Expert Assertions Through Community Annotation Jamborees

Although there is significant optimism that community involvement can drive genome curation, results to date are disappointing. The Human Genome and Saccharomyces Genome Databases both tried community annotation experiments and few community contributions were obtained. JCVI’s own early experiences with community curation were also largely unsuccessful. Although community curation tools were publicly available on JCVI web resources and much effort was made by JCVI personnel to advertise these resources, little curation was actually submitted. Starting in late 2007, JCVI’s model for community curation changed. Instead of simply providing curation tools on websites and advertising their utility at meetings and conferences, JCVI instituted a community curation jamboree model. 

Annotation jamborees are an excellent form of outreach to the community. JCVI’s experience conducting jamborees is highly successful, demonstrating that jamborees are effective tools for incorporating expert annotation data into existing genome submissions, updating existing annotation, tagging annotation with updated experimental references and providing the community with opportunities to become familiar with JCVI’s annotation procedures and curation tools. Jamborees provide a means to directly interact with the community and integrate their research expertise into genomic data sets. Jamboree participants are encouraged to provide their expert input by focusing on their genes and gene families of interest, particularly those with supporting experimental evidence. Through JCVI’s NIAID Bioinformatics Resource Center, Pathema ("http://pathema.jcvi.org":http://pathema.jcvi.org), JCVI hosted two annotation jamborees incorporating expert annotation into Entamoeba and Burkholderia genome projects. These jamborees resulted in curation of 1,565 functional assignments, 3,499 Gene Ontology terms, 129 gene structures, and 296 experimental references for 11 genome projects representative of the Pathema data set. Researchers who contributed to annotation at these jamborees are being submitted as contributing authors on annotation update submissions made to GenBank for those organisms. Additionally, the annotation associated with the submission is recognized as part of community curation efforts and collaboration, and all updates and contributions are reflected on the Pathema web resource.

The networking and personal communication that occurs throughout a jamboree facilitates a forum for research and data exchange, solicitation of user feedback and the establishment of new community collaborations. Although integrating and updating annotation data is important, it is our experience that the interactions that occur and collaborations that are formed are the most beneficial long-term results of jamboree efforts. Collaborations we established as a direct result of jamboree activity include continued community annotation, custom data analyses and general informatics support not otherwise solicited by the researcher. For the jamborees JCVI recently hosted, we established successful collaborations with four researchers who continued to provide curation from their own institute

Genetic and phenotypic diversity in Burkholderia: contributions by prophage and phage-like elements

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p><it>Burkholderia </it>species exhibit enormous phenotypic diversity, ranging from the nonpathogenic, soil- and water-inhabiting <it>Burkholderia thailandensis </it>to the virulent, host-adapted mammalian pathogen <it>B. mallei</it>. Genomic diversity is evident within <it>Burkholderia </it>species as well. Individual isolates of <it>Burkholderia pseudomallei </it>and <it>B. thailandensis</it>, for example, carry a variety of strain-specific genomic islands (GIs), including putative pathogenicity and metabolic islands, prophage-like islands, and prophages. These GIs may provide some strains with a competitive advantage in the environment and/or in the host relative to other strains.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Here we present the results of analysis of 37 prophages, putative prophages, and prophage-like elements from six different <it>Burkholderia </it>species. Five of these were spontaneously induced to form bacteriophage particles from <it>B. pseudomallei </it>and <it>B. thailandensis </it>strains and were isolated and fully sequenced; 24 were computationally predicted in sequenced <it>Burkholderia </it>genomes; and eight are previously characterized prophages or prophage-like elements. The results reveal numerous differences in both genome structure and gene content among elements derived from different species as well as from strains within species, due in part to the incorporation of additional DNA, or 'morons' into the prophage genomes. Implications for pathogenicity are also discussed. Lastly, RNAseq analysis of gene expression showed that many of the genes in ϕ1026b that appear to contribute to phage and lysogen fitness were expressed independently of the phage structural and replication genes.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>This study provides the first estimate of the relative contribution of prophages to the vast phenotypic diversity found among the <it>Burkholderiae</it>.</p

AbGRI4, a novel antibiotic resistance island in multiply antibiotic-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii clinical isolates.

OBJECTIVES: To investigate the genomic context of a novel resistance island (RI) in multiply antibiotic-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii clinical isolates and global isolates. METHODS: Using a combination of long and short reads generated from the Oxford Nanopore and Illumina platforms, contiguous chromosomes and plasmid sequences were determined. BLAST-based analysis was used to identify the RI insertion target. RESULTS: Genomes of four multiply antibiotic-resistant A. baumannii clinical strains, from a US hospital system, belonging to prevalent MLST ST2 (Pasteur scheme) and ST281 (Oxford scheme) clade F isolates were sequenced to completion. A class 1 integron carrying aadB (tobramycin resistance) and aadA2 (streptomycin/spectinomycin resistance) was identified. The class 1 integron was 6.8 kb, bounded by IS26 at both ends, and embedded in a new target location between an α/β-hydrolase and a reductase. Due to its novel insertion site and unique RI composition, we suggest naming this novel RI AbGRI4. Molecular analysis of global A. baumannii isolates identified multiple AbGRI4 RI variants in non-ST2 clonal lineages, including variations in the resistance gene cassettes, integron backbone and insertion breakpoints at the hydrolase gene. CONCLUSIONS: A novel RI insertion target harbouring a class 1 integron was identified in a subgroup of ST2/ST281 clinical isolates. Variants of the RI suggested evolution and horizontal transfer of the RI across clonal lineages. Long- and short-read hybrid assembly technology completely resolved the genomic context of IS-bounded RIs, which was not possible using short reads alone

Life in Hot Carbon Monoxide: The Complete Genome Sequence of Carboxydothermus hydrogenoformans Z-2901

We report here the sequencing and analysis of the genome of the thermophilic bacterium Carboxydothermus hydrogenoformans Z-2901. This species is a model for studies of hydrogenogens, which are diverse bacteria and archaea that grow anaerobically utilizing carbon monoxide (CO) as their sole carbon source and water as an electron acceptor, producing carbon dioxide and hydrogen as waste products. Organisms that make use of CO do so through carbon monoxide dehydrogenase complexes. Remarkably, analysis of the genome of C. hydrogenoformans reveals the presence of at least five highly differentiated anaerobic carbon monoxide dehydrogenase complexes, which may in part explain how this species is able to grow so much more rapidly on CO than many other species. Analysis of the genome also has provided many general insights into the metabolism of this organism which should make it easier to use it as a source of biologically produced hydrogen gas. One surprising finding is the presence of many genes previously found only in sporulating species in the Firmicutes Phylum. Although this species is also a Firmicutes, it was not known to sporulate previously. Here we show that it does sporulate and because it is missing many of the genes involved in sporulation in other species, this organism may serve as a “minimal” model for sporulation studies. In addition, using phylogenetic profile analysis, we have identified many uncharacterized gene families found in all known sporulating Firmicutes, but not in any non-sporulating bacteria, including a sigma factor not known to be involved in sporulation previously

The Protein Naming Utility: a rules database for protein nomenclature

Generation of syntactically correct and unambiguous names for proteins is a challenging, yet vital task for functional annotation processes. Proteins are often named based on homology to known proteins, many of which have problematic names. To address the need to generate high-quality protein names, and capture our significant experience correcting protein names manually, we have developed the Protein Naming Utility (PNU, http://www.jcvi.org/pn-utility). The PNU is a web-based database for storing and applying naming rules to identify and correct syntactically incorrect protein names, or to replace synonyms with their preferred name. The PNU allows users to generate and manage collections of naming rules, optionally building upon the growing body of rules generated at the J. Craig Venter Institute (JCVI). Since communities often enforce disparate conventions for naming proteins, the PNU supports grouping rules into user-managed collections. Users can check their protein names against a selected PNU rule collection, generating both statistics and corrected names. The PNU can also be used to correct GenBank table files prior to submission to GenBank. Currently, the database features 3080 manual rules that have been entered by JCVI Bioinformatics Analysts as well as 7458 automatically imported names

Continuing evolution of Burkholderia mallei through genome reduction and large-scale rearrangements

Burkholderia mallei (Bm), the causative agent of the predominately equine disease glanders, is a genetically uniform species that is very closely related to the much more diverse species Burkholderia pseudomallei (Bp), an opportunistic human pathogen and the primary cause of melioidosis. To gain insight into the relative lack of genetic diversity within Bm, we performed whole-genome comparative analysis of seven Bm strains and contrasted these with eight Bp strains. The Bm core genome (shared by all seven strains) is smaller in size than that of Bp, but the inverse is true for the variable gene sets that are distributed across strains. Interestingly, the biological roles of the Bm variable gene sets are much more homogeneous than those of Bp. The Bm variable genes are found mostly in contiguous regions flanked by insertion sequence (IS) elements, which appear to mediate excision and subsequent elimination of groups of genes that are under reduced selection in the mammalian host. The analysis suggests that the Bm genome continues to evolve through random IS-mediated recombination events, and differences in gene content may contribute to differences in virulence observed among Bm strains. The results are consistent with the view that Bm recently evolved from a single strain of Bp upon introduction into an animal host followed by expansion of IS elements, prophage elimination, and genome rearrangements and reduction mediated by homologous recombination across IS elements

Population Structure of KPC-Producing Klebsiella pneumoniae Isolates from Midwestern U.S. Hospitals

ABSTRACT Genome sequencing of carbapenem-resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae isolates from regional U.S. hospitals was used to characterize strain diversity and the bla KPC genetic context. A phylogeny based on core single-nucleotide variants (SNVs) supports a division of sequence type 258 (ST258) into two distinct groups. The primary differences between the groups are in the capsular polysaccharide locus ( cps ) and their plasmid contents. A strict association between clade and KPC variant was found. The bla KPC gene was found on variants of two plasmid backbones. This study indicates that highly similar K. pneumoniae subpopulations coexist within the same hospitals over time

Comparative Genomics of Emerging Human Ehrlichiosis Agents

Anaplasma (formerly Ehrlichia) phagocytophilum, Ehrlichia chaffeensis, and Neorickettsia (formerly Ehrlichia) sennetsu are intracellular vector-borne pathogens that cause human ehrlichiosis, an emerging infectious disease. We present the complete genome sequences of these organisms along with comparisons to other organisms in the Rickettsiales order. Ehrlichia spp. and Anaplasma spp. display a unique large expansion of immunodominant outer membrane proteins facilitating antigenic variation. All Rickettsiales have a diminished ability to synthesize amino acids compared to their closest free-living relatives. Unlike members of the Rickettsiaceae family, these pathogenic Anaplasmataceae are capable of making all major vitamins, cofactors, and nucleotides, which could confer a beneficial role in the invertebrate vector or the vertebrate host. Further analysis identified proteins potentially involved in vacuole confinement of the Anaplasmataceae, a life cycle involving a hematophagous vector, vertebrate pathogenesis, human pathogenesis, and lack of transovarial transmission. These discoveries provide significant insights into the biology of these obligate intracellular pathogens