Characterization of the Functional Domain of β2-Microglobulin from the Asian Seabass, Lates calcarifer

BACKGROUND: β2-Microglobulin (β(2)M) is the light chain of major histocompatibility class I (MHC I) that binds non-covalently with the α heavy chain. Both proteins attach to the antigen peptide, presenting a complex to the T cell to be destroyed via the immune mechanism. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: In this study, a cDNA sequence encoding β(2)M in the Asian seabass (Lates calcarifer) was identified and analyzed using in silico approaches to predict and characterize its functional domain. The β(2)M cDNA contains an open reading frame (ORF) of 351 bases with a coding capacity of 116 amino acids. A large portion of the protein consists of the IG constant domain (IGc1), similar to β(2)M sequences from other species studied thus far. Alignment of the IGc1 domains of β(2)M from L. calcarifer and other species shows a high degree of overall conservation. Seven amino acids were found to be conserved across taxa whereas conservation between L. calcarifer and other fish species was restricted to 14 amino acids at identical conserved positions. CONCLUSION/SIGNIFICANCE: As the L. calcarifer β(2)M protein analyzed in this study contains a functional domain similar to that of β(2)M proteins in other species, it can be postulated that the β(2)M proteins from L. calcarifer and other organisms are derived from a common ancestor and thus have a similar immune function. Interestingly, fish β(2)M genes could also be classified according to the ecological habitat of the species, i.e. whether it is from a freshwater, marine or euryhaline environment

Bioinformatics in Malaysia: Hope, Initiative, Effort, Reality, and Challenges

The published articles in PLoS Computational Biology on the development of computational biology research in Mexico, Brazil, Cuba, Costa Rica, and Thailand have inspired us to report on the development of bioinformatics activities in Malaysia. Rapid progress in molecular biology research and biotechnology in Malaysia has created sufficient demand for bioinformatics in Malaysia. Although bioinformatics in Malaysia started in the early 1990s, the initial focus on the development of the biotechnology industry has curtailed the early gains and overshadowed the systematic development of bioinformatics in Malaysia, which currently lacks in human capital development, research, and commercialization. However, government initiatives have been devised to develop the necessary national bioinformatics network and human resource development programs and to provide the necessary infrastructure, connectivity, and resources for bioinformatics. Stakeholders are experiencing reorientation and consolidating existing strengths to align with the global trends in bioinformatics. This exercise is expected to reinvigorate the bioinformatics industry in Malaysia. Tapping into niche expertise and resources such as biodiversity and coupling it with the existing biotechnology infrastructure will help to create sustainable development momentum for the future. An initiative arose from several senior scientists across local universities in Malaysia to promote this new scientific discipline in the country

Comparison and evaluation of multiple sequence alignment tools in bininformatics

Comparison and alignment of a series of protein and DNA sequences were among the first and are now established as the most powerful and frequently used bioinformatics methods. A variety of computational algorithms and programs have been created for this purpose. Decision about which tools to use is one of the important problems for bioinformaticians, especially for the majority of biologists who are non-specialist users. Therefore, a comparisons study for the different multiple sequence alignment tools (MSA) is necessary for the biologists and bioinformaticians to use the proper software that interprets correctly their biological data. This study addresses this critical issue in relation to MSA algorithms by systematically comparing and evaluating the functionality, usability and the algorithms of three famous multiple sequence alignment tools. A novel method was proposed for qualifying the MSA tools result by using Scorecons server to compute the conservation scores which was named SCS method (ScoreCons Server method). Furthermore, to assert the accuracy of this method for evaluating the quality of MSA tools, the results were compared with the results of SPS and CS. Finally, based on the achievement some considerations in choosing the proper MSA tools were proposed

NJ phylogenetic tree of IGc1 domains present in β₂M protein sequences from fish.

<p>The phylogenetic tree shows that fish β₂M proteins are clustered according to the fish's ecological habitat, which may be fresh water, euryhaline or marine. The chicken sequence was used as the outgroup. Information on the sequences is given in <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0013159#pone-0013159-t001" target="_blank">Table 1</a>.</p

Identification and Analysis of Chromodomain-Containing Proteins Encoded in the Mouse Transcriptome

The chromodomain is 40–50 amino acids in length and is conserved in a wide range of chromatic and regulatory proteins involved in chromatin remodeling. Chromodomain-containing proteins can be classified into families based on their broader characteristics, in particular the presence of other types of domains, and which correlate with different subclasses of the chromodomains themselves. Hidden Markov model (HMM)-generated profiles of different subclasses of chromodomains were used here to identify sequences encoding chromodomain-containing proteins in the mouse transcriptome and genome. A total of 36 different loci encoding proteins containing chromodomains, including 17 novel loci, were identified. Six of these loci (including three apparent pseudogenes, a novel HP1 ortholog, and two novel Msl-3 transcription factor-like proteins) are not present in the human genome, whereas the human genome contains four loci (two CDY orthologs and two apparent CDY pseudogenes) that are not present in mouse. A number of these loci exhibit alternative splicing to produce different isoforms, including 43 novel variants, some of which lack the chromodomain. The likely functions of these proteins are discussed in relation to the known functions of other chromodomain-containing proteins within the same family

NJ phylogenetic tree of β₂M protein sequences representing whole organisms.

<p>The phylogenetic tree shown is the collapsed tree of 55 sets of sequence data. This tree shows that β₂M sequences are clustered together according to their taxons. β₂M sequences from Eutheria are clustered together and consist of sequences from Primates, Equine, Rodents, Ruminants, SscQ07717, OcuP01885 and FcaQ5MGS7. Marsupials, Monotremes and Avians are the intermediate taxons between Eutheria and Fish. Amphibian Xla protein Q9IA97 is clustered together with Actinopterygii fishes while the outgroup in this tree is a cartilaginous fish Reg Q8AXA0. The divergence of fish and mammalian β₂M received a high bootstrap value (89) to support the reliability of this phylogenetic tree.</p

β₂M sequences used in this analysis.

<p>The 55 protein sequences used in this study were retrieved from the Swiss-Prot and Refseq databases. Protein ID shows the accession number of the sequence in the database while Protein Name is the protein name designated in this study. Equine, Rodents, Ruminants, Primates and Others are largely grouped as Eutheria.</p

Multiple sequence alignment of IGc1 domains.

<p>The alignment consists of IGc1 domain sequences from organisms of various taxa such as Eutheria, Marsupials, Monotremes, Avians, Chondrichthyes fish and Actinopterygii fishes. Lca is the <i>L. calcarifer</i> protein sequence and the conserved residues are marked by (*). S1, S2, S3, S4, S5, S6 and S7 indicate the regions of seven β strands in the IGc1 domain. Numbers at the top indicate amino acid positions. Information on the sequences is given in <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0013159#pone-0013159-t001" target="_blank">Table 1</a>.</p

RNAdb - a comprehensive mammalian noncoding RNA database

In recent years, there have been increasing numbers of transcripts identified that do not encode proteins, many of which are developmentally regulated and appear to have regulatory functions. Here, we describe the construction of a comprehensive mammalian noncoding RNA database (RNAdb) which contains over 800 unique experimentally studied noncoding RNAs (ncRNAs), including many associated with diseases and/or developmental processes. The database is available at http://research.imb.uq. edu.au/RNAdb and is searchable by many criteria. It includes microRNAs and snoRNAs, but not infrastructural RNAs, such as rRNAs and tRNAs, which are catalogued elsewhere. The database also includes over 1100 putative antisense ncRNAs and almost 20000 putative ncRNAs identified in high-quality murine and human cDNA libraries, with more to be added in the near future. Many of these RNAs are large, and many are spliced, some alternatively. The database will be useful as a foundation for the emerging field of RNomics and the characterization of the roles of ncRNAs in mammalian gene expression and regulation