基于转录组的沙棘木蠹蛾简单重复序列特征分析

为开发沙棘木蠹蛾微卫星信息,利用已获得的转录组数据,对其EST-SSR位点进行发掘,进而分析其特征。结果发现含SSR的序列5126条,识别的SSR总数为7499个,SSR出现频率为51.41%。微卫星序列主要以单碱基重复为主,发生频率为39.52%。研究共发现77种碱基重复基元,所占比例最高的为(A/T)n(73.74%),其次是(AT/AT)n(3.37%)。微卫星多为重复次数为10且长度为10 bp的短序列。研究结果为沙棘木蠹蛾的SSR分子标记研究,遗传多样性分析,种群遗传结构以及关键性状基因的发掘等研究奠定基础。     

基于转录组测序的波纹唇鱼SSR和SNP多态特征分析

波纹唇鱼是一种极度濒危的珍贵观赏鱼和高价值食用鱼,全面了解其转录组中SSR和SNP位点的分布及序列特征,可有助于开展波纹唇鱼遗传资源的保存和合理开发利用。利用二代高通量RNA-seq测序技术对波纹唇鱼进行转录组测序,通过MISA和Samtools对所得Unigene进行SSR与SNP位点的发掘与分析。结果显示,在150 218条Unigene序列中共发现22 428个SSR,出现频率为14.93%,平均约5.35 kb出现1个SSR。波纹唇鱼SSR的主要重复单元类型为单碱基和二碱基重复,分别占SSR总数的61.32%和19.12%,除复合类型以外,所有重复基元共65种,其中(A/T)n所占比例最高(55.64%),(AG/CT)n和(AC/GT)n分别占8.31%和6.80%。22 427个SSR处于CDS中,其中1 773个位于编码区。SSR重复次数集中在5～15次,序列平均长度为13.3 bp。3 438个SSR位点共获得669对候选引物。随机选取50对验证,发现21对可扩增出与预期产物长度大小一致的特异性条带,其中5对在4个波纹唇鱼个体间具有多态性。在Unigene中共发现245 373个SNP位点,发生频率为1/490 bp,其中转换类型发生频率显著高于颠换类型,转换类型中A/G (33.61%)和C/T (32.51%)发生频率最高,颠换类型中则是A/T的最高(11.12%)。波纹唇鱼转录组中SSR和SNP位点非常丰富,可为波纹唇鱼遗传多样性分析、亲缘关系鉴定与遗传资源开发利用等方面提供丰富的基础数据信息。     

猪蛔虫全基因组微卫星分布规律

为了探究猪蛔虫全基因组微卫星分布规律,本研究以已公布的猪蛔虫全基因组为基础,通过生物信息学方法,应用MSDB(microsatellite search and building database)从中搜索微卫星序列,并进行统计分析。针对微卫星序列设计40对引物,并通过e-PCR进行验证。得到结论,猪蛔虫基因组中存在682个微卫星位点,总长度为23 572 bp,占全基因组的8.67%。重复类型以短重复类型为主(单碱基重复至三碱基重复)。在这些重复单元中(A)n最为丰富,其次是(C)n,(AT)n,(AAT)n,(AG)n,占全部SSRs的86.67%。其中高频率的SSR类型(≥10),依次是A/T、G/C、AT/AT、AAT/ATT、AG/CT、AC/GT、TAA/TTA、ATTT/AAAT、TAAA/TTTA、TATCTA,占全基因组SSRs总数的75.1%。猪蛔虫基因组长度以10~20 bp为主,有484个(71%)。研究还发现SSR中AT含量明显高于GC含量,占SSRs总数的83.6%。此研究表明在猪蛔虫全基因组上系统的进行微卫星研究工作,有助于分子标记的进一步开发,同时也为猪蛔虫分子鉴定、遗传变异、功能基因等的发展提供了科学素材。     

基于转录组数据的荔枝蒂蛀虫SSR位点信息分析

荔枝蒂蛀虫Conopomorpha sinensis Bradley是专一性危害我国荔枝和龙眼的重要害虫。简单重复序列标记(Simple sequence repeat,SSR)为短串联重复序列或微卫星标记,其在荔枝蒂蛀虫偏嗜选择寄主的遗传进化机制研究和荔枝蒂蛀虫综合治理中具有重要意义。本研究基于高通量测序获得的荔枝蒂蛀虫转录组数据,利用MISA软件从68996条转录组unigenes结果中发掘出10521个SSR位点,出现频率为15.25%。荔枝蒂蛀虫转录组中SSR的主要重复类型为单碱基重复,占SSR总数的66.22%。其次是三碱基重复,占SSR总数的24.94%。在发现的33种重复基元中共筛选获得8种优势重复基元,其中A/T在单碱基重复基元中所占的比例达98.55%。基于筛选的SSR设计的9对引物中,有4对引物得到扩增预期大小的条带。荔枝蒂蛀虫SSR位点的信息分析将为探究荔枝蒂蛀虫种群遗传结构、遗传多样性和进化关系、害虫综合治理等研究提供重要科学依据。     

银杏EST序列中微卫星的分布特征

本文利用从NCBI下载的21 590条银杏EST序列,分析了银杏(表达序列标签微卫星)EST-SSR在银杏EST序列的分布和比较了在不同长度EST序列中的SSR特性.在剔除冗余和低质量序列后,得到总长为5 708.385 kb的无冗余EST序列7 961条,发现了405个EST序列(5.09%)含有475个SSR,长度400-1000 bp的EST序列含SSR位点数为445个,占SSR总数的93.68%.二核苷酸和三核苷酸基元类型是银杏EST-SSR的主要类型,分别占SSR总数的73.89%和24.00%,最常见的SSR基元是:(AT)_n、(AG)_n、(AC)_n、(AAG)_n和(AAT)_n.通过对银杏EST序列中SSR位点信息的发掘分析,为有针对性地设计EST-SSR引物,开发银杏EST-SSR分子标记奠定基础.     

陆地棉EST长度多态性与其SSR分布特征相关性分析

目的:分析陆地棉EST长度多态性与其SSR分布特征的相关性。方法:从NCBI公共数据库下载陆地棉EST序列,应用SSRIT搜索SSR,分析20 000条无冗余的EST序列。结果:在剔除低质量和冗余的序列后,得到全长为7 363.878kb的无冗余EST序列7 322条,其中含有SSR位点的EST序列数520条,占被分析EST比例的2.60%。长度在400bp以下的EST序列含SSR的比例为1.46%;长度在400bp以上的EST序列含SSR的比例为8.94%。在1～6bp的重复基元中,二核苷酸重复基元的SSR重复频率最高,占总数的63.46%,其次是三核苷酸,占总数的34.04%。二核苷酸类型(AG)n、(AT)n和三核苷酸类型(AAG)n、(ACC)n、(ACT)n、(AAT)n是SSR的主要重复基元。结论:棉花EST-SSR可用于棉花分子标记,为有针对性设计陆地棉EST-SSR引物奠定基础。     

珍贵树种火力楠转录组SSR特征分析

为了全面了解珍贵乡土树种火力楠转录组SSR位点的分布及序列特征,为火力楠遗传资源的保存和合理开发利用提供遗传学资料,为同属植物及近缘种SSR标记的开发及遗传研究提供便利。利用Illumina Hiseq2000高通量测序平台对火力楠进行转录组测序,再通过MISA软件对测序所得Unigenes进行SSR位点的发掘和分析。分析的结果显示发现含SSR的序列21 218条,共得到27 379个SSR,出现频率为28.08%,平均约每3 kb出现1个SSR。单碱基和二碱基重复为火力楠SSR主要重复单元类型,分别占SSR总数的42.18%和35.66%,所有重复基元共85种,其中(A/T) n所占比例最高41.65%,然后是(AG/CT)n(29.47%)、(AAG/CTT)n (6.83%)和(AC/GT)n (4.11%)。在SSR和CDS的交集基因中,共发现24 668个SSR位点,其中3 805个位于编码区,出现频率为0.099 SSR/kb,而非编码区为0.287 SSR/kb,在基因编码区中出现频率最高的是三碱基重复(2 030, 53.35%)。在SSR序列长度方面,长度变化范围最大的为单碱基重复SSR,其次是二碱基重复。火力楠转录组SSR位点的出现频率高、分布密度大、基元类型丰富、重复次数较高、长片段较多,具有较高的多态性潜能,用于遗传分析的潜力很大,能满足该物种的保护遗传学研究。     

基于转录组数据的黑腹胃蝇微卫星位点信息分析

黑腹胃蝇是中国新疆荒漠地区马科动物马胃蝇蛆病最主要的病原体。本研究基于已获得的黑腹胃蝇的转录组数据,利用MISA软件(1. 0版)对黑腹胃蝇转录组中1 kb以上的Unigene进行SSR位点分析。在黑腹胃蝇转录组25 847条Unigenes中筛选得到SSR总数为12 187个,存在于8 037条Unigenes当中,出现频率为31. 09%。微卫星的序列中单碱基(38. 39%)和三碱基(33. 45%)为优势重复类型。研究共发现103种重复基元,出现最多的为A/T (37. 52%),其次是AC/GT (13. 10%)。由三碱基构成的SSR基元占比较多,分别为15 bp (20. 94%),12 bp (14. 48%)和18 bp (14. 01%)。本研究是黑腹胃蝇开发EST-SSR的基础研究,为黑腹胃蝇的遗传多样性分析、变异水平分析和功能基因发掘奠定基础。     

桉树EST序列中微卫星含量及相关特征

通过对桉树属(Eucalyptus)的10 000条EST序列进行分析, 在其中的1 499条序列上共发现1 775个微卫星重复序列。含有微卫星的EST序列约占序列总数的15%。此外, 还发现桉树EST序列所含微卫星长度的变异速率与重复单元长度呈负相关; 微卫星的丰度与重复单元长度也呈负相关(三碱基重复微卫星除外)。在桉树EST序列中, 重复单元长度为三碱基的微卫星最为丰富。三碱基重复单元微卫星的过度富集可能是由于遗传密码选择所致。在微卫星的丰度及长度变异方面, 桉树EST序列与杨树(Populus trichocarpa)基因组注释的转录序列随重复单元长度的变化呈现出相同的规律, 但桉树EST序列中微卫星频率及三碱基重复微卫星的含量显著偏低, 推测含微卫星的基因表达丰度极有可能低于不含微卫星的基因。通过对发现的所有微卫星位点进行引物设计, 并对设计的引物进行PCR检测, 结果表明所设计的引物具有极高的扩增成功率。     

利用RNA-seq技术分析棘腹蛙编码区微卫星特征

棘腹蛙Paa boulengeri的遗传研究和基因组信息比较匮乏,致使可有效利用的分子标记非常有限。以棘腹蛙RNA-seq高通量测序数据为基础进行微卫星分子标记的大规模发掘和特征分析,结果显示:在121.6 Mb的棘腹蛙转录组序列中发现微卫星位点3165个,包含于3034条Contig序列中。在筛选到的1~6碱基重复核心的微卫星中,单碱基重复核心的比例最高,之后为三碱基、二碱基、四碱基、六碱基和五碱基重复核心,分别占29.0%、25.2%、21.7%、10.0%、10.0%和3.0%。其中A/T、AC/GT、AGG/CCT、ACAT/ATCT、AAAAT/ATTTT和AAAAAG/CTTTTT分别是单碱基、二碱基、三碱基、四碱基、五碱基、六碱基重复类型中对应的优势重复单元。棘腹蛙编码区微卫星多为重复长度小于24 bp的短序列,长度大于24 bp的微卫星仅占总数的0.92%。对编码区微卫星的侧翼序列分析发现,微卫星侧翼序列的GC含量显著低于转录组整体GC含量,且在含有微卫星上下游侧翼序列的Contig中,71.9%的序列可以设计特异引物扩增出含有微卫星序列的位点。研究结果为棘腹蛙的遗传研究和分子系统地理学研究提供了丰富的序列信息和标记资源。     

Enhancing the stability and folding rate of a repeat protein through the addition of consensus repeats

Repeat proteins are constructed from a linear array of modular units, giving rise to an overall topology lacking long-range interactions. This suggests that stabilizing repeat modules based on consensus information might be added to a repeat protein domain, allowing it to be extended without altering its overall topology. Here we add consensus modules the ankyrin repeat domain from the Drosophila Notch receptor to investigate the structural tolerance to these modules, the relative thermodynamic stability of these hybrid proteins, and how alterations in the energy landscape influence folding kinetics. Insertions of consensus modules between repeats five and six of the Notch ankyrin domain have little effect on the far and near-UV CD spectra, indicating that neither secondary nor tertiary structure is dramatically altered. Furthermore, stable structure is maintained at increased denaturant concentrations in the polypeptides containing the consensus repeats, indicating that the consensus modules are capable of stabilizing much of the domain. However, insertion of the consensus repeats appears to disrupt cooperativity, producing a two-stage (three-state) unfolding transition in which the C-terminal repeats unfold at moderate urea concentrations. Removing the C-terminal repeats (Notch ankyrin repeats six and seven) restores equilibrium two-state folding and demonstrates that the high stability of the consensus repeats is propagated into the N-terminal, naturally occurring Notch ankyrin repeats. This stability increase greatly increases the folding rate, and suggests that the transition state ensemble may be repositioned in the chimeric consensus-stabilized proteins in response to local stability.     

Folding thermodynamics and kinetics of the leucine-rich repeat domain of the virulence factor Internalin B

Although the folding of alpha-helical repeat proteins has been well characterized, much less is known about the folding of repeat proteins containing beta-sheets. Here we investigate the folding thermodynamics and kinetics of the leucine-rich repeat (LRR) domain of Internalin B (InlB), an extracellular virulence factor from the bacterium Lysteria monocytogenes. This domain contains seven tandem leucine-rich repeats, of which each contribute a single beta-strand that forms a continuous beta-sheet with neighboring repeats, and an N-terminal alpha-helical capping motif. Despite its modular structure, InlB folds in an equilibrium two-state manner, as reflected by the identical thermodynamic parameters obtained by monitoring its sigmoidal urea-induced unfolding transition by different spectroscopic probes. Although equilibrium two-state folding is common in alpha-helical repeat proteins, to date, InlB is the only beta-sheet-containing repeat protein for which this behavior is observed. Surprisingly, unlike other repeat proteins exhibiting equilibrium two-state folding, InlB also folds by a simple two-state kinetic mechanism lacking intermediates, aside from the effects of prolyl isomerization on the denatured state. However, like other repeat proteins, InlB also folds significantly more slowly than expected from contact order. When plotted against urea, the rate constants for the fast refolding and single unfolding phases constitute a linear chevron that, when fitted with a kinetic two-state model, yields thermodynamic parameters matching those observed for equilibrium folding. Based on these kinetic parameters, the transition state is estimated to comprise 40% of the total surface area buried upon folding, indicating that a large fraction of the native contacts are formed in the rate-limiting step to folding.     

Bicarbonate gradients modulate growth and colony morphology in Aspergillus nidulans

A new insertion sequence (IS), IS 1642 , was identified in a Mycobacterium avium strain isolated from a human patient. IS 1642 had a size of 1642 bp and contained a single ORF encoding a probable transposase of 503 amino acid residues homologous (79% identity) to that of IS 1549 found in Mycobacterium smegmatis . The IS 1642 included imperfect inverted repeats (5'-cctgacttttatca-3', 5'-tgataaaagtcggg-3') on its ends, and was flanked by direct repeats of variable length ranging from 5 to 161 bp. It was suggested that the IS 1642 was widely distributed in many M. avium strains of human patients, and the Southern blot profile of IS 1642 was very diverse among the strains examined. The transposition event of IS 1642 was observed by in vitro repeated passages, showing that the IS 1642 is actually a transposable element. In light of these characteristics, IS 1642 could be a new useful marker when genotyping with high discrimination is required.     

Microsatellite repeat instability and neurological disease

Over 20 unstable microsatellite repeats have been identified as the cause of neurological disease in humans. The repeat nucleotide sequences, their location within the genes, the ranges of normal and disease‐causing repeat length and the clinical outcomes differ. Unstable repeats can be located in the coding or the non‐coding region of a gene. Different pathogenic mechanisms that are hypothesised to underlie the diseases are discussed. Evidence is given both from studies in simple model systems and from studies on human material and in animal models. Since somatic instability might affect the clinical outcome, this is briefly touched on. Available data and theories on the timing and mechanisms of the repeat instability itself are discussed, along with factors that have been observed to affect instability. Finally, the question of why the often harmful unstable repeats have been maintained throughout evolution is addressed.     

The polyglycine and polyglutamine repeats in the androgen receptor gene in Japanese and Caucasian populations

Human androgen receptor (AR) gene contains two polymorphic trinucleotide repeats of CAG and GGC, which code for polyglutamine and polyglycine tracts in the N-terminal domain in which the receptor activity resides. Longer repeats induce decrease of transactivation function in the AR receptor, weaken an anti-proliferative effect on various steroid-related tissues, and may promote the carcinogenesis of these cancers, such as breast, endometrial, and ovarian cancers. However, the incidences of these steroid-related cancers are remarkably lower in Japanese than in Caucasians. We hypothesize that the GGC and CAG repeats in AR gene correspond to lower incidence of steroid-related cancers in the Japanese population. To test this hypothesis, these two polymorphic trinucleotide repeats in AR gene were genotyped in 221 Japanese and 177 Caucasians. The results of genotyping in these loci clearly show that the distribution of GGC repeat is significantly different between these populations (P<0.001). Japanese (73.7%) had 16 GGC repeats compared to 53.3% for Caucasians. Japanese (3.8%) also had 17 GGC repeats compared to 36.2% for Caucasians. No Japanese had more than 18 GGC repeats compared to 3.4% for Caucasians. The length of CAG repeats in the Japanese population was not significantly different than that of the Caucasian population, although the CAG repeats varied from 14 to 31 and 15 to 29 repeats in Japanese and German populations, respectively. This study demonstrates that the Japanese population has shorter GGC compared to the Caucasian population, which may explain the incidences of estrogen-related cancers in these populations.     

Which factors contribute most to genome size variation within angiosperms?

Genome size varies greatly across the flowering plants and has played an important role in shaping their evolution. It has been reported that many factors correlate with the variation in genome size, but few studies have systematically explored this at the genomic level. Here, we scan genomic information for 74 species from 74 families in 38 orders covering the major groups of angiosperms (the taxonomic information was acquired from the latest Angiosperm Phylogeny Group (APG IV) system) to evaluate the correlation between genome size variation and different genome characteristics: polyploidization, different types of repeat sequence content, and the dynamics of long terminal repeat retrotransposons (LTRs). Surprisingly, we found that polyploidization shows no significant correlation with genome size, while LTR content demonstrates a significantly positive correlation. This may be due to genome instability after polyploidization, and since LTRs occupy most of the genome content, it may directly result in most of the genome variation. We found that the LTR insertion time is significantly negatively correlated with genome size, which may reflect the competition between insertion and deletion of LTRs in each genome, and that the old insertions are usually easy to recognize and eliminate. We also noticed that most of the LTR burst occurred within the last 3 million years, a timeframe consistent with the violent climate fluctuations in the Pleistocene. Our findings enhance our understanding of genome size evolution within angiosperms, and our methods offer immediate implications for corresponding research in other datasets.     

Equilibrium folding and stability of myotrophin: a model ankyrin repeat protein

Proteins containing stretches of repeating amino acid sequences are prevalent throughout nature, yet little is known about the general folding and assembly mechanisms of these systems. Here we propose myotrophin as a model system to study the folding of ankyrin repeat proteins. Myotrophin is folded over a large pH range and is soluble at high concentrations. Thermal and urea denaturation studies show that the protein displays cooperative two-state folding properties despite its modular nature. Taken together with previous studies on other ankyrin repeat proteins, our data suggest that the two-state folding pathway may be characteristic of ankyrin repeat proteins and other integrated alpha-helical repeat proteins in general.