玉米Dof转录因子家族基因的全基因组分析

Dof转录因子家族在植物生长发育和基因表达调控过程中具有重要的作用,本文利用公布的玉米基因组草图数据,利用生物信息学方法对玉米全基因组Dof基因的结构、系统进化关系和保守motif进行了分析。结果表明:玉米中共有18个Dof类型基因,命名为ZmDof1-ZmDof18,其蛋白质长度在211aa至618aa之间,通过系统进化树分析后,18个Dof基因可以明显的分为三类,此外玉米Dof基因的数目远远小于水稻和拟南芥,基因复制现象较少是玉米Dof基因数量较少的原因之一,MEME分析证实了Dof基因含有三个保守的motif。对玉米Dof类型基因的系统分析,将有助于玉米Dof类型基因的克隆和功能的进一步研究。     

Genome-wide evolution analysis reveals low CpG contents of fast-evolving genes and identifies antiviral microRNAs

Noncoding RNAs(ncRNAs) play important roles in many biological processes and provide materials for evolutionary adaptations beyond protein-coding genes, such as in the arms race between the host and pathogen. However, currently, a comprehensive high-resolution analysis of primate genomes that includes the latest annotated ncRNAs is not available. Here, we developed a computational pipeline to estimate the selections that act on noncoding regions based on comparisons with a large number of reference sequences in introns adjacent to the interested regions. Our method yields result comparable with those of the established codon-based method and phyloP method for coding genes; thus, it provides a holistic framework for estimating the selection on the entire genome. We further showed that fastevolving protein-coding genes and their corresponding 50 UTRs have a significantly lower frequency of the CpG dinucleotides than those evolving at an average pace, and these fast-evolving genes are enriched in the process of immunity and host defense. We also identified fast-evolving miRNAs with antiviral functions in cells. Our results provide a resource for high-resolution evolution analysis of the primate genomes.