CoryneRegNet 6.0—Updated database content, new analysis methods and novel features focusing on community demands

Post-genomic analysis techniques such as next-generation sequencing have produced vast amounts of data about micro organisms including genetic sequences, their functional annotations and gene regulatory interactions. The latter are genetic mechanisms that control a cell's characteristics, for instance, pathogenicity as well as survival and reproduction strategies. CoryneRegNet is the reference database and analysis platform for corynebacterial gene regulatory networks. In this article we introduce the updated version 6.0 of CoryneRegNet and describe the updated database content which includes, 6352 corynebacterial regulatory interactions compared with 4928 interactions in release 5.0 and 3235 regulations in release 4.0, respectively. We also demonstrate how we support the community by integrating analysis and visualization features for transiently imported custom data, such as gene regulatory interactions. Furthermore, with release 6.0, we provide easy-to-use functions that allow the user to submit data for persistent storage with the CoryneRegNet database. Thus, it offers important options to its users in terms of community demands. CoryneRegNet is publicly available at http://www.coryneregnet.de

EcoCyc: a comprehensive database of Escherichia coli biology

EcoCyc (http://EcoCyc.org) is a comprehensive model organism database for Escherichia coli K-12 MG1655. From the scientific literature, EcoCyc captures the functions of individual E. coli gene products; their regulation at the transcriptional, post-transcriptional and protein level; and their organization into operons, complexes and pathways. EcoCyc users can search and browse the information in multiple ways. Recent improvements to the EcoCyc Web interface include combined gene/protein pages and a Regulation Summary Diagram displaying a graphical overview of all known regulatory inputs to gene expression and protein activity. The graphical representation of signal transduction pathways has been updated, and the cellular and regulatory overviews were enhanced with new functionality. A specialized undergraduate teaching resource using EcoCyc is being developed

EcoCyc: A comprehensive view of Escherichia coli biology

EcoCyc (http://EcoCyc.org) provides a comprehensive encyclopedia of Escherichia coli biology. EcoCyc integrates information about the genome, genes and gene products; the metabolic network; and the regulatory network of E. coli. Recent EcoCyc developments include a new initiative to represent and curate all types of E. coli regulatory processes such as attenuation and regulation by small RNAs. EcoCyc has started to curate Gene Ontology (GO) terms for E. coli and has made a dataset of E. coli GO terms available through the GO Web site. The curation and visualization of electron transfer processes has been significantly improved. Other software and Web site enhancements include the addition of tracks to the EcoCyc genome browser, in particular a type of track designed for the display of ChIP-chip datasets, and the development of a comparative genome browser. A new Genome Omics Viewer enables users to paint omics datasets onto the full E. coli genome for analysis. A new advanced query page guides users in interactively constructing complex database queries against EcoCyc. A Macintosh version of EcoCyc is now available. A series of Webinars is available to instruct users in the use of EcoCyc

Structural and functional map of a bacterial nucleoid

Mapping global protein binding in the E. coli genome reveals extended domains of high protein occupancy

OperonDB: a comprehensive database of predicted operons in microbial genomes

The fast pace of bacterial genome sequencing and the resulting dependence on highly automated annotation methods has driven the development of many genome-wide analysis tools. OperonDB, first released in 2001, is a database containing the results of a computational algorithm for locating operon structures in microbial genomes. OperonDB has grown from 34 genomes in its initial release to more than 500 genomes today. In addition to increasing the size of the database, we have re-designed our operon finding algorithm and improved its accuracy. The new database is updated regularly as additional genomes become available in public archives. OperonDB can be accessed at: http://operondb.cbcb.umd.ed

Patterns of subnet usage reveal distinct scales of regulation in the transcriptional regulatory network of Escherichia coli

The set of regulatory interactions between genes, mediated by transcription factors, forms a species' transcriptional regulatory network (TRN). By comparing this network with measured gene expression data one can identify functional properties of the TRN and gain general insight into transcriptional control. We define the subnet of a node as the subgraph consisting of all nodes topologically downstream of the node, including itself. Using a large set of microarray expression data of the bacterium Escherichia coli, we find that the gene expression in different subnets exhibits a structured pattern in response to environmental changes and genotypic mutation. Subnets with less changes in their expression pattern have a higher fraction of feed-forward loop motifs and a lower fraction of small RNA targets within them. Our study implies that the TRN consists of several scales of regulatory organization: 1) subnets with more varying gene expression controlled by both transcription factors and post-transcriptional RNA regulation, and 2) subnets with less varying gene expression having more feed-forward loops and less post-transcriptional RNA regulation.Comment: 14 pages, 8 figures, to be published in PLoS Computational Biolog

Deep sequencing reveals as-yet-undiscovered small RNAs in Escherichia coli

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>In <it>Escherichia coli</it>, approximately 100 regulatory small RNAs (sRNAs) have been identified experimentally and many more have been predicted by various methods. To provide a comprehensive overview of sRNAs, we analysed the low-molecular-weight RNAs (< 200 nt) of <it>E. coli </it>with deep sequencing, because the regulatory RNAs in bacteria are usually 50-200 nt in length.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We discovered 229 novel candidate sRNAs (≥ 50 nt) with computational or experimental evidence of transcription initiation. Among them, the expression of seven intergenic sRNAs and three <it>cis</it>-antisense sRNAs was detected by northern blot analysis. Interestingly, five novel sRNAs are expressed from prophage regions and we note that these sRNAs have several specific characteristics. Furthermore, we conducted an evolutionary conservation analysis of the candidate sRNAs and summarised the data among closely related bacterial strains.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>This comprehensive screen for <it>E. coli </it>sRNAs using a deep sequencing approach has shown that many as-yet-undiscovered sRNAs are potentially encoded in the <it>E. coli </it>genome. We constructed the <it>Escherichia coli </it>Small RNA Browser (ECSBrowser; <url>http://rna.iab.keio.ac.jp/</url>), which integrates the data for previously identified sRNAs and the novel sRNAs found in this study.</p

Apellicon: a web-based tool for constructing and curating Textpresso databases.

As more research literature in the biological sciences is made available in electronic format, text mining systems are increasingly being used to improve the ability of investigators to retrieve relevant information. Through the use of advanced indexing techniques that utilize biological ontologies, semantic databases, and other formal representations of biological concepts text mining systems have been able to effectively parse biological literature. While text mining systems are increasingly effective at creating the linkages required to provide context-specific search results, the systems themselves are difficult to set up and use by novice computer users due to the highly technical nature of the applications. Because most researchers in the biological sciences do not have a strong computer science background we have focused on improving the quality of existing, proven text mining systems by implementing a web-based GUI that greatly improves the workflow of these systems. Textpresso in particular has an excellent web-based interface for searching literature but does not have an easy to use administrative interface. We developed the Apellicon interface to enable a wide range of users to build and manage a Textpresso database. An important feature of Apellicon is that it can enable groups to collaborate in building a Textpresso database