The power and the limitations of cross-species protein identification by mass spectrometry-driven sequence similarity searches

Mass spectrometry-driven BLAST (MS BLAST) is a database search protocol for identifying unknown proteins by sequence similarity to homologous proteins available in a database. MS BLAST utilizes redundant, degenerate, and partially inaccurate peptide sequence data obtained by de novo interpretation of tandem mass spectra and has become a powerful tool in functional proteomic research. Using computational modeling, we evaluated the potential of MS BLAST for proteome-wide identification of unknown proteins. We determined how the success rate of protein identification depends on the full-length sequence identity between the queried protein and its closest homologue in a database. We also estimated phylogenetic distances between organisms under study and related reference organisms with completely sequenced genomes that allow substantial coverage of unknown proteomes.     

青藏高原黄绿蜜环菌纯培养菌种的分离培养及分子鉴定

首次从采自青藏高原、与高原牧草嵩草属Kobresia草本植物形成外生菌根的黄绿蜜环菌Armillarialuteo-virens子实体中分离获得一组织分离菌株,运用rDNA-ITS和rDNA-IGS-1测序技术对该组织分离菌株是否为黄绿蜜环菌的纯培养菌种进行分子鉴定,并基于黄绿蜜环菌的5.8S/ITS和IGS-1序列进行核酸序列数据库GenBank同源性检索比对、构建系统发育树。结果表明,本研究获得的黄绿蜜环菌子实体组织分离菌株即为其纯培养菌种。基于ITS的系统发育分析表明黄绿蜜环菌与口蘑科内其它属间物种的系统发育关系较远;基于IGS-1的系统发育分析表明黄绿蜜环菌与蜜环菌属内的其它种序列差异较大,系统发育关系较远,而与Lepiota属内的部分种具有较近的系统发育关系。本研究首次基于分子手段对我国青藏高原的黄绿蜜环菌种进行了分离培养、分子鉴定和系统发育分析,为黄绿蜜环菌的科学分类提供了分子依据。     

美洲大蠊Per a 9的抗原表位特征及三维结构建模

Per a 9是美洲大蠊主要过敏原蛋白之一。通过生物信息学方法了解美洲大蠊过敏原蛋白Per a 9的结构特征,为蟑螂变态反应性疾病的诊断和治疗提供线索。BLAST得到Per a 9相似序列,构建同源进化树,结果显示美洲大蠊Per a 9与德国小蠊精氨酸激酶在进化上具有较近的亲缘关系。Per a 9主要为α＋β结构的亲水性蛋白,其主要抗原表位集中于33—46、55—74、89—117、123—135、199—217、235—243、251—266、286—354区域。Motif预测其具有1个鸟嘌呤磷酸转移酶活性位点,6个蛋白激酶C磷酸化位点,7个酪氨酸激酶II磷酸化位点和2个N豆蔻酰化位点。其预测的三维结构基本能反应Per a 9真实的空间构象,这将为今后进一步了解和掌握Per a 9结构和功能的关系打下理论基础。     

DendroBLAST: Approximate Phylogenetic Trees in the Absence of Multiple Sequence Alignments

The rapidly growing availability of genome information has created considerable demand for both fast and accurate phylogenetic inference algorithms. We present a novel method called DendroBLAST for reconstructing phylogenetic dendrograms/trees from protein sequences using BLAST. This method differs from other methods by incorporating a simple model of sequence evolution to test the effect of introducing sequence changes on the reliability of the bipartitions in the inferred tree. Using realistic simulated sequence data we demonstrate that this method produces phylogenetic trees that are more accurate than other commonly-used distance based methods though not as accurate as maximum likelihood methods from good quality multiple sequence alignments. In addition to tests on simulated data, we use DendroBLAST to generate input trees for a supertree reconstruction of the phylogeny of the Archaea. This independent analysis produces an approximate phylogeny of the Archaea that has both high precision and recall when compared to previously published analysis of the same dataset using conventional methods. Taken together these results demonstrate that approximate phylogenetic trees can be produced in the absence of multiple sequence alignments, and we propose that these trees will provide a platform for improving and informing downstream bioinformatic analysis. A web implementation of the DendroBLAST method is freely available for use at http://www.dendroblast.com/.     

安徽省土壤绿僵菌分离株的分子鉴定

目的进一步验证ITS序列的系统发育分析可为绿僵菌属种的鉴定提供重要的参考依据。方法对分离自安徽土壤的13株绿僵菌菌株的内转录间隔区（ITS）片段进行PCR扩增和序列测定,采用Blast方法将测序结果在GenBank中进行同源搜索,依据邻接法构建获得与其相关菌株的ITS序列系统发育树。结果供试菌株分别位于系统发育树的3个分支上,分支I包括8个菌株和金龟子绿僵菌小孢变种,1个菌株和金龟子绿僵菌鳞鳃金龟变种形成分支III,另外4个菌株和黄绿绿僵菌棉蚜变种聚为分支X。结论结合同源比较的数据,将这8个、4个和1个绿僵菌菌株分别鉴定为金龟子绿僵菌小孢变种、黄绿绿僵菌棉蚜变种和金龟子绿僵菌鳞鳃金龟变种。     

脂肪酶产生菌Aspergillus niger NJY-1的选育及鉴定

目的：筛选耐高温脂肪酶产生菌株并对其进行18SrDNA鉴定及系统进化树亲缘分析。方法：通过聚乙烯醇橄榄油乳化液方法对所选菌株的粗酶酶学性质进行研究并通过BLAST和MAGE4软件鉴定和聚类分析。结果：从云南省福贡县的榨油作坊土壤中筛选到一株耐高温产酸性脂肪酶的菌株NJY-1,对其粗酶酶学性质进行研究结果表明：该菌株酶促反应的最适作用pH为6.0,pH稳定性为3.0-8.0,最适作用温度为50℃,温度稳定性为35-60℃。该菌株通过18SrDNA鉴定及系统进化树分析,NJY-1与Aspergillus niger具有最紧密的亲缘关系,达到99%。结论：筛选到了1株耐高温脂肪酶产生菌株NJY-1,确定了其粗酶酶学性质和其亲缘关系。     

PhyloGena--a user-friendly system for automated phylogenetic annotation of unknown sequences

MOTIVATION: Phylogenomic approaches towards functional and evolutionary annotation of unknown sequences have been suggested to be superior to those based only on pairwise local alignments. User-friendly software tools making the advantages of phylogenetic annotation available for the ever widening range of bioinformatically uninitiated biologists involved in genome/EST annotation projects are, however, not available. We were particularly confronted with this issue in the annotation of sequences from different groups of complex algae originating from secondary endosymbioses, where the identification of the phylogenetic origin of genes is often more problematic than in taxa well represented in the databases (e.g. animals, plants or fungi). RESULTS: We present a flexible pipeline with a user-friendly, interactive graphical user interface running on desktop computers that automatically performs a basic local alignment search tool (BLAST) search of query sequences, selects a representative subset of them, then creates a multiple alignment from the selected sequences, and finally computes a phylogenetic tree. The pipeline, named PhyloGena, uses public domain software for all standard bioinformatics tasks (similarity search, multiple alignment, and phylogenetic reconstruction). As the major technological innovation, selection of a meaningful subset of BLAST hits was implemented using logic programming, mimicing the selection procedure (BLAST tables, multiple alignments and phylogenetic trees) are displayed graphically, allowing the user to interact with the pipeline and deduce the function and phylogenetic origin of the query. PhyloGena thus makes phylogenomic annotation available also for those biologists without access to large computing facilities and with little informatics background. Although phylogenetic annotation is particularly useful when working with composite genomes (e.g. from complex algae), PhyloGena can be helpful in expressed sequence tag and genome annotation also in other organisms. AVAILABILITY: PhyloGena (executables for LINUX and Windows 2000/XP as well as source code) is available by anonymous ftp from http://www.awi.de/en/phylogena.     

基于形态特征和ITS序列对7个鹅膏菌属菌株的分类鉴定

以采自浙江省丽水地区的7个鹅膏菌属菌株作为研究材料,在基于形态特征进行初步鉴定的基础上,对7种鹅膏菌的rDNAITS区段进行克隆测序和序列特征比较分析。进一步对ITS序列进行核酸序列数据库GenBank同源性检索比对,将从GenBank检索获得的9个最相似物种的ITS序列连同7种鹅膏菌的ITS序列一起作系统发育分析。结果表明:基于ITS序列对f6、f9和f493个菌株的分子鉴定支持了基于形态特征的鉴定结果,对f5的分子鉴定不支持形态鉴定的结果,f8为鹅膏菌属内某种,f66为鹅膏菌属内某种,并与Amanitafulva,A.atrofusca,A.orientifulva3种鹅膏菌的亲缘关系较近,f7与另外6种鹅膏菌的亲缘关系相差甚远。研究结果提示基于分子水平上的ITS序列分析不能单方面作为大型真菌分类鉴定的可靠依据,可以作为基于传统形态学分类鉴定的辅助参考依据。     

Metagenomics: Read Length Matters

Obtaining an unbiased view of the phylogenetic composition and functional diversity within a microbial community is one central objective of metagenomic analysis. New technologies, such as 454 pyrosequencing, have dramatically reduced sequencing costs, to a level where metagenomic analysis may become a viable alternative to more-focused assessments of the phylogenetic (e.g., 16S rRNA genes) and functional diversity of microbial communities. To determine whether the short (~100 to 200 bp) sequence reads obtained from pyrosequencing are appropriate for the phylogenetic and functional characterization of microbial communities, the results of BLAST and COG analyses were compared for long (~750 bp) and randomly derived short reads from each of two microbial and one virioplankton metagenome libraries. Overall, BLASTX searches against the GenBank nr database found far fewer homologs within the short-sequence libraries. This was especially pronounced for a Chesapeake Bay virioplankton metagenome library. Increasing the short-read sampling depth or the length of derived short reads (up to 400 bp) did not completely resolve the discrepancy in BLASTX homolog detection. Only in cases where the long-read sequence had a close homolog (low BLAST E-score) did the derived short-read sequence also find a significant homolog. Thus, more-distant homologs of microbial and viral genes are not detected by short-read sequences. Among COG hits, derived short reads sampled at a depth of two short reads per long read missed up to 72% of the COG hits found using long reads. Noting the current limitation in computational approaches for the analysis of short sequences, the use of short-read-length libraries does not appear to be an appropriate tool for the metagenomic characterization of microbial communities.     

1株抗菌植物内生菌EJH-2菌株的分离和鉴定

目的从中药植物金银花的组织中分离到1株具有抗菌活性的植物内生菌EJH-2菌株,并对其进行了分子生物学鉴定。方法通过总DNA提取,PCR扩增,得到1300bp的16S rRNA序列。PCR产物序列通过BLAST软件在NCBI网站中进行同源性比较。通过Bioedit7．0和Treedrawing软件绘制系统发育树。结果EJH-2的16SrRNA序列和数据库中的类多粘芽胞杆菌KCTC 1663菌株的序列的同源性为99．76％。在系统发育树中,EJH-2菌株和多粘类芽胞杆菌在同一分支。结论EJH-2菌株应归属于多粘类芽胞杆菌（Paenibacillus polymyxa）。     

A Phylogenetic analysis of Heparanase (HPSE) gene

The Current Study aimed to investigate the possible role of Heparanase protein (HPSE-1, [Entrez Pubmed ref|NP_001092010.1|, heparanase isoform 1 preproprotein [Homo sapiens]) in evolution by studying the phylogenetic relationship and divergence of HPSE-1 gene using computational methods. The Human HPSE protein sequences from various species were retrieved from GenBank database and were compared using sequence alignment. Multiple sequence alignment was done using Clustal-W with defaults and phylogenetic trees for the gene were built using neighbor-joining method as in BLAST 2.2.26+ version. A total of 112 BLAST hits were found for the heparanase query sequence and these hits showed putative conserved domain, Glyco_hydro_79n superfamily. We then narrowed down the search by manually deleting the proteins which were not HPSE-1. These sequences were then subjected to phylogenetic analyses using the PhyML and TreeDyn software. Our study indicated that HPSE-1 is a conserved protein in classes Mammalia, Aves, Amphibia, Actinopterygii and Insecta emphasizing its importance in the physiology of cell membranes. Occurrence of this gene in evolution with conserved sites strengthens the role of HPSE-1 gene and helps in better understanding the biochemical processes that may lead to cancer.     

单级自养脱氮系统中厌氧氨氧化菌的分子生物学鉴定

对具有厌氧氨氧化作用的细菌进行更深入的分析有助于了解该菌在生物脱氮过程的应用。对稳定运行、氨氮转化率及总氮去除率分别达到90%及80%左右的单级自养脱氮系统的底部取活性污泥,采用分子生物学方法提取活性污泥细菌总DNA,利用特异引物Pla46rc/Amx820对单级自养脱氮系统中的厌氧氨氧化菌16S rDNA基因进行PCR扩增。扩增产物经克隆、测序及BLAST分析,结果表明该单级自养脱氮系统中存在的厌氧氨氧化菌与Candidatus Kueneniastuttgartiensis和Candidatus Brocadia anammoxidans的16S rDNA序列同源性达99%,进化分析证明与Candidatus Kuenenia stuttgartiensis进化上较为接近。     

Analysis of expressed receptor-like kinases （RLKs） in soybean

Receptor-like kinases （RLKs） play crucial roles in cellular signal perception and propagation. To study the evolutionary relationships among RLKs in soybean, a large-scale expressed sequence tags （ESTs） survey for RLKs-related sequences was conducted. By doing BLAST analysis using our database and The Gene Index Database, 605 putative RLK genes were identified. Based on the phylogeny of the kinase domain, these soybean RLKs were classified into 58 different small subfamilies. The phylogenetic analysis of RLKs in soybean, rice and Arabidopsis showed that different subfamilies of RLKs had different functions and could have experienced different selective pressures.     

Analysis of expressed receptor-like kinases (RLKs) in soybean

Receptor-like kinases (RLKs) play crucial roles in cellular signal perception and propagation. To study the evolutionary relationships among RLKs in soybean, a large-scale expressed sequence tags (ESTs) survey for RLKs-related sequences was conducted. By doing BLAST analysis using our database and The Gene Index Database, 605 putative RLK genes were identified. Based on the phylogeny of the kinase domain, these soybean RLKs were classified into 58 different small subfamilies. The phylogenetic analysis of RLKs in soybean, rice and Arabidopsis showed that different subfamilies of RLKs had different functions and could have experienced different selective pressures.     

Diversity and phylogenetic affinities of foliar fungal endophytes in loblolly pine inferred by culturing and environmental PCR

We examined endophytic fungi in asymptomatic foliage of loblolly pine (Pinus taeda) in North Carolina, U.S.A., with four goals: (i) to evaluate morphotaxa, BLAST matches and groups based on sequence similarity as functional taxonomic units; (ii) to explore methods to maximize phylogenetic signal for environmental datasets, which typically contain many taxa but few characters; (iii) to compare culturing vs. culture-free methods (environmental PCR of surface sterilized foliage) for estimating endophyte diversity and species composition; and (iv) to investigate the relationships between traditional ecological indices (e.g. Shannon index) and phylogenetic diversity (PD) in estimating endophyte diversity and spatial heterogeneity. Endophytes were recovered in culture from 87 of 90 P. taeda leaves sampled, yielding 439 isolates that represented 24 morphotaxa. Sequence data from the nuclear ribosomal internal transcribed spacer (ITS) for 150 isolates revealed 59 distinct ITS genotypes that represented 24 and 37 unique groups based on 90% and 95% sequence similarity, respectively. By recoding ambiguously aligned regions to extract phylogenetic signal and implementing a conservative phylogenetic backbone constraint, we recovered well supported phylogenies based on ca. 600 bp of the nuclear ribosomal large subunit (LSUrDNA) for 72 Ascomycota and Basidiomycota, 145 cultured endophytes and 33 environmental PCR samples. Comparisons with LSUrDNA-delimited species showed that morphotaxa adequately estimated total species richness but rarely corresponded to biologically meaningful groups. ITS BLAST results were variable in their utility, but ITS genotype groups based on 90% sequence similarity were concordant with LSUrDNA-delimited species. Environmental PCR yielded more genotypes per sampling effort and recovered several distinct clades relative to culturing, but some commonly cultured clades were never found (Sordariomycetes) or were rare relative to their high frequency among cultures (Leotiomycetes). In contrast to traditional indices, PD demonstrated spatial heterogeneity in endophyte assemblages among P. taeda trees and study plots. Our results highlight the need for caution in designating taxonomic units based on gross cultural morphology or ITS BLAST matches, the utility of phylogenetic tools for extracting robust phylogenies from environmental samples, the complementarity of culturing and environmental PCR, the utility of PD relative to traditional ecological indices, and the remarkably high diversity of foliar fungal endophytes in this simplified temperate ecosystem.     

Outlier detection in BLAST hits

Background

An important task in a metagenomic analysis is the assignment of taxonomic labels to sequences in a sample. Most widely used methods for taxonomy assignment compare a sequence in the sample to a database of known sequences. Many approaches use the best BLAST hit(s) to assign the taxonomic label. However, it is known that the best BLAST hit may not always correspond to the best taxonomic match. An alternative approach involves phylogenetic methods, which take into account alignments and a model of evolution in order to more accurately define the taxonomic origin of sequences. Similarity-search based methods typically run faster than phylogenetic methods and work well when the organisms in the sample are well represented in the database. In contrast, phylogenetic methods have the capability to identify new organisms in a sample but are computationally quite expensive.

Results

We propose a two-step approach for metagenomic taxon identification; i.e., use a rapid method that accurately classifies sequences using a reference database (this is a filtering step) and then use a more complex phylogenetic method for the sequences that were unclassified in the previous step. In this work, we explore whether and when using top BLAST hit(s) yields a correct taxonomic label. We develop a method to detect outliers among BLAST hits in order to separate the phylogenetically most closely related matches from matches to sequences from more distantly related organisms. We used modified BILD (Bayesian Integral Log-Odds) scores, a multiple-alignment scoring function, to define the outliers within a subset of top BLAST hits and assign taxonomic labels. We compared the accuracy of our method to the RDP classifier and show that our method yields fewer misclassifications while properly classifying organisms that are not present in the database. Finally, we evaluated the use of our method as a pre-processing step before more expensive phylogenetic analyses (in our case TIPP) in the context of real 16S rRNA datasets.

Conclusion

Our experiments make a good case for using a two-step approach for accurate taxonomic assignment. We show that our method can be used as a filtering step before using phylogenetic methods and provides a way to interpret BLAST results using more information than provided by E-values and bit-scores alone.

     

Identification and Molecular Characterization of Nocardia sp. as a New Causal Agent of Tobacco False Broomrape

Tobacco false broomrape disease is a serious problem in tropical countries. To identify its cause, experiments were conducted in tobacco fields. Six actinomycete strains were isolated from white succulent outgrowths of tobacco roots and their pathogenicity was confirmed by biological testing. Based on phenotypic and 16S rRNA gene sequence BLAST analysis, the strains were identified as members of the genus Nocardia. This association was also confirmed by secA1 gene phylogenetic analysis. This is the first report of Nocardia sp. as the cause of tobacco false broomrape.     

ViroBLAST: a stand-alone BLAST web server for flexible queries of multiple databases and user's datasets

ViroBLAST is a stand-alone BLAST web interface for nucleotide and amino acid sequence similarity searches. It extends the utility of BLAST to query against multiple sequence databases and user sequence datasets, and provides a friendly output to easily parse and navigate BLAST results. ViroBLAST is readily useful for all research areas that require BLAST functions and is available online and as a downloadable archive for independent installation. Availability: http://indra.mullins.microbiol.washington.edu/blast/viroblast.php.     

一色齿毛菌锰过氧化物酶2基因克隆及生物信息学分析

摘要 锰过氧化物酶（manganese peroxidase,MnP）是由一系列同功酶组成的木质素降解酶。我们前期工作克隆了一色齿毛菌（Cerrena unicolor) MnP1基因序列。在此基础上,本研究采用简并PCR、染色体步移和RACE等技术对C. unicolor mnp2基因(Cu-mnp2)序列进行克隆。同时,采用生物信息学软件对Cu-mnp2的基因结构、Cu-MnP2的蛋白质结构及多物种MnPs蛋白质序列的系统进化关系进行分析。克隆得到3 053 bp的Cu-mnp2 DNA序列(GenBank:JX270806.1)和1 429 bp的Cu-mnp2 cDNA序列(GenBank: JQ782580.1)。序列分析结果显示,Cu-mnp2 DNA序列包含14个外显子和13个内含子,启动子区域包含TATA-BOX、SP1和AP1等作用元件;Cu-mnp2 cDNA序列包含71 bp的5′UTR、230 bp的3′ UTR以及1 128 bp的开放阅读框(ORF)。Cu-mnp2 ORF序列的BLAST比对结果表明,Cu-mnp2与Trametes versicolor FP-101664 SS1 mnp序列覆盖度为53%,序列相似性为65%;与Heterobasidion irregulare mnp、C. unicolor mnp1等cDNA序列都有较高的序列相似性。Cu-mnp2的ORF编码(GenBank:AFK91530.1)由340个氨基酸残基组成的多肽链(Cu-MnP2)。Cu-MnP2蛋白质序列的BLAST比对和蛋白质三维结构均显示,Cu-MnP2包含Mn ²⁺ 、Ga ²⁺ 、血红素及芳香底物结合位点。对包含Cu-MnP1、Cu-MnP2蛋白质序列在内的多物种MnPs蛋白质序列的系统发育分析表明,多物种的MnPs分为两大类群,分别为包含4个二硫键的短MnPs和包含5个二硫键的长MnPs。其中,Cu-MnP1与Cu-MnP2均属于短MnPs,Cu-MnP2与Trametes versicolor MrP 的蛋白质序列亲缘关系最近。通过Cu-mnp2基因的克隆和序列分析,对继续研究C. uniclor的MnP同工酶基因结构和功能奠定基础。