Comparative Analysis of Genomic Island Prediction Tools

Tools for genomic island prediction use strategies for genomic comparison analysis and sequence composition analysis. The goal of comparative analysis is to identify unique regions in the genomes of related organisms, whereas sequence composition analysis evaluates and relates the composition of specific regions with other regions in the genome. The goal of this study was to qualitatively and quantitatively evaluate extant genomic island predictors. We chose tools reported to produce significant results using sequence composition prediction, comparative genomics, and hybrid genomics methods. To maintain diversity, the tools were applied to eight complete genomes of organisms with distinct characteristics and belonging to different families. Escherichia coli CFT073 was used as a control and considered as the gold standard because its islands were previously curated in vitro. The results of predictions with the gold standard were manually curated, and the content and characteristics of each predicted island were analyzed. For other organisms, we created GenBank (GBK) files using Artemis software for each predicted island. We copied only the amino acid sequences from the coding sequence and constructed a multi-FASTA file for each predictor. We used BLASTp to compare all results and generate hits to evaluate similarities and differences among the predictions. Comparison of the results with the gold standard revealed that GIPSy produced the best results, covering ~91% of the composition and regions of the islands, followed by Alien Hunter (81%), IslandViewer (47.8%), Predict Bias (31%), GI Hunter (17%), and Zisland Explorer (16%). The tools with the best results in the analyzes of the set of organisms were the same ones that presented better performance in the tests with the gold standard

A epidemia do Diabetes mellitus encontra a pandemia da SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) / The Diabetes mellitus epidemic meets the SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) pandemic

A pandemia da doença coronavírus 2019 (COVID-19; SARS-Co-2) surgiu como um dos maiores desafios enfrentados pela humanidade. O diabetes mellitus, associado a hiperglicemia crônica, favorece comorbidades que podem ampliar o risco de severidade ou morte quando associado a viremia de COVID-19. A Idade avançada, múltiplas morbidades, hiperglicemia, doença cardíaca e resposta inflamatória severa são preditores de desfechos desfavoráveis na presença da viremia. Os diferentes aspectos da COVID-19 e suas associações com o diabetes mellitus, são abordados. A relação da enzima conversora de angiotensionogênio (ACE2), o controle glicêmico e diferentes aspectos da severidade e prognóstico são descritos em relação ao diabetes-COVID-19. Também são comentadas as medidas para prevenir a propagação da viremia com ênfase em orientações e no gerenciamento de procedimentos hospitalares e ambulatórias para o paciente com diabetes, em particular no sistema público de saúde. Esta revisão resume o conhecimento atual e os desafios percebidos para prevenção e gestão de COVID-19 em pessoas com diabetes