WaveNano: a signal-level nanopore base-caller via simultaneous prediction of nucleotide labels and move labels through bi-directional WaveNets

Background: The Oxford MinION nanopore sequencer is the recently appealing third-generation genome sequencing device that is portable and no larger than a cellphone. Despite the benefits of MinION to sequence ultra-long reads in real-time, the high error rate of the existing base-calling methods, especially indels (insertions and deletions), prevents its use in a variety of applications. Methods: In this paper, we show that such indel errors are largely due to the segmentation process on the input electrical current signal from MinION. All existing methods conduct segmentation and nucleotide label prediction in a sequential manner, in which the errors accumulated in the first step will irreversibly influence the final base-calling. We further show that the indel issue can be significantly reduced via accurate labeling of nucleotide and move labels directly from the raw signal, which can then be efficiently learned by a bi-directional WaveNet model simultaneously through feature sharing. Our bi-directional WaveNet model with residual blocks and skip connections is able to capture the extremely long dependency in the raw signal. Taking the predicted move as the segmentation guidance, we employ the Viterbi decoding to obtain the final base-calling results from the smoothed nucleotide probability matrix. Results: Our proposed base-caller, WaveNano, achieves good performance on real MinION sequencing data from Lambda phage. Conclusions: The signal-level nanopore base-caller WaveNano can obtain higher base-calling accuracy, and generate fewer insertions/deletions in the base-called sequences.     

Synapse Formation Activates a Transcriptional Program for Persistent Enhancement in the Bi-directional Transport of Mitochondria

1. Download high-res image (142KB)
2. Download full-size image

     

灵芝子实体原基双向电泳和总蛋白质提取方法的建立

比较了Tris-饱和酚法和三氯乙酸(TCA)/丙酮沉淀法对灵芝子实体原基总蛋白质的提取效果。用Image Master 2D Platinum6.0软件分析两种方法所提蛋白质的双向电泳图谱,分别得到565和273个蛋白质点;(TCA)/丙酮沉淀法在碱性端低分子量区域有些蛋白质斑点存在拖尾现象,Tris-饱和酚法能有效去除样品中的盐分,使蛋白质的聚焦效果更好,蛋白点数增加。Tris-饱和酚法可做为灵芝子实体原基总蛋白质的提取方法并为其他药用真菌总蛋白质的提取提供参考,同时为本实验室后续研究灵芝双向性固体发酵雷公藤的蛋白差异表达奠定了基础。     

Bi-directional Duplex Promoters with Duplicated Enhancers Significantly Increase Transgene Expression in Grape and Tobacco

Novel bi-directional duplex promoters (BDDP) were constructed by placing two identical core promoters divergently on both upstream and downstream sides of their duplicated enhancer elements. Estimates of promoter function were obtained by creating versions of CaMV 35S and CsVMV BDDPs that contained reporter marker genes encoding beta-glucuronidase (GUS) and enhanced green fluorescent protein (EGFP) interchangeably linked either to the upstream or downstream core promoters. GUS was used for quantitative analysis of promoter function, whereas, EGFP allowed visual qualitative evaluation. In addition, the GUS and EGFP genes placed in downstream positions were modified by translational fusion with neomycin phosphotransferase (NPTII) to allow simultaneous monitoring of promoter activity and selection of stable transformants. These versions of BDDP were compared with each other and with equivalent unidirectional constructs by evaluating their expression in grape and tobacco. For 35S promoter constructs tested in grape somatic embryos (SE), BDDP exhibited transient GUS expression 206- and 300-fold greater in downstream and upstream configurations, respectively, compared to a unidirectional 35S core promoter. Compared with a unidirectional double enhanced 35S promoter, BDDPs exhibited 0.5- and 3-fold increased GUS expression from downstream and upstream core promoters, respectively. The same differences in expression levels determined quantitatively with GUS were distinguished qualitatively with EGFP. Constructs using CsVMV core promoters yielded results relative to those obtained with 35S promoter. For example, the upstream BDDP CsVMV core promoter provided a 200-fold increase in GUS expression compared to a unidirectional core promoter. However, CsVMV promoter was found to have higher promoter activity than 35S promoter in both BDDP and unidirectional constructs. Incorporation of an additional duplicated enhancer element to BDDPs resulted in increased expression. For example, a 35S BDDP with two divergently arranged duplicated enhancer elements resulted in over a 6-fold increase in GUS expression in stably transformed tobacco plants compared to a BDDP with one duplicated enhancer element. Data demonstrate that BDDP composed of divergently-arranged core promoters separated by duplicated enhancers, all derived from a single promoter sequence, can be used to significantly enhance transgene expression and to direct synchronized expression of multiple transgenes.