PanCGHweb: a web tool for genotype calling in pangenome CGH data

Summary: A pangenome is the total of genes present in strains of the same species. Pangenome microarrays allow determining the genomic content of bacterial strains more accurately than conventional comparative genome hybridization microarrays. PanCGHweb is the first tool that effectively calls genotype based on pangenome microarray data

Soft topographic map for clustering and classification of bacteria

In this work a new method for clustering and building a topographic representation of a bacteria taxonomy is presented. The method is based on the analysis of stable parts of the genome, the so-called “housekeeping genes”. The proposed method generates topographic maps of the bacteria taxonomy, where relations among different type strains can be visually inspected and verified. Two well known DNA alignement algorithms are applied to the genomic sequences. Topographic maps are optimized to represent the similarity among the sequences according to their evolutionary distances. The experimental analysis is carried out on 147 type strains of the Gammaprotebacteria class by means of the 16S rRNA housekeeping gene. Complete sequences of the gene have been retrieved from the NCBI public database. In the experimental tests the maps show clusters of homologous type strains and present some singular cases potentially due to incorrect classification or erroneous annotations in the database

Structural Genomic Variation as Risk Factor for Idiopathic Recurrent Miscarriage

Peer reviewe

Multicenter analysis of sputum microbiota in tuberculosis patients.

The impact of tuberculosis and of anti-tuberculosis therapy on composition and modification of human lung microbiota has been the object of several investigations. However, no clear outcome has been presented so far and the relationship between M. tuberculosis pulmonary infection and the resident lung microbiota remains vague. In this work we describe the results obtained from a multicenter study of the microbiota of sputum samples from patients with tuberculosis or unrelated lung diseases and healthy donors recruited in Switzerland, Italy and Bangladesh, with the ultimate goal of discovering a microbiota-based biomarker associated with tuberculosis. Bacterial 16S rDNA amplification, high-throughput sequencing and extensive bioinformatic analyses revealed patient-specific flora and high variability in taxon abundance. No common signature could be identified among the individuals enrolled except for minor differences which were not consistent among the different geographical settings. Moreover, anti-tuberculosis therapy did not cause any important variation in microbiota diversity, thus precluding its exploitation as a biomarker for the follow up of tuberculosis patients undergoing treatment

GreenPhylDB: a database for plant comparative genomics

GreenPhylDB (http://greenphyl.cirad.fr) is a comprehensive platform designed to facilitate comparative functional genomics in Oryza sativa and Arabidopsis thaliana genomes. The main functions of GreenPhylDB are to assign O. sativa and A. thaliana sequences to gene families using a semi-automatic clustering procedure and to create ‘orthologous’ groups using a phylogenomic approach. To date, GreenPhylDB comprises the most complete list of plant gene families, which have been manually curated (6421 families). GreenPhylDB also contains all of the phylogenomic relationships computed for 4375 families. A total of 492 TAIR, 1903 InterPro and 981 KEGG families and subfamilies were manually curated using the clusters created with the TribeMCL software. GreenPhylDB integrates information from several other databases including UniProt, KEGG, InterPro, TAIR and TIGR. Several entry points can be used to display phylogenomic relationships for A. thaliana or O. sativa sequences, using TAIR, TIGR gene ID, family name, InterPro, gene alias, UniProt or protein/nucleic sequence. Finally, a powerful phylogenomics tool, GreenPhyl Ortholog Search Tool (GOST), was incorporated into GreenPhylDB to predict orthologous relationships between O. sativa/A. thaliana protein(s) and sequences from other plant species

Rich-Club Phenomenon in the Interactome of P. falciparum—Artifact or Signature of a Parasitic Life Style?

Recent advances have provided a first experimental protein interaction map of the human malaria parasite P. falciparum, which appears to be remotely related to interactomes of other eukaryotes. Here, we present a comparative topological analysis of this experimentally determined web with a network of conserved interactions between proteins in S. cerevisiae, C. elegans and D. melanogaster that have an ortholog in Plasmodium. Focusing on experimental interactions, we find a significant presence of a “rich-club,” a topological characteristic that features an “oligarchy” of highly connected proteins being intertwined with one another. In complete contrast, the network of interologs and particularly the web of evolutionary-conserved interactions in P. falciparum lack this feature. This observation prompts the question of whether this result points to a topological signature of the parasite's biology, since experimentally obtained interactions widely cover parasite-specific functions. Significantly, hub proteins that appear in such an oligarchy revolve around invasion functions, shaping an island of parasite-specific activities in a sea of evolutionary inherited interactions. This presence of a biologically unprecedented network feature in the human malaria parasite might be an artifact of the quality and the methods to obtain interaction data in this organism. Yet, the observation that rich-club proteins have distinctive and statistically significant functions that revolve around parasite-specific activities point to a topological signature of a parasitic life style

The new COST Action European Venom Network (EUVEN)—synergy and future perspectives of modern venomics

Venom research is a highly multidisciplinary field that involves multiple subfields of biology, informatics, pharmacology, medicine, and other areas. These different research facets are often technologically challenging and pursued by different teams lacking connection with each other. This lack of coordination hampers the full development of venom investigation and applications. The COST Action CA19144–European Venom Network was recently launched to promote synergistic interactions among different stakeholders and foster venom research at the European level

The Candida genome database incorporates multiple Candida species: multispecies search and analysis tools with curated gene and protein information for Candida albicans and Candida glabrata

The Candida Genome Database (CGD, http://www.candidagenome.org/) is an internet-based resource that provides centralized access to genomic sequence data and manually curated functional information about genes and proteins of the fungal pathogen Candida albicans and other Candida species. As the scope of Candida research, and the number of sequenced strains and related species, has grown in recent years, the need for expanded genomic resources has also grown. To answer this need, CGD has expanded beyond storing data solely for C. albicans, now integrating data from multiple species. Herein we describe the incorporation of this multispecies information, which includes curated gene information and the reference sequence for C. glabrata, as well as orthology relationships that interconnect Locus Summary pages, allowing easy navigation between genes of C. albicans and C. glabrata. These orthology relationships are also used to predict GO annotations of their products. We have also added protein information pages that display domains, structural information and physicochemical properties; bibliographic pages highlighting important topic areas in Candida biology; and a laboratory strain lineage page that describes the lineage of commonly used laboratory strains. All of these data are freely available at http://www.candidagenome.org/. We welcome feedback from the research community at [email protected]