医学真菌基因组学研究进展(上)

近年来,一系列重要医学致病真菌全基因组数据陆续被公布,使人类对这些致病菌的认识提高到全新水平.本文在回溯医学真菌基因组学和基因组测序技术发展历程、综述其发展现状及应用的基础上,再分别介绍重要医学真菌全基因组测序的进展.     

植物病原生物基因组测序进展

随着基因组学的迅猛发展,越来越多的生物全基因组序列已经测定完成或正在进行之中。植物病原生物基因组序列的测定为理解植物与病原物互作分子机制有重要意义,并为植物病理学的发展作出了重要贡献。目前已有9种病原细菌和1种病原真菌的基因组序列彻底完成,另外还有更多的基因组草图正在组装或测序工作正在进行之中。对NCBI上主要的植物病原真菌和细菌全基因组测序进展作了整理和概述。     

基于高通量测序的群体基因组学——植物病原真菌研究新方向

群体基因组学能够从全基因组水平揭示种群结构与进化、物种形成、适应性机制等。随着高通量技术的不断发展,基因组测序成本不断降低,大规模测序已成为可能。近几年被全基因组测序的真菌数量迅速增加,极大地促进了真菌群体基因组学的发展,加深了人们对植物病原真菌起源、遗传多样性、选择作用、致病性、毒力因子、杀菌剂抗药性、寄主专化型等生物学特性的认识。本文简要介绍了植物病原真菌的全基因测序以及比较基因组学的研究进展,重点综述了基于高通量测序的病原真菌群体基因组学的最新研究动态。群体基因组学将成为植物病原真菌一个新的研究方向。     

医学真菌基因组学的研究进展

酿酒酵母基因组测序的完成是基因组学史的一个里程碑,其重要性已远远超出酵母本身,促进了人类及其他生物基因组学的发展.但迄今为止,真菌基因组学的发展仍落后于细菌,而医学真菌基因组的研究则更为滞后,这与真菌基因组对真核生物和人类医学所做的贡献不相匹配.近年来,随着免疫受损人群的增长,相关致病真菌得以重视,其基因组学的研究取得一定进展.目前有超过30种的真菌基因组测序正在进行或已完成,其中包括致病真菌的主要代表菌种[1],现概述如下.     

真菌群体基因组学研究进展

近年来,随着第二代高通量测序技术的出现和发展,测序成本不断降低,完成全基因组测序的真菌物种迅速增加。以大规模测序为基础的群体基因组学,也逐渐应用于解析真菌的群体结构、物种形成、种群分化和位点特异性效应。本文综述了群体基因组学在工业真菌、病原真菌、食用真菌、共生真菌及其在表型性状遗传基础解析中的研究进展,并对其今后的发展方向进行了展望。     

全基因组测序在医学应用进展

目前,仍有很多疾病的发病机制未明确,然而,利用新一代测序技术对生物体进行全基因组测序,为很多疾病的发病机制提供了新的理论依据。那么,全基因组测序在医学那些方面有运用?本人通过阅读国外近五年有关全基因组测序的研究论文发现,全基因组测序能够广泛应用于遗传疾病、肿瘤、感染性疾病、传染性流行病、判断个体疾病易感性、生物进化等多种疾病的诊断与治疗。本文从遗传疾病、肿瘤、感染性疾病、传染性流行病、判断个体疾病易感性和生物进化几个方面综述全基因组测序在医学应用进展。     

家鸡全基因组测序研究进展

鸡具有独特的生物学特性。全基因组测序是即对一种生物的基因组中的全部基因进行测序,主要包括de novo测序和全基因组重测序。近年来,由于测序技术的飞速发展,鸡全基因组研究取得了很多重要的进展,为解释鸡的生物学特性和缩短分子育种周期发挥了重要作用。重点阐述了不同品种鸡全基因组de novo测序的完成、全基因组重测序技术在解析品种遗传多样性、揭示进化机制、质量性状遗传机制广泛应用,讨论了鸡全基因组测序工作存在的问题及其展望,旨在为家鸡种质资源的改良和分子育种提供重要的参考资料。     

基因组时代线粒体基因组拼装策略及软件应用现状

随着测序技术的不断发展,越来越多物种的全基因组数据被测定和广泛应用。在二代基因组数据爆发式增长的同时,除了核基因组数据,线粒体基因组数据也非常重要。高通量测序的全基因组序列中除了核基因组序列也包括线粒体基因组序列,如何从海量的全基因组数据中提取和拼装线粒体基因组序列并加以应用成为线粒体基因组在分子生物学、遗传学和医学等方面的研究方向之一。基于此,从全基因组数据中提取线粒体基因组序列的策略及相关的软件不断发展。根据从全基因组数据中锚定线粒体reads的方式和后续拼装策略的不同,可以分为有参考序列拼装方法和从头拼装方法,不同拼装策略及软件也表现出各自的优势和局限性。本文总结并比较了当前从全基因组数据中获得线粒体基因组数据的策略和软件应用,并对使用者在使用不同策略和相关软件方面给予建议,以期为线粒体基因组在生命科学的相关研究中提供方法上的参考。     

全基因组测序在重要家畜上的研究进展

全基因组测序研究主要包括通过不同测序技术和组装比对方法,获得某物种的全基因组序列图谱,及在此基础上构建物种全基因组遗传变异图谱进行个体或群体遗传多样性、选择信号或起源进化等方面的研究。利用单核苷酸多态性(SNP)、插入和缺失(Indel)和拷贝数变异(CNV)等遗传变异作为分子标记,全基因组测序研究已经在家畜起源进化、驯化、适应性机制、重要经济性状候选基因、群体历史动态等方面取得了许多重要的研究成果。本文主要对近几年全基因组测序在常见家畜(猪、马、牛、羊等及其近缘物种)的取得的重要研究成果进行了综述,并讨论了全基因组测序的优势、缺点及在生产中意义。此外,对基因组测序研究的未来发展进行了归纳及展望,以期为今后家畜重要经济性状的功能基因定位和物种起源、驯化研究提供参考。     

RNAi技术及其在真菌基因功能研究中的应用

<正>近年来,随着分子生物学技术的不断发展,真菌基因组的研究进展迅速。随着稻瘟病菌Magnaporthe oryzae等多种真菌的基因组测序计划的完成,GenBank中积累了大量功能未知的真菌     

人工核酸酶介导的基因组编辑技术

传统的基因组编辑技术是基于胚胎干细胞和同源重组实现生物基因组定向改造,但是该技术打靶效率低,严重制约了生命科学以及医学的研究.因此,研究新的基因组编辑技术十分重要.人工核酸酶介导的基因组编辑技术是通过特异性识别靶位点造成DNA双链断裂,引起细胞内源性的修复机制实现靶基因的修饰.与传统的基因组编辑技术相比,人工核酸酶技术打靶效率高,这对于基因功能的研究、构建人类疾病动物模型以及探索新型疾病治疗方案有着重要的意义.人工核酸酶技术有3种类型：锌指核酸酶(ZFN)、类转录激活因子核酸酶(TALEN)及规律成簇的间隔短回文重复序列(CRISPR).本文将对以上3种人工核酸酶技术的原理以及在生命科学和医学研究的应用进行综述.     

Genome Writing: Current Progress and Related Applications

The ultimate goal of synthetic biology is to build customized cells or organisms to meet specific industrial or medical needs. The most important part of the customized cell is a synthetic genome. Advanced genomic writing technologies are required to build such an artificial genome. Recently, the partially-completed synthetic yeast genome project represents a milestone in this field. In this mini review, we briefly introduce the techniques for de novo genome synthesis and genome editing. Furthermore, we summarize recent research progresses and highlight several applications in the synthetic genome field. Finally, we discuss current challenges and future prospects.     

RNA Sequence Features Are at the Core of Influenza A Virus Genome Packaging

The influenza A virus (IAV), a respiratory pathogen for humans, poses serious medical and economic challenges to global healthcare systems. The IAV genome, consisting of eight single-stranded viral RNA segments, is incorporated into virions by a complex process known as genome packaging. Specific RNA sequences within the viral RNA segments serve as signals that are necessary for genome packaging. Although efficient packaging is a prerequisite for viral infectivity, many of the mechanistic details about this process are still missing. In this review, we discuss the recent advances toward the understanding of IAV genome packaging and focus on the RNA features that play a role in this process.     

Whole genome sequencing and its applications in medical genetics

Fundamental improvement was made for genome sequencing since the next-generation sequencing (NGS) came out in the 2000s. The newer technologies make use of the power of massively-parallel short-read DNA sequencing, genome alignment and assembly methods to digitally and rapidly search the genomes on a revolutionary scale, which enable large-scale whole genome sequencing (WGS) accessible and practical for researchers. Nowadays, whole genome sequencing is more and more prevalent in detecting the genetics of diseases, studying causative relations with cancers, making genome-level comparative analysis, reconstruction of human population history, and giving clinical implications and instructions. In this review, we first give a typical pipeline of whole genome sequencing, including the lab template preparation, sequencing, genome assembling and quality control, variants calling and annotations. We compare the difference between whole genome and whole exome sequencing (WES), and explore a wide range of applications of whole genome sequencing for both mendelian diseases and complex diseases in medical genetics. We highlight the impact of whole genome sequencing in cancer studies, regulatory variant analysis, predictive medicine and precision medicine, as well as discuss the challenges of the whole genome sequencing.      

A case for a Glossina genome project

Given the medical and agricultural significance of Glossina, knowledge of the genomic aspects of the vector and vector-pathogen interactions are a high priority. In preparation for a full genome sequence initiative, an extensive set of expressed sequence tags (ESTs) has been generated from tissue-specific normalized libraries. In addition, bacterial artificial chromosome (BAC) libraries are being constructed, and information on the genome structure and size from different species has been obtained. An international consortium is now in place to further efforts to lead to a full genome project.     

The promise and reality of personal genomics

The publication of the highest-quality and best-annotated personal genome yet tells us much about sequencing technology, something about genetic ancestry, but still little of medical relevance.Which country has published the largest per-capita number of personal genomes? The United States, the United Kingdom? Actually, it is Korea. A recent article in Nature by Kim et al. [1] presents the genome sequence of a Korean male, AK1 - the seventh published sequence of an individual human genome and the second from Korea. The rapid progress in personal genome sequencing is possible because so-called ''next-generation'' sequencing technology has decreased costs by orders of magnitude and increased throughput. But those advantages come at a price: short, error-prone reads derived from single molecules that have to be stitched back together to make a best-guess at the starting sequence. We are still at the stage of working out how to apply the available technologies to coax out biological information: the goal of a US$1,000 genome providing life-changing personal medical insights is still some way off.     

Predicting drug side-effects by chemical systems biology

The publication of the highest-quality and best-annotated personal genome yet tells us much about sequencing technology, something about genetic ancestry, but still little of medical relevance.