蛋白质空间结构属性与全基因组微生物耐热性的关系

 溶剂接触表面积、空腔个数和体积、紧密度、疏水性以及温度因子是影响蛋白质耐热的主要三维结构参数.挑选NCBI COG数据库中具有全基因组的单细胞微生物,选择其中三维结构已知的蛋白质作为研究对象,分析这些因素对细菌类和古细菌类微生物耐热性的影响.结果表明：（1）古细菌类蛋白质的空腔个数和体积与耐热性无关,极性面积和表面残基个数随耐热性增加而降低;（2）超高温细菌类蛋白质的分子量比较小,空腔个数和体积都小于常温蛋白质,而且空腔个数对稳定性的贡献大于空腔体积;（3）无论是古细菌还是细菌类蛋白质,疏水性和紧密度都不随耐热性变化,但暴露残基个数越多,蛋白质的耐热性越差;（4）两类蛋白质侧链的温度因子都高于主链,这与侧链的运动性（柔性）一般比主链高的实验结果一致;另外,超高温细菌类蛋白质的温度因子明显高于常温蛋白质.     

The mitochondrial genome of the moss Physcomitrella patens sheds new light on mitochondrial evolution in land plants

The phylogenetic positions of bryophytes and charophytes, together with their genome features, are important for understanding early land plant evolution. Here we report the complete nucleotide sequence (105,340 bp) of the circular-mapping mitochondrial DNA of the moss Physcomitrella patens. Available evidence suggests that the multipartite structure of the mitochondrial genome in flowering plants does not occur in Physcomitrella. It contains genes for 3 rRNAs (rnl, rns, and rrn5), 24 tRNAs, and 42 conserved mitochondrial proteins (14 ribosomal proteins, 4 ccm proteins, 9 nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide dehydrogenase subunits, 5 ATPase subunits, 2 succinate dehydrogenase subunits, apocytochrome b, 3 cytochrome oxidase subunits, and 4 other proteins). We estimate that 5 tRNA genes are missing that might be encoded by the nuclear genome. The overall mitochondrial genome structure is similar in Physcomitrella, Chara vulgaris, Chaetosphaeridium globosum, and Marchantia polymorpha, with easily identifiable inversions and translocations. Significant synteny with angiosperm and chlorophyte mitochondrial genomes was not detected. Phylogenetic analysis of 18 conserved proteins suggests that the moss-liverwort clade is sister to angiosperms, which is consistent with a previous analysis of chloroplast genes but is not consistent with some analyses using mitochondrial sequences. In Physcomitrella, 27 introns are present within 16 genes. Nine of its intron positions are shared with angiosperms and 4 with Marchantia, which in turn shares only one intron position with angiosperms. The phylogenetic analysis as well as the syntenic structure suggest that the mitochondrial genomes of Physcomitrella and Marchantia retain prototype features among land plant mitochondrial genomes.     

Functional insights from structural predictions: analysis of the Escherichia coli genome

Fold assignments for proteins from the Escherichia coli genome are carried out using BASIC, a profile-profile alignment algorithm, recently tested on fold recognition benchmarks and on the Mycoplasma genitalium genome and PSI BLAST, the newest generation of the de facto standard in homology search algorithms. The fold assignments are followed by automated modeling and the resulting three-dimensional models are analyzed for possible function prediction. Close to 30% of the proteins encoded in the E. coli genome can be recognized as homologous to a protein family with known structure. Most of these homologies (23% of the entire genome) can be recognized both by PSI BLAST and BASIC algorithms, but the latter recognizes an additional 260 homologies. Previous estimates suggested that only 10-15% of E. coli proteins can be characterized this way. This dramatic increase in the number of recognized homologies between E. coli proteins and structurally characterized protein families is partly due to the rapid increase of the database of known protein structures, but mostly it is due to the significant improvement in prediction algorithms. Knowing protein structure adds a new dimension to our understanding of its function and the predictions presented here can be used to predict function for uncharacterized proteins. Several examples, analyzed in more detail in this paper, include the DPS protein protecting DNA from oxidative damage (predicted to be homologous to ferritin with iron ion acting as a reducing agent) and the ahpC/tsa family of proteins, which provides resistance to various oxidating agents (predicted to be homologous to glutathione peroxidase).     

Unraveling the nuclear and chloroplast genomes of an agar producing red macroalga, Gracilaria changii (Rhodophyta,Gracilariales)

Agar and agarose have wide applications in food and pharmaceutical industries. Knowledge on the genome of red seaweeds that produce them is still lacking. To fill the gap in genome analyses of these red algae, we have sequenced the nuclear and organellar genomes of an agarophyte, Gracilaria changii. The partial nuclear genome sequence of G. changii has a total length of 35.8 Mb with 10,912 predicted protein coding sequences. Only 39.4% predicted proteins were found to have significant matches to protein sequences in SwissProt. The chloroplast genome of G. changii is 183,855 bp with a total of 201 open reading frames (ORFs), 29 tRNAs and 3 rRNAs predicted. Five genes: ssrA, leuC and leuD CP76_p173 (orf139) and pbsA were absent in the chloroplast genome of G. changii. The genome information is valuable in accelerating functional studies of individual genes and resolving evolutionary relationship of red seaweeds.     

Identification of efflux proteins using efficient radial basis function networks with position‐specific scoring matrices and biochemical properties

Efflux proteins are membrane proteins, which are involved in the transportation of multidrugs. The annotation of efflux proteins in genomic sequences would aid to understand the function. Although the percentage of membrane proteins in genomes is estimated to be 25–30%, there is no information about the content of efflux proteins. For annotating such class of proteins it is necessary to develop a reliable method to identify efflux proteins from amino acid sequence information. In this work, we have developed a method based on radial basis function networks using position specific scoring matrices (PSSM) and amino acid properties. We noticed that the C‐terminal domain of efflux proteins contain vital information for discrimination. Our method showed an accuracy of 78 and 92% in discriminating efflux proteins from transporters and membrane proteins, respectively using fivefold cross‐validation. We utilized our method for annotating the genomes E. coli and P. aeruginosa and it predicted 8.7 and 9.2% of proteins as efflux proteins in these genomes, respectively. The predicted efflux proteins have been compared with available experimental data and we observed a very good agreement between them. Further, we developed a web server for classifying efflux proteins and it is freely available at http://rbf.bioinfo.tw/～sachen/EFFLUXpredict/Efflux‐RBF.php . We suggest that our method could be an effective tool for annotating efflux proteins in genomic sequences.Proteins 2013. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Presence in Legionella pneumophila of a mammalian-like mitochondrial permeability transition pore?

The genome of Legionella pneumophila reveals the presence of a large number of genes coding for eukaryotic-like proteins. By using database searches and homology investigations, we identified three proteins in L. pneumophila whose sequences share similarities with that of eukaryotic polypeptides (lpg0211, lpg1974 and lpg1982). In eukaryotes, the corresponding proteins (PBR, peripheral benzodiazepine receptor; VDAC, voltage-dependant anion channel; and CypD, cyclophilin D) participate in the formation of the mammalian mitochondrial permeability transition pore (MPTP), a complex involved in cell apoptosis. Intriguingly, the presence of these proteins has never been reported in the same bacterium and constitutes, up to now, a unique feature of L. pneumophila. In Legionella, we hypothesize that these proteins are recruited in a multiprotein complex close to the MPTP that may regulate intracellular survival and/or proliferation.     

后基因组——蛋白质组研究

１９９０年国际上开始了人类基因组研究。尽管目前只解出了约３％的序列,但功能基因组的研究已经开始,后基因组的时代已经到来。新时代的最终目的,是阐明基因组所表达的真正执行生命活动的全部蛋白质的表达规律和生物功能,也即蛋白质组研究。当前主要的研究手段为双向凝胶电泳、“双向”高效柱层析、质谱技术和生物信息学。蛋白质组研究,不仅是２１世纪整体细胞生物学新的最重要的内容,而且将为医药、农业和工业的革新提供崭新     

CxxS: fold-independent redox motif revealed by genome-wide searches for thiol/disulfide oxidoreductase function

Redox reactions involving thiol groups in proteins are major participants in cellular redox regulation and antioxidant defense. Although mechanistically similar, thiol-dependent redox processes are catalyzed by structurally distinct families of enzymes, which are difficult to identify by available protein function prediction programs. Herein, we identified a functional motif, CxxS (cysteine separated from serine by two other residues), that was often conserved in redox enzymes, but rarely in other proteins. Analyses of complete Escherichia coli, Campylobacter jejuni, Methanococcus jannaschii, and Saccharomyces cerevisiae genomes revealed a high proportion of proteins known to use the CxxS motif for redox function. This allowed us to make predictions in regard to redox function and identity of redox groups for several proteins whose function previously was not known. Many proteins containing the CxxS motif had a thioredoxin fold, but other structural folds were also present, and CxxS was often located in these proteins upstream of an alpha-helix. Thus, a conserved CxxS sequence followed by an alpha-helix is typically indicative of a redox function and corresponds to thiol-dependent redox sites in proteins. The data also indicate a general approach of genome-wide identification of redox proteins by searching for simple conserved motifs within secondary structure patterns.     

大肠杆菌基因组减小研究进展

大肠杆菌是遗传重组领域广泛应用的宿主之一,用于生产重组蛋白、氨基酸和其他化学品。基因组减小可以减少代谢调节网络中的冗余,提高其预测性和可控性。我们介绍了最小基因组的研究策略、应用无痕敲除技术减小大肠杆菌基因组的方法,以及基因组减小后对菌体生长特性、附加体稳定性、重组蛋白表达和代谢的影响。     

Comparative Genomic Analysis of Integral Membrane Transport Proteins in Ciliates

Integral membrane transport proteins homologous to those found in the Transporter Classification Database (TCDB; www.tcdb.org ) were identified and bioinformatically characterized by transporter class, family, and substrate specificity in three ciliates, Paramecium tetraurelia (Para), Tetrahymena thermophila (Tetra), and Ichthyophthirius multifiliis (Ich). In these three organisms, 1,326 of 39,600 proteins (3.4%), 1,017 of 24,800 proteins (4.2%), and 504 out of 8,100 proteins (6.2%) integral membrane transport proteins were identified, respectively. Thus, an inverse relationship was observed between the % transporters identified and the number of total proteins per genome reported. This surprising observation provides insight into the evolutionary process, giving rise to genome reduction following whole genome duplication (as in the case of Para) or during pathogenic association with a host organism (Ich). Of these transport proteins in Para and Tetra, about 41% were channels (more than any other type of organism studied), 31% were secondary carriers (fewer than most eukaryotes) and 26% were primary active transporters, mostly ATP‐hydrolysis driven (more than most other eukaryotes). In Ich, the number of channels was selectively reduced by 66%, relative to Para and Tetra. Para has four times more inorganic anion transporters than Tetra, and Ich has nonselectively lost most of these. Tetra and Ich preferentially transport sugars and monocarboxylates while Para prefers di‐ and tricarboxylates. These observations serve to characterize the transport proteins of these related ciliates, providing insight into their nutrition and metabolism.     

叶绿体基因组在系统发育学及基因工程领域的应用

介绍了叶绿体基因组在系统发育学和基因工程这两个领域的应用研究进展：1)叶绿体基因组的DNA序列比较为植物系统发育学研究提供了可靠数据基础;2)叶绿体基因工程是高水平表达外源基因的重要途径之一,在生产医用蛋白、改良作物农艺性状和环境保护等方面有着广阔的应用前景。     

Orthopoxvirus Genes for Kelch-like Proteins: I. Analysis of Species-Specific Structural Features

Genes and proteins of the kelch superfamily were structurally analyzed in the smallpox (SPV), monkeypox, cowpox (CPV), and vaccinia viruses. Genes potentially coding for the kelch-like proteins were found only in the variable terminal regions of the orthopoxvirus genome. The set and sizes of their protein products varied with species. All genes of the superfamily proved to be disrupted by mutations in SPV, which is highly pathogenic for its only host, man. The largest set of kelch-like proteins was observed for CPV, which is low-pathogenic for humans and has the broadest animal host range. The kelch-like proteins of one virus showed low homology to each other, whereas isologs of different viruses were highly homologous. The results testified to the earlier assumption that CPV is the most ancient representative and an ancestor of the other orthopoxviruses pathogenic for humans.     

Detection and Characterization of Fungal-Specific Proteins in Saccharomyces cerevisiae

In this study, I searched for fungal-specific proteins in the genome of the budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, inferred from a comparison of amino acid sequences. I used the GTOP (Genomes to Protein structures and functions) database of the DDBJ (DNA Data Bank of Japan), which consists of 21 genomes from Archaea, 203 genomes from Bacteria, and 50 genomes from Eucarya (including 18 fungal genomes). Among 5,874 proteins of S. cerevisiae, 1,551 have homologs only in Eucarya, and 504 of the 1,551 have homologs only in fungi. To find fungal-specific proteins, homologs of the homologs have been searched repeatedly. As a result, 132 of the 504 are characterized as fungal-specific proteins. The genes encoding the 132 fungal-specific proteins are not included in the list of essential genes for viability in the S. cerevisiae genome deletion project. Among the 132 proteins, 99 are S. cerevisiae-specific, and no protein that is distributed among 10 or more of the 18 fungal species exists. In addition, most of the fungal-specific proteins are very small and functionally unknown. My results show that the fungal-specific proteins have short evolutionary histories, suggesting that S. cerevisiae produces novel proteins and that ancestral fungi also produced small proteins most of which have disappeared or have been combined with other proteins during fungal evolution.     

The DING family of proteins: ubiquitous in eukaryotes,but where are the genes?

PstS and DING proteins are members of a superfamily of secreted, high‐affinity phosphate‐binding proteins. Whereas microbial PstS have a well‐defined role in phosphate ABC transporters, the physiological function of DING proteins, named after their DINGGG N termini, still needs to be determined. PstS and DING proteins co‐exist in some Pseudomonas strains, to which they confer a highly adhesive and virulent phenotype. More than 30 DING proteins have now been purified, mostly from eukaryotes. They are often associated with infections or with dysregulation of cell proliferation. Consequently, eukaryotic DING proteins could also be involved in cell–cell communication or adherence. The ubiquitous presence in eukaryotes of proteins structurally and functionally related to bacterial virulence factors is intriguing, as is the absence of eukaryotic genes encoding DING proteins in databases. DING proteins in eukaryotes could originate from unidentified commensal or symbiotic bacteria and could contribute to essential functions. Alternatively, DING proteins could be encoded by eukaryotic genes sharing special features that prevent their cloning. Both hypotheses are discussed.     

Functional modelling of an equine bronchoalveolar lavage fluid proteome provides experimental confirmation and functional annotation of equine genome sequences

The equine genome sequence enables the use of high-throughput genomic technologies in equine research, but accurate identification of expressed gene products and interpreting their biological relevance require additional structural and functional genome annotation. Here, we employ the equine genome sequence to identify predicted and known proteins using proteomics and model these proteins into biological pathways, identifying 582 proteins in normal cell-free equine bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF). We improved structural and functional annotation by directly confirming the in vivo expression of 558 (96%) proteins, which were computationally predicted previously, and adding Gene Ontology (GO) annotations for 174 proteins, 108 of which lacked functional annotation. Bronchoalveolar lavage is commonly used to investigate equine respiratory disease, leading us to model the associated proteome and its biological functions. Modelling of protein functions using Ingenuity Pathway Analysis identified carbohydrate metabolism, cell-to-cell signalling, cellular function, inflammatory response, organ morphology, lipid metabolism and cellular movement as key biological processes in normal equine BALF. Comparative modelling of protein functions in normal cell-free bronchoalveolar lavage proteomes from horse, human, and mouse, performed by grouping GO terms sharing common ancestor terms, confirms conservation of functions across species. Ninety-one of 92 human GO categories and 105 of 109 mouse GO categories were conserved in the horse. Our approach confirms the utility of the equine genome sequence to characterize protein networks without antibodies or mRNA quantification, highlights the need for continued structural and functional annotation of the equine genome and provides a framework for equine researchers to aid in the annotation effort.     

西瓜花叶病毒中国分离株全基因组核苷酸序列测定

西瓜花叶病毒(Watermelon mosaic virus,WMV)是马铃薯Y病毒属(Potyvirus)成员,主要危害西瓜和甜瓜,引起花叶病。在田间,该病害主要由蚜虫以非持久性方式传播。西瓜和甜瓜花叶病在国内陕西、山东、云南、辽宁、山西、新疆、河南和黑龙江等地广泛发生[1-6]。从20世纪80年代中期开始发生,逐渐上升为普遍发生的主要病害。我国大部分地区因西瓜和甜瓜病毒病造成的损失为30%~50%,甚至会绝产,西瓜花叶病毒已经成为制约西瓜和甜瓜高产稳产最主要的因素之一[7]。到目前为止,多数工作集中在对西瓜和甜瓜病毒病的鉴定,在分子生物学上仅限于对CP基因…     

T4病毒研究进展

T4病毒科由一类单股正链RNA病毒组成,分为松天蛾β样病毒属和松天蛾ω样病毒属。这2个属的病毒具有不同的基因组结构,β样病毒含单组分基因组,其结构蛋白由一亚基因组RNA表达; 而ω样病毒含双组分基因组,2个RNA分子分别编码复制酶蛋白和结构蛋白。在T4病毒基因组RNA 3′端有类似tRNA的二级结构。ω样病毒壳蛋白的氨基酸序列一致性高达66%～86%, 而β样病毒壳蛋白的氨基酸同源性则要低得多。在昆虫细胞中表达壳蛋白基因时都能形成病毒类似粒子。该文还介绍了T4病毒复制机理以及T4病毒与其他病毒的进化关系。