinid species. The mitogenome of grass carp is 16,609 bp in length. As with most other vertebrates, it contains the same gene order and an identical number of genes or regions, including 13 protein-coding genes, two rRNA genes, 22 tRNA genes and one putative control region. Phylogenetic analyses using two different datasets (mitochondrial and nuclear) and three different computational algorithms (Bayesian, MP and ML) all revealed two distinct groups with high statistical support, indicating that Cyprininae and Leuciscinae are two separate, valid subfamilies. Importantly, our phylogenetic result provides strong molecular evidence in support of the placement of Ctenopharyngodon in Leuciscinae rather than in Cyprininae.     

The Princeton Protein Orthology Database (P-POD): a comparative genomics analysis tool for biologists

Many biological databases that provide comparative genomics information and tools are now available on the internet. While certainly quite useful, to our knowledge none of the existing databases combine results from multiple comparative genomics methods with manually curated information from the literature. Here we describe the Princeton Protein Orthology Database (P-POD, http://ortholog.princeton.edu), a user-friendly database system that allows users to find and visualize the phylogenetic relationships among predicted orthologs (based on the OrthoMCL method) to a query gene from any of eight eukaryotic organisms, and to see the orthologs in a wider evolutionary context (based on the Jaccard clustering method). In addition to the phylogenetic information, the database contains experimental results manually collected from the literature that can be compared to the computational analyses, as well as links to relevant human disease and gene information via the OMIM, model organism, and sequence databases. Our aim is for the P-POD resource to be extremely useful to typical experimental biologists wanting to learn more about the evolutionary context of their favorite genes. P-POD is based on the commonly used Generic Model Organism Database (GMOD) schema and can be downloaded in its entirety for installation on one's own system. Thus, bioinformaticians and software developers may also find P-POD useful because they can use the P-POD database infrastructure when developing their own comparative genomics resources and database tools.     

AffyTrees: facilitating comparative analysis of Affymetrix plant microarray chips

Microarrays measure the expression of large numbers of genes simultaneously and can be used to delve into interaction networks involving many genes at a time. However, it is often difficult to decide to what extent knowledge about the expression of genes gleaned in one model organism can be transferred to other species. This can be examined either by measuring the expression of genes of interest under comparable experimental conditions in other species, or by gathering the necessary data from comparable microarray experiments. However, it is essential to know which genes to compare between the organisms. To facilitate comparison of expression data across different species, we have implemented a Web-based software tool that provides information about sequence orthologs across a range of Affymetrix microarray chips. AffyTrees provides a quick and easy way of assigning which probe sets on different Affymetrix chips measure the expression of orthologous genes. Even in cases where gene or genome duplications have complicated the assignment, groups of comparable probe sets can be identified. The phylogenetic trees provide a resource that can be used to improve sequence annotation and detect biases in the sequence complement of Affymetrix chips. Being able to identify sequence orthologs and recognize biases in the sequence complement of chips is necessary for reliable cross-species microarray comparison. As the amount of work required to generate a single phylogeny in a nonautomated manner is considerable, AffyTrees can greatly reduce the workload for scientists interested in large-scale cross-species comparisons.     

Automated ortholog inference from phylogenetic trees and calculation of orthology reliability

MOTIVATION: Orthologous proteins in different species are likely to have similar biochemical function and biological role. When annotating a newly sequenced genome by sequence homology, the most precise and reliable functional information can thus be derived from orthologs in other species. A standard method of finding orthologs is to compare the sequence tree with the species tree. However, since the topology of phylogenetic tree is not always reliable one might get incorrect assignments. RESULTS: Here we present a novel method that resolves this problem by analyzing a set of bootstrap trees instead of the optimal tree. The frequency of orthology assignments in the bootstrap trees can be interpreted as a support value for the possible orthology of the sequences. Our method is efficient enough to analyze data in the scale of whole genomes. It is implemented in Java and calculates orthology support levels for all pairwise combinations of homologous sequences of two species. The method was tested on simulated datasets and on real data of homologous proteins.     

CSA: An efficient algorithm to improve circular DNA multiple alignment

Background  

The comparison of homologous sequences from different species is an essential approach to reconstruct the evolutionary history of species and of the genes they harbour in their genomes. Several complete mitochondrial and nuclear genomes are now available, increasing the importance of using multiple sequence alignment algorithms in comparative genomics. MtDNA has long been used in phylogenetic analysis and errors in the alignments can lead to errors in the interpretation of evolutionary information. Although a large number of multiple sequence alignment algorithms have been proposed to date, they all deal with linear DNA and cannot handle directly circular DNA. Researchers interested in aligning circular DNA sequences must first rotate them to the "right" place using an essentially manual process, before they can use multiple sequence alignment tools.