Bioinformatics Analysis and Annotation of Microtubule Binding and Associated Proteins (MAPs) - Creating a Database of MAPs

A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of the School of Informatics, Indiana University, Indianapolis By Narmada Shenoy In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Science August 2005Microtubules have many roles in the cytoskeletal infrastructure. This infrastructure underlies vital processes of cellular life such as motility, division, morphology, and intracellular organization and transport. These different roles are carried out by the creation of different microtubule (MT) systems (such as basal bodies, centrioles, flagellum, kinetochores, and mitotic spindles). The changing roles require the cytoskeleton to be both dynamic and static in nature. Guiding these processes are a network of proteins that direct cellular behavior through their ability to bind microtubules (MTs) in a spatial- and temporal-specific manner. The identification and characterization of the suite of microtubule binding and associated proteins (MAPs) involved in MT systems is important for the understanding of the biological form and function of each MT system. This research involved the analysis and annotation of four MAPs – Ensconsin in Humans, Hook (homolog 3) in Humans, Protein Regulator of Cytokinesis 1 (PRC1) in Humans and Anaphase Spindle Elongation protein (ASE1) in yeast. A bioinformatics approach was used for the annotation and analysis. A protocol for analysis and annotation of MAPs was developed. During the process, some limitations in using bioinformatics tools and procedures were encountered. These limitations were overcome, the initial protocol was improved on and a modified protocol of analysis was developed. A database was designed and built to hold annotated information on the MAPs. We seek to disseminate this database and its functionalities as a web resource to the scientific community. It will provide an excellent forum for researchers to obtain relevant information on MT binding and associated proteins (MAPs). Infection by parasitic protozoa causes incalculable morbidity and mortality to humans and agricultural animals. In this research, we have also focused on MAPs in parasitic organisms of the Apicomplexan and Trypanosomatid genera. The protocol for analysis incorporates steps to analyze MAPs from these organisms as well. Malaria (a potentially life threatening disease) is caused by Plasmodium, an Apicomplexan parasite. This parasite is transmitted to people by the female Anopheles mosquito, which feeds on human blood. African Sleeping Sickness is an acute disease 8 caused by Trypanosoma brucei that typically leads to death within weeks or months if not treated. Microtubule-associated proteins (MAPs) and their alteration of the unique microtubule (MT) systems play major roles in these organisms throughout their life cycle and are required for their pathogenic mechanisms. Each parasite contains unique MT systems that will test our annotation process as well as prepare the DB for addition of other novel MT systems, such as those contained with plants. Additionally, these single cell organisms have a multistage life cycle that provide similar annotation challenges to those encountered when one considers multi-cellular organisms. Therefore, a researcher working on any MT system within the database will find useful information regardless of the organism that they are studying. This will leave us with a sub-set of MAPs from parasitic organisms in our database that are potential drug-targets

A framework for human microbiome research

A variety of microbial communities and their genes (the microbiome) exist throughout the human body, with fundamental roles in human health and disease. The National Institutes of Health (NIH)-funded Human Microbiome Project Consortium has established a population-scale framework to develop metagenomic protocols, resulting in a broad range of quality-controlled resources and data including standardized methods for creating, processing and interpreting distinct types of high-throughput metagenomic data available to the scientific community. Here we present resources from a population of 242 healthy adults sampled at 15 or 18 body sites up to three times, which have generated 5,177 microbial taxonomic profiles from 16S ribosomal RNA genes and over 3.5 terabases of metagenomic sequence so far. In parallel, approximately 800 reference strains isolated from the human body have been sequenced. Collectively, these data represent the largest resource describing the abundance and variety of the human microbiome, while providing a framework for current and future studies

Structure, function and diversity of the healthy human microbiome

Author Posting. © The Authors, 2012. This article is posted here by permission of Nature Publishing Group. The definitive version was published in Nature 486 (2012): 207-214, doi:10.1038/nature11234.Studies of the human microbiome have revealed that even healthy individuals differ remarkably in the microbes that occupy habitats such as the gut, skin and vagina. Much of this diversity remains unexplained, although diet, environment, host genetics and early microbial exposure have all been implicated. Accordingly, to characterize the ecology of human-associated microbial communities, the Human Microbiome Project has analysed the largest cohort and set of distinct, clinically relevant body habitats so far. We found the diversity and abundance of each habitat’s signature microbes to vary widely even among healthy subjects, with strong niche specialization both within and among individuals. The project encountered an estimated 81–99% of the genera, enzyme families and community configurations occupied by the healthy Western microbiome. Metagenomic carriage of metabolic pathways was stable among individuals despite variation in community structure, and ethnic/racial background proved to be one of the strongest associations of both pathways and microbes with clinical metadata. These results thus delineate the range of structural and functional configurations normal in the microbial communities of a healthy population, enabling future characterization of the epidemiology, ecology and translational applications of the human microbiome.This research was supported in part by National Institutes of Health grants U54HG004969 to B.W.B.; U54HG003273 to R.A.G.; U54HG004973 to R.A.G., S.K.H. and J.F.P.; U54HG003067 to E.S.Lander; U54AI084844 to K.E.N.; N01AI30071 to R.L.Strausberg; U54HG004968 to G.M.W.; U01HG004866 to O.R.W.; U54HG003079 to R.K.W.; R01HG005969 to C.H.; R01HG004872 to R.K.; R01HG004885 to M.P.; R01HG005975 to P.D.S.; R01HG004908 to Y.Y.; R01HG004900 to M.K.Cho and P. Sankar; R01HG005171 to D.E.H.; R01HG004853 to A.L.M.; R01HG004856 to R.R.; R01HG004877 to R.R.S. and R.F.; R01HG005172 to P. Spicer.; R01HG004857 to M.P.; R01HG004906 to T.M.S.; R21HG005811 to E.A.V.; M.J.B. was supported by UH2AR057506; G.A.B. was supported by UH2AI083263 and UH3AI083263 (G.A.B., C. N. Cornelissen, L. K. Eaves and J. F. Strauss); S.M.H. was supported by UH3DK083993 (V. B. Young, E. B. Chang, F. Meyer, T. M. S., M. L. Sogin, J. M. Tiedje); K.P.R. was supported by UH2DK083990 (J. V.); J.A.S. and H.H.K. were supported by UH2AR057504 and UH3AR057504 (J.A.S.); DP2OD001500 to K.M.A.; N01HG62088 to the Coriell Institute for Medical Research; U01DE016937 to F.E.D.; S.K.H. was supported by RC1DE0202098 and R01DE021574 (S.K.H. and H. Li); J.I. was supported by R21CA139193 (J.I. and D. S. Michaud); K.P.L. was supported by P30DE020751 (D. J. Smith); Army Research Office grant W911NF-11-1-0473 to C.H.; National Science Foundation grants NSF DBI-1053486 to C.H. and NSF IIS-0812111 to M.P.; The Office of Science of the US Department of Energy under Contract No. DE-AC02-05CH11231 for P.S. C.; LANL Laboratory-Directed Research and Development grant 20100034DR and the US Defense Threat Reduction Agency grants B104153I and B084531I to P.S.C.; Research Foundation - Flanders (FWO) grant to K.F. and J.Raes; R.K. is an HHMI Early Career Scientist; Gordon&BettyMoore Foundation funding and institutional funding fromthe J. David Gladstone Institutes to K.S.P.; A.M.S. was supported by fellowships provided by the Rackham Graduate School and the NIH Molecular Mechanisms in Microbial Pathogenesis Training Grant T32AI007528; a Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation of Canada Grant in Aid of Research to E.A.V.; 2010 IBM Faculty Award to K.C.W.; analysis of the HMPdata was performed using National Energy Research Scientific Computing resources, the BluBioU Computational Resource at Rice University

Lifestyle transitions in plant pathogenic Colletotrichum fungi deciphered by genome and transcriptome analyses

Colletotrichum species are fungal pathogens that devastate crop plants worldwide. Host infection involves the differentiation of specialized cell types that are associated with penetration, growth inside living host cells (biotrophy) and tissue destruction (necrotrophy). We report here genome and transcriptome analyses of Colletotrichum higginsianum infecting Arabidopsis thaliana and Colletotrichum graminicola infecting maize. Comparative genomics showed that both fungi have large sets of pathogenicity-related genes, but families of genes encoding secreted effectors, pectin-degrading enzymes, secondary metabolism enzymes, transporters and peptidases are expanded in C. higginsianum. Genome-wide expression profiling revealed that these genes are transcribed in successive waves that are linked to pathogenic transitions: effectors and secondary metabolism enzymes are induced before penetration and during biotrophy, whereas most hydrolases and transporters are upregulated later, at the switch to necrotrophy. Our findings show that preinvasion perception of plant-derived signals substantially reprograms fungal gene expression and indicate previously unknown functions for particular fungal cell types