Dempster-Shafer Theory for the Prediction of Auxin-Response Elements (AuxREs) in Plant Genomes

Auxin is a major regulator of plant growth and development; its action involves transcriptional activation. The identification of Auxin-response element (AuxRE) is one of the most important issues to understand the Auxin regulation of gene expression. Over the past few years, a large number of motif identification tools have been developed. Despite these considerable efforts provided by computational biologists, building reliable models to predict regulatory elements has still been a difficult challenge. In this context, we propose in this work a data fusion approach for the prediction of AuxRE. Our method is based on the combined use of Dempster-Shafer evidence theory and fuzzy theory. To evaluate our model, we have scanning the DORNRÖSCHEN promoter by our model. All proven AuxRE present in the promoter has been detected. At the 0.9 threshold we have no false positive. The comparison of the results of our model and some previous motifs finding tools shows that our model can predict AuxRE more successfully than the other tools and produce less false positive. The comparison of the results before and after combination shows the importance of Dempster-Shafer combination in the decrease of false positive and to improve the reliability of prediction. For an overall evaluation we have chosen to present the performance of our approach in comparison with other methods. In fact, the results indicated that the data fusion method has the highest degree of sensitivity (Sn) and Positive Predictive Value (PPV)

Charge cluster occurrence in land plants’ mitochondrial proteomes with functional and structural insights

The Charge Clusters (CCs) are involved in key functions and are distributed according to the organism, the protein’s type, and the charge of amino acids. In the present study, we have explored the occurrence, position, and annotation as a first large-scale study of the CCs in land plants mitochondrial proteomes. A new python script was used for data curation. The Finding Clusters Charge in Protein Sequences Program was performed after adjusting the reading window size. A 44316 protein sequences belonging to 52 species of land plants were analysed. The occurrence of Negative Charge Clusters (NCCs) (1.2%) is two times more frequent than the Positive Charge Clusters (PCCs) (0.64%). Moreover, 39 and 30 NCCs were conserved in 88 and 41 proteins in intra and in inter proteomes respectively, while 14 and 21 PCCs were conserved in 53 and 85 protein sequences in intra and inter proteomes consecutively. Sequences carrying mixed CCs are rare (0.12%). Despite this low abundance, CCs play a crucial role in protein function. The CCs tend to be located mainly in the terminal regions of proteins which guarantees specific protein targeting and import into the mitochondria. In addition, the functional annotation of CCs according to Gene Ontology shows that CCs are involved in binding functions of either proteins or macromolecules which are deployed in different metabolic and cellular processes such as RNA editing and transcription. This study may provide valuable information while considering the CCs in understanding the environmental adaptation of plants. Communicated by Ramaswamy H. Sarma</p

An Evidence Theory and Fuzzy Logic Combined Approach for the Prediction of Potential ARF-Regulated Genes in Quinoa

Quinoa constitutes among the tolerant plants to the challenging and harmful abiotic environmental factors. Quinoa was selected as among the model crops destined for bio-saline agriculture that could contribute to the staple food security for an ever-growing worldwide population under various climate change scenarios. The auxin response factors (ARFs) constitute the main contributors in the plant adaptation to severe environmental conditions. Thus, the determination of the ARF-binding sites represents the major step that could provide promising insights helping in plant breeding programs and improving agronomic traits. Hence, determining the ARF-binding sites is a challenging task, particularly in species with large genome sizes. In this report, we present a data fusion approach based on Dempster–Shafer evidence theory and fuzzy set theory to predict the ARF-binding sites. We then performed an “In-silico” identification of the ARF-binding sites in Chenopodium quinoa. The characterization of some known pathways implicated in the auxin signaling in other higher plants confirms our prediction reliability. Furthermore, several pathways with no or little available information about their functions were identified to play important roles in the adaptation of quinoa to environmental conditions. The predictive auxin response genes associated with the detected ARF-binding sites may certainly help to explore the biological roles of some unknown genes newly identified in quinoa