Comparative sequence analyses of the major quantitative trait locus phosphorus uptake 1 (Pup1) reveal a complex genetic structure

The p hosphorus up take 1 ( Pup1 ) locus was identified as a major quantitative trait locus (QTL) for tolerance of phosphorus deficiency in rice. Near-isogenic lines with the Pup1 region from tolerant donor parent Kasalath typically show threefold higher phosphorus uptake and grain yield in phosphorus-deficient field trials than the intolerant parent Nipponbare. In this study, we report the fine mapping of the Pup1 locus to the long arm of chromosome 12 (15.31–15.47 Mb). Genes in the region were initially identified on the basis of the Nipponbare reference genome, but did not reveal any obvious candidate genes related to phosphorus uptake. Kasalath BAC clones were therefore sequenced and revealed a 278-kbp sequence significantly different from the syntenic regions in Nipponbare (145 kb) and in the indica reference genome of 93-11 (742 kbp). Size differences are caused by large insertions or deletions (INDELs), and an exceptionally large number of retrotransposon and transposon-related elements (TEs) present in all three sequences (45%–54%). About 46 kb of the Kasalath sequence did not align with the entire Nipponbare genome, and only three Nipponbare genes (fatty acid α-dioxygenase, dirigent protein and aspartic proteinase) are highly conserved in Kasalath. Two Nipponbare genes (expressed proteins) might have evolved by at least three TE integrations in an ancestor gene that is still present in Kasalath. Several predicted Kasalath genes are novel or unknown genes that are mainly located within INDEL regions. Our results highlight the importance of sequencing QTL regions in the respective donor parent, as important genes might not be present in the current reference genomes.     

MITE类转座子mPing在水稻不同亚种间的差异分析

mPing是水稻中第一个被鉴定出的有活性的MITE类转座子,为了探索mPing在水稻粳稻品种日本晴和籼稻品种93-11基因组中的分布差异,本研究首先运用Southern杂交的方法初步检测m Ping在两个亚种中拷贝数的差异,然后通过同源性探寻方法发现,m Ping在水稻亚种日本晴和93-11基因组中拷贝数分别为52和14,并且日本晴基因组中的m Ping均为m Ping-1,93-11中m Ping-1的拷贝数为3,m Ping-2的拷贝数为11。通过分析m Ping上下游5 kb侧翼序列发现m Ping在日本晴和93-11中分别与23和3个已知基因相关联。本研究为阐明以m Ping的分布多样性为主要原因的粳稻和籼稻之间的遗传差异提供初步理论基础。     

TNT biotransformation: when chemistry confronts mineralization

The recent increase and availability of whole genome sequences have revised our view of the metabolic capabilities of microorganisms. From these data, a large number of orphan biosynthesis pathways have been identified by bio-informatics. Orphan biosynthetic pathways are gene clusters for which the encoded natural product is unknown. It is worthy to note that the number of orphan pathways coding for putative natural products outnumbers by far the number of currently known metabolites for a given organism. Whilst Streptomyces coelicolor was known to produce only 4 secondary metabolites, the genome analysis revealed 18 additional orphan biosynthetic pathways. It is intriguing to note that this is not a particular case because analysis of other microbial genomes originating from myxobacteria, cyanobacteria and filamentous fungi showed the presence of a comparable or even larger number of orphan pathways. The discovery of these numerous pathways represents a treasure trove, which is likely to grow exponentially in the future, uncovering many novel and possibly bio-active compounds. The few natural products that have been correlated with their orphan pathway are merely the tip of the iceberg, whilst plenty of metabolites await discovery. The recent strategies and methods to access these promising hidden natural products are discussed in this review.     

The Journey to smORFland

The genome sequences completed so far contain more than 20 000 genes with unknown function and no similarity to genes in other genomes. The origin and evolution of the orphan genes is an enigma. Here, we discuss the suggestion that some orphan genes may represent pseudogenes or short fragments of genes that were functional in the genome of a common ancestor. These may be the remains of unsuccessful duplication or horizontal gene transfer events, in which the acquired sequences have entered the fragmentation process and thereby lost their similarity to genes in other species. This scenario is supported by a recent case study of orphan genes in several closely related species of Rickettsia, where full-length ancestral genes were reconstructed from sets of short, overlapping orphan genes. One of these was found to display similarity to genes encoding proteins with ankyrin-repeat domains.     

喜马红景天叶绿体基因组特征及其系统发育分析

以青藏高原特有药用植物——喜马红景天（Rhodiola himalensis）为试验材料,利用高通量测序技术对喜马红景天进行叶绿体基因组测序、组装和注释,获得完整的叶绿体基因组。结果显示：喜马红景天叶绿体基因组全长为151 074 bp,GC含量为37.8%,具有1个长单拷贝区、1个短单拷贝区和1对反向重复区的典型四分体结构,其序列长度分别为82 309、17 017、25 874 bp;叶绿体基因组共编码130个基因,其中编码蛋白的基因86个、编码tRNA的基因37个、编码rRNA的基因7个;叶绿体基因组共检测出25 513个密码子,其中编码亮氨酸（Leu）的密码子占比最大;喜马红景天IRa和IRb区的rps19和ycf1基因缺失,长单拷贝区的trnH基因收缩;喜马红景天与圣地红景天（R. sacra）亲缘关系最近;短单拷贝区域的单核苷酸多态性（SNP）变异频率最高。本研究报道了喜马红景天的叶绿体基因组,并对其进行了组装、注释和序列分析,为今后开展喜马红景天的遗传多样性研究和合理开发利用提供理论依据。     

The CanOE strategy: integrating genomic and metabolic contexts across multiple prokaryote genomes to find candidate genes for orphan enzymes

Of all biochemically characterized metabolic reactions formalized by the IUBMB, over one out of four have yet to be associated with a nucleic or protein sequence, i.e. are sequence-orphan enzymatic activities. Few bioinformatics annotation tools are able to propose candidate genes for such activities by exploiting context-dependent rather than sequence-dependent data, and none are readily accessible and propose result integration across multiple genomes. Here, we present CanOE (Candidate genes for Orphan Enzymes), a four-step bioinformatics strategy that proposes ranked candidate genes for sequence-orphan enzymatic activities (or orphan enzymes for short). The first step locates "genomic metabolons", i.e. groups of co-localized genes coding proteins catalyzing reactions linked by shared metabolites, in one genome at a time. These metabolons can be particularly helpful for aiding bioanalysts to visualize relevant metabolic data. In the second step, they are used to generate candidate associations between un-annotated genes and gene-less reactions. The third step integrates these gene-reaction associations over several genomes using gene families, and summarizes the strength of family-reaction associations by several scores. In the final step, these scores are used to rank members of gene families which are proposed for metabolic reactions. These associations are of particular interest when the metabolic reaction is a sequence-orphan enzymatic activity. Our strategy found over 60,000 genomic metabolons in more than 1,000 prokaryote organisms from the MicroScope platform, generating candidate genes for many metabolic reactions, of which more than 70 distinct orphan reactions. A computational validation of the approach is discussed. Finally, we present a case study on the anaerobic allantoin degradation pathway in Escherichia coli K-12.     

Genomic landscape of parallel domestication of upland rice and its implications

Parallel domestication has been widely acknowledged but itsgenetic basis remains largely unclear. As an important rice ecotype, upland rice was assumedly domesticated multiple times in two rice subspecies (Indica and Japonica) and provides a feasible system to explore the genetic basis of parallel domestication. To uncover the genome‐wide pattern of genetic differentiation between upland and lowland rice and explore the parallelism of genetic changes during upland rice domestication, we obtained whole‐genome sequences of 95 rice landraces and yielded genome‐wide expression data for five tissues of representative accessions of upland and lowland rice. Our phylogenetic analyses confirmed multiple domestications of the upland ecotype in two rice subspecies. Genomic scans based on resequencing data identified substantial differentiation between the upland and lowland ecotypes with 11.4% and 14.8% of the genome diverged between the two ecotypes in Indica and Japonica, respectively. Further genome‐wide gene expression analyses found that 30% of effectively expressed genes were significantly differentiated between two ecotypes, indicating the importance of regulation changes in the domestication of upland rice. Importantly, we found that only 1.8% of differentiated genomes and 1.6% of differentially expressed genes were shared by upland Indica and upland Japonica, suggestive of largely unparallel genetic alterations during upland rice domestication. These findings not only provide new insights into the genetic basis of parallel domestication at the genome scale but could also facilitate geneticimprovement and breeding of rice and crops in general.     

变灰青霉线粒体基因组特征及系统发育分析

本研究对一株分离自细虫草上的变灰青霉SFY00C3菌株线粒体基因组进行测定,分析其组成特征,并探究其与青霉属真菌的系统发育关系。结果表明,SFY00C3的线粒体基因组是一条长度为28 301 bp的环状DNA分子,共编码42个基因(15个蛋白编码基因、2个rRNA基因和25个tRNA基因),其碱基组成有显著的A-T偏好性,25个tRNA基因均可形成典型三叶草结构,并存在32处G-U错配。通过青霉属物种间共线性分析发现其线粒体基因组发生了基因重排;共有的14个蛋白编码基因的Ka/Ks值均小于1,表明受到了纯化选择压力的影响;系统发育分析表明：SFY00C3在青霉属中是一个独立的分支,应该是6种青霉祖先的姊妹。本研究丰富了变灰青霉的线粒体基因组序列信息,为青霉属的系统发育、资源保护及遗传多样性研究提供基础数据。     

水稻ILP标记遗传图谱的构建

内含子长度多态性(ILP)是一种基于PCR的新型分子标记, 具有许多突出的优点。我们先前利用已公布的籼稻品种93-11和粳稻品种日本晴的基因组序列数据, 已开发了172个水稻ILP标记。为了检验这些ILP标记的可靠性及其在遗传作图中的可用性, 利用一个BC1F1(日本晴/93-11//日本晴)群体, 构建了一张含172个ILP标记座位和13个SSR标记座位的水稻遗传图谱, 总长度为1 905.7 cM。比较显示, 图谱上所有标记的顺序与其物理顺序完全一致, 证明了利用ILP标记进行遗传作图的可行性和有效性。文中还对标记偏分离现象进行了分析, 发现在第6号染色体短臂上存在一个严重偏分离的区域。     

粳稻子预44抗LP11稻瘟病菌基因Pizy6(t)的定位

稻瘟病是世界范围内严重威胁水稻(Oryza sativa)生产可持续发展的主要病害之一,每年造成10%–30%的水稻产量损失。抗瘟水稻品种的培育和育种利用是解决稻瘟病危害最经济有效的方法。对新的致病性菌株进行分离和筛选是定位与克隆抗病新基因及抗病育种的基础。选择分离自不同稻瘟病发生重灾区的单孢菌株,对广谱抗瘟水稻子预44和感病水稻江南香糯进行致病性鉴定,筛选出两材料间致病性差异明显的5个菌株;进一步利用子预44、湘资3150、9311、日本晴、丽江新团黑谷、中花11、TP309和江南香糯8个抗瘟性不同的水稻材料,对筛选的菌株进行致病性鉴定。结果显示,LP11能使广谱抗瘟籼稻湘资3150严重发病,推测其很可能是新进化出来的强致病菌株。利用子预44和江南香糯杂交构建的F2群体进行抗性遗传分析,结果表明子预44对LP11菌株的抗性是由单显性基因控制。利用SSR分子标记和图位克隆方法在子预44中定位了1个抗稻瘟病基因Pizy6(t)。研究结果不仅为抗病相关研究提供了有价值的新菌株,而且为子预44中抗稻瘟病基因Pizy6(t)的克隆奠定了基础。     

苦马豆叶绿体基因组结构及其特征分析

利用Illumina高通量测序平台对苦马豆（Sphaerophysa salsula）进行测序和组装,获得完整的苦马豆叶绿体基因组序列。组装结果表明,苦马豆叶绿体基因组全长123 327 bp,存在IR区丢失,不具有四分体结构;注释结果显示,苦马豆叶绿体基因组共编码108个基因,其中包含74个蛋白编码基因、4个rRNA基因和30个tRNA基因;叶绿体基因组序列上共检测到99个SSR位点,包含75个单核苷酸、17个二核苷酸和7个三核苷酸重复单元;系统发育分析显示,苦马豆和骆驼刺为姊妹群,亲缘关系最近。这为今后苦马豆遗传多样性、群体遗传结构和物种形成机制研究奠定了基础。     

CRISPR/Cas9系统在昆虫中的应用

CRISPR/Cas9(clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeat/CRISPR-associated nuclease 9)技术是一种RNA引导的基因组靶向编辑技术,能对基因组序列进行精确编辑,在探究基因功能、修复受损基因、沉默有害基因、改良品质性状等方面具有广阔的应用前景。近年来,随着对CRISPR/Cas9系统研究的不断深入和改造,该系统以其操作简易、省时、高效等优点在生物学研究的众多领域中得以推广和应用,特别是在果蝇(Bombyx mori)、家蚕(silkworm)、埃及伊蚊(Aedes aegypti)和蝴蝶(butterfly)等多种昆虫中。本文概述了CRISPR/Cas9的结构、作用原理及发展优化,总结了CRISPR/Cas9导入昆虫的策略和在昆虫中的应用,以及对CRISPR/Cas9系统产生脱靶问题的应对策略,以期对经济昆虫和有益昆虫的分子育种、害虫的生物技术防控等研究提供参考。     

Development and high-throughput genotyping of substitution lines carring the chromosome segments of indica 9311 in the background of japonica Nipponbare

Chromosome segment substitution lines (CSSLs) are useful for the precise mapping of quartitative trait loci (QTLs) and dissection of the genetic basis of complex traits.In this study,two whole-genome sequenced rice cultivars,the japonica Nipponbare and indica 9311 were used as recipient and dtonor,respectively.A population with 57 CSSLs was developed after crossing and back-crossing assisted by mo lecular rnarkers,and genotypes were identified using a high-throughput resequencing strategy,Detailed graphical genotypes of 38 lines were constructed based on resequencing data.These CSSLs had a total of 95 substituted segments derived from indica 9311,with an average of about 2.5 segments pet CSSL and eight segments per chromosome,and covered about 87.4％ of the rice whole genome.A multiple linear regression QTL analysis mapped four QTLs for 1000-grain weight.The largest-effect QTL was located in a region on chromosome 5 that contained a cloned major QTL GW5/qSW5 for grain size in rice.These CSSLs with a background of Nipponbare may provide powerful tools for future whole-genome discovery and functional study of essential genes/QTLs in rice,and offer ideal materials and foundations for japonica breeding.     

Estimation of the number of authentic orphan genes in bacterial genomes.

Genome annotation produces a considerable number of putative proteins lacking sequence similarity to known proteins. These are referred to as "orphans." The proportion of orphan genes varies among genomes, and is independent of genome size. In the present study, we show that the proportion of orphan genes roughly correlates with the isolation index of organisms (IIO), an indicator introduced in the present study, which represents the degree of isolation of a given genome as measured by sequence similarity. However, there are outlier genomes with respect to the linear correlation, consisting of those genomes that may contain excess amounts of orphan genes. Comparisons of genome sequences among closely related strains revealed that some of the annotated genes are not conserved, suggesting that they are ORFs occurring by chance. Exclusion of these non-conserved ORFs within closely related genomes improved the correlation between the proportion of orphan genes and the IIO values. Assuming that the correlation holds in general, this relationship was used to estimate the number of "authentic" orphan genes in a genome. Using this definition of authentic orphan genes, the anomalies arising from over-assignments, e.g., the percentages of structural annotations, were corrected for 16 genomes, including those of five archaea.     

Dynamic nucleotide-binding site and leucine-rich repeat-encoding genes in the grass family

The proper use of resistance genes (R genes) requires a comprehensive understanding of their genomics and evolution. We analyzed genes encoding nucleotide-binding sites and leucine-rich repeats in the genomes of rice (Oryza sativa), maize (Zea mays), sorghum (Sorghum bicolor), and Brachypodium distachyon. Frequent deletions and translocations of R genes generated prevalent presence/absence polymorphism between different accessions/species. The deletions were caused by unequal crossover, homologous repair, nonhomologous repair, or other unknown mechanisms. R gene loci identified from different genomes were mapped onto the chromosomes of rice cv Nipponbare using comparative genomics, resulting in an integrated map of 495 R loci. Sequence analysis of R genes from the partially sequenced genomes of an African rice cultivar and 10 wild accessions suggested that there are many additional R gene lineages in the AA genome of Oryza. The R genes with chimeric structures (termed type I R genes) are diverse in different rice accessions but only account for 5.8% of all R genes in the Nipponbare genome. In contrast, the vast majority of R genes in the rice genome are type II R genes, which are highly conserved in different accessions. Surprisingly, pseudogene-causing mutations in some type II lineages are often conserved, indicating that their conservations were not due to their functions. Functional R genes cloned from rice so far have more type II R genes than type I R genes, but type I R genes are predicted to contribute considerable diversity in wild species. Type I R genes tend to reduce the microsynteny of their flanking regions significantly more than type II R genes, and their flanking regions have slightly but significantly lower G/C content than those of type II R genes.