ESF Workshop on ‘Sustainability and Governance of Web and GRID Resources in Functional Genomics’

Life scientists and bioinformaticians increasingly rely on web-based resources. The number of such resources, as well as the amount of available content, grows continuously. The need for efficient interoperability is becoming important. Moreover, as data propagate easily through such media, their quality and pertinence need to be monitored closely. It costs money to set up and maintain a resource. Because biology, like any other field of scientific inquiry, is very dynamic, maintenance is labour-intensive. Users of a resource will generally want to be assured of its quality; in other words, a scheme of quality assurance has to be in place. Governance, or who is responsible for what, has to be clear for the community. A business model addresses these issues in their mutual dependence. Therefore, every resource comes with a business model, irrespective of whether or not its creators are aware of it

The ESF Programme on Functional Genomics Workshop on ‘Data Integration in Functional Genomics: Application to Biological Pathways’

We report from the second ESF Programme on Functional Genomics workshop on Data Integration, which covered topics including the status of biological pathways databases in existing consortia; pathways as part of bioinformatics infrastructures; design, creation and formalization of biological pathways databases; generating and supporting pathway data and interoperability of databases with other external databases and standards. Key issues emerging from the discussions were the need for continued funding to cover maintenance and curation of databases, the importance of quality control of the data in these resources, and efforts to facilitate the exchange of data and to ensure the interoperability of databases

Development of data representation standards by the human proteome organization proteomics standards initiative

Objective To describe the goals of the Proteomics Standards Initiative (PSI) of the Human Proteome Organization, the methods that the PSI has employed to create data standards, the resulting output of the PSI, lessons learned from the PSI's evolution, and future directions and synergies for the group. Materials and Methods The PSI has 5 categories of deliverables that have guided the group. These are minimum information guidelines, data formats, controlled vocabularies, resources and software tools, and dissemination activities. These deliverables are produced via the leadership and working group organization of the initiative, driven by frequent workshops and ongoing communication within the working groups. Official standards are subjected to a rigorous document process that includes several levels of peer review prior to release. Results We have produced and published minimum information guidelines describing what information should be provided when making data public, either via public repositories or other means. The PSI has produced a series of standard formats covering mass spectrometer input, mass spectrometer output, results of informatics analysis (both qualitative and quantitative analyses), reports of molecular interaction data, and gel electrophoresis analyses. We have produced controlled vocabularies that ensure that concepts are uniformly annotated in the formats and engaged in extensive software development and dissemination efforts so that the standards can efficiently be used by the community. Conclusion In its first dozen years of operation, the PSI has produced many standards that have accelerated the field of proteomics by facilitating data exchange and deposition to data repositories. We look to the future to continue developing standards for new proteomics technologies and workflows and mechanisms for integration with other omics data types. Our products facilitate the translation of genomics and proteomics findings to clinical and biological phenotypes. The PSI website can be accessed at http://www.psidev.inf

Exploring glycopeptide-resistance in Staphylococcus aureus: a combined proteomics and transcriptomics approach for the identification of resistance-related markers

BACKGROUND: To unravel molecular targets involved in glycopeptide resistance, three isogenic strains of Staphylococcus aureus with different susceptibility levels to vancomycin or teicoplanin were subjected to whole-genome microarray-based transcription and quantitative proteomic profiling. Quantitative proteomics performed on membrane extracts showed exquisite inter-experimental reproducibility permitting the identification and relative quantification of >30% of the predicted S. aureus proteome. RESULTS: In the absence of antibiotic selection pressure, comparison of stable resistant and susceptible strains revealed 94 differentially expressed genes and 178 proteins. As expected, only partial correlation was obtained between transcriptomic and proteomic results during stationary-phase. Application of massively parallel methods identified one third of the complete proteome, a majority of which was only predicted based on genome sequencing, but never identified to date. Several over-expressed genes represent previously reported targets, while series of genes and proteins possibly involved in the glycopeptide resistance mechanism were discovered here, including regulators, global regulator attenuator, hyper-mutability factor or hypothetical proteins. Gene expression of these markers was confirmed in a collection of genetically unrelated strains showing altered susceptibility to glycopeptides. CONCLUSION: Our proteome and transcriptome analyses have been performed during stationary-phase of growth on isogenic strains showing susceptibility or intermediate level of resistance against glycopeptides. Altered susceptibility had emerged spontaneously after infection with a sensitive parental strain, thus not selected in vitro. This combined analysis allows the identification of hundreds of proteins considered, so far as hypothetical protein. In addition, this study provides not only a global picture of transcription and expression adaptations during a complex antibiotic resistance mechanism but also unravels potential drug targets or markers that are constitutively expressed by resistant strains regardless of their genetic background, amenable to be used as diagnostic targets