Interface-driven phase separation in multifunctional materials: the case of GeMn ferromagnetic semiconductor

We use extensive first principle simulations to show the major role played by interfaces in the mechanism of phase separation observed in semiconductor multifunctional materials. We make an analogy with the precipitation sequence observed in over-saturated AlCu alloys, and replace the Guinier-Preston zones in this new context. A new class of materials, the $\alpha$ phases, is proposed to understand the formation of the coherent precipitates observed in the GeMn system. The interplay between formation and interface energies is analyzed for these phases and for the structures usually considered in the literature. The existence of the alpha phases is assessed with both theoretical and experimental arguments

FOAM (functional ontology assignments for metagenomes):a hidden markov model (HMM) database with environmental focus

A new functional gene database, FOAM (Functional Ontology Assignments for Metagenomes), was developed to screen environmental metagenomic sequence datasets. FOAM provides a new functional ontology dedicated to classify gene functions relevant to environmental microorganisms based on Hidden Markov Models (HMMs). Sets of aligned protein sequences (i.e. ‘profiles’) were tailored to a large group of target KEGG Orthologs (KOs) from which HMMs were trained. The alignments were checked and curated to make them specific to the targeted KO. Within this process, sequence profiles were enriched with the most abundant sequences available to maximize the yield of accurate classifier models. An associated functional ontology was built to describe the functional groups and hierarchy. FOAM allows the user to select the target search space before HMM-based comparison steps and to easily organize the results into different functional categories and subcategories. FOAM is publicly available at http://portal.nersc.gov/project/m1317/FOAM/

Assessments of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill impact on Gulf coast microbial communities

Peer reviewe

FOAM (Functional Ontology Assignments for Metagenomes): a Hidden Markov Model (HMM) database with environmental focus

A new functional gene database, FOAM (Functional Ontology Assignments for Metagenomes), was developed to screen environmental metagenomic sequence datasets. FOAM provides a new functional ontology dedicated to classify gene functions relevant to environmental microorganisms based on Hidden Markov Models (HMMs). Sets of aligned protein sequences (i.e. ‘profiles’) were tailored to a large group of target KEGG Orthologs (KOs) from which HMMs were trained. The alignments were checked and curated to make them specific to the targeted KO. Within this process, sequence profiles were enriched with the most abundant sequences available to maximize the yield of accurate classifier models. An associated functional ontology was built to describe the functional groups and hierarchy. FOAM allows the user to select the target search space before HMM-based comparison steps and to easily organize the results into different functional categories and subcategories. FOAM is publicly available at http://portal.nersc.gov/project/m1317/FOAM/

Metagenomics reveals sediment microbial community response to Deepwater Horizon oil spill

The Deepwater Horizon (DWH) oil spill in the spring of 2010 resulted in an input of ∼4.1 million barrels of oil to the Gulf of Mexico; >22% of this oil is unaccounted for, with unknown environmental consequences. Here we investigated the impact of oil deposition on microbial communities in surface sediments collected at 64 sites by targeted sequencing of 16S rRNA genes, shotgun metagenomic sequencing of 14 of these samples and mineralization experiments using (14)C-labeled model substrates. The 16S rRNA gene data indicated that the most heavily oil-impacted sediments were enriched in an uncultured Gammaproteobacterium and a Colwellia species, both of which were highly similar to sequences in the DWH deep-sea hydrocarbon plume. The primary drivers in structuring the microbial community were nitrogen and hydrocarbons. Annotation of unassembled metagenomic data revealed the most abundant hydrocarbon degradation pathway encoded genes involved in degrading aliphatic and simple aromatics via butane monooxygenase. The activity of key hydrocarbon degradation pathways by sediment microbes was confirmed by determining the mineralization of (14)C-labeled model substrates in the following order: propylene glycol, dodecane, toluene and phenanthrene. Further, analysis of metagenomic sequence data revealed an increase in abundance of genes involved in denitrification pathways in samples that exceeded the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)'s benchmarks for polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) compared with those that did not. Importantly, these data demonstrate that the indigenous sediment microbiota contributed an important ecosystem service for remediation of oil in the Gulf. However, PAHs were more recalcitrant to degradation, and their persistence could have deleterious impacts on the sediment ecosystem

Les réseaux bayésiens : classification et recherche de réseaux locaux en cancérologie

In oncology, microarrays have become a classical tool to search and characterize pathologies at a deeper level than previous methods, using genetic expression to find the mechanisms, classes, molecular associations, and cellular interaction networks of different cancers. From a biological point of view, these cellular networks are interesting because they concentrate a large amount of knowledge about cellular processes. The goal of this PhD thesis project is to extract structures that could correspond to genetic interaction networks from the expression data. "Bayesian Networks", i.e. a graphic and probabilistic method that models even static systems (like the expression network) with conditional independences, are used as the framework to investigate this problem. The adaptation of this method to data where the dimension of the variables (about 105 for gene expression) is much greater than the dimension of the samples (about 102 in oncology) aggravates some statistical and combinatorial problems. For several cancer problematics, this project proposes an acceleration strategy for capturing expression networks with Bayesian Networks and some methods to classify tumors, finding gene signatures of particular biological conditions by searching for local networks in the neighborhood of a gene of interest. In parallel, we propose to model a Bayesian Network from a known biological network, which is useful to simulate samples and to test these methods to reconstruct graphs fromEn cancérologie, les puces à ADN mesurant le transcriptome sont devenues un outil commun pour chercher à caractériser plus finement les pathologies, dans l’espoir de trouver au travers des expressions géniques : des mécanismes,des classes, des associations entre molécules, des réseaux d’interactions cellulaires. Ces réseaux d’interactions sont très intéressants d’un point de vue biologique car ils concentrent un grand nombre de connaissances sur le fonctionnement cellulaire. Ce travail de thèse a pour but, à partir de ces mêmes données d’expression, d’extraire des structures pouvant s’apparenter à des réseaux d’interactions génétiques. Le cadre méthodologique choisi pour appréhender cette problématique est les « Réseaux Bayésiens », c’est-à-dire une méthode à la fois graphique et probabiliste permettant de modéliser des systèmes pourtant statiques (ici le réseau d’expression génétique) à l’aide d’indépendances conditionnelles sous forme d’un réseau. L’adaptation de cette méthode à des données dont la dimension des variables (ici l’expression des gènes, dont l’ordre de grandeur est 105) est très supérieure à la dimension des échantillons (ordre102 en cancérologie) pose des problèmes statistiques (de faux positifs et négatifs) et combinatoires (avec seulement 10gènes on a 4×1018 graphes orientés sans circuit possibles). A partir de plusieurs problématiques de cancers (leucémies et cancers du sein), ce projet propose une stratégie d’accélération de recherche de réseaux d’expression à l’aide de Réseaux Bayésiens, ainsi que des mises en œuvre de cette méthode pour classer des tumeurs, sélectionner un ensemble de gènes d’intérêt reliés à une condition biologique particulière, rechercher des réseaux locaux autour d’un gène d’intérêt.On propose parallèlement de modéliser un Réseau Bayésien à partir d’un réseau biologique connu, utile pour simuler des échantillons et tester des méthodes de reconstruction de graphes à partir de données contrôlées

Classification and capture of regulation networks with bayesian networks in oncology

En cancérologie, les puces à ADN mesurant le transcriptome sont devenues un outil commun pour chercher à caractériser plus finement les pathologies, dans l’espoir de trouver au travers des expressions géniques : des mécanismes,des classes, des associations entre molécules, des réseaux d’interactions cellulaires. Ces réseaux d’interactions sont très intéressants d’un point de vue biologique car ils concentrent un grand nombre de connaissances sur le fonctionnement cellulaire. Ce travail de thèse a pour but, à partir de ces mêmes données d’expression, d’extraire des structures pouvant s’apparenter à des réseaux d’interactions génétiques. Le cadre méthodologique choisi pour appréhender cette problématique est les « Réseaux Bayésiens », c’est-à-dire une méthode à la fois graphique et probabiliste permettant de modéliser des systèmes pourtant statiques (ici le réseau d’expression génétique) à l’aide d’indépendances conditionnelles sous forme d’un réseau. L’adaptation de cette méthode à des données dont la dimension des variables (ici l’expression des gènes, dont l’ordre de grandeur est 105) est très supérieure à la dimension des échantillons (ordre102 en cancérologie) pose des problèmes statistiques (de faux positifs et négatifs) et combinatoires (avec seulement 10gènes on a 4×1018 graphes orientés sans circuit possibles). A partir de plusieurs problématiques de cancers (leucémies et cancers du sein), ce projet propose une stratégie d’accélération de recherche de réseaux d’expression à l’aide de Réseaux Bayésiens, ainsi que des mises en œuvre de cette méthode pour classer des tumeurs, sélectionner un ensemble de gènes d’intérêt reliés à une condition biologique particulière, rechercher des réseaux locaux autour d’un gène d’intérêt.On propose parallèlement de modéliser un Réseau Bayésien à partir d’un réseau biologique connu, utile pour simuler des échantillons et tester des méthodes de reconstruction de graphes à partir de données contrôlées.In oncology, microarrays have become a classical tool to search and characterize pathologies at a deeper level than previous methods, using genetic expression to find the mechanisms, classes, molecular associations, and cellular interaction networks of different cancers. From a biological point of view, these cellular networks are interesting because they concentrate a large amount of knowledge about cellular processes. The goal of this PhD thesis project is to extract structures that could correspond to genetic interaction networks from the expression data. "Bayesian Networks", i.e. a graphic and probabilistic method that models even static systems (like the expression network) with conditional independences, are used as the framework to investigate this problem. The adaptation of this method to data where the dimension of the variables (about 105 for gene expression) is much greater than the dimension of the samples (about 102 in oncology) aggravates some statistical and combinatorial problems. For several cancer problematics, this project proposes an acceleration strategy for capturing expression networks with Bayesian Networks and some methods to classify tumors, finding gene signatures of particular biological conditions by searching for local networks in the neighborhood of a gene of interest. In parallel, we propose to model a Bayesian Network from a known biological network, which is useful to simulate samples and to test these methods to reconstruct graphs fro

Soil-specific limitations for access and analysis of soil microbial communities by metagenomics

International audienceMetagenomics approaches represent an important way to acquire information on the microbial communities present in complex environments like soil. However, to what extent do these approaches provide us with a true picture of soil microbial diversity? Soil is a challenging environment to work with. Its physicochemical properties affect microbial distributions inside the soil matrix, metagenome extraction and its subsequent analyses. To better understand the bias inherent to soil metagenome 'processing', we focus on soil physicochemical properties and their effects on the perceived bacterial distribution. In the light of this information, each step of soil metagenome processing is then discussed, with an emphasis on strategies for optimal soil sampling. Then, the interaction of cells and DNA with the soil matrix and the consequences for microbial DNA extraction are examined. Soil DNA extraction methods are compared and the veracity of the microbial profiles obtained is discussed. Finally, soil metagenomic sequence analysis and exploitation methods are reviewed

MyroldDavidCropSoilSciFOAMFunctionalOntologyAssignments.pdf

A new functional gene database, FOAM (Functional Ontology Assignments for Metagenomes), was developed to screen environmental metagenomic sequence datasets. FOAM provides a new functional ontology dedicated to classify gene functions relevant to environmental microorganisms based on Hidden Markov Models (HMMs). Sets of aligned protein sequences (i.e. ‘profiles’) were tailored to a large group of target KEGG Orthologs (KOs) from which HMMs were trained. The alignments were checked and curated to make them specific to the targeted KO. Within this process, sequence profiles were enriched with the most abundant sequences available to maximize the yield of accurate classifier models. An associated functional ontology was built to describe the functional groups and hierarchy. FOAM allows the user to select the target search space before HMM-based comparison steps and to easily organize the results into different functional categories and subcategories. FOAM is publicly available at http://portal.nersc.gov/project/m1317/FOAM/