氨基甲酸乙酯水解酶的家族生物信息学分析

氨基甲酸乙酯(Ethyl carbamate,EC)是酒精饮料生产过程中自然产生的副产物,具有潜在的致癌性和遗传毒性,成为影响人们健康的隐患.利用氨基甲酸乙酯水解酶(Urethane hydrolase,UH)消除酒精饮料中已存在的EC具有直接、高效的作用.为了进一步探索EC水解酶的功能与作用,本实验利用生物信息学的方...     

新型冠状病毒(SARS-CoV-2)蛋白靶位的生信分析

目前新型冠状病毒肺炎(COVID-19)疫情仍在全球肆虐,但尚无针对该病毒的治疗特效药.在此背景,以美国化学文摘社(Chemical Abstracts Service,CAS)提供的SARS-CoV-2病毒及宿主蛋白靶标为研究对象,运用基因功能富集、蛋白网络等方法进行生物信息分析.结果发现,人网格蛋白介导型内吞和依赖...     

国际生物信息学研究的可视化分析

利用当前主流的信息可视化分析软件Cite Space对2005~2014年间SCI收录的生物信息学的5种高影响力外文期刊所刊载论文的题录数据进行统计和可视化分析,绘制该领域的关键词共现、膨胀词共现、经典文献共现、高被引文献共现和关键节点文献共现的网络可视化图谱,试图揭示生物信息学领域的研究热点、研究前沿以及知识基础,以期帮助研究人员了解该领域在国际范围内的研究态势。     

EMBOSS和EMBnet

笔者撰写的“EMBOSS软件包序列分析程序实例”一文,已经在《生物信息学》期刊2021年第19卷第1期发表。此文介绍欧洲分子生物学开放软件包(European Molecular Biology Open Software Suite, EMBOSS)。EMBOSS是欧洲分子生物学网络组织(European Molecular Biology Network, EMBnet)于上世纪九十年代末启动的以欧洲国家为主的国际合作项目,是生物信息学领域中较早投入使用的大型开源软件包。本文基于笔者亲身经历,回顾EMBOSS项目的来龙去脉,讲述EMBnet三十多年来的发展历程,及其对生物信息开发、服务和教育培训等方面的贡献,从某个侧面为读者特别是年轻读者展示生物信息学发展早期的一段历史。     

土地类芽胞杆菌(Paenibacillus terrae)NK3-4 EsxA结构与系统发育分析

前期研究在植物根际促生菌土地类芽胞杆菌(Paenibacillus terrae )NK3-4中发现一个EsxA编码基因,为明确该基因编码的蛋白的性质、结构及系统发生关系,对该基因进行了生物信息学分析。分析表明,该EsxA含有91个氨基酸,分子质量10 276.53 Da,理论pI 5.29,分子式为C₄₄₅H₇₁₁N₁₂₅O₁₄₆S₄,弱酸性,亲水,具有WEG保守基序,属于WXG超级家族成员;建模预测表明,自然状态下EsxA 形成不对称的同源二聚体,其中每个亚基都由一个β折叠连接两个α螺旋组成,两个α螺旋反向平行排列;二聚体中两个亚基的肽链呈反向排列,所有N末端和C末端均暴露在外,形成棒状表面形态,其中一个亚基的N端的不规则卷曲形成与棒状二聚体垂直的短柱形凸起;系统发育分析显示,EsxA在种内及种间进化关系虽是不保守的,但类芽胞杆菌源的EsxA与病原细菌的EsxA同源性较低,暗示类芽胞杆菌源EsxA可能与病原微生物的EsxA具有截然不同的功能。结果为包括NK3-4菌株在内的类芽胞杆菌属EsxA外源分泌表达条件,活性保持及功能的深入研究提供了理论依据。     

Docking and small angle X-ray scattering studies of purine nucleoside phosphorylase

Docking simulations have been used to assess protein complexes with some success. Small angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) is a well-established technique to investigate protein spatial configuration. This work describes the integration of geometric docking with SAXS to investigate the quaternary structure of recombinant human purine nucleoside phosphorylase (PNP). This enzyme catalyzes the reversible phosphorolysis of N-ribosidic bonds of purine nucleosides and deoxynucleosides. A genetic deficiency due to mutations in the gene encoding for PNP causes gradual decrease in T-cell immunity. Inappropriate activation of T-cells has been implicated in several clinically relevant human conditions such as transplant rejection, rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, and T-cell lymphomas. PNP is therefore a target for inhibitor development aiming at T-cell immune response modulation and has been submitted to extensive structure-based drug design. The present analysis confirms the trimeric structure observed in the crystal. The potential application of the present procedure to other systems is discussed.     

Integration and cross-validation of high-throughput gene expression data: comparing heterogeneous data sets

Data analysis--not data production--is becoming the bottleneck in gene expression research. Data integration is necessary to cope with an ever increasing amount of data, to cross-validate noisy data sets, and to gain broad interdisciplinary views of large biological data sets. New Internet resources may help researchers to combine data sets across different gene expression platforms. However, noise and disparities in experimental protocols strongly limit data integration. A detailed review of four selected studies reveals how some of these limitations may be circumvented and illustrates what can be achieved through data integration.     

Protein-protein interactions as a target for drugs in proteomics

Protein-protein interactions play a central role in numerous processes in the cell and are one of the main fields of functional proteomics. This review highlights the methods of bioinformatics and functional proteomics of protein-protein interaction investigation. The structures and properties of contact surfaces, forces involved in protein-protein interactions, kinetic and thermodynamic parameters of these reactions were considered. The properties of protein contact surfaces depend on their functions. The contact surfaces of permanent complexes resemble domain contacts or the protein core and it is reasonable to consider such complex formation as a continuation of protein folding. Characteristics of contact surfaces of temporary protein complexes share some similarities with active sites of enzymes. The contact surfaces of the temporary protein complexes have unique structure and properties and they are more conservative in comparison with active site of enzymes. So they represent prospective targets for a new generation of drugs. During the last decade, numerous investigations were undertaken to find or design small molecules that block protein dimerization or protein(peptide)-receptor interaction, or, on the contrary, to induce protein dimerization.     

Transmembrane domains in the functions of Fc receptors

In the present study, we use a novel method, PHDhtm, to predict the exact locations and extents of the transmembrane (TM) domains of multisubunit immunoglobulin Fc-receptors. Whereas most previous studies have used single residue hydrophobicity plots for characterizing of these domains, PHDhtm utilizes a system of neural networks and the evolutionary information contained in multiple alignments of related sequences to predict the above. Present PHDhtm application predicts TM domains of immunoglobulin Fc-receptors that in many cases differ significantly from those derived by using earlier methods. Comparisons of helical wheel projections of the presently derived TM domains from PHDhtm with those produced earlier reveal different hydrophobic moments as well as hydrophobic and hydrophilic surfaces. These differences probably alter the character of subunit association within the receptor complexes. This new algorithm can also be used for other membrane protein complexes and may advance both understanding the principles underlying such complexes formation and design of peptides that can interfere with such TM domain association so as to modulate specific cellular responses.