The Cremeomycin Biosynthetic Gene Cluster Encodes a Pathway for Diazo Formation.

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Waldman, Abraham J; Pechersky, Yakov; Wang, Peng; Wang, Jennifer X; Balskus, Emily P

2015-10-12

Diazo groups are found in a range of natural products that possess potent biological activities. Despite longstanding interest in these metabolites, diazo group biosynthesis is not well understood, in part because of difficulties in identifying specific genes linked to diazo formation. Here we describe the discovery of the gene cluster that produces the o-diazoquinone natural product cremeomycin and its heterologous expression in Streptomyces lividans. We used stable isotope feeding experiments and in vitro characterization of biosynthetic enzymes to decipher the order of events in this pathway and establish that diazo construction involves late-stage N-N bond formation. This work represents the first successful production of a diazo-containing metabolite in a heterologous host, experimentally linking a set of genes with diazo formation. © 2015 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

IMG-ABC: An Atlas of Biosynthetic Gene Clusters to Fuel the Discovery of Novel Secondary Metabolites

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Chen, I-Min; Chu, Ken; Ratner, Anna; Palaniappan, Krishna; Huang, Jinghua; Reddy, T. B.K.; Cimermancic, Peter; Fischbach, Michael; Ivanova, Natalia; Markowitz, Victor; Kyrpides, Nikos; Pati, Amrita

2014-10-28

In the discovery of secondary metabolites (SMs), large-scale analysis of sequence data is a promising exploration path that remains largely underutilized due to the lack of relevant computational resources. We present IMG-ABC (https://img.jgi.doe.gov/abc/) -- An Atlas of Biosynthetic gene Clusters within the Integrated Microbial Genomes (IMG) system1. IMG-ABC is a rich repository of both validated and predicted biosynthetic clusters (BCs) in cultured isolates, single-cells and metagenomes linked with the SM chemicals they produce and enhanced with focused analysis tools within IMG. The underlying scalable framework enables traversal of phylogenetic dark matter and chemical structure space -- serving as a doorway to a new era in the discovery of novel molecules.

Genome mining of the sordarin biosynthetic gene cluster from Sordaria araneosa Cain ATCC 36386: characterization of cycloaraneosene synthase and GDP-6-deoxyaltrose transferase.

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Kudo, Fumitaka; Matsuura, Yasunori; Hayashi, Takaaki; Fukushima, Masayuki; Eguchi, Tadashi

2016-07-01

Sordarin is a glycoside antibiotic with a unique tetracyclic diterpene aglycone structure called sordaricin. To understand its intriguing biosynthetic pathway that may include a Diels-Alder-type [4+2]cycloaddition, genome mining of the gene cluster from the draft genome sequence of the producer strain, Sordaria araneosa Cain ATCC 36386, was carried out. A contiguous 67 kb gene cluster consisting of 20 open reading frames encoding a putative diterpene cyclase, a glycosyltransferase, a type I polyketide synthase, and six cytochrome P450 monooxygenases were identified. In vitro enzymatic analysis of the putative diterpene cyclase SdnA showed that it catalyzes the transformation of geranylgeranyl diphosphate to cycloaraneosene, a known biosynthetic intermediate of sordarin. Furthermore, a putative glycosyltransferase SdnJ was found to catalyze the glycosylation of sordaricin in the presence of GDP-6-deoxy-d-altrose to give 4'-O-demethylsordarin. These results suggest that the identified sdn gene cluster is responsible for the biosynthesis of sordarin. Based on the isolated potential biosynthetic intermediates and bioinformatics analysis, a plausible biosynthetic pathway for sordarin is proposed.

Variation in the fumonisin biosynthetic gene cluster in fumonisin-producing and nonproducing black aspergilli.

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Susca, Antonia; Proctor, Robert H; Butchko, Robert A E; Haidukowski, Miriam; Stea, Gaetano; Logrieco, Antonio; Moretti, Antonio

2014-12-01

The ability to produce fumonisin mycotoxins varies among members of the black aspergilli. Previously, analyses of selected genes in the fumonisin biosynthetic gene (fum) cluster in black aspergilli from California grapes indicated that fumonisin-nonproducing isolates of Aspergillus welwitschiae lack six fum genes, but nonproducing isolates of Aspergillus niger do not. In the current study, analyses of black aspergilli from grapes from the Mediterranean Basin indicate that the genomic context of the fum cluster is the same in isolates of A. niger and A. welwitschiae regardless of fumonisin-production ability and that full-length clusters occur in producing isolates of both species and nonproducing isolates of A. niger. In contrast, the cluster has undergone an eight-gene deletion in fumonisin-nonproducing isolates of A. welwitschiae. Phylogenetic analyses suggest each species consists of a mixed population of fumonisin-producing and nonproducing individuals, and that existence of both production phenotypes may provide a selective advantage to these species. Differences in gene content of fum cluster homologues and phylogenetic relationships of fum genes suggest that the mutation(s) responsible for the nonproduction phenotype differs, and therefore arose independently, in the two species. Partial fum cluster homologues were also identified in genome sequences of four other black Aspergillus species. Gene content of these partial clusters and phylogenetic relationships of fum sequences indicate that non-random partial deletion of the cluster has occurred multiple times among the species. This in turn suggests that an intact cluster and fumonisin production were once more widespread among black aspergilli. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Cloning of the staurosporine biosynthetic gene cluster from Streptomyces sp. TP-A0274 and its heterologous expression in Streptomyces lividans.

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Onaka, Hiroyasu; Taniguchi, Shin-ichi; Igarashi, Yasuhiro; Furumai, Tamotsu

2002-12-01

Staurosporine is a representative member of indolocarbazole antibiotics. The entire staurosporine biosynthetic and regulatory gene cluster spanning 20-kb was cloned from Streptomyces sp. TP-A0274 and sequenced. The gene cluster consists of 14 ORFs and the amino acid sequence homology search revealed that it contains three genes, staO, staD, and staP, coding for the enzymes involved in the indolocarbazole aglycone biosynthesis, two genes, staG and staN, for the bond formation between the aglycone and deoxysugar, eight genes, staA, staB, staE, staJ, staI, staK, staMA, and staMB, for the deoxysugar biosynthesis and one gene, staR is a transcriptional regulator. Heterologous gene expression of a 38-kb fragment containing a complete set of the biosynthetic genes for staurosporine cloned into pTOYAMAcos confirmed its role in staurosporine biosynthesis. Moreover, the distribution of the gene for chromopyrrolic acid synthase, the key enzyme for the biosynthesis of indolocarbazole aglycone, in actinomycetes was investigated, and rebD homologs were shown to exist only in the strains producing indolocarbazole antibiotics.

Functional characterization of KanP, a methyltransferase from the kanamycin biosynthetic gene cluster of Streptomyces kanamyceticus.

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Nepal, Keshav Kumar; Yoo, Jin Cheol; Sohng, Jae Kyung

2010-09-20

KanP, a putative methyltransferase, is located in the kanamycin biosynthetic gene cluster of Streptomyces kanamyceticus ATCC12853. Amino acid sequence analysis of KanP revealed the presence of S-adenosyl-L-methionine binding motifs, which are present in other O-methyltransferases. The kanP gene was expressed in Escherichia coli BL21 (DE3) to generate the E. coli KANP recombinant strain. The conversion of external quercetin to methylated quercetin in the culture extract of E. coli KANP proved the function of kanP as S-adenosyl-L-methionine-dependent methyltransferase. This is the first report concerning the identification of an O-methyltransferase gene from the kanamycin gene cluster. The resistant activity assay and RT-PCR analysis demonstrated the leeway for obtaining methylated kanamycin derivatives from the wild-type strain of kanamycin producer. 2009 Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved.

An indigoidine biosynthetic gene cluster from Streptomyces chromofuscus ATCC 49982 contains an unusual IndB homologue.

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Yu, Dayu; Xu, Fuchao; Valiente, Jonathan; Wang, Siyuan; Zhan, Jixun

2013-01-01

A putative indigoidine biosynthetic gene cluster was located in the genome of Streptomyces chromofuscus ATCC 49982. The silent 9.4-kb gene cluster consists of five open reading frames, named orf1, Sc-indC, Sc-indA, Sc-indB, and orf2, respectively. Sc-IndC was functionally characterized as an indigoidine synthase through heterologous expression of the enzyme in both Streptomyces coelicolor CH999 and Escherichia coli BAP1. The yield of indigoidine in E. coli BAP1 reached 2.78 g/l under the optimized conditions. The predicted protein product of Sc-indB is unusual and much larger than any other reported IndB-like protein. The N-terminal portion of this enzyme resembles IdgB and the C-terminal portion is a hypothetical protein. Sc-IndA and/or Sc-IndB were co-expressed with Sc-IndC in E. coli BAP1, which demonstrated the involvement of Sc-IndB, but not Sc-IndA, in the biosynthetic pathway of indigoidine. The yield of indigoidine was dramatically increased by 41.4 % (3.93 g/l) when Sc-IndB was co-expressed with Sc-IndC in E. coli BAP1. Indigoidine is more stable at low temperatures.

Sequencing, physical organization and kinetic expression of the patulin biosynthetic gene cluster from Penicillium expansum

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Tannous, J.; El Khoury, R.; El Khoury, A.; Lteif, R.; Snini, S.; Lippi, Y.; Oswald, I.; Olivier, P.; Atoui, A.

2014-01-01

Patulin is a polyketide-derived mycotoxin produced by numerous filamentous fungi. Among them, Penicillium expansum is by far the most problematic species. This fungus is a destructive phytopathogen capable of growing on fruit, provoking the blue mold decay of apples and producing significant amounts of patulin. The biosynthetic pathway of this mycotoxin is chemically well-characterized, but its genetic bases remain largely unknown with only few characterized genes in less economic relevant species. The present study consisted of the identification and positional organization of the patulin gene cluster in P. expansum strain NRRL 35695. Several amplification reactions were performed with degenerative primers that were designed based on sequences from the orthologous genes available in other species. An improved genome Walking approach was used in order to sequence the remaining adjacent genes of the cluster. RACE-PCR was also carried out from mRNAs to determine the start and stop codons of the coding sequences. The patulin gene cluster in P. expansum consists of 15 genes in the following order: patH, patG, patF, patE, patD, patC, patB, patA, patM, patN, patO, patL, patI, patJ, and patK. These genes share 60–70% of identity with orthologous genes grouped differently, within a putative patulin cluster described in a non-producing strain of Aspergillus clavatus. The kinetics of patulin cluster genes expression was studied under patulin-permissive conditions (natural apple-based medium) and patulin-restrictive conditions (Eagle's minimal essential medium), and demonstrated a significant association between gene expression and patulin production. In conclusion, the sequence of the patulin cluster in P. expansum constitutes a key step for a better understanding of themechanisms leading to patulin production in this fungus. It will allow the role of each gene to be elucidated, and help to define strategies to reduce patulin production in apple-based products

Development of a gene cloning system in a fast-growing and moderately thermophilic Streptomyces species and heterologous expression of Streptomyces antibiotic biosynthetic gene clusters

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2011-01-01

Background Streptomyces species are a major source of antibiotics. They usually grow slowly at their optimal temperature and fermentation of industrial strains in a large scale often takes a long time, consuming more energy and materials than some other bacterial industrial strains (e.g., E. coli and Bacillus). Most thermophilic Streptomyces species grow fast, but no gene cloning systems have been developed in such strains. Results We report here the isolation of 41 fast-growing (about twice the rate of S. coelicolor), moderately thermophilic (growing at both 30°C and 50°C) Streptomyces strains, detection of one linear and three circular plasmids in them, and sequencing of a 6996-bp plasmid, pTSC1, from one of them. pTSC1-derived pCWH1 could replicate in both thermophilic and mesophilic Streptomyces strains. On the other hand, several Streptomyces replicons function in thermophilic Streptomyces species. By examining ten well-sporulating strains, we found two promising cloning hosts, 2C and 4F. A gene cloning system was established by using the two strains. The actinorhodin and anthramycin biosynthetic gene clusters from mesophilic S. coelicolor A3(2) and thermophilic S. refuineus were heterologously expressed in one of the hosts. Conclusions We have developed a gene cloning and expression system in a fast-growing and moderately thermophilic Streptomyces species. Although just a few plasmids and one antibiotic biosynthetic gene cluster from mesophilic Streptomyces were successfully expressed in thermophilic Streptomyces species, we expect that by utilizing thermophilic Streptomyces-specific promoters, more genes and especially antibiotic genes clusters of mesophilic Streptomyces should be heterologously expressed. PMID:22032628

Output ordering and prioritisation system (OOPS): ranking biosynthetic gene clusters to enhance bioactive metabolite discovery.

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Peña, Alejandro; Del Carratore, Francesco; Cummings, Matthew; Takano, Eriko; Breitling, Rainer

2017-12-18

The rapid increase of publicly available microbial genome sequences has highlighted the presence of hundreds of thousands of biosynthetic gene clusters (BGCs) encoding valuable secondary metabolites. The experimental characterization of new BGCs is extremely laborious and struggles to keep pace with the in silico identification of potential BGCs. Therefore, the prioritisation of promising candidates among computationally predicted BGCs represents a pressing need. Here, we propose an output ordering and prioritisation system (OOPS) which helps sorting identified BGCs by a wide variety of custom-weighted biological and biochemical criteria in a flexible and user-friendly interface. OOPS facilitates a judicious prioritisation of BGCs using G+C content, coding sequence length, gene number, cluster self-similarity and codon bias parameters, as well as enabling the user to rank BGCs based upon BGC type, novelty, and taxonomic distribution. Effective prioritisation of BGCs will help to reduce experimental attrition rates and improve the breadth of bioactive metabolites characterized.

Cloning, reassembling and integration of the entire nikkomycin biosynthetic gene cluster into Streptomyces ansochromogenes lead to an improved nikkomycin production

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Yang Haihua

2010-01-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Nikkomycins are a group of peptidyl nucleoside antibiotics produced by Streptomyces ansochromogenes. They are competitive inhibitors of chitin synthase and show potent fungicidal, insecticidal, and acaricidal activities. Nikkomycin X and Z are the main components produced by S. ansochromogenes. Generation of a high-producing strain is crucial to scale up nikkomycins production for further clinical trials. Results To increase the yields of nikkomycins, an additional copy of nikkomycin biosynthetic gene cluster (35 kb was introduced into nikkomycin producing strain, S. ansochromogenes 7100. The gene cluster was first reassembled into an integrative plasmid by Red/ET technology combining with classic cloning methods and then the resulting plasmid(pNIKwas introduced into S. ansochromogenes by conjugal transfer. Introduction of pNIK led to enhanced production of nikkomycins (880 mg L-1, 4 -fold nikkomycin X and 210 mg L-1, 1.8-fold nikkomycin Z in the resulting exconjugants comparing with the parent strain (220 mg L-1 nikkomycin X and 120 mg L-1 nikkomycin Z. The exconjugants are genetically stable in the absence of antibiotic resistance selection pressure. Conclusion A high nikkomycins producing strain (1100 mg L-1 nikkomycins was obtained by introduction of an extra nikkomycin biosynthetic gene cluster into the genome of S. ansochromogenes. The strategies presented here could be applicable to other bacteria to improve the yields of secondary metabolites.

Giant linear plasmids in Streptomyces: a treasure trove of antibiotic biosynthetic clusters.

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Kinashi, Haruyasu

2011-01-01

Many giant linear plasmids have been isolated from Streptomyces by using pulsed-field gel electrophoresis and some of them were found to carry an antibiotic biosynthetic cluster(s); SCP1 carries biosynthetic genes for methylenomycin, pSLA2-L for lankacidin and lankamycin, and pKSL for lasalocid and echinomycin. Accumulated data suggest that giant linear plasmids have played critical roles in genome evolution and horizontal transfer of secondary metabolism. In this review, I summarize typical examples of giant linear plasmids whose involvement in antibiotic production has been studied in some detail, emphasizing their finding processes and interaction with the host chromosomes. A hypothesis on horizontal transfer of secondary metabolism involving giant linear plasmids is proposed at the end.

Genomic characterization of a new endophytic Streptomyces kebangsaanensis identifies biosynthetic pathway gene clusters for novel phenazine antibiotic production

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Juwairiah Remali

2017-11-01

Full Text Available Background Streptomyces are well known for their capability to produce many bioactive secondary metabolites with medical and industrial importance. Here we report a novel bioactive phenazine compound, 6-((2-hydroxy-4-methoxyphenoxy carbonyl phenazine-1-carboxylic acid (HCPCA extracted from Streptomyces kebangsaanensis, an endophyte isolated from the ethnomedicinal Portulaca oleracea. Methods The HCPCA chemical structure was determined using nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy. We conducted whole genome sequencing for the identification of the gene cluster(s believed to be responsible for phenazine biosynthesis in order to map its corresponding pathway, in addition to bioinformatics analysis to assess the potential of S. kebangsaanensis in producing other useful secondary metabolites. Results The S. kebangsaanensis genome comprises an 8,328,719 bp linear chromosome with high GC content (71.35% consisting of 12 rRNA operons, 81 tRNA, and 7,558 protein coding genes. We identified 24 gene clusters involved in polyketide, nonribosomal peptide, terpene, bacteriocin, and siderophore biosynthesis, as well as a gene cluster predicted to be responsible for phenazine biosynthesis. Discussion The HCPCA phenazine structure was hypothesized to derive from the combination of two biosynthetic pathways, phenazine-1,6-dicarboxylic acid and 4-methoxybenzene-1,2-diol, originated from the shikimic acid pathway. The identification of a biosynthesis pathway gene cluster for phenazine antibiotics might facilitate future genetic engineering design of new synthetic phenazine antibiotics. Additionally, these findings confirm the potential of S. kebangsaanensis for producing various antibiotics and secondary metabolites.

In planta functions of cytochrome P450 monooxygenase genes in the phytocassane biosynthetic gene cluster on rice chromosome 2.

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Ye, Zhongfeng; Yamazaki, Kohei; Minoda, Hiromi; Miyamoto, Koji; Miyazaki, Sho; Kawaide, Hiroshi; Yajima, Arata; Nojiri, Hideaki; Yamane, Hisakazu; Okada, Kazunori

2018-06-01

In response to environmental stressors such as blast fungal infections, rice produces phytoalexins, an antimicrobial diterpenoid compound. Together with momilactones, phytocassanes are among the major diterpenoid phytoalexins. The biosynthetic genes of diterpenoid phytoalexin are organized on the chromosome in functional gene clusters, comprising diterpene cyclase, dehydrogenase, and cytochrome P450 monooxygenase genes. Their functions have been studied extensively using in vitro enzyme assay systems. Specifically, P450 genes (CYP71Z6, Z7; CYP76M5, M6, M7, M8) on rice chromosome 2 have multifunctional activities associated with ent-copalyl diphosphate-related diterpene hydrocarbons, but the in planta contribution of these genes to diterpenoid phytoalexin production remains unknown. Here, we characterized cyp71z7 T-DNA mutant and CYP76M7/M8 RNAi lines to find that potential phytoalexin intermediates accumulated in these P450-suppressed rice plants. The results suggested that in planta, CYP71Z7 is responsible for C2-hydroxylation of phytocassanes and that CYP76M7/M8 is involved in C11α-hydroxylation of 3-hydroxy-cassadiene. Based on these results, we proposed potential routes of phytocassane biosynthesis in planta.

Glutamic acid promotes monacolin K production and monacolin K biosynthetic gene cluster expression in Monascus.

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Zhang, Chan; Liang, Jian; Yang, Le; Chai, Shiyuan; Zhang, Chenxi; Sun, Baoguo; Wang, Chengtao

2017-12-01

This study investigated the effects of glutamic acid on production of monacolin K and expression of the monacolin K biosynthetic gene cluster. When Monascus M1 was grown in glutamic medium instead of in the original medium, monacolin K production increased from 48.4 to 215.4 mg l -1 , monacolin K production increased by 3.5 times. Glutamic acid enhanced monacolin K production by upregulating the expression of mokB-mokI; on day 8, the expression level of mokA tended to decrease by Reverse Transcription-polymerase Chain Reaction. Our findings demonstrated that mokA was not a key gene responsible for the quantity of monacolin K production in the presence of glutamic acid. Observation of Monascus mycelium morphology using Scanning Electron Microscope showed glutamic acid significantly increased the content of Monascus mycelium, altered the permeability of Monascus mycelium, enhanced secretion of monacolin K from the cell, and reduced the monacolin K content in Monascus mycelium, thereby enhancing monacolin K production.

New insights into the organization and regulation of trichothecene biosynthetic genes in Trichoderma

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Collectively, species of the genus Trichoderma can produce numerous structurally diverse secondary metabolites (SM). This ability is conferred by the presence of SM biosynthetic gene clusters in their genomes. Species of Trichoderma in the Brevicompactum clade are able to produce trichothecenes, a f...

Heterologous expression of oxytetracycline biosynthetic gene cluster in Streptomyces venezuelae WVR2006 to improve production level and to alter fermentation process.

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Yin, Shouliang; Li, Zilong; Wang, Xuefeng; Wang, Huizhuan; Jia, Xiaole; Ai, Guomin; Bai, Zishang; Shi, Mingxin; Yuan, Fang; Liu, Tiejun; Wang, Weishan; Yang, Keqian

2016-12-01

Heterologous expression is an important strategy to activate biosynthetic gene clusters of secondary metabolites. Here, it is employed to activate and manipulate the oxytetracycline (OTC) gene cluster and to alter OTC fermentation process. To achieve these goals, a fast-growing heterologous host Streptomyces venezuelae WVR2006 was rationally selected among several potential hosts. It shows rapid and dispersed growth and intrinsic high resistance to OTC. By manipulating the expression of two cluster-situated regulators (CSR) OtcR and OtrR and precursor supply, the OTC production level was significantly increased in this heterologous host from 75 to 431 mg/l only in 48 h, a level comparable to the native producer Streptomyces rimosus M4018 in 8 days. This work shows that S. venezuelae WVR2006 is a promising chassis for the production of secondary metabolites, and the engineered heterologous OTC producer has the potential to completely alter the fermentation process of OTC production.

Ancient horizontal gene transfer from bacteria enhances biosynthetic capabilities of fungi.

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Imke Schmitt

Full Text Available Polyketides are natural products with a wide range of biological functions and pharmaceutical applications. Discovery and utilization of polyketides can be facilitated by understanding the evolutionary processes that gave rise to the biosynthetic machinery and the natural product potential of extant organisms. Gene duplication and subfunctionalization, as well as horizontal gene transfer are proposed mechanisms in the evolution of biosynthetic gene clusters. To explain the amount of homology in some polyketide synthases in unrelated organisms such as bacteria and fungi, interkingdom horizontal gene transfer has been evoked as the most likely evolutionary scenario. However, the origin of the genes and the direction of the transfer remained elusive.We used comparative phylogenetics to infer the ancestor of a group of polyketide synthase genes involved in antibiotic and mycotoxin production. We aligned keto synthase domain sequences of all available fungal 6-methylsalicylic acid (6-MSA-type PKSs and their closest bacterial relatives. To assess the role of symbiotic fungi in the evolution of this gene we generated 24 6-MSA synthase sequence tags from lichen-forming fungi. Our results support an ancient horizontal gene transfer event from an actinobacterial source into ascomycete fungi, followed by gene duplication.Given that actinobacteria are unrivaled producers of biologically active compounds, such as antibiotics, it appears particularly promising to study biosynthetic genes of actinobacterial origin in fungi. The large number of 6-MSA-type PKS sequences found in lichen-forming fungi leads us hypothesize that the evolution of typical lichen compounds, such as orsellinic acid derivatives, was facilitated by the gain of this bacterial polyketide synthase.

Endophytic actinobacteria: Diversity, secondary metabolism and mechanisms to unsilence biosynthetic gene clusters.

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Dinesh, Raghavan; Srinivasan, Veeraraghavan; T E, Sheeja; Anandaraj, Muthuswamy; Srambikkal, Hamza

2017-09-01

Endophytic actinobacteria, which reside in the inner tissues of host plants, are gaining serious attention due to their capacity to produce a plethora of secondary metabolites (e.g. antibiotics) possessing a wide variety of biological activity with diverse functions. This review encompasses the recent reports on endophytic actinobacterial species diversity, in planta habitats and mechanisms underlying their mode of entry into plants. Besides, their metabolic potential, novel bioactive compounds they produce and mechanisms to unravel their hidden metabolic repertoire by activation of cryptic or silent biosynthetic gene clusters (BGCs) for eliciting novel secondary metabolite production are discussed. The study also reviews the classical conservative techniques (chemical/biological/physical elicitation, co-culturing) as well as modern microbiology tools (e.g. next generation sequencing) that are being gainfully employed to uncover the vast hidden scaffolds for novel secondary metabolites produced by these endophytes, which would subsequently herald a revolution in drug engineering. The potential role of these endophytes in the agro-environment as promising biological candidates for inhibition of phytopathogens and the way forward to thoroughly exploit this unique microbial community by inducing expression of cryptic BGCs for encoding unseen products with novel therapeutic properties are also discussed.

De Novo Assembly and Genome Analyses of the Marine-Derived Scopulariopsis brevicaulis Strain LF580 Unravels Life-Style Traits and Anticancerous Scopularide Biosynthetic Gene Cluster.

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Kumar, Abhishek; Henrissat, Bernard; Arvas, Mikko; Syed, Muhammad Fahad; Thieme, Nils; Benz, J Philipp; Sørensen, Jens Laurids; Record, Eric; Pöggeler, Stefanie; Kempken, Frank

2015-01-01

The marine-derived Scopulariopsis brevicaulis strain LF580 produces scopularides A and B, which have anticancerous properties. We carried out genome sequencing using three next-generation DNA sequencing methods. De novo hybrid assembly yielded 621 scaffolds with a total size of 32.2 Mb and 16298 putative gene models. We identified a large non-ribosomal peptide synthetase gene (nrps1) and supporting pks2 gene in the same biosynthetic gene cluster. This cluster and the genes within the cluster are functionally active as confirmed by RNA-Seq. Characterization of carbohydrate-active enzymes and major facilitator superfamily (MFS)-type transporters lead to postulate S. brevicaulis originated from a soil fungus, which came into contact with the marine sponge Tethya aurantium. This marine sponge seems to provide shelter to this fungus and micro-environment suitable for its survival in the ocean. This study also builds the platform for further investigations of the role of life-style and secondary metabolites from S. brevicaulis.

Global analysis of biosynthetic gene clusters reveals vast potential of secondary metabolite production in Penicillium species

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Nielsen, Jens Christian; Grijseels, Sietske; Prigent, Sylvain

2017-01-01

Filamentous fungi produce a wide range of bioactive compounds with important pharmaceutical applications, such as antibiotic penicillins and cholesterol-lowering statins. However, less attention has been paid to fungal secondary metabolites compared to those from bacteria. In this study, we...... sequenced the genomes of 9 Penicillium species and, together with 15 published genomes, we investigated the secondary metabolism of Penicillium and identified an immense, unexploited potential for producing secondary metabolites by this genus. A total of 1,317 putative biosynthetic gene clusters (BGCs) were......-referenced the predicted pathways with published data on the production of secondary metabolites and experimentally validated the production of antibiotic yanuthones in Penicillia and identified a previously undescribed compound from the yanuthone pathway. This study is the first genus-wide analysis of the genomic...

Antibiotic discovery throughout the Small World Initiative: A molecular strategy to identify biosynthetic gene clusters involved in antagonistic activity.

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Davis, Elizabeth; Sloan, Tyler; Aurelius, Krista; Barbour, Angela; Bodey, Elijah; Clark, Brigette; Dennis, Celeste; Drown, Rachel; Fleming, Megan; Humbert, Allison; Glasgo, Elizabeth; Kerns, Trent; Lingro, Kelly; McMillin, MacKenzie; Meyer, Aaron; Pope, Breanna; Stalevicz, April; Steffen, Brittney; Steindl, Austin; Williams, Carolyn; Wimberley, Carmen; Zenas, Robert; Butela, Kristen; Wildschutte, Hans

2017-06-01

The emergence of bacterial pathogens resistant to all known antibiotics is a global health crisis. Adding to this problem is that major pharmaceutical companies have shifted away from antibiotic discovery due to low profitability. As a result, the pipeline of new antibiotics is essentially dry and many bacteria now resist the effects of most commonly used drugs. To address this global health concern, citizen science through the Small World Initiative (SWI) was formed in 2012. As part of SWI, students isolate bacteria from their local environments, characterize the strains, and assay for antibiotic production. During the 2015 fall semester at Bowling Green State University, students isolated 77 soil-derived bacteria and genetically characterized strains using the 16S rRNA gene, identified strains exhibiting antagonistic activity, and performed an expanded SWI workflow using transposon mutagenesis to identify a biosynthetic gene cluster involved in toxigenic compound production. We identified one mutant with loss of antagonistic activity and through subsequent whole-genome sequencing and linker-mediated PCR identified a 24.9 kb biosynthetic gene locus likely involved in inhibitory activity in that mutant. Further assessment against human pathogens demonstrated the inhibition of Bacillus cereus, Listeria monocytogenes, and methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus in the presence of this compound, thus supporting our molecular strategy as an effective research pipeline for SWI antibiotic discovery and genetic characterization. © 2017 The Authors. MicrobiologyOpen published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

ClbM is a versatile, cation-promiscuous MATE transporter found in the colibactin biosynthetic gene cluster.

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Mousa, Jarrod J; Newsome, Rachel C; Yang, Ye; Jobin, Christian; Bruner, Steven D

2017-01-22

Multidrug transporters play key roles in cellular drug resistance to toxic molecules, yet these transporters are also involved in natural product transport as part of biosynthetic clusters in bacteria and fungi. The genotoxic molecule colibactin is produced by strains of virulent and pathobiont Escherichia coli and Klebsiella pneumoniae. In the biosynthetic cluster is a multidrug and toxic compound extrusion protein (MATE) proposed to transport the prodrug molecule precolibactin across the cytoplasmic membrane, for subsequent cleavage by the peptidase ClbP and cellular export. We recently determined the X-ray structure of ClbM, and showed preliminary data suggesting its specific role in precolibactin transport. Here, we define a functional role of ClbM by examining transport capabilities under various biochemical conditions. Our data indicate ClbM responds to sodium, potassium, and rubidium ion gradients, while also having substantial transport activity in the absence of alkali cations. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Diverse and Abundant Secondary Metabolism Biosynthetic Gene Clusters in the Genomes of Marine Sponge Derived Streptomyces spp. Isolates

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Stephen A. Jackson

2018-02-01

Full Text Available The genus Streptomyces produces secondary metabolic compounds that are rich in biological activity. Many of these compounds are genetically encoded by large secondary metabolism biosynthetic gene clusters (smBGCs such as polyketide synthases (PKS and non-ribosomal peptide synthetases (NRPS which are modular and can be highly repetitive. Due to the repeats, these gene clusters can be difficult to resolve using short read next generation datasets and are often quite poorly predicted using standard approaches. We have sequenced the genomes of 13 Streptomyces spp. strains isolated from shallow water and deep-sea sponges that display antimicrobial activities against a number of clinically relevant bacterial and yeast species. Draft genomes have been assembled and smBGCs have been identified using the antiSMASH (antibiotics and Secondary Metabolite Analysis Shell web platform. We have compared the smBGCs amongst strains in the search for novel sequences conferring the potential to produce novel bioactive secondary metabolites. The strains in this study recruit to four distinct clades within the genus Streptomyces. The marine strains host abundant smBGCs which encode polyketides, NRPS, siderophores, bacteriocins and lantipeptides. The deep-sea strains appear to be enriched with gene clusters encoding NRPS. Marine adaptations are evident in the sponge-derived strains which are enriched for genes involved in the biosynthesis and transport of compatible solutes and for heat-shock proteins. Streptomyces spp. from marine environments are a promising source of novel bioactive secondary metabolites as the abundance and diversity of smBGCs show high degrees of novelty. Sponge derived Streptomyces spp. isolates appear to display genomic adaptations to marine living when compared to terrestrial strains.

Bioengineering natural product biosynthetic pathways for therapeutic applications.

Science.gov (United States)

Wu, Ming-Cheng; Law, Brian; Wilkinson, Barrie; Micklefield, Jason

2012-12-01

With the advent of next-generation DNA sequencing technologies, the number of microbial genome sequences has increased dramatically, revealing a vast array of new biosynthetic gene clusters. Genomics data provide a tremendous opportunity to discover new natural products, and also to guide the bioengineering of new and existing natural product scaffolds for therapeutic applications. Notably, it is apparent that the vast majority of biosynthetic gene clusters are either silent or produce very low quantities of the corresponding natural products. It is imperative therefore to devise methods for activating unproductive biosynthetic pathways to provide the quantities of natural products needed for further development. Moreover, on the basis of our expanding mechanistic and structural knowledge of biosynthetic assembly-line enzymes, new strategies for re-programming biosynthetic pathways have emerged, resulting in focused libraries of modified products with potentially improved biological properties. In this review we will focus on the latest bioengineering approaches that have been utilised to optimise yields and increase the structural diversity of natural product scaffolds for future clinical applications. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Diversity of Culturable Thermophilic Actinobacteria in Hot Springs in Tengchong, China and Studies of their Biosynthetic Gene Profiles.

Science.gov (United States)

Liu, Lan; Salam, Nimaichand; Jiao, Jian-Yu; Jiang, Hong-Chen; Zhou, En-Min; Yin, Yi-Rui; Ming, Hong; Li, Wen-Jun

2016-07-01

The class Actinobacteria has been a goldmine for the discovery of antibiotics and has attracted interest from both academics and industries. However, an absence of novel approaches during the last few decades has limited the discovery of new microbial natural products useful for industries. Scientists are now focusing on the ecological aspects of diverse environments including unexplored or underexplored habitats and extreme environments in the search for new metabolites. This paper reports on the diversity of culturable actinobacteria associated with hot springs located in Tengchong County, Yunnan Province, southwestern China. A total of 58 thermophilic actinobacterial strains were isolated from the samples collected from ten hot springs distributed over three geothermal fields (e.g., Hehua, Rehai, and Ruidian). Phylogenetic positions and their biosynthetic profiles were analyzed by sequencing 16S rRNA gene and three biosynthetic gene clusters (KS domain of PKS-I, KSα domain of PKS-II and A domain of NRPS). On the basis of 16S rRNA gene phylogenetic analysis, the 58 strains were affiliated with 12 actinobacterial genera: Actinomadura Micromonospora, Microbispora, Micrococcus, Nocardiopsis, Nonomuraea, Promicromonospora, Pseudonocardia, Streptomyces, Thermoactinospora, Thermocatellispora, and Verrucosispora, of which the two novel genera Thermoactinospora and Thermocatellisopora were recently described from among these strains. Considering the biosynthetic potential of these actinobacterial strains, 22 were positive for PCR amplification of at least one of the three biosynthetic gene clusters (PKS-I, PKS-II, and NRPS). These actinobacteria were further subjected to antimicrobial assay against five opportunistic human pathogens (Acinetobacter baumannii, Escherichia coli, Micrococcus luteus, Staphylococcus aureus and Streptococcus faecalis). All of the 22 strains that were positive for PCR amplification of at least one of the biosynthetic gene domains exhibited

ClbM is a versatile, cation-promiscuous MATE transporter found in the colibactin biosynthetic gene cluster

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mousa, Jarrod J.; Newsome, Rachel C.; Yang, Ye; Jobin, Christian; Bruner, Steven D.

2017-01-01

Multidrug transporters play key roles in cellular drug resistance to toxic molecules, yet these transporters are also involved in natural product transport as part of biosynthetic clusters in bacteria and fungi. The genotoxic molecule colibactin is produced by strains of virulent and pathobiont Escherichia coli and Klebsiella pneumoniae. In the biosynthetic cluster is a multidrug and toxic compound extrusion protein (MATE) proposed to transport the prodrug molecule precolibactin across the cytoplasmic membrane, for subsequent cleavage by the peptidase ClbP and cellular export. We recently determined the X-ray structure of ClbM, and showed preliminary data suggesting its specific role in precolibactin transport. Here, we define a functional role of ClbM by examining transport capabilities under various biochemical conditions. Our data indicate ClbM responds to sodium, potassium, and rubidium ion gradients, while also having substantial transport activity in the absence of alkali cations. - Highlights: • ClbM is a cation promiscuous MATE multidrug transporter. • The role of key residues were identified in both the cation and proton binding. • The biologically relevant substrate for ClbM is the natural product precolibactin.

BGDMdocker: a Docker workflow for data mining and visualization of bacterial pan-genomes and biosynthetic gene clusters

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Gong Cheng

2017-11-01

Full Text Available Recently, Docker technology has received increasing attention throughout the bioinformatics community. However, its implementation has not yet been mastered by most biologists; accordingly, its application in biological research has been limited. In order to popularize this technology in the field of bioinformatics and to promote the use of publicly available bioinformatics tools, such as Dockerfiles and Images from communities, government sources, and private owners in the Docker Hub Registry and other Docker-based resources, we introduce here a complete and accurate bioinformatics workflow based on Docker. The present workflow enables analysis and visualization of pan-genomes and biosynthetic gene clusters of bacteria. This provides a new solution for bioinformatics mining of big data from various publicly available biological databases. The present step-by-step guide creates an integrative workflow through a Dockerfile to allow researchers to build their own Image and run Container easily.

BGDMdocker: a Docker workflow for data mining and visualization of bacterial pan-genomes and biosynthetic gene clusters.

Science.gov (United States)

Cheng, Gong; Lu, Quan; Ma, Ling; Zhang, Guocai; Xu, Liang; Zhou, Zongshan

2017-01-01

Recently, Docker technology has received increasing attention throughout the bioinformatics community. However, its implementation has not yet been mastered by most biologists; accordingly, its application in biological research has been limited. In order to popularize this technology in the field of bioinformatics and to promote the use of publicly available bioinformatics tools, such as Dockerfiles and Images from communities, government sources, and private owners in the Docker Hub Registry and other Docker-based resources, we introduce here a complete and accurate bioinformatics workflow based on Docker. The present workflow enables analysis and visualization of pan-genomes and biosynthetic gene clusters of bacteria. This provides a new solution for bioinformatics mining of big data from various publicly available biological databases. The present step-by-step guide creates an integrative workflow through a Dockerfile to allow researchers to build their own Image and run Container easily.

Identification of an unusual type II thioesterase in the dithiolopyrrolone antibiotics biosynthetic pathway

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Zhai, Ying; Bai, Silei; Liu, Jingjing; Yang, Liyuan [National Key Laboratory of Agricultural Microbiology, College of Life Science and Technology, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan 430070 (China); Han, Li; Huang, Xueshi [Institute of Microbial Pharmaceuticals, College of Life and Health Sciences, Northeastern University, Shenyang 110819 (China); He, Jing, E-mail: hejingjj@mail.hzau.edu.cn [National Key Laboratory of Agricultural Microbiology, College of Life Science and Technology, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan 430070 (China)

2016-04-22

Dithiolopyrrolone group antibiotics characterized by an electronically unique dithiolopyrrolone heterobicyclic core are known for their antibacterial, antifungal, insecticidal and antitumor activities. Recently the biosynthetic gene clusters for two dithiolopyrrolone compounds, holomycin and thiomarinol, have been identified respectively in different bacterial species. Here, we report a novel dithiolopyrrolone biosynthetic gene cluster (aut) isolated from Streptomyces thioluteus DSM 40027 which produces two pyrrothine derivatives, aureothricin and thiolutin. By comparison with other characterized dithiolopyrrolone clusters, eight genes in the aut cluster were verified to be responsible for the assembly of dithiolopyrrolone core. The aut cluster was further confirmed by heterologous expression and in-frame gene deletion experiments. Intriguingly, we found that the heterogenetic thioesterase HlmK derived from the holomycin (hlm) gene cluster in Streptomyces clavuligerus significantly improved heterologous biosynthesis of dithiolopyrrolones in Streptomyces albus through coexpression with the aut cluster. In the previous studies, HlmK was considered invalid because it has a Ser to Gly point mutation within the canonical Ser-His-Asp catalytic triad of thioesterases. However, gene inactivation and complementation experiments in our study unequivocally demonstrated that HlmK is an active distinctive type II thioesterase that plays a beneficial role in dithiolopyrrolone biosynthesis. - Highlights: • Cloning of the aureothricin biosynthetic gene cluster from Streptomyces thioluteus DSM 40027. • Identification of the aureothricin gene cluster by heterologous expression and in-frame gene deletion. • The heterogenetic thioesterase HlmK significantly improved dithiolopyrrolones production of the aureothricin gene cluster. • Identification of HlmK as an unusual type II thioesterase.

Identification of an unusual type II thioesterase in the dithiolopyrrolone antibiotics biosynthetic pathway

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zhai, Ying; Bai, Silei; Liu, Jingjing; Yang, Liyuan; Han, Li; Huang, Xueshi; He, Jing

2016-01-01

Dithiolopyrrolone group antibiotics characterized by an electronically unique dithiolopyrrolone heterobicyclic core are known for their antibacterial, antifungal, insecticidal and antitumor activities. Recently the biosynthetic gene clusters for two dithiolopyrrolone compounds, holomycin and thiomarinol, have been identified respectively in different bacterial species. Here, we report a novel dithiolopyrrolone biosynthetic gene cluster (aut) isolated from Streptomyces thioluteus DSM 40027 which produces two pyrrothine derivatives, aureothricin and thiolutin. By comparison with other characterized dithiolopyrrolone clusters, eight genes in the aut cluster were verified to be responsible for the assembly of dithiolopyrrolone core. The aut cluster was further confirmed by heterologous expression and in-frame gene deletion experiments. Intriguingly, we found that the heterogenetic thioesterase HlmK derived from the holomycin (hlm) gene cluster in Streptomyces clavuligerus significantly improved heterologous biosynthesis of dithiolopyrrolones in Streptomyces albus through coexpression with the aut cluster. In the previous studies, HlmK was considered invalid because it has a Ser to Gly point mutation within the canonical Ser-His-Asp catalytic triad of thioesterases. However, gene inactivation and complementation experiments in our study unequivocally demonstrated that HlmK is an active distinctive type II thioesterase that plays a beneficial role in dithiolopyrrolone biosynthesis. - Highlights: • Cloning of the aureothricin biosynthetic gene cluster from Streptomyces thioluteus DSM 40027. • Identification of the aureothricin gene cluster by heterologous expression and in-frame gene deletion. • The heterogenetic thioesterase HlmK significantly improved dithiolopyrrolones production of the aureothricin gene cluster. • Identification of HlmK as an unusual type II thioesterase.

Variation in sequence and location of the fumonisin mycotoxin niosynthetic gene cluster in Fusarium

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Proctor, R.H.; Hove, van F.; Susca, A.; Stea, A.; Busman, M.; Lee, van der T.A.J.; Waalwijk, C.; Moretti, A.

2010-01-01

In Fusarium, the ability to produce fumonisins is governed by a 17-gene fumonisin biosynthetic gene (FUM) cluster. Here, we examined the cluster in F. oxysporum strain O-1890 and nine other species selected to represent a wide range of the genetic diversity within the GFSC.

Biosynthesis of Akaeolide and Lorneic Acids and Annotation of Type I Polyketide Synthase Gene Clusters in the Genome of Streptomyces sp. NPS554

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Tao Zhou

2015-01-01

Full Text Available The incorporation pattern of biosynthetic precursors into two structurally unique polyketides, akaeolide and lorneic acid A, was elucidated by feeding experiments with 13C-labeled precursors. In addition, the draft genome sequence of the producer, Streptomyces sp. NPS554, was performed and the biosynthetic gene clusters for these polyketides were identified. The putative gene clusters contain all the polyketide synthase (PKS domains necessary for assembly of the carbon skeletons. Combined with the 13C-labeling results, gene function prediction enabled us to propose biosynthetic pathways involving unusual carbon-carbon bond formation reactions. Genome analysis also indicated the presence of at least ten orphan type I PKS gene clusters that might be responsible for the production of new polyketides.

Regulation of Flavonoid Biosynthetic Genes in Germinating Arabidopsis Seedlings.

Science.gov (United States)

Kubasek, WL; Shirley, BW; McKillop, A; Goodman, HM; Briggs, W; Ausubel, FM

1992-01-01

Many higher plants, including Arabidopsis, transiently display purple anthocyanin pigments just after seed germination. We observed that steady state levels of mRNAs encoded by four flavonoid biosynthetic genes, PAL1 (encoding phenylalanine ammonia-lyase 1), CHS (encoding chalcone synthase), CHI (encoding chalcone isomerase), and DFR (encoding dihydroflavonol reductase), were temporally regulated, peaking in 3-day-old seedlings grown in continuous white light. Except for the case of PAL1 mRNA, mRNA levels for these flavonoid genes were very low in seedlings grown in darkness. Light induction studies using seedlings grown in darkness showed that PAL1 mRNA began to accumulate before CHS and CHI mRNAs, which, in turn, began to accumulate before DFR mRNA. This order of induction is the same as the order of the biosynthetic steps in flavonoid biosynthesis. Our results suggest that the flavonoid biosynthetic pathway is coordinately regulated by a developmental timing mechanism during germination. Blue light and UVB light induction experiments using red light- and dark-grown seedlings showed that the flavonoid biosynthetic genes are induced most effectively by UVB light and that blue light induction is mediated by a specific blue light receptor. PMID:12297632

In silico exploration of Red Sea Bacillus genomes for natural product biosynthetic gene clusters

KAUST Repository

Othoum, Ghofran K

2018-05-22

BackgroundThe increasing spectrum of multidrug-resistant bacteria is a major global public health concern, necessitating discovery of novel antimicrobial agents. Here, members of the genus Bacillus are investigated as a potentially attractive source of novel antibiotics due to their broad spectrum of antimicrobial activities. We specifically focus on a computational analysis of the distinctive biosynthetic potential of Bacillus paralicheniformis strains isolated from the Red Sea, an ecosystem exposed to adverse, highly saline and hot conditions.ResultsWe report the complete circular and annotated genomes of two Red Sea strains, B. paralicheniformis Bac48 isolated from mangrove mud and B. paralicheniformis Bac84 isolated from microbial mat collected from Rabigh Harbor Lagoon in Saudi Arabia. Comparing the genomes of B. paralicheniformis Bac48 and B. paralicheniformis Bac84 with nine publicly available complete genomes of B. licheniformis and three genomes of B. paralicheniformis, revealed that all of the B. paralicheniformis strains in this study are more enriched in nonribosomal peptides (NRPs). We further report the first computationally identified trans-acyltransferase (trans-AT) nonribosomal peptide synthetase/polyketide synthase (PKS/ NRPS) cluster in strains of this species.ConclusionsB. paralicheniformis species have more genes associated with biosynthesis of antimicrobial bioactive compounds than other previously characterized species of B. licheniformis, which suggests that these species are better potential sources for novel antibiotics. Moreover, the genome of the Red Sea strain B. paralicheniformis Bac48 is more enriched in modular PKS genes compared to B. licheniformis strains and other B. paralicheniformis strains. This may be linked to adaptations that strains surviving in the Red Sea underwent to survive in the relatively hot and saline ecosystems.

Functional Genome Mining for Metabolites Encoded by Large Gene Clusters through Heterologous Expression of a Whole-Genome Bacterial Artificial Chromosome Library in Streptomyces spp.

Science.gov (United States)

Xu, Min; Wang, Yemin; Zhao, Zhilong; Gao, Guixi; Huang, Sheng-Xiong; Kang, Qianjin; He, Xinyi; Lin, Shuangjun; Pang, Xiuhua; Deng, Zixin

2016-01-01

ABSTRACT Genome sequencing projects in the last decade revealed numerous cryptic biosynthetic pathways for unknown secondary metabolites in microbes, revitalizing drug discovery from microbial metabolites by approaches called genome mining. In this work, we developed a heterologous expression and functional screening approach for genome mining from genomic bacterial artificial chromosome (BAC) libraries in Streptomyces spp. We demonstrate mining from a strain of Streptomyces rochei, which is known to produce streptothricins and borrelidin, by expressing its BAC library in the surrogate host Streptomyces lividans SBT5, and screening for antimicrobial activity. In addition to the successful capture of the streptothricin and borrelidin biosynthetic gene clusters, we discovered two novel linear lipopeptides and their corresponding biosynthetic gene cluster, as well as a novel cryptic gene cluster for an unknown antibiotic from S. rochei. This high-throughput functional genome mining approach can be easily applied to other streptomycetes, and it is very suitable for the large-scale screening of genomic BAC libraries for bioactive natural products and the corresponding biosynthetic pathways. IMPORTANCE Microbial genomes encode numerous cryptic biosynthetic gene clusters for unknown small metabolites with potential biological activities. Several genome mining approaches have been developed to activate and bring these cryptic metabolites to biological tests for future drug discovery. Previous sequence-guided procedures relied on bioinformatic analysis to predict potentially interesting biosynthetic gene clusters. In this study, we describe an efficient approach based on heterologous expression and functional screening of a whole-genome library for the mining of bioactive metabolites from Streptomyces. The usefulness of this function-driven approach was demonstrated by the capture of four large biosynthetic gene clusters for metabolites of various chemical types, including

Heterologous Expression of the Oxytetracycline Biosynthetic Pathway in Myxococcus xanthus▿

Science.gov (United States)

Stevens, D. Cole; Henry, Michael R.; Murphy, Kimberly A.; Boddy, Christopher N.

2010-01-01

New natural products for drug discovery may be accessed by heterologous expression of bacterial biosynthetic pathways in metagenomic DNA libraries. However, a “universal” host is needed for this experiment. Herein, we show that Myxococcus xanthus is a potential “universal” host for heterologous expression of polyketide biosynthetic gene clusters. PMID:20208031

Secondary metabolism in Fusarium fujikuroi: strategies to unravel the function of biosynthetic pathways.

Science.gov (United States)

Janevska, Slavica; Tudzynski, Bettina

2018-01-01

The fungus Fusarium fujikuroi causes bakanae disease of rice due to its ability to produce the plant hormones, the gibberellins. The fungus is also known for producing harmful mycotoxins (e.g., fusaric acid and fusarins) and pigments (e.g., bikaverin and fusarubins). However, for a long time, most of these well-known products could not be linked to biosynthetic gene clusters. Recent genome sequencing has revealed altogether 47 putative gene clusters. Most of them were orphan clusters for which the encoded natural product(s) were unknown. In this review, we describe the current status of our research on identification and functional characterizations of novel secondary metabolite gene clusters. We present several examples where linking known metabolites to the respective biosynthetic genes has been achieved and describe recent strategies and methods to access new natural products, e.g., by genetic manipulation of pathway-specific or global transcritption factors. In addition, we demonstrate that deletion and over-expression of histone-modifying genes is a powerful tool to activate silent gene clusters and to discover their products.

Directed natural product biosynthesis gene cluster capture and expression in the model bacterium Bacillus subtilis

KAUST Repository

Li, Yongxin

2015-03-24

Bacilli are ubiquitous low G+C environmental Gram-positive bacteria that produce a wide assortment of specialized small molecules. Although their natural product biosynthetic potential is high, robust molecular tools to support the heterologous expression of large biosynthetic gene clusters in Bacillus hosts are rare. Herein we adapt transformation-associated recombination (TAR) in yeast to design a single genomic capture and expression vector for antibiotic production in Bacillus subtilis. After validating this direct cloning plug-and-playa approach with surfactin, we genetically interrogated amicoumacin biosynthetic gene cluster from the marine isolate Bacillus subtilis 1779. Its heterologous expression allowed us to explore an unusual maturation process involving the N-acyl-asparagine pro-drug intermediates preamicoumacins, which are hydrolyzed by the asparagine-specific peptidase into the active component amicoumacin A. This work represents the first direct cloning based heterologous expression of natural products in the model organism B. subtilis and paves the way to the development of future genome mining efforts in this genus.

Directed natural product biosynthesis gene cluster capture and expression in the model bacterium Bacillus subtilis

Science.gov (United States)

Li, Yongxin; Li, Zhongrui; Yamanaka, Kazuya; Xu, Ying; Zhang, Weipeng; Vlamakis, Hera; Kolter, Roberto; Moore, Bradley S.; Qian, Pei-Yuan

2015-03-01

Bacilli are ubiquitous low G+C environmental Gram-positive bacteria that produce a wide assortment of specialized small molecules. Although their natural product biosynthetic potential is high, robust molecular tools to support the heterologous expression of large biosynthetic gene clusters in Bacillus hosts are rare. Herein we adapt transformation-associated recombination (TAR) in yeast to design a single genomic capture and expression vector for antibiotic production in Bacillus subtilis. After validating this direct cloning ``plug-and-play'' approach with surfactin, we genetically interrogated amicoumacin biosynthetic gene cluster from the marine isolate Bacillus subtilis 1779. Its heterologous expression allowed us to explore an unusual maturation process involving the N-acyl-asparagine pro-drug intermediates preamicoumacins, which are hydrolyzed by the asparagine-specific peptidase into the active component amicoumacin A. This work represents the first direct cloning based heterologous expression of natural products in the model organism B. subtilis and paves the way to the development of future genome mining efforts in this genus.

Natural Product Biosynthetic Diversity and Comparative Genomics of the Cyanobacteria.

Science.gov (United States)

Dittmann, Elke; Gugger, Muriel; Sivonen, Kaarina; Fewer, David P

2015-10-01

Cyanobacteria are an ancient lineage of slow-growing photosynthetic bacteria and a prolific source of natural products with intricate chemical structures and potent biological activities. The bulk of these natural products are known from just a handful of genera. Recent efforts have elucidated the mechanisms underpinning the biosynthesis of a diverse array of natural products from cyanobacteria. Many of the biosynthetic mechanisms are unique to cyanobacteria or rarely described from other organisms. Advances in genome sequence technology have precipitated a deluge of genome sequences for cyanobacteria. This makes it possible to link known natural products to biosynthetic gene clusters but also accelerates the discovery of new natural products through genome mining. These studies demonstrate that cyanobacteria encode a huge variety of cryptic gene clusters for the production of natural products, and the known chemical diversity is likely to be just a fraction of the true biosynthetic capabilities of this fascinating and ancient group of organisms. Copyright © 2015. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

The Genome of Tolypocladium inflatum: Evolution, Organization, and Expression of the Cyclosporin Biosynthetic Gene Cluster

Science.gov (United States)

Bushley, Kathryn E.; Raja, Rajani; Jaiswal, Pankaj; Cumbie, Jason S.; Nonogaki, Mariko; Boyd, Alexander E.; Owensby, C. Alisha; Knaus, Brian J.; Elser, Justin; Miller, Daniel; Di, Yanming; McPhail, Kerry L.; Spatafora, Joseph W.

2013-01-01

The ascomycete fungus Tolypocladium inflatum, a pathogen of beetle larvae, is best known as the producer of the immunosuppressant drug cyclosporin. The draft genome of T. inflatum strain NRRL 8044 (ATCC 34921), the isolate from which cyclosporin was first isolated, is presented along with comparative analyses of the biosynthesis of cyclosporin and other secondary metabolites in T. inflatum and related taxa. Phylogenomic analyses reveal previously undetected and complex patterns of homology between the nonribosomal peptide synthetase (NRPS) that encodes for cyclosporin synthetase (simA) and those of other secondary metabolites with activities against insects (e.g., beauvericin, destruxins, etc.), and demonstrate the roles of module duplication and gene fusion in diversification of NRPSs. The secondary metabolite gene cluster responsible for cyclosporin biosynthesis is described. In addition to genes necessary for cyclosporin biosynthesis, it harbors a gene for a cyclophilin, which is a member of a family of immunophilins known to bind cyclosporin. Comparative analyses support a lineage specific origin of the cyclosporin gene cluster rather than horizontal gene transfer from bacteria or other fungi. RNA-Seq transcriptome analyses in a cyclosporin-inducing medium delineate the boundaries of the cyclosporin cluster and reveal high levels of expression of the gene cluster cyclophilin. In medium containing insect hemolymph, weaker but significant upregulation of several genes within the cyclosporin cluster, including the highly expressed cyclophilin gene, was observed. T. inflatum also represents the first reference draft genome of Ophiocordycipitaceae, a third family of insect pathogenic fungi within the fungal order Hypocreales, and supports parallel and qualitatively distinct radiations of insect pathogens. The T. inflatum genome provides additional insight into the evolution and biosynthesis of cyclosporin and lays a foundation for further investigations of the role

Functional conservation of coenzyme Q biosynthetic genes among yeasts, plants, and humans.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Kazuhiro Hayashi

Full Text Available Coenzyme Q (CoQ is an essential factor for aerobic growth and oxidative phosphorylation in the electron transport system. The biosynthetic pathway for CoQ has been proposed mainly from biochemical and genetic analyses of Escherichia coli and Saccharomyces cerevisiae; however, the biosynthetic pathway in higher eukaryotes has been explored in only a limited number of studies. We previously reported the roles of several genes involved in CoQ synthesis in the fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe. Here, we expand these findings by identifying ten genes (dps1, dlp1, ppt1, and coq3-9 that are required for CoQ synthesis. CoQ10-deficient S. pombe coq deletion strains were generated and characterized. All mutant fission yeast strains were sensitive to oxidative stress, produced a large amount of sulfide, required an antioxidant to grow on minimal medium, and did not survive at the stationary phase. To compare the biosynthetic pathway of CoQ in fission yeast with that in higher eukaryotes, the ability of CoQ biosynthetic genes from humans and plants (Arabidopsis thaliana to functionally complement the S. pombe coq deletion strains was determined. With the exception of COQ9, expression of all other human and plant COQ genes recovered CoQ10 production by the fission yeast coq deletion strains, although the addition of a mitochondrial targeting sequence was required for human COQ3 and COQ7, as well as A. thaliana COQ6. In summary, this study describes the functional conservation of CoQ biosynthetic genes between yeasts, humans, and plants.

Directed natural product biosynthesis gene cluster capture and expression in the model bacterium Bacillus subtilis

KAUST Repository

Li, Yongxin; Li, Zhongrui; Yamanaka, Kazuya; Xu, Ying; Zhang, Weipeng; Vlamakis, Hera; Kolter, Roberto; Moore, Bradley S.; Qian, Pei-Yuan

2015-01-01

validating this direct cloning plug-and-playa approach with surfactin, we genetically interrogated amicoumacin biosynthetic gene cluster from the marine isolate Bacillus subtilis 1779. Its heterologous expression allowed us to explore an unusual maturation

Distribution of secondary metabolite biosynthetic gene clusters in 343 Fusarium genomes

Science.gov (United States)

Fusarium consists of over 200 phylogenetically distinct species, many of which cause important crop diseases and/or produce mycotoxins and other secondary metabolites (SMs). Some fusaria also cause opportunistic infections in humans and other animals. To investigate the distribution of biosynthetic ...

Deletion and Gene Expression Analyses Define the Paxilline Biosynthetic Gene Cluster in Penicillium paxilli

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Emily J. Parker

2013-08-01

Full Text Available The indole-diterpene paxilline is an abundant secondary metabolite synthesized by Penicillium paxilli. In total, 21 genes have been identified at the PAX locus of which six have been previously confirmed to have a functional role in paxilline biosynthesis. A combination of bioinformatics, gene expression and targeted gene replacement analyses were used to define the boundaries of the PAX gene cluster. Targeted gene replacement identified seven genes, paxG, paxA, paxM, paxB, paxC, paxP and paxQ that were all required for paxilline production, with one additional gene, paxD, required for regular prenylation of the indole ring post paxilline synthesis. The two putative transcription factors, PP104 and PP105, were not co-regulated with the pax genes and based on targeted gene replacement, including the double knockout, did not have a role in paxilline production. The relationship of indole dimethylallyl transferases involved in prenylation of indole-diterpenes such as paxilline or lolitrem B, can be found as two disparate clades, not supported by prenylation type (e.g., regular or reverse. This paper provides insight into the P. paxilli indole-diterpene locus and reviews the recent advances identified in paxilline biosynthesis.

Expression profile of genes coding for carotenoid biosynthetic ...

Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

Expression profile of genes coding for carotenoid biosynthetic pathway during ripening and their association with accumulation of lycopene in tomato fruits. Shuchi Smita, Ravi Rajwanshi, Sangram Keshari Lenka, Amit Katiyar, Viswanathan Chinnusamy and. Kailash Chander Bansal. J. Genet. 92, 363–368. Table 1.

Biosynthetic Pathways of Ergot Alkaloids

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Nina Gerhards

2014-12-01

Full Text Available Ergot alkaloids are nitrogen-containing natural products belonging to indole alkaloids. The best known producers are fungi of the phylum Ascomycota, e.g., Claviceps, Epichloë, Penicillium and Aspergillus species. According to their structures, ergot alkaloids can be divided into three groups: clavines, lysergic acid amides and peptides (ergopeptines. All of them share the first biosynthetic steps, which lead to the formation of the tetracyclic ergoline ring system (except the simplest, tricyclic compound: chanoclavine. Different modifications on the ergoline ring by specific enzymes result in an abundance of bioactive natural products, which are used as pharmaceutical drugs or precursors thereof. From the 1950s through to recent years, most of the biosynthetic pathways have been elucidated. Gene clusters from several ergot alkaloid producers have been identified by genome mining and the functions of many of those genes have been demonstrated by knock-out experiments or biochemical investigations of the overproduced enzymes.

Diurnal and circadian expression profiles of glycerolipid biosynthetic genes in Arabidopsis.

Science.gov (United States)

Nakamura, Yuki; Andrés, Fernando; Kanehara, Kazue; Liu, Yu-chi; Coupland, George; Dörmann, Peter

2014-01-01

Glycerolipid composition in plant membranes oscillates in response to diurnal change. However, its functional significance remained unclear. A recent discovery that Arabidopsis florigen FT binds diurnally oscillating phosphatidylcholine molecules to promote flowering suggests that diurnal oscillation of glycerolipid composition is an important input in flowering time control. Taking advantage of public microarray data, we globally analyzed the expression pattern of glycerolipid biosynthetic genes in Arabidopsis under long-day, short-day, and continuous light conditions. The results revealed that 12 genes associated with glycerolipid metabolism showed significant oscillatory profiles. Interestingly, expression of most of these genes followed circadian profiles, suggesting that glycerolipid biosynthesis is partially under clock regulation. The oscillating expression profile of one representative gene, PECT1, was analyzed in detail. Expression of PECT1 showed a circadian pattern highly correlated with that of the clock-regulated gene GIGANTEA. Thus, our study suggests that a considerable number of glycerolipid biosynthetic genes are under circadian control.

Identification of a trichothecene gene cluster and description of the harzianum A biosynthesis pathway in the fungus Trichoderma arundinaceum

Science.gov (United States)

Trichothecenes are sesquiterpenes that act like mycotoxins. Their biosynthesis has been mainly studied in the fungal genera Fusarium, where most of the biosynthetic genes (tri) are grouped in a cluster regulated by ambient conditions and regulatory genes. Unexpectedly, few studies are available abou...

Identification and characterization of lbpA, an indigoidine biosynthetic gene in the γ-butyrolactone signaling system of Streptomyces lavendulae FRI-5.

Science.gov (United States)

Pait, Ivy Grace Umadhay; Kitani, Shigeru; Kurniawan, Yohanes Novi; Asa, Maeda; Iwai, Takashi; Ikeda, Haruo; Nihira, Takuya

2017-10-01

Streptomyces lavendulae FRI-5 produces the blue pigment indigoidine and other secondary metabolites (d-cycloserine and nucleoside antibiotics). The production of these useful compounds is controlled by a signaling cascade mediated by the γ-butyrolactone autoregulator IM-2. Previously we revealed that the far regulatory island includes the IM-2 receptor, the IM-2 biosynthetic enzyme, and several transcriptional regulators, and that it contributes to the regulation of indigoidine production in response to the signaling molecule. Here, we found that the vicinity of the far regulatory island includes the putative gene cluster for the biosynthesis of indigoidine and unidentified compounds, and demonstrated that the expression of the gene cluster is under the control of the IM-2 regulatory system. Heterologous expression of lbpA, encoding a plausible nonribosomal peptide synthetase, in the versatile model host Streptomyces avermitilis SUKA22 led to indigoidine production, which was enhanced dramatically by feeding of the indigoidine precursor l-glutamine. These results confirmed that LbpA is an indigoidine biosynthetic enzyme in the IM-2 signaling cascade. Copyright © 2017 The Society for Biotechnology, Japan. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Cracking the regulatory code of biosynthetic gene clusters as a strategy for natural product discovery.

Science.gov (United States)

Rigali, Sébastien; Anderssen, Sinaeda; Naômé, Aymeric; van Wezel, Gilles P

2018-01-05

The World Health Organization (WHO) describes antibiotic resistance as "one of the biggest threats to global health, food security, and development today", as the number of multi- and pan-resistant bacteria is rising dangerously. Acquired resistance phenomena also impair antifungals, antivirals, anti-cancer drug therapy, while herbicide resistance in weeds threatens the crop industry. On the positive side, it is likely that the chemical space of natural products goes far beyond what has currently been discovered. This idea is fueled by genome sequencing of microorganisms which unveiled numerous so-called cryptic biosynthetic gene clusters (BGCs), many of which are transcriptionally silent under laboratory culture conditions, and by the fact that most bacteria cannot yet be cultivated in the laboratory. However, brute force antibiotic discovery does not yield the same results as it did in the past, and researchers have had to develop creative strategies in order to unravel the hidden potential of microorganisms such as Streptomyces and other antibiotic-producing microorganisms. Identifying the cis elements and their corresponding transcription factors(s) involved in the control of BGCs through bioinformatic approaches is a promising strategy. Theoretically, we are a few 'clicks' away from unveiling the culturing conditions or genetic changes needed to activate the production of cryptic metabolites or increase the production yield of known compounds to make them economically viable. In this opinion article, we describe and illustrate the idea beyond 'cracking' the regulatory code for natural product discovery, by presenting a series of proofs of concept, and discuss what still should be achieved to increase the rate of success of this strategy. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Genome-Wide Analysis of Secondary Metabolite Gene Clusters in Ophiostoma ulmi and Ophiostoma novo-ulmi Reveals a Fujikurin-Like Gene Cluster with a Putative Role in Infection

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Nicolau Sbaraini

2017-06-01

Full Text Available The emergence of new microbial pathogens can result in destructive outbreaks, since their hosts have limited resistance and pathogens may be excessively aggressive. Described as the major ecological incident of the twentieth century, Dutch elm disease, caused by ascomycete fungi from the Ophiostoma genus, has caused a significant decline in elm tree populations (Ulmus sp. in North America and Europe. Genome sequencing of the two main causative agents of Dutch elm disease (Ophiostoma ulmi and Ophiostoma novo-ulmi, along with closely related species with different lifestyles, allows for unique comparisons to be made to identify how pathogens and virulence determinants have emerged. Among several established virulence determinants, secondary metabolites (SMs have been suggested to play significant roles during phytopathogen infection. Interestingly, the secondary metabolism of Dutch elm pathogens remains almost unexplored, and little is known about how SM biosynthetic genes are organized in these species. To better understand the metabolic potential of O. ulmi and O. novo-ulmi, we performed a deep survey and description of SM biosynthetic gene clusters (BGCs in these species and assessed their conservation among eight species from the Ophiostomataceae family. Among 19 identified BGCs, a fujikurin-like gene cluster (OpPKS8 was unique to Dutch elm pathogens. Phylogenetic analysis revealed that orthologs for this gene cluster are widespread among phytopathogens and plant-associated fungi, suggesting that OpPKS8 may have been horizontally acquired by the Ophiostoma genus. Moreover, the detailed identification of several BGCs paves the way for future in-depth research and supports the potential impact of secondary metabolism on Ophiostoma genus’ lifestyle.

Heterologous reconstitution of the intact geodin gene cluster in Aspergillus nidulans through a simple and versatile PCR based approach.

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Morten Thrane Nielsen

Full Text Available Fungal natural products are a rich resource for bioactive molecules. To fully exploit this potential it is necessary to link genes to metabolites. Genetic information for numerous putative biosynthetic pathways has become available in recent years through genome sequencing. However, the lack of solid methodology for genetic manipulation of most species severely hampers pathway characterization. Here we present a simple PCR based approach for heterologous reconstitution of intact gene clusters. Specifically, the putative gene cluster responsible for geodin production from Aspergillus terreus was transferred in a two step procedure to an expression platform in A. nidulans. The individual cluster fragments were generated by PCR and assembled via efficient USER fusion prior to transformation and integration via re-iterative gene targeting. A total of 13 open reading frames contained in 25 kb of DNA were successfully transferred between the two species enabling geodin synthesis in A. nidulans. Subsequently, functions of three genes in the cluster were validated by genetic and chemical analyses. Specifically, ATEG_08451 (gedC encodes a polyketide synthase, ATEG_08453 (gedR encodes a transcription factor responsible for activation of the geodin gene cluster and ATEG_08460 (gedL encodes a halogenase that catalyzes conversion of sulochrin to dihydrogeodin. We expect that our approach for transferring intact biosynthetic pathways to a fungus with a well developed genetic toolbox will be instrumental in characterizing the many exciting pathways for secondary metabolite production that are currently being uncovered by the fungal genome sequencing projects.

Expression of Xanthophyll Biosynthetic Genes during Light-Dependent Chloroplast Differentiation1

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Woitsch, Sonja; Römer, Susanne

2003-01-01

In higher plants, etioplast to chloroplast differentiation is characterized by dramatic ultrastructural changes of the plastid and a concomitant increase in chlorophylls and carotenoids. Whereas the formation and function of carotenes and their oxygenated derivatives, the xanthophylls, have been well studied, little is known about the regulation of the genes involved in xanthophyll biosynthesis. Here, we analyze the expression of three xanthophyll biosynthetic genes (i.e. β-carotene hydroxylase [bhy], zeaxanthin epoxidase [zep], and violaxanthin de-epoxidase [vde]) during de-etiolation of seedlings of tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum L. cv Samsun) under different light conditions. White-light illumination caused an increase in the amount of all corresponding mRNAs. The expression profiles of bhy and zep not only resembled each other but were also similar to the pattern of a gene encoding a major light-harvesting protein of photosystem II. This finding indicates a coordinated synthesis during formation of the antenna complex. In contrast, the expression pattern of vde was clearly different. Furthermore, the gene expression of bhy was shown to be modulated after illumination with different white-light intensities. The expression of all xanthophyll biosynthetic genes under examination was up-regulated upon exposure to red, blue, and white light. Gene expression of bhy and vde but not of zep was more pronounced under red-light illumination, pointing at an involvement of the phytochrome system. Expression analysis in the presence of the photosynthetic electron transport inhibitors 3-(3,4-dichlorophenyl)-1,1-dimethyl-urea and 2,5-dibromo-3-methyl-6-isopropyl-p-benzoquinone indicated a redox control of transcription of two of the xanthophyll biosynthetic genes (bhy and zep). PMID:12857831

Accumulation of Rutin and Betulinic Acid and Expression of Phenylpropanoid and Triterpenoid Biosynthetic Genes in Mulberry (Morus alba L.).

Science.gov (United States)

Zhao, Shicheng; Park, Chang Ha; Li, Xiaohua; Kim, Yeon Bok; Yang, Jingli; Sung, Gyoo Byung; Park, Nam Il; Kim, Soonok; Park, Sang Un

2015-09-30

Mulberry (Morus alba L.) is used in traditional Chinese medicine and is the sole food source of the silkworm. Here, 21 cDNAs encoding phenylpropanoid biosynthetic genes and 21 cDNAs encoding triterpene biosynthetic genes were isolated from mulberry. The expression levels of genes involved in these biosynthetic pathways and the accumulation of rutin, betulin, and betulinic acid, important secondary metabolites, were investigated in different plant organs. Most phenylpropanoid and triterpene biosynthetic genes were highly expressed in leaves and/or fruit, and most genes were downregulated during fruit ripening. The accumulation of rutin was more than fivefold higher in leaves than in other organs, and higher levels of betulin and betulinic acid were found in roots and leaves than in fruit. By comparing the contents of these compounds with gene expression levels, we speculate that MaUGT78D1 and MaLUS play important regulatory roles in the rutin and betulin biosynthetic pathways.

plantiSMASH: automated identification, annotation and expression analysis of plant biosynthetic gene clusters

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Kautsar, Satria A.; Suarez Duran, Hernando G.; Blin, Kai

2017-01-01

exploration of the nature and dynamics of gene clustering in plant metabolism. Moreover, spurred by the continuing decrease in costs of plant genome sequencing, they will allow genome mining technologies to be applied to plant natural product discovery. The plantiSMASH web server, precalculated results...

Variation in fumonisin and ochratoxin production associated with differences in biosynthetic gene content in Aspergillus niger and A. welwitschiae isolates from multiple crop and geographic origins

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Antonia Susca

2016-09-01

Full Text Available The fungi Aspergillus niger and A. welwitschiae are morphologically indistinguishable species used for industrial fermentation and for food and beverage production. The fungi also occur widely on food crops. Concerns about their safety have arisen with the discovery that some isolates of both species produce fumonisin (FB and ochratoxin A (OTA mycotoxins. Here, we examined FB and OTA production as well as the presence of genes responsible for synthesis of the mycotoxins in a collection of 92 A. niger/A. welwitschiae isolates from multiple crop and geographic origins. The results indicate that i isolates of both species differed in ability to produce the mycotoxins; ii FB-nonproducing isolates of A. niger had an intact fumonisin biosynthetic gene (fum cluster; iii FB-nonproducing isolates of A. welwitschiae exhibited multiple patterns of fum gene deletion; and iv OTA-nonproducing isolates of both species lacked the ochratoxin A biosynthetic gene (ota cluster. Analysis of genome sequence data revealed a single pattern of ota gene deletion in the two species. Phylogenetic analysis suggest that the simplest explanation for this is that ota cluster deletion occurred in a common ancestor of A. niger and A. welwitschiae, and subsequently both the intact and deleted cluster were retained as alternate alleles during divergence of the ancestor into descendent species. Finally, comparison of results from this and previous studies indicate that a majority of A. niger isolates and a minority of A. welwitschiae isolates can produce FBs, whereas a minority of isolates of both species produce OTA. The comparison also suggested that the relative abundance of each species and frequency of FB/OTA-producing isolates can vary with crop and/or geographic origin.

Comprehensive annotation of secondary metabolite biosynthetic genes and gene clusters of Aspergillus nidulans, A. fumigatus, A. niger and A. oryzae

Science.gov (United States)

2013-01-01

Background Secondary metabolite production, a hallmark of filamentous fungi, is an expanding area of research for the Aspergilli. These compounds are potent chemicals, ranging from deadly toxins to therapeutic antibiotics to potential anti-cancer drugs. The genome sequences for multiple Aspergilli have been determined, and provide a wealth of predictive information about secondary metabolite production. Sequence analysis and gene overexpression strategies have enabled the discovery of novel secondary metabolites and the genes involved in their biosynthesis. The Aspergillus Genome Database (AspGD) provides a central repository for gene annotation and protein information for Aspergillus species. These annotations include Gene Ontology (GO) terms, phenotype data, gene names and descriptions and they are crucial for interpreting both small- and large-scale data and for aiding in the design of new experiments that further Aspergillus research. Results We have manually curated Biological Process GO annotations for all genes in AspGD with recorded functions in secondary metabolite production, adding new GO terms that specifically describe each secondary metabolite. We then leveraged these new annotations to predict roles in secondary metabolism for genes lacking experimental characterization. As a starting point for manually annotating Aspergillus secondary metabolite gene clusters, we used antiSMASH (antibiotics and Secondary Metabolite Analysis SHell) and SMURF (Secondary Metabolite Unknown Regions Finder) algorithms to identify potential clusters in A. nidulans, A. fumigatus, A. niger and A. oryzae, which we subsequently refined through manual curation. Conclusions This set of 266 manually curated secondary metabolite gene clusters will facilitate the investigation of novel Aspergillus secondary metabolites. PMID:23617571

Biosynthesis of actinorhodin and related antibiotics: discovery of alternative routes for quinone formation encoded in the act gene cluster.

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Okamoto, Susumu; Taguchi, Takaaki; Ochi, Kozo; Ichinose, Koji

2009-02-27

All known benzoisochromanequinone (BIQ) biosynthetic gene clusters carry a set of genes encoding a two-component monooxygenase homologous to the ActVA-ORF5/ActVB system for actinorhodin biosynthesis in Streptomyces coelicolor A3(2). Here, we conducted molecular genetic and biochemical studies of this enzyme system. Inactivation of actVA-ORF5 yielded a shunt product, actinoperylone (ACPL), apparently derived from 6-deoxy-dihydrokalafungin. Similarly, deletion of actVB resulted in accumulation of ACPL, indicating a critical role for the monooxygenase system in C-6 oxygenation, a biosynthetic step common to all BIQ biosyntheses. Furthermore, in vitro, we showed a quinone-forming activity of the ActVA-ORF5/ActVB system in addition to that of a known C-6 monooxygenase, ActVA-ORF6, by using emodinanthrone as a model substrate. Our results demonstrate that the act gene cluster encodes two alternative routes for quinone formation by C-6 oxygenation in BIQ biosynthesis.

Transcription factor VdCmr1 is required for pigment production, protection from UV irradiation, and regulates expression of melanin biosynthetic genes in Verticillium dahliae.

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Wang, Yonglin; Hu, Xiaoping; Fang, Yulin; Anchieta, Amy; Goldman, Polly H; Hernandez, Gustavo; Klosterman, Steven J

2018-04-01

Verticillium dahliae is a soilborne fungus that causes vascular wilt diseases on numerous plant species worldwide. The production of darkly melanized microsclerotia is crucial in the disease cycle of V. dahliae, as these structures allow for long-term survival in soil. Previously, transcriptomic and genomic analysis identified a cluster of genes in V. dahliae that encodes some dihydroxynaphthalene (DHN) melanin biosynthetic pathway homologues found in related fungi. In this study, we explored the roles of cluster-specific transcription factor VdCmr1, as well as two other genes within the cluster encoding a polyketide synthase (VdPKS1) and a laccase (VdLac1), enzymes at initial and endpoint steps in DHN melanin production. The results revealed that VdCmr1 and VdPKS1 are required for melanin production, but neither is required for microsclerotia production. None of the three genes were required for pathogenesis on tobacco and lettuce. Exposure of ΔVdCmr1 and wild-type strains to UV irradiation, or to high temperature (40 °C), revealed an approx. 50 % reduction of survival in the ΔVdCmr1 strain, relative to the wild-type strain, in response to either condition. Expression profiles revealed that expression of some melanin biosynthetic genes are in part dependent on VdCmr1. Combined data indicate VdCmr1 is a key regulator of melanin biosynthesis, and that via regulation of melanogenesis, VdCmr1 affects survival of V. dahliae in response to abiotic threats. We conclude with a model showing regulation of VdCmr1 by a high osmolarity glycerol response (Hog)-type MAP kinase pathway.

Targeted capture and heterologous expression of the Pseudoalteromonas alterochromide gene cluster in Escherichia coli represents a promising natural product exploratory platform.

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Ross, Avena C; Gulland, Lauren E S; Dorrestein, Pieter C; Moore, Bradley S

2015-04-17

Marine pseudoalteromonads represent a very promising source of biologically important natural product molecules. To access and exploit the full chemical capacity of these cosmopolitan Gram-(-) bacteria, we sought to apply universal synthetic biology tools to capture, refactor, and express biosynthetic gene clusters for the production of complex organic compounds in reliable host organisms. Here, we report a platform for the capture of proteobacterial gene clusters using a transformation-associated recombination (TAR) strategy coupled with direct pathway manipulation and expression in Escherichia coli. The ~34 kb pathway for production of alterochromide lipopeptides by Pseudoalteromonas piscicida JCM 20779 was captured and heterologously expressed in E. coli utilizing native and E. coli-based T7 promoter sequences. Our approach enabled both facile production of the alterochromides and in vivo interrogation of gene function associated with alterochromide's unusual brominated lipid side chain. This platform represents a simple but effective strategy for the discovery and biosynthetic characterization of natural products from marine proteobacteria.

Targeting fumonisin biosynthetic genes

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The fungus Fusarium is an agricultural problem because it can cause disease on most crop plants and can contaminate crops with mycotoxins. There is considerable variation in the presence/absence and genomic location of gene clusters responsible for synthesis of mycotoxins and other secondary metabol...

Targeting trichothecene biosynthetic genes

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Wei, Songhong; Lee, van der Theo; Verstappen, Els; Gent, van Marga; Waalwijk, Cees

2017-01-01

Biosynthesis of trichothecenes requires the involvement of at least 15 genes, most of which have been targeted for PCR. Qualitative PCRs are used to assign chemotypes to individual isolates, e.g., the capacity to produce type A and/or type B trichothecenes. Many regions in the core cluster

Open reading frame 176 in the photosynthesis gene cluster of Rhodobacter capsulatus encodes idi, a gene for isopentenyl diphosphate isomerase.

OpenAIRE

Hahn, F M; Baker, J A; Poulter, C D

1996-01-01

Isopentenyl diphosphate (IPP) isomerase catalyzes an essential activation step in the isoprenoid biosynthetic pathway. A database search based on probes from the highly conserved regions in three eukaryotic IPP isomerases revealed substantial similarity with ORF176 in the photosynthesis gene cluster in Rhodobacter capsulatus. The open reading frame was cloned into an Escherichia coli expression vector. The encoded 20-kDa protein, which was purified in two steps by ion exchange and hydrophobic...

Gene cluster statistics with gene families.

Science.gov (United States)

Raghupathy, Narayanan; Durand, Dannie

2009-05-01

Identifying genomic regions that descended from a common ancestor is important for understanding the function and evolution of genomes. In distantly related genomes, clusters of homologous gene pairs are evidence of candidate homologous regions. Demonstrating the statistical significance of such "gene clusters" is an essential component of comparative genomic analyses. However, currently there are no practical statistical tests for gene clusters that model the influence of the number of homologs in each gene family on cluster significance. In this work, we demonstrate empirically that failure to incorporate gene family size in gene cluster statistics results in overestimation of significance, leading to incorrect conclusions. We further present novel analytical methods for estimating gene cluster significance that take gene family size into account. Our methods do not require complete genome data and are suitable for testing individual clusters found in local regions, such as contigs in an unfinished assembly. We consider pairs of regions drawn from the same genome (paralogous clusters), as well as regions drawn from two different genomes (orthologous clusters). Determining cluster significance under general models of gene family size is computationally intractable. By assuming that all gene families are of equal size, we obtain analytical expressions that allow fast approximation of cluster probabilities. We evaluate the accuracy of this approximation by comparing the resulting gene cluster probabilities with cluster probabilities obtained by simulating a realistic, power-law distributed model of gene family size, with parameters inferred from genomic data. Surprisingly, despite the simplicity of the underlying assumption, our method accurately approximates the true cluster probabilities. It slightly overestimates these probabilities, yielding a conservative test. We present additional simulation results indicating the best choice of parameter values for data

Identification of Secondary Metabolite Gene Clusters in the Pseudovibrio Genus Reveals Encouraging Biosynthetic Potential toward the Production of Novel Bioactive Compounds

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Lynn M. Naughton

2017-08-01

Full Text Available Increased incidences of antimicrobial resistance and the emergence of pan-resistant ‘superbugs’ have provoked an extreme sense of urgency amongst researchers focusing on the discovery of potentially novel antimicrobial compounds. A strategic shift in focus from the terrestrial to the marine environment has resulted in the discovery of a wide variety of structurally and functionally diverse bioactive compounds from numerous marine sources, including sponges. Bacteria found in close association with sponges and other marine invertebrates have recently gained much attention as potential sources of many of these novel bioactive compounds. Members of the genus Pseudovibrio are one such group of organisms. In this study, we interrogate the genomes of 21 Pseudovibrio strains isolated from a variety of marine sources, for the presence, diversity and distribution of biosynthetic gene clusters (BGCs. We expand on results obtained from antiSMASH analysis to demonstrate the similarity between the Pseudovibrio-related BGCs and those characterized in other bacteria and corroborate our findings with phylogenetic analysis. We assess how domain organization of the most abundant type of BGCs present among the isolates (Non-ribosomal peptide synthetases and Polyketide synthases may influence the diversity of compounds produced by these organisms and highlight for the first time the potential for novel compound production from this genus of bacteria, using a genome guided approach.

Homologous gene targeting of a carotenoids biosynthetic gene in Rhodosporidium toruloides by Agrobacterium-mediated transformation.

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Sun, Wenyi; Yang, Xiaobing; Wang, Xueying; Lin, Xinping; Wang, Yanan; Zhang, Sufang; Luan, Yushi; Zhao, Zongbao K

2017-07-01

To target a carotenoid biosynthetic gene in the oleaginous yeast Rhodosporidium toruloides by using the Agrobacterium-mediated transformation (AMT) method. The RHTO_04602 locus of R. toruloides NP11, previously assigned to code the carotenoid biosynthetic gene CRTI, was amplified from genomic DNA and cloned into the binary plasmid pZPK-mcs, resulting in pZPK-CRT. A HYG-expression cassette was inserted into the CRTI sequence of pZPK-CRT by utilizing the restriction-free clone strategy. The resulted plasmid was used to transform R. toruloides cells according to the AMT method, leading to a few white transformants. Sequencing analysis of those transformants confirmed homologous recombination and insertional inactivation of CRTI. When the white variants were transformed with a CRTI-expression cassette, cells became red and produced carotenoids as did the wild-type strain NP11. Successful homologous targeting of the CrtI locus confirmed the function of RHTO_04602 in carotenoids biosynthesis in R. toruloides. It provided valuable information for metabolic engineering of this non-model yeast species.

[Construction of Corynebacterium crenatum AS 1.542 δ argR and analysis of transcriptional levels of the related genes of arginine biosynthetic pathway].

Science.gov (United States)

Chen, Xuelan; Tang, Li; Jiao, Haitao; Xu, Feng; Xiong, Yonghua

2013-01-04

ArgR, coded by the argR gene from Corynebacterium crenatum AS 1.542, acts as a negative regulator in arginine biosynthetic pathway. However, the effect of argR on transcriptional levels of the related biosynthetic genes has not been reported. Here, we constructed a deletion mutant of argR gene: C. crenatum AS 1.542 Delta argR using marker-less knockout technology, and compared the changes of transcriptional levels of the arginine biosynthetic genes between the mutant strain and the wild-type strain. We used marker-less knockout technology to construct C. crenatum AS 1.542 Delta argR and analyzed the changes of the relate genes at the transcriptional level using real-time fluorescence quantitative PCR. C. crenatum AS 1.542 Delta argR was successfully obtained and the transcriptional level of arginine biosynthetic genes in this mutant increased significantly with an average of about 162.1 folds. The arginine biosynthetic genes in C. crenatum are clearly controlled by the negative regulator ArgR. However, the deletion of this regulator does not result in a clear change in arginine production in the bacteria.

antiSMASH 4.0-improvements in chemistry prediction and gene cluster boundary identification

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Blin, Kai; Wolf, Thomas; Chevrette, Marc G.

2017-01-01

Many antibiotics, chemotherapeutics, crop protection agents and food preservatives originate from molecules produced by bacteria, fungi or plants. In recent years, genome mining methodologies have been widely adopted to identify and characterize the biosynthetic gene clusters encoding...... the production of such compounds. Since 2011, the 'antibiotics and secondary metabolite analysis shell-antiSMASH' has assisted researchers in efficiently performing this, both as a web server and a standalone tool. Here, we present the thoroughly updated antiSMASH version 4, which adds several novel features...

Biosynthetic pathway for γ-cyclic sarcinaxanthin in Micrococcus luteus: heterologous expression and evidence for diverse and multiple catalytic functions of C(50) carotenoid cyclases.

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Netzer, Roman; Stafsnes, Marit H; Andreassen, Trygve; Goksøyr, Audun; Bruheim, Per; Brautaset, Trygve

2010-11-01

We report the cloning and characterization of the biosynthetic gene cluster (crtE, crtB, crtI, crtE2, crtYg, crtYh, and crtX) of the γ-cyclic C(50) carotenoid sarcinaxanthin in Micrococcus luteus NCTC2665. Expression of the complete and partial gene cluster in Escherichia coli hosts revealed that sarcinaxanthin biosynthesis from the precursor molecule farnesyl pyrophosphate (FPP) proceeds via C(40) lycopene, C(45) nonaflavuxanthin, C(50) flavuxanthin, and C(50) sarcinaxanthin. Glucosylation of sarcinaxanthin was accomplished by the crtX gene product. This is the first report describing the biosynthetic pathway of a γ-cyclic C(50) carotenoid. Expression of the corresponding genes from the marine M. luteus isolate Otnes7 in a lycopene-producing E. coli host resulted in the production of up to 2.5 mg/g cell dry weight sarcinaxanthin in shake flasks. In an attempt to experimentally understand the specific difference between the biosynthetic pathways of sarcinaxanthin and the structurally related ε-cyclic decaprenoxanthin, we constructed a hybrid gene cluster with the γ-cyclic C(50) carotenoid cyclase genes crtYg and crtYh from M. luteus replaced with the analogous ε-cyclic C(50) carotenoid cyclase genes crtYe and crtYf from the natural decaprenoxanthin producer Corynebacterium glutamicum. Surprisingly, expression of this hybrid gene cluster in an E. coli host resulted in accumulation of not only decaprenoxanthin, but also sarcinaxanthin and the asymmetric ε- and γ-cyclic C(50) carotenoid sarprenoxanthin, described for the first time in this work. Together, these data contributed to new insight into the diverse and multiple functions of bacterial C(50) carotenoid cyclases as key catalysts for the synthesis of structurally different carotenoids.

Diametrical clustering for identifying anti-correlated gene clusters.

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Dhillon, Inderjit S; Marcotte, Edward M; Roshan, Usman

2003-09-01

Clustering genes based upon their expression patterns allows us to predict gene function. Most existing clustering algorithms cluster genes together when their expression patterns show high positive correlation. However, it has been observed that genes whose expression patterns are strongly anti-correlated can also be functionally similar. Biologically, this is not unintuitive-genes responding to the same stimuli, regardless of the nature of the response, are more likely to operate in the same pathways. We present a new diametrical clustering algorithm that explicitly identifies anti-correlated clusters of genes. Our algorithm proceeds by iteratively (i). re-partitioning the genes and (ii). computing the dominant singular vector of each gene cluster; each singular vector serving as the prototype of a 'diametric' cluster. We empirically show the effectiveness of the algorithm in identifying diametrical or anti-correlated clusters. Testing the algorithm on yeast cell cycle data, fibroblast gene expression data, and DNA microarray data from yeast mutants reveals that opposed cellular pathways can be discovered with this method. We present systems whose mRNA expression patterns, and likely their functions, oppose the yeast ribosome and proteosome, along with evidence for the inverse transcriptional regulation of a number of cellular systems.

Mutational studies of putative biosynthetic genes for the cyanobacterial sunscreen scytonemin in Nostoc punctiforme ATCC 29133

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Daniela eFerreira

2016-05-01

Full Text Available The heterocyclic indole-alkaloid scytonemin is a sunscreen found exclusively among cyanobacteria. An 18-gene cluster is responsible for scytonemin production in Nostoc punctiforme ATCC 29133. The upstream genes scyABCDEF in the cluster are proposed to be responsible for scytonemin biosynthesis from aromatic amino acid substrates. In vitro studies of ScyA, ScyB and ScyC proved that these enzymes indeed catalyze initial pathway reactions. Here we characterize the role of ScyD, ScyE and ScyF, which were logically predicted to be responsible for late biosynthetic steps, in the biological context of N. punctiforme. In-frame deletion mutants of each were constructed (∆scyD, ∆scyE and ∆scyF and their phenotypes studied. Expectedly, ∆scyE presents a scytoneminless phenotype, but no accumulation of the predicted intermediaries. Surprisingly, ∆scyD retains scytonemin production, implying that it is not required for biosynthesis. Indeed, scyD presents an interesting evolutionary paradox: it likely originated in a duplication event from scyE, and unlike other genes in the operon, it has not been subjected to purifying selection. This would suggest that it is a pseudogene, and yet scyD is highly conserved in the scytonemin operon of cyanobacteria. ∆scyF also retains scytonemin production, albeit exhibiting a reduction of the production yield compared with the wild-type. This indicates that ScyF is not essential but may play an adjuvant role for scytonemin synthesis. Altogether, our findings suggest that these downstream genes are not responsible, as expected, for the late steps of scytonemin synthesis and we must look for those functions elsewhere. These findings are particularly important for biotechnological production of this sunscreen through heterologous expression of its genes in more tractable organisms.

Identification and functional analysis of gene cluster involvement in biosynthesis of the cyclic lipopeptide antibiotic pelgipeptin produced by Paenibacillus elgii

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Qian Chao-Dong

2012-09-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Pelgipeptin, a potent antibacterial and antifungal agent, is a non-ribosomally synthesised lipopeptide antibiotic. This compound consists of a β-hydroxy fatty acid and nine amino acids. To date, there is no information about its biosynthetic pathway. Results A potential pelgipeptin synthetase gene cluster (plp was identified from Paenibacillus elgii B69 through genome analysis. The gene cluster spans 40.8 kb with eight open reading frames. Among the genes in this cluster, three large genes, plpD, plpE, and plpF, were shown to encode non-ribosomal peptide synthetases (NRPSs, with one, seven, and one module(s, respectively. Bioinformatic analysis of the substrate specificity of all nine adenylation domains indicated that the sequence of the NRPS modules is well collinear with the order of amino acids in pelgipeptin. Additional biochemical analysis of four recombinant adenylation domains (PlpD A1, PlpE A1, PlpE A3, and PlpF A1 provided further evidence that the plp gene cluster involved in pelgipeptin biosynthesis. Conclusions In this study, a gene cluster (plp responsible for the biosynthesis of pelgipeptin was identified from the genome sequence of Paenibacillus elgii B69. The identification of the plp gene cluster provides an opportunity to develop novel lipopeptide antibiotics by genetic engineering.

Aromatic Polyketide GTRI-02 is a Previously Unidentified Product of the act Gene Cluster in Streptomyces coelicolor A3(2).

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Wu, Changsheng; Ichinose, Koji; Choi, Young Hae; van Wezel, Gilles P

2017-07-18

The biosynthesis of aromatic polyketides derived from type II polyketide synthases (PKSs) is complex, and it is not uncommon that highly similar gene clusters give rise to diverse structural architectures. The act biosynthetic gene cluster (BGC) of the model actinomycete Streptomyces coelicolor A3(2) is an archetypal type II PKS. Here we show that the act BGC also specifies the aromatic polyketide GTRI-02 (1) and propose a mechanism for the biogenesis of its 3,4-dihydronaphthalen-1(2H)-one backbone. Polyketide 1 was also produced by Streptomyces sp. MBT76 after activation of the act-like qin gene cluster by overexpression of the pathway-specific activator. Mining of this strain also identified dehydroxy-GTRI-02 (2), which most likely originated from dehydration of 1 during the isolation process. This work shows that even extensively studied model gene clusters such as act of S. coelicolor can still produce new chemistry, offering new perspectives for drug discovery. © 2017 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

A genome-wide analysis of nonribosomal peptide synthetase gene clusters and their peptides in a Planktothrix rubescens strain

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Nederbragt Alexander J

2009-08-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Cyanobacteria often produce several different oligopeptides, with unknown biological functions, by nonribosomal peptide synthetases (NRPS. Although some cyanobacterial NRPS gene cluster types are well described, the entire NRPS genomic content within a single cyanobacterial strain has never been investigated. Here we have combined a genome-wide analysis using massive parallel pyrosequencing ("454" and mass spectrometry screening of oligopeptides produced in the strain Planktothrix rubescens NIVA CYA 98 in order to identify all putative gene clusters for oligopeptides. Results Thirteen types of oligopeptides were uncovered by mass spectrometry (MS analyses. Microcystin, cyanopeptolin and aeruginosin synthetases, highly similar to already characterized NRPS, were present in the genome. Two novel NRPS gene clusters were associated with production of anabaenopeptins and microginins, respectively. Sequence-depth of the genome and real-time PCR data revealed three copies of the microginin gene cluster. Since NRPS gene cluster candidates for microviridin and oscillatorin synthesis could not be found, putative (gene encoded precursor peptide sequences to microviridin and oscillatorin were found in the genes mdnA and oscA, respectively. The genes flanking the microviridin and oscillatorin precursor genes encode putative modifying enzymes of the precursor oligopeptides. We therefore propose ribosomal pathways involving modifications and cyclisation for microviridin and oscillatorin. The microviridin, anabaenopeptin and cyanopeptolin gene clusters are situated in close proximity to each other, constituting an oligopeptide island. Conclusion Altogether seven nonribosomal peptide synthetase (NRPS gene clusters and two gene clusters putatively encoding ribosomal oligopeptide biosynthetic pathways were revealed. Our results demonstrate that whole genome shotgun sequencing combined with MS-directed determination of oligopeptides successfully

Heterologous stable expression of terpenoid biosynthetic genes using the moss Physcomitrella patens

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Bach, Søren Spanner; King, Brian Christopher; Zhan, Xin

2014-01-01

Heterologous and stable expression of genes encoding terpenoid biosynthetic enzymes in planta is an important tool for functional characterization and is an attractive alternative to expression in microbial hosts for biotechnological production. Despite improvements to the procedure, such as stre...

In silico analysis highlights the frequency and diversity of type 1 lantibiotic gene clusters in genome sequenced bacteria

LENUS (Irish Health Repository)

Marsh, Alan J

2010-11-30

Abstract Background Lantibiotics are lanthionine-containing, post-translationally modified antimicrobial peptides. These peptides have significant, but largely untapped, potential as preservatives and chemotherapeutic agents. Type 1 lantibiotics are those in which lanthionine residues are introduced into the structural peptide (LanA) through the activity of separate lanthionine dehydratase (LanB) and lanthionine synthetase (LanC) enzymes. Here we take advantage of the conserved nature of LanC enzymes to devise an in silico approach to identify potential lantibiotic-encoding gene clusters in genome sequenced bacteria. Results In total 49 novel type 1 lantibiotic clusters were identified which unexpectedly were associated with species, genera and even phyla of bacteria which have not previously been associated with lantibiotic production. Conclusions Multiple type 1 lantibiotic gene clusters were identified at a frequency that suggests that these antimicrobials are much more widespread than previously thought. These clusters represent a rich repository which can yield a large number of valuable novel antimicrobials and biosynthetic enzymes.

Molecular characterization of tocopherol biosynthetic genes in sweetpotato that respond to stress and activate the tocopherol production in tobacco.

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Ji, Chang Yoon; Kim, Yun-Hee; Kim, Ho Soo; Ke, Qingbo; Kim, Gun-Woo; Park, Sung-Chul; Lee, Haeng-Soon; Jeong, Jae Cheol; Kwak, Sang-Soo

2016-09-01

Tocopherol (vitamin E) is a chloroplast lipid that is presumed to be involved in the plant response to oxidative stress. In this study, we isolated and characterized five tocopherol biosynthetic genes from sweetpotato (Ipomoea batatas [L.] Lam) plants, including genes encoding 4-hydroxyphenylpyruvate dioxygenase (IbHPPD), homogentisate phytyltransferase (IbHPT), 2-methyl-6-phytylbenzoquinol methyltransferase (IbMPBQ MT), tocopherol cyclase (IbTC) and γ-tocopherol methyltransferase (IbTMT). Fluorescence microscope analysis indicated that four proteins localized into the chloroplast, whereas IbHPPD observed in the nuclear. Quantitative RT-PCR analysis revealed that the expression patterns of the five tocopherol biosynthetic genes varied in different plant tissues and under different stress conditions. All five genes were highly expressed in leaf tissues, whereas IbHPPD and IbHPT were highly expressed in the thick roots. The expression patterns of these five genes significantly differed in response to PEG, NaCl and H2O2-mediated oxidative stress. IbHPPD was strongly induced following PEG and H2O2 treatment and IbHPT was strongly induced following PEG treatment, whereas IbMPBQ MT and IbTC were highly expressed following NaCl treatment. Upon infection of the bacterial pathogen Pectobacterium chrysanthemi, the expression of IbHPPD increased sharply in sweetpotato leaves, whereas the expression of the other genes was reduced or unchanged. Additionally, transient expression of the five tocopherol biosynthetic genes in tobacco (Nicotiana bentamiana) leaves resulted in increased transcript levels of the transgenes expressions and tocopherol production. Therefore, our results suggested that the five tocopherol biosynthetic genes of sweetpotato play roles in the stress defense response as transcriptional regulators of the tocopherol production. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.

CAR gene cluster and transcript levels of carotenogenic genes in Rhodotorula mucilaginosa.

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Landolfo, Sara; Ianiri, Giuseppe; Camiolo, Salvatore; Porceddu, Andrea; Mulas, Giuliana; Chessa, Rossella; Zara, Giacomo; Mannazzu, Ilaria

2018-01-01

A molecular approach was applied to the study of the carotenoid biosynthetic pathway of Rhodotorula mucilaginosa. At first, functional annotation of the genome of R. mucilaginosa C2.5t1 was carried out and gene ontology categories were assigned to 4033 predicted proteins. Then, a set of genes involved in different steps of carotenogenesis was identified and those coding for phytoene desaturase, phytoene synthase/lycopene cyclase and carotenoid dioxygenase (CAR genes) proved to be clustered within a region of ~10 kb. Quantitative PCR of the genes involved in carotenoid biosynthesis showed that genes coding for 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutharyl-CoA reductase and mevalonate kinase are induced during exponential phase while no clear trend of induction was observed for phytoene synthase/lycopene cyclase and phytoene dehydrogenase encoding genes. Thus, in R. mucilaginosa the induction of genes involved in the early steps of carotenoid biosynthesis is transient and accompanies the onset of carotenoid production, while that of CAR genes does not correlate with the amount of carotenoids produced. The transcript levels of genes coding for carotenoid dioxygenase, superoxide dismutase and catalase A increased during the accumulation of carotenoids, thus suggesting the activation of a mechanism aimed at the protection of cell structures from oxidative stress during carotenoid biosynthesis. The data presented herein, besides being suitable for the elucidation of the mechanisms that underlie carotenoid biosynthesis, will contribute to boosting the biotechnological potential of this yeast by improving the outcome of further research efforts aimed at also exploring other features of interest.

Expression of Terpenoid Biosynthetic Genes and Accumulation of Chemical Constituents in Valeriana fauriei

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Yun Ji Park

2016-05-01

Full Text Available Valeriana fauriei (V. fauriei, which emits a characteristic and unpleasant odor, is important in traditional medicine. In this study, the expression of terpenoid biosynthetic genes was investigated in different organs that were also screened for volatile compounds including valerenic acid and its derivatives. Specific expression patterns from different parts of V. fauriei were observed using quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR. The highest transcript levels of biosynthetic genes involved in mevalonic acid (MVA and methylerythritol phosphate (MEP production were found in the stem. Although the amounts of volatile compounds were varied by organ, most of the volatile terpenoids were accumulated in the root. Gas chromatography mass spectrometry (GC-MS analysis identified 128 volatile compounds, which represented 65.33% to 95.66% of total volatiles. Certain compounds were only found in specific organs. For example, isovalerenic acid and valerenic acid and its derivatives were restricted to the root. Organs with high transcript levels did not necessarily have high levels of the corresponding chemical constituents. According to these results, we hypothesize that translocation may occur between different organs in V. fauriei.

Identification of the Biosynthetic Gene Clusters for the Lipopeptides Fusaristatin A and W493 B in Fusarium graminearum and F. pseudograminearum

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Sørensen, Jens Laurids; Sondergaard, Teis Esben; Covarelli, Lorenzo

2014-01-01

The closely related species Fusarium graminearum and Fusarium pseudograminearum differ in that each contains a gene cluster with a polyketide synthase (PKS) and a nonribosomal peptide synthetase (NRPS) that is not present in the other species. To identify their products, we deleted PKS6 and NRPS7...... Fusarium species. On the basis of genes in the putative gene clusters we propose a model for biosynthesis where the polyketide product is shuttled to the NPRS via a CoA ligase and a thioesterase in F. pseudograminearum. In F. graminearum the polyketide is proposed to be directly assimilated by the NRPS....

Multiplex PCR analysis of fumonisin biosynthetic genes in fumonisin-nonproducing Aspergillus niger and A. awamori strains

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In order to determine the genetic basis for loss of fumonisin B¬2 (FB2) biosynthesis in FB2 non-producing A. niger strains, we developed multiplex PCR primer sets to amplify fragments of eight fumonisin biosynthetic pathway (fum) genes. Fragments of all eight fum genes were amplified in FB2-produci...

Expression of phenazine biosynthetic genes during the arbuscular mycorrhizal symbiosis of Glomus intraradices

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Dionicia Gloria León-Martínez

2012-06-01

Full Text Available To explore the molecular mechanisms that prevail during the establishment of the arbuscular mycorrhiza symbiosis involving the genus Glomus, we transcriptionally analysed spores of Glomus intraradices BE3 during early hyphal growth. Among 458 transcripts initially identified as being expressed at presymbiotic stages, 20% of sequences had homology to previously characterized eukaryotic genes, 30% were homologous to fungal coding sequences, and 9% showed homology to previously characterized bacterial genes. Among them, GintPbr1a encodes a homolog to Phenazine Biosynthesis Regulator (Pbr of Burkholderia cenocepacia, an pleiotropic regulatory protein that activates phenazine production through transcriptional activation of the protein D isochorismatase biosynthetic enzyme phzD (Ramos et al., 2010. Whereas GintPbr1a is expressed during the presymbiotic phase, the G. intraradices BE3 homolog of phzD (BGintphzD is transcriptionally active at the time of the establishment of the arbuscular mycorrhizal symbiosis. DNA from isolated bacterial cultures found in spores of G. intraradices BE3 confirmed that both BGintPbr1a and BGintphzD are present in the genome of its potential endosymbionts. Taken together, our results indicate that spores of G. intraradices BE3 express bacterial phenazine biosynthetic genes at the onset of the fungal-plant symbiotic interaction.

ATNT: an enhanced system for expression of polycistronic secondary metabolite gene clusters in Aspergillus niger.

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Geib, Elena; Brock, Matthias

2017-01-01

Fungi are treasure chests for yet unexplored natural products. However, exploitation of their real potential remains difficult as a significant proportion of biosynthetic gene clusters appears silent under standard laboratory conditions. Therefore, elucidation of novel products requires gene activation or heterologous expression. For heterologous gene expression, we previously developed an expression platform in Aspergillus niger that is based on the transcriptional regulator TerR and its target promoter P terA . In this study, we extended this system by regulating expression of terR  by the doxycycline inducible Tet-on system. Reporter genes cloned under the control of the target promoter P terA remained silent in the absence of doxycycline, but were strongly expressed when doxycycline was added. Reporter quantification revealed that the coupled system results in about five times higher expression rates compared to gene expression under direct control of the Tet-on system. As production of secondary metabolites generally requires the expression of several biosynthetic genes, the suitability of the self-cleaving viral peptide sequence P2A was tested in this optimised expression system. P2A allowed polycistronic expression of genes required for Asp-melanin formation in combination with the gene coding for the red fluorescent protein tdTomato. Gene expression and Asp-melanin formation was prevented in the absence of doxycycline and strongly induced by addition of doxycycline. Fluorescence studies confirmed the correct subcellular localisation of the respective enzymes. This tightly regulated but strongly inducible expression system enables high level production of secondary metabolites most likely even those with toxic potential. Furthermore, this system is compatible with polycistronic gene expression and, thus, suitable for the discovery of novel natural products.

The Arabidopsis histone chaperone FACT is required for stress-induced expression of anthocyanin biosynthetic genes.

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Pfab, Alexander; Breindl, Matthias; Grasser, Klaus D

2018-03-01

The histone chaperone FACT is involved in the expression of genes encoding anthocyanin biosynthetic enzymes also upon induction by moderate high-light and therefore contributes to the stress-induced plant pigmentation. The histone chaperone FACT consists of the SSRP1 and SPT16 proteins and associates with transcribing RNAPII (RNAPII) along the transcribed region of genes. FACT can promote transcriptional elongation by destabilising nucleosomes in the path of RNA polymerase II, thereby facilitating efficient transcription of chromatin templates. Transcript profiling of Arabidopsis plants depleted in SSRP1 or SPT16 demonstrates that only a small subset of genes is differentially expressed relative to wild type. The majority of these genes is either up- or down-regulated in both the ssrp1 and spt16 plants. Among the down-regulated genes, those encoding enzymes of the biosynthetic pathway of the plant secondary metabolites termed anthocyanins (but not regulators of the pathway) are overrepresented. Upon exposure to moderate high-light stress several of these genes are up-regulated to a lesser extent in ssrp1/spt16 compared to wild type plants, and accordingly the mutant plants accumulate lower amounts of anthocyanin pigments. Moreover, the expression of SSRP1 and SPT16 is induced under these conditions. Therefore, our findings indicate that FACT is a novel factor required for the accumulation of anthocyanins in response to light-induction.

Estimating P-coverage of biosynthetic pathways in DNA libraries and screening by genetic selection: biotin biosynthesis in the marine microorganism Chromohalobacter.

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Kim, Eun Jin; Angell, Scott; Janes, Jeff; Watanabe, Coran M H

2008-06-01

Traditional approaches to natural product discovery involve cell-based screening of natural product extracts followed by compound isolation and characterization. Their importance notwithstanding, continued mining leads to depletion of natural resources and the reisolation of previously identified metabolites. Metagenomic strategies aimed at localizing the biosynthetic cluster genes and expressing them in surrogate hosts offers one possible alternative. A fundamental question that naturally arises when pursuing such a strategy is, how large must the genomic library be to effectively represent the genome of an organism(s) and the biosynthetic gene clusters they harbor? Such an issue is certainly augmented in the absence of expensive robotics to expedite colony picking and/or screening of clones. We have developed an algorism, named BPC (biosynthetic pathway coverage), supported by molecular simulations to deduce the number of BAC clones required to achieve proper coverage of the genome and their respective biosynthetic pathways. The strategy has been applied to the construction of a large-insert BAC library from a marine microorganism, Hon6 (isolated from Honokohau, Maui) thought to represent a new species. The genomic library is constructed with a BAC yeast shuttle vector pClasper lacZ paving the way for the culturing of libraries in both prokaryotic and eukaryotic hosts. Flow cytometric methods are utilized to estimate the genome size of the organism and BPC implemented to assess P-coverage or percent coverage. A genetic selection strategy is illustrated, applications of which could expedite screening efforts in the identification and localization of biosynthetic pathways from marine microbial consortia, offering a powerful complement to genome sequencing and degenerate probe strategies. Implementing this approach, we report on the biotin biosynthetic pathway from the marine microorganism Hon6.

Expression of carotenoid biosynthetic pathway genes and changes in carotenoids during ripening in tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum).

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Namitha, Kanakapura Krishnamurthy; Archana, Surya Narayana; Negi, Pradeep Singh

2011-04-01

To study the expression pattern of carotenoid biosynthetic pathway genes, changes in their expression at different stages of maturity in tomato fruit (cv. Arka Ahuti) were investigated. The genes regulating carotenoid production were quantified by a dot blot method using a DIG (dioxigenin) labelling and detection kit. The results revealed that there was an increase in the levels of upstream genes of the carotenoid biosynthetic pathway such as 1-deoxy-d-xylulose-5-phosphate reductoisomerase (DXR), 4-hydroxy-3-methyl-but-2-enyl diphosphate reductase (Lyt B), phytoene synthase (PSY), phytoene desaturase (PDS) and ζ-carotene desaturase (ZDS) by 2-4 fold at the breaker stage as compared to leaf. The lycopene and β-carotene content was analyzed by HPLC at different stages of maturity. The lycopene (15.33 ± 0.24 mg per 100 g) and β-carotene (10.37 ± 0.46 mg per 100 g) content were found to be highest at 5 days post-breaker and 10 days post-breaker stage, respectively. The lycopene accumulation pattern also coincided with the color values at different stages of maturity. These studies may provide insight into devising gene-based strategies for enhancing carotenoid accumulation in tomato fruits.

SCS3 and YFT2 link transcription of phospholipid biosynthetic genes to ER stress and the UPR.

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Robyn D Moir

2012-08-01

Full Text Available The ability to store nutrients in lipid droplets (LDs is an ancient function that provides the primary source of metabolic energy during periods of nutrient insufficiency and between meals. The Fat storage-Inducing Transmembrane (FIT proteins are conserved ER-resident proteins that facilitate fat storage by partitioning energy-rich triglycerides into LDs. FIT2, the ancient ortholog of the FIT gene family first identified in mammals has two homologs in Saccharomyces cerevisiae (SCS3 and YFT2 and other fungi of the Saccharomycotina lineage. Despite the coevolution of these genes for more than 170 million years and their divergence from higher eukaryotes, SCS3, YFT2, and the human FIT2 gene retain some common functions: expression of the yeast genes in a human embryonic kidney cell line promotes LD formation, and expression of human FIT2 in yeast rescues the inositol auxotrophy and chemical and genetic phenotypes of strains lacking SCS3. To better understand the function of SCS3 and YFT2, we investigated the chemical sensitivities of strains deleted for either or both genes and identified synthetic genetic interactions against the viable yeast gene-deletion collection. We show that SCS3 and YFT2 have shared and unique functions that connect major biosynthetic processes critical for cell growth. These include lipid metabolism, vesicular trafficking, transcription of phospholipid biosynthetic genes, and protein synthesis. The genetic data indicate that optimal strain fitness requires a balance between phospholipid synthesis and protein synthesis and that deletion of SCS3 and YFT2 impacts a regulatory mechanism that coordinates these processes. Part of this mechanism involves a role for SCS3 in communicating changes in the ER (e.g. due to low inositol to Opi1-regulated transcription of phospholipid biosynthetic genes. We conclude that SCS3 and YFT2 are required for normal ER membrane biosynthesis in response to perturbations in lipid metabolism and ER

Polycistronic gene expression in Aspergillus niger.

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Schuetze, Tabea; Meyer, Vera

2017-09-25

Genome mining approaches predict dozens of biosynthetic gene clusters in each of the filamentous fungal genomes sequenced so far. However, the majority of these gene clusters still remain cryptic because they are not expressed in their natural host. Simultaneous expression of all genes belonging to a biosynthetic pathway in a heterologous host is one approach to activate biosynthetic gene clusters and to screen the metabolites produced for bioactivities. Polycistronic expression of all pathway genes under control of a single and tunable promoter would be the method of choice, as this does not only simplify cloning procedures, but also offers control on timing and strength of expression. However, polycistronic gene expression is a feature not commonly found in eukaryotic host systems, such as Aspergillus niger. In this study, we tested the suitability of the viral P2A peptide for co-expression of three genes in A. niger. Two genes descend from Fusarium oxysporum and are essential to produce the secondary metabolite enniatin (esyn1, ekivR). The third gene (luc) encodes the reporter luciferase which was included to study position effects. Expression of the polycistronic gene cassette was put under control of the Tet-On system to ensure tunable gene expression in A. niger. In total, three polycistronic expression cassettes which differed in the position of luc were constructed and targeted to the pyrG locus in A. niger. This allowed direct comparison of the luciferase activity based on the position of the luciferase gene. Doxycycline-mediated induction of the Tet-On expression cassettes resulted in the production of one long polycistronic mRNA as proven by Northern analyses, and ensured comparable production of enniatin in all three strains. Notably, gene position within the polycistronic expression cassette matters, as, luciferase activity was lowest at position one and had a comparable activity at positions two and three. The P2A peptide can be used to express at

A Gene Cluster for Biosynthesis of Mannosylerythritol Lipids Consisted of 4-O-β-D-Mannopyranosyl-(2R,3S-Erythritol as the Sugar Moiety in a Basidiomycetous Yeast Pseudozyma tsukubaensis.

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Azusa Saika

Full Text Available Mannosylerythritol lipids (MELs belong to the glycolipid biosurfactants and are produced by various fungi. The basidiomycetous yeast Pseudozyma tsukubaensis produces diastereomer type of MEL-B, which contains 4-O-β-D-mannopyranosyl-(2R,3S-erythritol (R-form as the sugar moiety. In this respect it differs from conventional type of MELs, which contain 4-O-β-D-mannopyranosyl-(2S,3R-erythritol (S-form as the sugar moiety. While the biosynthetic gene cluster for conventional type of MELs has been previously identified in Ustilago maydis and Pseudozyma antarctica, the genetic basis for MEL biosynthesis in P. tsukubaensis is unknown. Here, we identified a gene cluster involved in MEL biosynthesis in P. tsukubaensis. Among these genes, PtEMT1, which encodes erythritol/mannose transferase, had greater than 69% identity with homologs from strains in the genera Ustilago, Melanopsichium, Sporisorium and Pseudozyma. However, phylogenetic analysis placed PtEMT1p in a separate clade from the other proteins. To investigate the function of PtEMT1, we introduced the gene into a P. antarctica mutant strain, ΔPaEMT1, which lacks MEL biosynthesis ability owing to the deletion of PaEMT1. Using NMR spectroscopy, we identified the biosynthetic product as MEL-A with altered sugar conformation. These results indicate that PtEMT1p catalyzes the sugar conformation of MELs. This is the first report of a gene cluster for the biosynthesis of diastereomer type of MEL.

Flg22-Triggered Immunity Negatively Regulates Key BR Biosynthetic Genes.

Science.gov (United States)

Jiménez-Góngora, Tamara; Kim, Seong-Ki; Lozano-Durán, Rosa; Zipfel, Cyril

2015-01-01

In plants, activation of growth and activation of immunity are opposing processes that define a trade-off. In the past few years, the growth-promoting hormones brassinosteroids (BR) have emerged as negative regulators of pathogen-associated molecular pattern (PAMP)-triggered immunity (PTI), promoting growth at the expense of defense. The crosstalk between BR and PTI signaling was described as negative and unidirectional, since activation of PTI does not affect several analyzed steps in the BR signaling pathway. In this work, we describe that activation of PTI by the bacterial PAMP flg22 results in the reduced expression of BR biosynthetic genes. This effect does not require BR perception or signaling, and occurs within 15 min of flg22 treatment. Since the described PTI-induced repression of gene expression may result in a reduction in BR biosynthesis, the crosstalk between PTI and BR could actually be negative and bidirectional, a possibility that should be taken into account when considering the interaction between these two pathways.

Persistence drives gene clustering in bacterial genomes

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Rocha Eduardo PC

2008-01-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Gene clustering plays an important role in the organization of the bacterial chromosome and several mechanisms have been proposed to explain its extent. However, the controversies raised about the validity of each of these mechanisms remind us that the cause of this gene organization remains an open question. Models proposed to explain clustering did not take into account the function of the gene products nor the likely presence or absence of a given gene in a genome. However, genomes harbor two very different categories of genes: those genes present in a majority of organisms – persistent genes – and those present in very few organisms – rare genes. Results We show that two classes of genes are significantly clustered in bacterial genomes: the highly persistent and the rare genes. The clustering of rare genes is readily explained by the selfish operon theory. Yet, genes persistently present in bacterial genomes are also clustered and we try to understand why. We propose a model accounting specifically for such clustering, and show that indispensability in a genome with frequent gene deletion and insertion leads to the transient clustering of these genes. The model describes how clusters are created via the gene flux that continuously introduces new genes while deleting others. We then test if known selective processes, such as co-transcription, physical interaction or functional neighborhood, account for the stabilization of these clusters. Conclusion We show that the strong selective pressure acting on the function of persistent genes, in a permanent state of flux of genes in bacterial genomes, maintaining their size fairly constant, that drives persistent genes clustering. A further selective stabilization process might contribute to maintaining the clustering.

Higher transcription levels in ascorbic acid biosynthetic and recycling genes were associated with higher ascorbic acid accumulation in blueberry.

Science.gov (United States)

Liu, Fenghong; Wang, Lei; Gu, Liang; Zhao, Wei; Su, Hongyan; Cheng, Xianhao

2015-12-01

In our preliminary study, the ripe fruits of two highbush blueberry (Vaccinium corymbosum L.) cultivars, cv 'Berkeley' and cv 'Bluecrop', were found to contain different levels of ascorbic acid. However, factors responsible for these differences are still unknown. In the present study, ascorbic acid content in fruits was compared with expression profiles of ascorbic acid biosynthetic and recycling genes between 'Bluecrop' and 'Berkeley' cultivars. The results indicated that the l-galactose pathway was the predominant route of ascorbic acid biosynthesis in blueberry fruits. Moreover, higher expression levels of the ascorbic acid biosynthetic genes GME, GGP, and GLDH, as well as the recycling genes MDHAR and DHAR, were associated with higher ascorbic acid content in 'Bluecrop' compared with 'Berkeley', which indicated that a higher efficiency ascorbic acid biosynthesis and regeneration was likely to be responsible for the higher ascorbic acid accumulation in 'Bluecrop'. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

ATAF1 transcription factor directly regulates abscisic acid biosynthetic gene NCED3 in Arabidopsis thaliana

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Jensen, Michael Krogh; Lindemose, Søren; De Masi, Federico

2013-01-01

ATAF1, an Arabidopsis thaliana NAC transcription factor, plays important roles in plant adaptation to environmental stress and development. To search for ATAF1 target genes, we used protein binding microarrays and chromatin-immunoprecipitation (ChIP). This identified T[A,C,G]CGT[A,G] and TT[A,C,G...... abscisic acid (ABA) phytohormone biosynthetic gene NCED3. ChIP-qPCR and expression analysis showed that ATAF1 binding to the NCED3 promoter correlated with increased NCED3 expression and ABA hormone levels. These results indicate that ATAF1 regulates ABA biosynthesis....

Biosynthetic multitasking facilitates thalassospiramide structural diversity in marine bacteria

KAUST Repository

Ross, Avena C.

2013-01-23

Thalassospiramides A and B are immunosuppressant cyclic lipopeptides first reported from the marine α-proteobacterium Thalassospira sp. CNJ-328. We describe here the discovery and characterization of an extended family of 14 new analogues from four Tistrella and Thalassospira isolates. These potent calpain 1 protease inhibitors belong to six structure classes in which the length and composition of the acylpeptide side chain varies extensively. Genomic sequence analysis of the thalassospiramide-producing microbes revealed related, genus-specific biosynthetic loci encoding hybrid nonribosomal peptide synthetase/polyketide synthases consistent with thalassospiramide assembly. The bioinformatics analysis of the gene clusters suggests that structural diversity, which ranges from the 803.4 Da thalassospiramide C to the 1291.7 Da thalassospiramide F, results from a complex sequence of reactions involving amino acid substrate channeling and enzymatic multimodule skipping and iteration. Preliminary biochemical analysis of the N-terminal nonribosomal peptide synthetase module from the Thalassospira TtcA megasynthase supports a biosynthetic model in which in cis amino acid activation competes with in trans activation to increase the range of amino acid substrates incorporated at the N terminus. © 2012 American Chemical Society.

Biosynthetic multitasking facilitates thalassospiramide structural diversity in marine bacteria

KAUST Repository

Ross, Avena C.; Xü , Ying; Lu, Liang; Kersten, Roland D.; Shao, Zongze; Al-Suwailem, Abdulaziz M.; Dorrestein, Pieter C.; Qian, Peiyuan; Moore, Bradley S.

2013-01-01

Thalassospiramides A and B are immunosuppressant cyclic lipopeptides first reported from the marine α-proteobacterium Thalassospira sp. CNJ-328. We describe here the discovery and characterization of an extended family of 14 new analogues from four Tistrella and Thalassospira isolates. These potent calpain 1 protease inhibitors belong to six structure classes in which the length and composition of the acylpeptide side chain varies extensively. Genomic sequence analysis of the thalassospiramide-producing microbes revealed related, genus-specific biosynthetic loci encoding hybrid nonribosomal peptide synthetase/polyketide synthases consistent with thalassospiramide assembly. The bioinformatics analysis of the gene clusters suggests that structural diversity, which ranges from the 803.4 Da thalassospiramide C to the 1291.7 Da thalassospiramide F, results from a complex sequence of reactions involving amino acid substrate channeling and enzymatic multimodule skipping and iteration. Preliminary biochemical analysis of the N-terminal nonribosomal peptide synthetase module from the Thalassospira TtcA megasynthase supports a biosynthetic model in which in cis amino acid activation competes with in trans activation to increase the range of amino acid substrates incorporated at the N terminus. © 2012 American Chemical Society.

Vanillin biosynthetic pathways in plants.

Science.gov (United States)

Kundu, Anish

2017-06-01

The present review compiles the up-to-date knowledge on vanillin biosynthesis in plant systems to focus principally on the enzymatic reactions of in planta vanillin biosynthetic pathway and to find out its impact and prospect in future research in this field. Vanillin, a very popular flavouring compound, is widely used throughout the world. The principal natural resource of vanillin is the cured vanilla pods. Due to the high demand of vanillin as a flavouring agent, it is necessary to explore its biosynthetic enzymes and genes, so that improvement in its commercial production can be achieved through metabolic engineering. In spite of significant advancement in elucidating vanillin biosynthetic pathway in the last two decades, no conclusive demonstration had been reported yet for plant system. Several biosynthetic enzymes have been worked upon but divergences in published reports, particularly in characterizing the crucial biochemical steps of vanillin biosynthesis, such as side-chain shortening, methylation, and glucoside formation and have created a space for discussion. Recently, published reviews on vanillin biosynthesis have focused mainly on the biotechnological approaches and bioconversion in microbial systems. This review, however, aims to compile in brief the overall vanillin biosynthetic route and present a comparative as well as comprehensive description of enzymes involved in the pathway in Vanilla planifolia and other plants. Special emphasis has been given on the key enzymatic biochemical reactions that have been investigated extensively. Finally, the present standpoint and future prospects have been highlighted.

Treadmill exercise does not change gene expression of adrenal catecholamine biosynthetic enzymes in chronically stressed rats

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LJUBICA GAVRILOVIC

2013-09-01

Full Text Available ABSTRACT Chronic isolation of adult animals represents a form of psychological stress that produces sympatho-adrenomedullar activation. Exercise training acts as an important modulator of sympatho-adrenomedullary system. This study aimed to investigate physical exercise-related changes in gene expression of catecholamine biosynthetic enzymes (tyrosine hydroxylase, dopamine-ß-hydroxylase and phenylethanolamine N-methyltransferase and cyclic adenosine monophosphate response element-binding (CREB in the adrenal medulla, concentrations of catecholamines and corticosterone (CORT in the plasma and the weight of adrenal glands of chronically psychosocially stressed adult rats exposed daily to 20 min treadmill running for 12 weeks. Also, we examined how additional acute immobilization stress changes the mentioned parameters. Treadmill running did not result in modulation of gene expression of catecholamine synthesizing enzymes and it decreased the level of CREB mRNA in the adrenal medulla of chronically psychosocially stressed adult rats. The potentially negative physiological adaptations after treadmill running were recorded as increased concentrations of catecholamines and decreased morning CORT concentration in the plasma, as well as the adrenal gland hypertrophy of chronically psychosocially stressed rats. The additional acute immobilization stress increases gene expression of catecholamine biosynthetic enzymes in the adrenal medulla, as well as catecholamines and CORT levels in the plasma. Treadmill exercise does not change the activity of sympatho-adrenomedullary system of chronically psychosocially stressed rats.

Phenylpropanoids accumulation in eggplant fruit: characterization of biosynthetic genes and regulation by a MYB transcription factor

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Teresa eDocimo

2016-01-01

Full Text Available Phenylpropanoids are major secondary metabolites in eggplant (Solanum melongena fruits. Chlorogenic acid (CGA accounts for 70 to 90% of total phenolics in flesh tissues, while anthocyanins are mainly present in the fruit skin. As a contribution to the understanding of the peculiar accumulation of these health-promoting metabolites in eggplant, we report on metabolite abundance, regulation of CGA and anthocyanin biosynthesis, and characterization of candidate CGA biosynthetic genes in S. melongena.Higher contents of CGA, Delphinidin 3-rutinoside and rutin were found in eggplant fruits compared to other tissues, associated to an elevated transcript abundance of structural genes such as PAL, HQT, DFR and ANS, suggesting that active in situ biosynthesis contributes to anthocyanin and CGA accumulation in fruit tissues. Putative orthologs of the two CGA biosynthetic genes PAL and HQT, as well as a variant of a MYB1 transcription factor showing identity with group 6 MYBs, were isolated from an Occidental S. melongena traditional variety and demonstrated to differ from published sequences from Asiatic varieties.In silico analysis of the isolated SmPAL1, SmHQT1, SmANS, and SmMyb1 promoters revealed the presence of several Myb regulatory elements for the biosynthetic genes and unique elements for the TF, suggesting its involvement in other physiological roles beside phenylpropanoid biosynthesis regulation.Transient overexpression in Nicotiana benthamiana leaves of SmMyb1 and of a C-terminal SmMyb1 truncated form (SmMyb1Δ9 resulted in anthocyanin accumulation only of SmMyb1 agro-infiltrated leaves. A yeast two-hybrid assay confirmed the interaction of both SmMyb1 and SmMyb1Δ9 with an anthocyanin-related potato bHLH1 TF. Interestingly, a doubled amount of CGA was detected in both SmMyb1 and SmMyb1Δ9 agro-infiltrated leaves, thus suggesting that the N-terminal region of SmMyb1 is sufficient to activate its synthesis. These data suggest that a deletion of

Differential hexosamine biosynthetic pathway gene expression with type 2 diabetes

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Megan Coomer

2014-01-01

Full Text Available The hexosamine biosynthetic pathway (HBP culminates in the attachment of O-linked β-N-acetylglucosamine (O-GlcNAc onto serine/threonine residues of target proteins. The HBP is regulated by several modulators, i.e. O-linked β-N-acetylglucosaminyl transferase (OGT and β-N-acetylglucosaminidase (OGA catalyze the addition and removal of O-GlcNAc moieties, respectively; while flux is controlled by the rate-limiting enzyme glutamine:fructose-6-phosphate amidotransferase (GFPT, transcribed by two genes, GFPT1 and GFPT2. Since increased HBP flux is glucose-responsive and linked to insulin resistance/type 2 diabetes onset, we hypothesized that diabetic individuals exhibit differential expression of HBP regulatory genes. Volunteers (n = 60; n = 20 Mixed Ancestry, n = 40 Caucasian were recruited from Stellenbosch and Paarl (Western Cape, South Africa and classified as control, pre- or diabetic according to fasting plasma glucose and HbA1c levels, respectively. RNA was purified from leukocytes isolated from collected blood samples and OGT, OGA, GFPT1 and GFPT2 expressions determined by quantitative real-time PCR. The data reveal lower OGA expression in diabetic individuals (P < 0.01, while pre- and diabetic subjects displayed attenuated OGT expression vs. controls (P < 0.01 and P < 0.001, respectively. Moreover, GFPT2 expression decreased in pre- and diabetic Caucasians vs. controls (P < 0.05 and P < 0.01, respectively. We also found ethnic differences, i.e. Mixed Ancestry individuals exhibited a 2.4-fold increase in GFPT2 expression vs. Caucasians, despite diagnosis (P < 0.01. Gene expression of HBP regulators differs between diabetic and non-diabetic individuals, together with distinct ethnic-specific gene profiles. Thus differential HBP gene regulation may offer diagnostic utility and provide candidate susceptibility genes for different ethnic groupings.

Structural, evolutionary and genetic analysis of the histidine biosynthetic "core" in the genus Burkholderia.

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Papaleo, Maria Cristiana; Russo, Edda; Fondi, Marco; Emiliani, Giovanni; Frandi, Antonio; Brilli, Matteo; Pastorelli, Roberta; Fani, Renato

2009-12-01

In this work a detailed analysis of the structure, the expression and the organization of his genes belonging to the core of histidine biosynthesis (hisBHAF) in 40 newly determined and 13 available sequences of Burkholderia strains was carried out. Data obtained revealed a strong conservation of the structure and organization of these genes through the entire genus. The phylogenetic analysis showed the monophyletic origin of this gene cluster and indicated that it did not undergo horizontal gene transfer events. The analysis of the intergenic regions, based on the substitution rate, entropy plot and bendability suggested the existence of a putative transcription promoter upstream of hisB, that was supported by the genetic analysis that showed that this cluster was able to complement Escherichia colihisA, hisB, and hisF mutations. Moreover, a preliminary transcriptional analysis and the analysis of microarray data revealed that the expression of the his core was constitutive. These findings are in agreement with the fact that the entire Burkholderiahis operon is heterogeneous, in that it contains "alien" genes apparently not involved in histidine biosynthesis. Besides, they also support the idea that the proteobacterial his operon was piece-wisely assembled, i.e. through accretion of smaller units containing only some of the genes (eventually together with their own promoters) involved in this biosynthetic route. The correlation existing between the structure, organization and regulation of his "core" genes and the function(s) they perform in cellular metabolism is discussed.

Expression of ethylene biosynthetic and receptor genes in rose floral tissues during ethylene-enhanced flower opening

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Xue, Jingqi; Li, Yunhui; Tan, Hui; Yang, Feng; Ma, Nan; Gao, Junping

2008-01-01

Ethylene production, as well as the expression of ethylene biosynthetic (Rh-ACS1?4 and Rh-ACO1) and receptor (Rh-ETR1?5) genes, was determined in five different floral tissues (sepals, petals, stamens, gynoecia, and receptacles) of cut rose (Rosa hybrida cv. Samantha upon treatment with ethylene or the ethylene inhibitor 1-methylcyclopropene (1-MCP). Ethylene-enhanced ethylene production occurred only in gynoecia, petals, and receptacles, with gynoecia showing the greatest enhancement in the ...

Co-evolution of secondary metabolite gene clusters and their host

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Kjærbølling, Inge; Vesth, Tammi Camilla; Frisvad, Jens Christian

Secondary metabolite gene cluster evolution is mainly driven by two events: gene duplication and annexation and horizontal gene transfer. Here we use comparative genomics of Aspergillus species to investigate the evolution of secondary metabolite (SM) gene clusters across a wide spectrum of speci....... We investigate the dynamic evolutionary relationship between the cluster and the host by examining the genes within the cluster and the number of homologous genes found within the host and in closely related species.......Secondary metabolite gene cluster evolution is mainly driven by two events: gene duplication and annexation and horizontal gene transfer. Here we use comparative genomics of Aspergillus species to investigate the evolution of secondary metabolite (SM) gene clusters across a wide spectrum of species...

Origin and distribution of epipolythiodioxopiperazine (ETP gene clusters in filamentous ascomycetes

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Gardiner Donald M

2007-09-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Genes responsible for biosynthesis of fungal secondary metabolites are usually tightly clustered in the genome and co-regulated with metabolite production. Epipolythiodioxopiperazines (ETPs are a class of secondary metabolite toxins produced by disparate ascomycete fungi and implicated in several animal and plant diseases. Gene clusters responsible for their production have previously been defined in only two fungi. Fungal genome sequence data have been surveyed for the presence of putative ETP clusters and cluster data have been generated from several fungal taxa where genome sequences are not available. Phylogenetic analysis of cluster genes has been used to investigate the assembly and heredity of these gene clusters. Results Putative ETP gene clusters are present in 14 ascomycete taxa, but absent in numerous other ascomycetes examined. These clusters are discontinuously distributed in ascomycete lineages. Gene content is not absolutely fixed, however, common genes are identified and phylogenies of six of these are separately inferred. In each phylogeny almost all cluster genes form monophyletic clades with non-cluster fungal paralogues being the nearest outgroups. This relatedness of cluster genes suggests that a progenitor ETP gene cluster assembled within an ancestral taxon. Within each of the cluster clades, the cluster genes group together in consistent subclades, however, these relationships do not always reflect the phylogeny of ascomycetes. Micro-synteny of several of the genes within the clusters provides further support for these subclades. Conclusion ETP gene clusters appear to have a single origin and have been inherited relatively intact rather than assembling independently in the different ascomycete lineages. This progenitor cluster has given rise to a small number of distinct phylogenetic classes of clusters that are represented in a discontinuous pattern throughout ascomycetes. The disjunct heredity of

Gene Cluster Responsible for Secretion of and Immunity to Multiple Bacteriocins, the NKR-5-3 Enterocins

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Ishibashi, Naoki; Himeno, Kohei; Masuda, Yoshimitsu; Perez, Rodney Honrada; Iwatani, Shun; Wilaipun, Pongtep; Leelawatcharamas, Vichien; Nakayama, Jiro; Sonomoto, Kenji

2014-01-01

Enterococcus faecium NKR-5-3, isolated from Thai fermented fish, is characterized by the unique ability to produce five bacteriocins, namely, enterocins NKR-5-3A, -B, -C, -D, and -Z (Ent53A, Ent53B, Ent53C, Ent53D, and Ent53Z). Genetic analysis with a genome library revealed that the bacteriocin structural genes (enkA [ent53A], enkC [ent53C], enkD [ent53D], and enkZ [ent53Z]) that encode these peptides (except for Ent53B) are located in close proximity to each other. This NKR-5-3ACDZ (Ent53ACDZ) enterocin gene cluster (approximately 13 kb long) includes certain bacteriocin biosynthetic genes such as an ABC transporter gene (enkT), two immunity genes (enkIaz and enkIc), a response regulator (enkR), and a histidine protein kinase (enkK). Heterologous-expression studies of enkT and ΔenkT mutant strains showed that enkT is responsible for the secretion of Ent53A, Ent53C, Ent53D, and Ent53Z, suggesting that EnkT is a wide-range ABC transporter that contributes to the effective production of these bacteriocins. In addition, EnkIaz and EnkIc were found to confer self-immunity to the respective bacteriocins. Furthermore, bacteriocin induction assays performed with the ΔenkRK mutant strain showed that EnkR and EnkK are regulatory proteins responsible for bacteriocin production and that, together with Ent53D, they constitute a three-component regulatory system. Thus, the Ent53ACDZ gene cluster is essential for the biosynthesis and regulation of NKR-5-3 enterocins, and this is, to our knowledge, the first report that demonstrates the secretion of multiple bacteriocins by an ABC transporter. PMID:25149515

Transcriptional analysis of the jamaicamide gene cluster from the marine cyanobacterium Lyngbya majuscula and identification of possible regulatory proteins

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Dorrestein Pieter C

2009-12-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background The marine cyanobacterium Lyngbya majuscula is a prolific producer of bioactive secondary metabolites. Although biosynthetic gene clusters encoding several of these compounds have been identified, little is known about how these clusters of genes are transcribed or regulated, and techniques targeting genetic manipulation in Lyngbya strains have not yet been developed. We conducted transcriptional analyses of the jamaicamide gene cluster from a Jamaican strain of Lyngbya majuscula, and isolated proteins that could be involved in jamaicamide regulation. Results An unusually long untranslated leader region of approximately 840 bp is located between the jamaicamide transcription start site (TSS and gene cluster start codon. All of the intergenic regions between the pathway ORFs were transcribed into RNA in RT-PCR experiments; however, a promoter prediction program indicated the possible presence of promoters in multiple intergenic regions. Because the functionality of these promoters could not be verified in vivo, we used a reporter gene assay in E. coli to show that several of these intergenic regions, as well as the primary promoter preceding the TSS, are capable of driving β-galactosidase production. A protein pulldown assay was also used to isolate proteins that may regulate the jamaicamide pathway. Pulldown experiments using the intergenic region upstream of jamA as a DNA probe isolated two proteins that were identified by LC-MS/MS. By BLAST analysis, one of these had close sequence identity to a regulatory protein in another cyanobacterial species. Protein comparisons suggest a possible correlation between secondary metabolism regulation and light dependent complementary chromatic adaptation. Electromobility shift assays were used to evaluate binding of the recombinant proteins to the jamaicamide promoter region. Conclusion Insights into natural product regulation in cyanobacteria are of significant value to drug discovery

Genetic determination of the meso-diaminopimelate biosynthetic pathway of mycobacteria.

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Cirillo, J D; Weisbrod, T R; Banerjee, A; Bloom, B R; Jacobs, W R

1994-07-01

The increasing incidence of multiple-drug-resistant mycobacterial infections indicates that the development of new methods for treatment of mycobacterial diseases should be a high priority. meso-Diaminopimelic acid (DAP), a key component of a highly immunogenic subunit of the mycobacterial peptidoglycan layer, has been implicated as a potential virulence factor. The mycobacterial DAP biosynthetic pathway could serve as a target for design of new antimycobacterial agents as well as the construction of in vivo selection systems. We have isolated the asd, dapA, dapB, dapD, and dapE genes involved in the DAP biosynthetic pathway of Mycobacterium bovis BCG. These genes were isolated by complementation of Escherichia coli mutations with an expression library of BCG DNA. Our analysis of these genes suggests that BCG may use more than one pathway for biosynthesis of DAP. The nucleotide sequence of the BCG dapB gene was determined. The activity of the product of this gene in Escherichia coli provided evidence that the gene may encode a novel bifunctional dihydrodipicolinate reductase and DAP dehydrogenase.

Isolation and Biosynthetic Analysis of Haliamide, a New PKS-NRPS Hybrid Metabolite from the Marine Myxobacterium Haliangium ochraceum

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Yuwei Sun

2016-01-01

Full Text Available Myxobacteria of marine origin are rare and hard-to-culture microorganisms, but they genetically harbor high potential to produce novel antibiotics. An extensive investigation on the secondary metabolome of the unique marine myxobacterium Haliangium ochraceum SMP-2 led to the isolation of a new polyketide-nonribosomal peptide hybrid product, haliamide (1. Its structure was elucidated by spectroscopic analyses including NMR and HR-MS. Haliamide (1 showed cytotoxicity against HeLa-S3 cells with IC50 of 12 μM. Feeding experiments were performed to identify the biosynthetic building blocks of 1, revealing one benzoate, one alanine, two propionates, one acetate and one acetate-derived terminal methylene. The biosynthetic gene cluster of haliamide (hla, 21.7 kbp was characterized through the genome mining of the producer, allowing us to establish a model for the haliamide biosynthesis. The sulfotransferase (ST-thioesterase (TE domains encoded in hlaB appears to be responsible for the terminal alkene formation via decarboxylation.

Markerless gene knockout and integration to express heterologous biosynthetic gene clusters in Pseudomonas putida

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Choi, Kyeong Rok; Cho, Jae Sung; Cho, In Jin

2018-01-01

Pseudomonas putida has gained much interest among metabolic engineers as a workhorse for producing valuable natural products. While a few gene knockout tools for P. putida have been reported, integration of heterologous genes into the chromosome of P. putida, an essential strategy to develop stable...... plasmid curing systems, generating final strains free of antibiotic markers and plasmids. This markerless recombineering system for efficient gene knockout and integration will expedite metabolic engineering of P. putida, a bacterial host strain of increasing academic and industrial interest....

Overproduction of lactimidomycin by cross-overexpression of genes encoding Streptomyces antibiotic regulatory proteins.

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Zhang, Bo; Yang, Dong; Yan, Yijun; Pan, Guohui; Xiang, Wensheng; Shen, Ben

2016-03-01

The glutarimide-containing polyketides represent a fascinating class of natural products that exhibit a multitude of biological activities. We have recently cloned and sequenced the biosynthetic gene clusters for three members of the glutarimide-containing polyketides-iso-migrastatin (iso-MGS) from Streptomyces platensis NRRL 18993, lactimidomycin (LTM) from Streptomyces amphibiosporus ATCC 53964, and cycloheximide (CHX) from Streptomyces sp. YIM56141. Comparative analysis of the three clusters identified mgsA and chxA, from the mgs and chx gene clusters, respectively, that were predicted to encode the PimR-like Streptomyces antibiotic regulatory proteins (SARPs) but failed to reveal any regulatory gene from the ltm gene cluster. Overexpression of mgsA or chxA in S. platensis NRRL 18993, Streptomyces sp. YIM56141 or SB11024, and a recombinant strain of Streptomyces coelicolor M145 carrying the intact mgs gene cluster has no significant effect on iso-MGS or CHX production, suggesting that MgsA or ChxA regulation may not be rate-limiting for iso-MGS and CHX production in these producers. In contrast, overexpression of mgsA or chxA in S. amphibiosporus ATCC 53964 resulted in a significant increase in LTM production, with LTM titer reaching 106 mg/L, which is five-fold higher than that of the wild-type strain. These results support MgsA and ChxA as members of the SARP family of positive regulators for the iso-MGS and CHX biosynthetic machinery and demonstrate the feasibility to improve glutarimide-containing polyketide production in Streptomyces strains by exploiting common regulators.

Semi-supervised consensus clustering for gene expression data analysis

OpenAIRE

Wang, Yunli; Pan, Youlian

2014-01-01

Background Simple clustering methods such as hierarchical clustering and k-means are widely used for gene expression data analysis; but they are unable to deal with noise and high dimensionality associated with the microarray gene expression data. Consensus clustering appears to improve the robustness and quality of clustering results. Incorporating prior knowledge in clustering process (semi-supervised clustering) has been shown to improve the consistency between the data partitioning and do...

Linking metabolic QTLs with network and cis-eQTLs controlling biosynthetic pathways.

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Adam M Wentzell

2007-09-01

Full Text Available Phenotypic variation between individuals of a species is often under quantitative genetic control. Genomic analysis of gene expression polymorphisms between individuals is rapidly gaining popularity as a way to query the underlying mechanistic causes of variation between individuals. However, there is little direct evidence of a linkage between global gene expression polymorphisms and phenotypic consequences. In this report, we have mapped quantitative trait loci (QTLs-controlling glucosinolate content in a population of 403 Arabidopsis Bay x Sha recombinant inbred lines, 211 of which were previously used to identify expression QTLs controlling the transcript levels of biosynthetic genes. In a comparative study, we have directly tested two plant biosynthetic pathways for association between polymorphisms controlling biosynthetic gene transcripts and the resulting metabolites within the Arabidopsis Bay x Sha recombinant inbred line population. In this analysis, all loci controlling expression variation also affected the accumulation of the resulting metabolites. In addition, epistasis was detected more frequently for metabolic traits compared to transcript traits, even when both traits showed similar distributions. An analysis of candidate genes for QTL-controlling networks of transcripts and metabolites suggested that the controlling factors are a mix of enzymes and regulatory factors. This analysis showed that regulatory connections can feedback from metabolism to transcripts. Surprisingly, the most likely major regulator of both transcript level for nearly the entire pathway and aliphatic glucosinolate accumulation is variation in the last enzyme in the biosynthetic pathway, AOP2. This suggests that natural variation in transcripts may significantly impact phenotypic variation, but that natural variation in metabolites or their enzymatic loci can feed back to affect the transcripts.

Deciphering the sugar biosynthetic pathway and tailoring steps of nucleoside antibiotic A201A unveils a GDP-l-galactose mutase.

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Zhu, Qinghua; Chen, Qi; Song, Yongxiang; Huang, Hongbo; Li, Jun; Ma, Junying; Li, Qinglian; Ju, Jianhua

2017-05-09

Galactose, a monosaccharide capable of assuming two possible configurational isomers (d-/l-), can exist as a six-membered ring, galactopyranose (Gal p ), or as a five-membered ring, galactofuranose (Gal f ). UDP-galactopyranose mutase (UGM) mediates the conversion of pyranose to furanose thereby providing a precursor for d-Gal f Moreover, UGM is critical to the virulence of numerous eukaryotic and prokaryotic human pathogens and thus represents an excellent antimicrobial drug target. However, the biosynthetic mechanism and relevant enzymes that drive l-Gal f production have not yet been characterized. Herein we report that efforts to decipher the sugar biosynthetic pathway and tailoring steps en route to nucleoside antibiotic A201A led to the discovery of a GDP-l-galactose mutase, MtdL. Systematic inactivation of 18 of the 33 biosynthetic genes in the A201A cluster and elucidation of 10 congeners, coupled with feeding and in vitro biochemical experiments, enabled us to: ( i ) decipher the unique enzyme, GDP-l-galactose mutase associated with production of two unique d-mannose-derived sugars, and ( ii ) assign two glycosyltransferases, four methyltransferases, and one desaturase that regiospecifically tailor the A201A scaffold and display relaxed substrate specificities. Taken together, these data provide important insight into the origin of l-Gal f -containing natural product biosynthetic pathways with likely ramifications in other organisms and possible antimicrobial drug targeting strategies.

Fast gene ontology based clustering for microarray experiments.

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Ovaska, Kristian; Laakso, Marko; Hautaniemi, Sampsa

2008-11-21

Analysis of a microarray experiment often results in a list of hundreds of disease-associated genes. In order to suggest common biological processes and functions for these genes, Gene Ontology annotations with statistical testing are widely used. However, these analyses can produce a very large number of significantly altered biological processes. Thus, it is often challenging to interpret GO results and identify novel testable biological hypotheses. We present fast software for advanced gene annotation using semantic similarity for Gene Ontology terms combined with clustering and heat map visualisation. The methodology allows rapid identification of genes sharing the same Gene Ontology cluster. Our R based semantic similarity open-source package has a speed advantage of over 2000-fold compared to existing implementations. From the resulting hierarchical clustering dendrogram genes sharing a GO term can be identified, and their differences in the gene expression patterns can be seen from the heat map. These methods facilitate advanced annotation of genes resulting from data analysis.

Hox gene clusters in the Indonesian coelacanth, Latimeria menadoensis

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Koh, Esther G. L.; Lam, Kevin; Christoffels, Alan; Erdmann, Mark V.; Brenner, Sydney; Venkatesh, Byrappa

2003-01-01

The Hox genes encode transcription factors that play a key role in specifying body plans of metazoans. They are organized into clusters that contain up to 13 paralogue group members. The complex morphology of vertebrates has been attributed to the duplication of Hox clusters during vertebrate evolution. In contrast to the single Hox cluster in the amphioxus (Branchiostoma floridae), an invertebrate-chordate, mammals have four clusters containing 39 Hox genes. Ray-finned fishes (Actinopterygii) such as zebrafish and fugu possess more than four Hox clusters. The coelacanth occupies a basal phylogenetic position among lobe-finned fishes (Sarcopterygii), which gave rise to the tetrapod lineage. The lobe fins of sarcopterygians are considered to be the evolutionary precursors of tetrapod limbs. Thus, the characterization of Hox genes in the coelacanth should provide insights into the origin of tetrapod limbs. We have cloned the complete second exon of 33 Hox genes from the Indonesian coelacanth, Latimeria menadoensis, by extensive PCR survey and genome walking. Phylogenetic analysis shows that 32 of these genes have orthologs in the four mammalian HOX clusters, including three genes (HoxA6, D1, and D8) that are absent in ray-finned fishes. The remaining coelacanth gene is an ortholog of hoxc1 found in zebrafish but absent in mammals. Our results suggest that coelacanths have four Hox clusters bearing a gene complement more similar to mammals than to ray-finned fishes, but with an additional gene, HoxC1, which has been lost during the evolution of mammals from lobe-finned fishes. PMID:12547909

Conditions for the Evolution of Gene Clusters in Bacterial Genomes

Science.gov (United States)

Ballouz, Sara; Francis, Andrew R.; Lan, Ruiting; Tanaka, Mark M.

2010-01-01

Genes encoding proteins in a common pathway are often found near each other along bacterial chromosomes. Several explanations have been proposed to account for the evolution of these structures. For instance, natural selection may directly favour gene clusters through a variety of mechanisms, such as increased efficiency of coregulation. An alternative and controversial hypothesis is the selfish operon model, which asserts that clustered arrangements of genes are more easily transferred to other species, thus improving the prospects for survival of the cluster. According to another hypothesis (the persistence model), genes that are in close proximity are less likely to be disrupted by deletions. Here we develop computational models to study the conditions under which gene clusters can evolve and persist. First, we examine the selfish operon model by re-implementing the simulation and running it under a wide range of conditions. Second, we introduce and study a Moran process in which there is natural selection for gene clustering and rearrangement occurs by genome inversion events. Finally, we develop and study a model that includes selection and inversion, which tracks the occurrence and fixation of rearrangements. Surprisingly, gene clusters fail to evolve under a wide range of conditions. Factors that promote the evolution of gene clusters include a low number of genes in the pathway, a high population size, and in the case of the selfish operon model, a high horizontal transfer rate. The computational analysis here has shown that the evolution of gene clusters can occur under both direct and indirect selection as long as certain conditions hold. Under these conditions the selfish operon model is still viable as an explanation for the evolution of gene clusters. PMID:20168992

Mixing and matching siderophore clusters: structure and biosynthesis of serratiochelins from Serratia sp. V4.

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Seyedsayamdost, Mohammad R; Cleto, Sara; Carr, Gavin; Vlamakis, Hera; João Vieira, Maria; Kolter, Roberto; Clardy, Jon

2012-08-22

Interrogation of the evolutionary history underlying the remarkable structures and biological activities of natural products has been complicated by not knowing the functions they have evolved to fulfill. Siderophores-soluble, low molecular weight compounds-have an easily understood and measured function: acquiring iron from the environment. Bacteria engage in a fierce competition to acquire iron, which rewards the production of siderophores that bind iron tightly and cannot be used or pirated by competitors. The structures and biosyntheses of "odd" siderophores can reveal the evolutionary strategy that led to their creation. We report a new Serratia strain that produces serratiochelin and an analog of serratiochelin. A genetic approach located the serratiochelin gene cluster, and targeted mutations in several genes implicated in serratiochelin biosynthesis were generated. Bioinformatic analyses and mutagenesis results demonstrate that genes from two well-known siderophore clusters, the Escherichia coli enterobactin cluster and the Vibrio cholera vibriobactin cluster, were shuffled to produce a new siderophore biosynthetic pathway. These results highlight how modular siderophore gene clusters can be mixed and matched during evolution to generate structural diversity in siderophores.

Genome-scale analysis of positional clustering of mouse testis-specific genes

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Lee Bernett TK

2005-01-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Genes are not randomly distributed on a chromosome as they were thought even after removal of tandem repeats. The positional clustering of co-expressed genes is known in prokaryotes and recently reported in several eukaryotic organisms such as Caenorhabditis elegans, Drosophila melanogaster, and Homo sapiens. In order to further investigate the mode of tissue-specific gene clustering in higher eukaryotes, we have performed a genome-scale analysis of positional clustering of the mouse testis-specific genes. Results Our computational analysis shows that a large proportion of testis-specific genes are clustered in groups of 2 to 5 genes in the mouse genome. The number of clusters is much higher than expected by chance even after removal of tandem repeats. Conclusion Our result suggests that testis-specific genes tend to cluster on the mouse chromosomes. This provides another piece of evidence for the hypothesis that clusters of tissue-specific genes do exist.

Conditions for the evolution of gene clusters in bacterial genomes.

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Sara Ballouz

2010-02-01

Full Text Available Genes encoding proteins in a common pathway are often found near each other along bacterial chromosomes. Several explanations have been proposed to account for the evolution of these structures. For instance, natural selection may directly favour gene clusters through a variety of mechanisms, such as increased efficiency of coregulation. An alternative and controversial hypothesis is the selfish operon model, which asserts that clustered arrangements of genes are more easily transferred to other species, thus improving the prospects for survival of the cluster. According to another hypothesis (the persistence model, genes that are in close proximity are less likely to be disrupted by deletions. Here we develop computational models to study the conditions under which gene clusters can evolve and persist. First, we examine the selfish operon model by re-implementing the simulation and running it under a wide range of conditions. Second, we introduce and study a Moran process in which there is natural selection for gene clustering and rearrangement occurs by genome inversion events. Finally, we develop and study a model that includes selection and inversion, which tracks the occurrence and fixation of rearrangements. Surprisingly, gene clusters fail to evolve under a wide range of conditions. Factors that promote the evolution of gene clusters include a low number of genes in the pathway, a high population size, and in the case of the selfish operon model, a high horizontal transfer rate. The computational analysis here has shown that the evolution of gene clusters can occur under both direct and indirect selection as long as certain conditions hold. Under these conditions the selfish operon model is still viable as an explanation for the evolution of gene clusters.

Fast Gene Ontology based clustering for microarray experiments

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Ovaska Kristian

2008-11-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Analysis of a microarray experiment often results in a list of hundreds of disease-associated genes. In order to suggest common biological processes and functions for these genes, Gene Ontology annotations with statistical testing are widely used. However, these analyses can produce a very large number of significantly altered biological processes. Thus, it is often challenging to interpret GO results and identify novel testable biological hypotheses. Results We present fast software for advanced gene annotation using semantic similarity for Gene Ontology terms combined with clustering and heat map visualisation. The methodology allows rapid identification of genes sharing the same Gene Ontology cluster. Conclusion Our R based semantic similarity open-source package has a speed advantage of over 2000-fold compared to existing implementations. From the resulting hierarchical clustering dendrogram genes sharing a GO term can be identified, and their differences in the gene expression patterns can be seen from the heat map. These methods facilitate advanced annotation of genes resulting from data analysis.

Enhancement of cordyceps polysaccharide production via biosynthetic pathway analysis in Hirsutella sinensis.

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Lin, Shan; Liu, Zhi-Qiang; Baker, Peter James; Yi, Ming; Wu, Hui; Xu, Feng; Teng, Yi; Zheng, Yu-Guo

2016-11-01

The addition of various sulfates for enhanced cordyceps polysaccharide (CP) production in submerged cultivation of H. sinensis was investigated, and manganese sulfate was found the most effective. 2mM of manganese sulfate on 0day (d) was investigated as the optimal adding condition, and the CP production reached optimum with 5.33%, increasing by 93.3% compared with the control. Furthermore, the consumption of three main precursors of CP was studied over cultivation under two conditions. Intracellular mannose content decreased by 43.1% throughout 6days cultivation, which corresponded to CP accumulation rate sharply increased from 0 d to 6 d, and mannose was considered as the most preferred precursor for generating CP. Subsequently, mannose biosynthetic pathway was constructed and verified for the first time in H. sinensis, which constituted the important part of CP biosynthesis, and transcriptional levels of the biosynthetic genes were studied. Transcriptional level of gene cpsA was significantly up-regulated 5.35-fold and it was a key gene involved both in mannose and CP biosynthesis. This study demonstrated that manganese sulfate addition is an efficient and simple way to improve CP production. Transcriptional analysis based on biosynthetic pathway was helpful to find key genes and better understand CP biosynthesis. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Detection of biosynthetic gene and phytohormone production by endophytic actinobacteria associated with Solanum lycopersicum and their plant-growth-promoting effect.

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Passari, Ajit Kumar; Chandra, Preeti; Zothanpuia; Mishra, Vineet Kumar; Leo, Vincent Vineeth; Gupta, Vijai Kumar; Kumar, Brijesh; Singh, Bhim Pratap

2016-10-01

In the present study, fifteen endophytic actinobacterial isolates recovered from Solanum lycopersicum were studied for their antagonistic potential and plant-growth-promoting (PGP) traits. Among them, eight isolates showed significant antagonistic and PGP traits, identified by amplification of the 16S rRNA gene. Isolate number DBT204, identified as Streptomyces sp., showed multiple PGP traits tested in planta and improved a range of growth parameters in seedlings of chili (Capsicum annuum L.) and tomato (S. lycopersicum L.). Further, genes of indole acetic acid (iaaM) and 1-aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylate (ACC) deaminase (acdS) were successively amplified from five strains. Six antibiotics (trimethoprim, fluconazole, chloramphenicol, nalidixic acid, rifampicin and streptomycin) and two phytohormones [indole acetic acid (IAA) and kinetin (KI)] were detected and quantified in Streptomyces sp. strain DBT204 using UPLC-ESI-MS/MS. The study indicates the potential of these PGP strains for production of phytohormones and shows the presence of biosynthetic genes responsible for production of secondary metabolites. It is the first report showing production of phytohormones (IAA and KI) by endophytic actinobacteria having PGP and biosynthetic potential. We propose Streptomyces sp. strain DBT204 for inoculums production and development of biofertilizers for enhancing growth of chili and tomato seedlings. Copyright © 2016 Institut Pasteur. Published by Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.

Bioinformatics Prediction of Polyketide Synthase Gene Clusters from Mycosphaerella fijiensis.

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Noar, Roslyn D; Daub, Margaret E

2016-01-01

Mycosphaerella fijiensis, causal agent of black Sigatoka disease of banana, is a Dothideomycete fungus closely related to fungi that produce polyketides important for plant pathogenicity. We utilized the M. fijiensis genome sequence to predict PKS genes and their gene clusters and make bioinformatics predictions about the types of compounds produced by these clusters. Eight PKS gene clusters were identified in the M. fijiensis genome, placing M. fijiensis into the 23rd percentile for the number of PKS genes compared to other Dothideomycetes. Analysis of the PKS domains identified three of the PKS enzymes as non-reducing and two as highly reducing. Gene clusters contained types of genes frequently found in PKS clusters including genes encoding transporters, oxidoreductases, methyltransferases, and non-ribosomal peptide synthases. Phylogenetic analysis identified a putative PKS cluster encoding melanin biosynthesis. None of the other clusters were closely aligned with genes encoding known polyketides, however three of the PKS genes fell into clades with clusters encoding alternapyrone, fumonisin, and solanapyrone produced by Alternaria and Fusarium species. A search for homologs among available genomic sequences from 103 Dothideomycetes identified close homologs (>80% similarity) for six of the PKS sequences. One of the PKS sequences was not similar (< 60% similarity) to sequences in any of the 103 genomes, suggesting that it encodes a unique compound. Comparison of the M. fijiensis PKS sequences with those of two other banana pathogens, M. musicola and M. eumusae, showed that these two species have close homologs to five of the M. fijiensis PKS sequences, but three others were not found in either species. RT-PCR and RNA-Seq analysis showed that the melanin PKS cluster was down-regulated in infected banana as compared to growth in culture. Three other clusters, however were strongly upregulated during disease development in banana, suggesting that they may encode

Bioinformatics Prediction of Polyketide Synthase Gene Clusters from Mycosphaerella fijiensis.

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Roslyn D Noar

Full Text Available Mycosphaerella fijiensis, causal agent of black Sigatoka disease of banana, is a Dothideomycete fungus closely related to fungi that produce polyketides important for plant pathogenicity. We utilized the M. fijiensis genome sequence to predict PKS genes and their gene clusters and make bioinformatics predictions about the types of compounds produced by these clusters. Eight PKS gene clusters were identified in the M. fijiensis genome, placing M. fijiensis into the 23rd percentile for the number of PKS genes compared to other Dothideomycetes. Analysis of the PKS domains identified three of the PKS enzymes as non-reducing and two as highly reducing. Gene clusters contained types of genes frequently found in PKS clusters including genes encoding transporters, oxidoreductases, methyltransferases, and non-ribosomal peptide synthases. Phylogenetic analysis identified a putative PKS cluster encoding melanin biosynthesis. None of the other clusters were closely aligned with genes encoding known polyketides, however three of the PKS genes fell into clades with clusters encoding alternapyrone, fumonisin, and solanapyrone produced by Alternaria and Fusarium species. A search for homologs among available genomic sequences from 103 Dothideomycetes identified close homologs (>80% similarity for six of the PKS sequences. One of the PKS sequences was not similar (< 60% similarity to sequences in any of the 103 genomes, suggesting that it encodes a unique compound. Comparison of the M. fijiensis PKS sequences with those of two other banana pathogens, M. musicola and M. eumusae, showed that these two species have close homologs to five of the M. fijiensis PKS sequences, but three others were not found in either species. RT-PCR and RNA-Seq analysis showed that the melanin PKS cluster was down-regulated in infected banana as compared to growth in culture. Three other clusters, however were strongly upregulated during disease development in banana, suggesting that

Gene duplication, modularity and adaptation in the evolution of the aflatoxin gene cluster

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Jakobek Judy L

2007-07-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background The biosynthesis of aflatoxin (AF involves over 20 enzymatic reactions in a complex polyketide pathway that converts acetate and malonate to the intermediates sterigmatocystin (ST and O-methylsterigmatocystin (OMST, the respective penultimate and ultimate precursors of AF. Although these precursors are chemically and structurally very similar, their accumulation differs at the species level for Aspergilli. Notable examples are A. nidulans that synthesizes only ST, A. flavus that makes predominantly AF, and A. parasiticus that generally produces either AF or OMST. Whether these differences are important in the evolutionary/ecological processes of species adaptation and diversification is unknown. Equally unknown are the specific genomic mechanisms responsible for ordering and clustering of genes in the AF pathway of Aspergillus. Results To elucidate the mechanisms that have driven formation of these clusters, we performed systematic searches of aflatoxin cluster homologs across five Aspergillus genomes. We found a high level of gene duplication and identified seven modules consisting of highly correlated gene pairs (aflA/aflB, aflR/aflS, aflX/aflY, aflF/aflE, aflT/aflQ, aflC/aflW, and aflG/aflL. With the exception of A. nomius, contrasts of mean Ka/Ks values across all cluster genes showed significant differences in selective pressure between section Flavi and non-section Flavi species. A. nomius mean Ka/Ks values were more similar to partial clusters in A. fumigatus and A. terreus. Overall, mean Ka/Ks values were significantly higher for section Flavi than for non-section Flavi species. Conclusion Our results implicate several genomic mechanisms in the evolution of ST, OMST and AF cluster genes. Gene modules may arise from duplications of a single gene, whereby the function of the pre-duplication gene is retained in the copy (aflF/aflE or the copies may partition the ancestral function (aflA/aflB. In some gene modules, the

VIGS approach reveals the modulation of anthocyanin biosynthetic genes by CaMYB in Chili pepper leaves

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zhen ezhang

2015-07-01

Full Text Available The purple coloration of pepper leaves arises from the accumulation of anthocyanin. Three regulatory and 12 structural genes have been characterized for their involvement in the anthocyanin biosynthesis. Examination of the abundance of these genes in leaves showed that the majority of them differed between anthocyanin pigmented line Z1 and non-pigmented line A3. Silencing of the R2R3-MYB transcription factor CaMYB in pepper leaves of Z1 resulted in the loss of anthocyanin accumulation. Moreover, the expression of multiple genes was altered in the silenced leaves. The expression of MYC was significantly lower in CaMYB-silenced leaves, whereas WD40 showed the opposite pattern. Most structural genes including CHS, CHI, F3H, F3’5’H, DFR, ANS, UFGT, ANP and GST were repressed in CaMYB-silenced foliage with the exception of PAL, C4H and 4CL. These results indicated that MYB plays an important role in the regulation of anthocyanin biosynthetic related genes. Besides CaMYB silenced leaves rendered more sporulation of Phytophthora capsici Leonian indicating that CaMYB might be involved in the defense response to pathogens.

Evolutionary systems biology of amino acid biosynthetic cost in yeast.

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Michael D Barton

2010-08-01

Full Text Available Every protein has a biosynthetic cost to the cell based on the synthesis of its constituent amino acids. In order to optimise growth and reproduction, natural selection is expected, where possible, to favour the use of proteins whose constituents are cheaper to produce, as reduced biosynthetic cost may confer a fitness advantage to the organism. Quantifying the cost of amino acid biosynthesis presents challenges, since energetic requirements may change across different cellular and environmental conditions. We developed a systems biology approach to estimate the cost of amino acid synthesis based on genome-scale metabolic models and investigated the effects of the cost of amino acid synthesis on Saccharomyces cerevisiae gene expression and protein evolution. First, we used our two new and six previously reported measures of amino acid cost in conjunction with codon usage bias, tRNA gene number and atomic composition to identify which of these factors best predict transcript and protein levels. Second, we compared amino acid cost with rates of amino acid substitution across four species in the genus Saccharomyces. Regardless of which cost measure is used, amino acid biosynthetic cost is weakly associated with transcript and protein levels. In contrast, we find that biosynthetic cost and amino acid substitution rates show a negative correlation, but for only a subset of cost measures. In the economy of the yeast cell, we find that the cost of amino acid synthesis plays a limited role in shaping transcript and protein expression levels compared to that of translational optimisation. Biosynthetic cost does, however, appear to affect rates of amino acid evolution in Saccharomyces, suggesting that expensive amino acids may only be used when they have specific structural or functional roles in protein sequences. However, as there appears to be no single currency to compute the cost of amino acid synthesis across all cellular and environmental

Biosynthetic Pathway and Metabolic Engineering of Plant Dihydrochalcones.

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Ibdah, Mwafaq; Martens, Stefan; Gang, David R

2018-03-14

Dihydrochalcones are plant natural products containing the phenylpropanoid backbone and derived from the plant-specific phenylpropanoid pathway. Dihydrochalcone compounds are important in plant growth and response to stresses and, thus, can have large impacts on agricultural activity. In recent years, these compounds have also received increased attention from the biomedical community for their potential as anticancer treatments and other benefits for human health. However, they are typically produced at relatively low levels in plants. Therefore, an attractive alternative is to express the plant biosynthetic pathway genes in microbial hosts and to engineer the metabolic pathway/host to improve the production of these metabolites. In the present review, we discuss in detail the functions of genes and enzymes involved in the biosynthetic pathway of the dihydrochalcones and the recent strategies and achievements used in the reconstruction of multi-enzyme pathways in microorganisms in efforts to be able to attain higher amounts of desired dihydrochalcones.

Large clusters of co-expressed genes in the Drosophila genome.

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Boutanaev, Alexander M; Kalmykova, Alla I; Shevelyov, Yuri Y; Nurminsky, Dmitry I

2002-12-12

Clustering of co-expressed, non-homologous genes on chromosomes implies their co-regulation. In lower eukaryotes, co-expressed genes are often found in pairs. Clustering of genes that share aspects of transcriptional regulation has also been reported in higher eukaryotes. To advance our understanding of the mode of coordinated gene regulation in multicellular organisms, we performed a genome-wide analysis of the chromosomal distribution of co-expressed genes in Drosophila. We identified a total of 1,661 testes-specific genes, one-third of which are clustered on chromosomes. The number of clusters of three or more genes is much higher than expected by chance. We observed a similar trend for genes upregulated in the embryo and in the adult head, although the expression pattern of individual genes cannot be predicted on the basis of chromosomal position alone. Our data suggest that the prevalent mechanism of transcriptional co-regulation in higher eukaryotes operates with extensive chromatin domains that comprise multiple genes.

Differential Retention of Gene Functions in a Secondary Metabolite Cluster.

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Reynolds, Hannah T; Slot, Jason C; Divon, Hege H; Lysøe, Erik; Proctor, Robert H; Brown, Daren W

2017-08-01

In fungi, distribution of secondary metabolite (SM) gene clusters is often associated with host- or environment-specific benefits provided by SMs. In the plant pathogen Alternaria brassicicola (Dothideomycetes), the DEP cluster confers an ability to synthesize the SM depudecin, a histone deacetylase inhibitor that contributes weakly to virulence. The DEP cluster includes genes encoding enzymes, a transporter, and a transcription regulator. We investigated the distribution and evolution of the DEP cluster in 585 fungal genomes and found a wide but sporadic distribution among Dothideomycetes, Sordariomycetes, and Eurotiomycetes. We confirmed DEP gene expression and depudecin production in one fungus, Fusarium langsethiae. Phylogenetic analyses suggested 6-10 horizontal gene transfers (HGTs) of the cluster, including a transfer that led to the presence of closely related cluster homologs in Alternaria and Fusarium. The analyses also indicated that HGTs were frequently followed by loss/pseudogenization of one or more DEP genes. Independent cluster inactivation was inferred in at least four fungal classes. Analyses of transitions among functional, pseudogenized, and absent states of DEP genes among Fusarium species suggest enzyme-encoding genes are lost at higher rates than the transporter (DEP3) and regulatory (DEP6) genes. The phenotype of an experimentally-induced DEP3 mutant of Fusarium did not support the hypothesis that selective retention of DEP3 and DEP6 protects fungi from exogenous depudecin. Together, the results suggest that HGT and gene loss have contributed significantly to DEP cluster distribution, and that some DEP genes provide a greater fitness benefit possibly due to a differential tendency to form network connections. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution 2017. This work is written by US Government employees and is in the public domain in the US.

Functional clustering of time series gene expression data by Granger causality

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2012-01-01

Background A common approach for time series gene expression data analysis includes the clustering of genes with similar expression patterns throughout time. Clustered gene expression profiles point to the joint contribution of groups of genes to a particular cellular process. However, since genes belong to intricate networks, other features, besides comparable expression patterns, should provide additional information for the identification of functionally similar genes. Results In this study we perform gene clustering through the identification of Granger causality between and within sets of time series gene expression data. Granger causality is based on the idea that the cause of an event cannot come after its consequence. Conclusions This kind of analysis can be used as a complementary approach for functional clustering, wherein genes would be clustered not solely based on their expression similarity but on their topological proximity built according to the intensity of Granger causality among them. PMID:23107425

Description of a Riboflavin Biosynthetic Gene Variant Prevalent in the Phylum Proteobacteria

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Brutinel, Evan D.; Dean, Antony M.

2013-01-01

Riboflavin (vitamin B2) is the precursor of flavin mononucleotide and flavin adenine dinucleotide, which are cofactors essential for a host of intracellular redox reactions. Microorganisms synthesize flavins de novo to fulfill nutritional requirements, but it is becoming increasingly clear that flavins play a wider role in cellular physiology than was previously appreciated. Flavins mediate diverse processes beyond the cytoplasmic membrane, including iron acquisition, extracellular respiration, and interspecies interactions. While investigating the regulation of flavin electron shuttle biosynthesis in the Gram-negative gammaproteobacterium Shewanella oneidensis, we discovered that a riboflavin biosynthetic gene (ribBA) annotated as encoding a bifunctional 3,4-dihydroxy-2-butanone 4-phosphate (DHBP) synthase/GTP cyclohydrolase II does not possess both functions. The novel gene, renamed ribBX here, encodes an amino-terminal DHBP synthase domain. The carboxy-terminal end of RibBX not only lacks GTP cyclohydrolase II activity but also has evolved a different function altogether in S. oneidensis, regulating the activity of the DHBP synthase domain. Phylogenetic analysis revealed that the misannotation of ribBX as ribBA is rampant throughout the phylum Proteobacteria (40% of 2,173 annotated ribBA genes) and that ribBX emerged early in the evolution of this group of microorganisms. We examined the functionality of representative ribBX genes from Beta-, Gamma-, and Epsilonproteobacteria and found that, consistent with sequence-based predictions, the encoded GTP cyclohydrolase II domains lack catalytic activity. The persistence of ribBX in the genomes of so many phylogenetically divergent bacterial species lends weight to the argument that ribBX has evolved a function which lends a selective advantage to the host. PMID:24097946

Identification of nitrogen-fixing genes and gene clusters from metagenomic library of acid mine drainage.

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Zhimin Dai

Full Text Available Biological nitrogen fixation is an essential function of acid mine drainage (AMD microbial communities. However, most acidophiles in AMD environments are uncultured microorganisms and little is known about the diversity of nitrogen-fixing genes and structure of nif gene cluster in AMD microbial communities. In this study, we used metagenomic sequencing to isolate nif genes in the AMD microbial community from Dexing Copper Mine, China. Meanwhile, a metagenome microarray containing 7,776 large-insertion fosmids was constructed to screen novel nif gene clusters. Metagenomic analyses revealed that 742 sequences were identified as nif genes including structural subunit genes nifH, nifD, nifK and various additional genes. The AMD community is massively dominated by the genus Acidithiobacillus. However, the phylogenetic diversity of nitrogen-fixing microorganisms is much higher than previously thought in the AMD community. Furthermore, a 32.5-kb genomic sequence harboring nif, fix and associated genes was screened by metagenome microarray. Comparative genome analysis indicated that most nif genes in this cluster are most similar to those of Herbaspirillum seropedicae, but the organization of the nif gene cluster had significant differences from H. seropedicae. Sequence analysis and reverse transcription PCR also suggested that distinct transcription units of nif genes exist in this gene cluster. nifQ gene falls into the same transcription unit with fixABCX genes, which have not been reported in other diazotrophs before. All of these results indicated that more novel diazotrophs survive in the AMD community.

Identification of nitrogen-fixing genes and gene clusters from metagenomic library of acid mine drainage.

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Dai, Zhimin; Guo, Xue; Yin, Huaqun; Liang, Yili; Cong, Jing; Liu, Xueduan

2014-01-01

Biological nitrogen fixation is an essential function of acid mine drainage (AMD) microbial communities. However, most acidophiles in AMD environments are uncultured microorganisms and little is known about the diversity of nitrogen-fixing genes and structure of nif gene cluster in AMD microbial communities. In this study, we used metagenomic sequencing to isolate nif genes in the AMD microbial community from Dexing Copper Mine, China. Meanwhile, a metagenome microarray containing 7,776 large-insertion fosmids was constructed to screen novel nif gene clusters. Metagenomic analyses revealed that 742 sequences were identified as nif genes including structural subunit genes nifH, nifD, nifK and various additional genes. The AMD community is massively dominated by the genus Acidithiobacillus. However, the phylogenetic diversity of nitrogen-fixing microorganisms is much higher than previously thought in the AMD community. Furthermore, a 32.5-kb genomic sequence harboring nif, fix and associated genes was screened by metagenome microarray. Comparative genome analysis indicated that most nif genes in this cluster are most similar to those of Herbaspirillum seropedicae, but the organization of the nif gene cluster had significant differences from H. seropedicae. Sequence analysis and reverse transcription PCR also suggested that distinct transcription units of nif genes exist in this gene cluster. nifQ gene falls into the same transcription unit with fixABCX genes, which have not been reported in other diazotrophs before. All of these results indicated that more novel diazotrophs survive in the AMD community.

Identification of Nitrogen-Fixing Genes and Gene Clusters from Metagenomic Library of Acid Mine Drainage

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Yin, Huaqun; Liang, Yili; Cong, Jing; Liu, Xueduan

2014-01-01

Biological nitrogen fixation is an essential function of acid mine drainage (AMD) microbial communities. However, most acidophiles in AMD environments are uncultured microorganisms and little is known about the diversity of nitrogen-fixing genes and structure of nif gene cluster in AMD microbial communities. In this study, we used metagenomic sequencing to isolate nif genes in the AMD microbial community from Dexing Copper Mine, China. Meanwhile, a metagenome microarray containing 7,776 large-insertion fosmids was constructed to screen novel nif gene clusters. Metagenomic analyses revealed that 742 sequences were identified as nif genes including structural subunit genes nifH, nifD, nifK and various additional genes. The AMD community is massively dominated by the genus Acidithiobacillus. However, the phylogenetic diversity of nitrogen-fixing microorganisms is much higher than previously thought in the AMD community. Furthermore, a 32.5-kb genomic sequence harboring nif, fix and associated genes was screened by metagenome microarray. Comparative genome analysis indicated that most nif genes in this cluster are most similar to those of Herbaspirillum seropedicae, but the organization of the nif gene cluster had significant differences from H. seropedicae. Sequence analysis and reverse transcription PCR also suggested that distinct transcription units of nif genes exist in this gene cluster. nifQ gene falls into the same transcription unit with fixABCX genes, which have not been reported in other diazotrophs before. All of these results indicated that more novel diazotrophs survive in the AMD community. PMID:24498417

A scale invariant clustering of genes on human chromosome 7

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Kendal Wayne S

2004-01-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Vertebrate genes often appear to cluster within the background of nontranscribed genomic DNA. Here an analysis of the physical distribution of gene structures on human chromosome 7 was performed to confirm the presence of clustering, and to elucidate possible underlying statistical and biological mechanisms. Results Clustering of genes was confirmed by virtue of a variance of the number of genes per unit physical length that exceeded the respective mean. Further evidence for clustering came from a power function relationship between the variance and mean that possessed an exponent of 1.51. This power function implied that the spatial distribution of genes on chromosome 7 was scale invariant, and that the underlying statistical distribution had a Poisson-gamma (PG form. A PG distribution for the spatial scattering of genes was validated by stringent comparisons of both the predicted variance to mean power function and its cumulative distribution function to data derived from chromosome 7. Conclusion The PG distribution was consistent with at least two different biological models: In the microrearrangement model, the number of genes per unit length of chromosome represented the contribution of a random number of smaller chromosomal segments that had originated by random breakage and reconstruction of more primitive chromosomes. Each of these smaller segments would have necessarily contained (on average a gamma distributed number of genes. In the gene cluster model, genes would be scattered randomly to begin with. Over evolutionary timescales, tandem duplication, mutation, insertion, deletion and rearrangement could act at these gene sites through a stochastic birth death and immigration process to yield a PG distribution. On the basis of the gene position data alone it was not possible to identify the biological model which best explained the observed clustering. However, the underlying PG statistical model implicated neutral

Time-series clustering of gene expression in irradiated and bystander fibroblasts: an application of FBPA clustering

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Markatou Marianthi

2011-01-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background The radiation bystander effect is an important component of the overall biological response of tissues and organisms to ionizing radiation, but the signaling mechanisms between irradiated and non-irradiated bystander cells are not fully understood. In this study, we measured a time-series of gene expression after α-particle irradiation and applied the Feature Based Partitioning around medoids Algorithm (FBPA, a new clustering method suitable for sparse time series, to identify signaling modules that act in concert in the response to direct irradiation and bystander signaling. We compared our results with those of an alternate clustering method, Short Time series Expression Miner (STEM. Results While computational evaluations of both clustering results were similar, FBPA provided more biological insight. After irradiation, gene clusters were enriched for signal transduction, cell cycle/cell death and inflammation/immunity processes; but only FBPA separated clusters by function. In bystanders, gene clusters were enriched for cell communication/motility, signal transduction and inflammation processes; but biological functions did not separate as clearly with either clustering method as they did in irradiated samples. Network analysis confirmed p53 and NF-κB transcription factor-regulated gene clusters in irradiated and bystander cells and suggested novel regulators, such as KDM5B/JARID1B (lysine (K-specific demethylase 5B and HDACs (histone deacetylases, which could epigenetically coordinate gene expression after irradiation. Conclusions In this study, we have shown that a new time series clustering method, FBPA, can provide new leads to the mechanisms regulating the dynamic cellular response to radiation. The findings implicate epigenetic control of gene expression in addition to transcription factor networks.

A robust approach based on Weibull distribution for clustering gene expression data

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Gong Binsheng

2011-05-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Clustering is a widely used technique for analysis of gene expression data. Most clustering methods group genes based on the distances, while few methods group genes according to the similarities of the distributions of the gene expression levels. Furthermore, as the biological annotation resources accumulated, an increasing number of genes have been annotated into functional categories. As a result, evaluating the performance of clustering methods in terms of the functional consistency of the resulting clusters is of great interest. Results In this paper, we proposed the WDCM (Weibull Distribution-based Clustering Method, a robust approach for clustering gene expression data, in which the gene expressions of individual genes are considered as the random variables following unique Weibull distributions. Our WDCM is based on the concept that the genes with similar expression profiles have similar distribution parameters, and thus the genes are clustered via the Weibull distribution parameters. We used the WDCM to cluster three cancer gene expression data sets from the lung cancer, B-cell follicular lymphoma and bladder carcinoma and obtained well-clustered results. We compared the performance of WDCM with k-means and Self Organizing Map (SOM using functional annotation information given by the Gene Ontology (GO. The results showed that the functional annotation ratios of WDCM are higher than those of the other methods. We also utilized the external measure Adjusted Rand Index to validate the performance of the WDCM. The comparative results demonstrate that the WDCM provides the better clustering performance compared to k-means and SOM algorithms. The merit of the proposed WDCM is that it can be applied to cluster incomplete gene expression data without imputing the missing values. Moreover, the robustness of WDCM is also evaluated on the incomplete data sets. Conclusions The results demonstrate that our WDCM produces clusters

Clustering approaches to identifying gene expression patterns from DNA microarray data.

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Do, Jin Hwan; Choi, Dong-Kug

2008-04-30

The analysis of microarray data is essential for large amounts of gene expression data. In this review we focus on clustering techniques. The biological rationale for this approach is the fact that many co-expressed genes are co-regulated, and identifying co-expressed genes could aid in functional annotation of novel genes, de novo identification of transcription factor binding sites and elucidation of complex biological pathways. Co-expressed genes are usually identified in microarray experiments by clustering techniques. There are many such methods, and the results obtained even for the same datasets may vary considerably depending on the algorithms and metrics for dissimilarity measures used, as well as on user-selectable parameters such as desired number of clusters and initial values. Therefore, biologists who want to interpret microarray data should be aware of the weakness and strengths of the clustering methods used. In this review, we survey the basic principles of clustering of DNA microarray data from crisp clustering algorithms such as hierarchical clustering, K-means and self-organizing maps, to complex clustering algorithms like fuzzy clustering.

Modulation of flavonoid biosynthetic pathway genes and anthocyanins due to virus infection in grapevine (Vitis vinifera L. leaves

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Gutha Linga R

2010-08-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Symptoms of grapevine leafroll disease (GLRD in red-fruited wine grape (Vitis vinifera L. cultivars consist of green veins and red and reddish-purple discoloration of inter-veinal areas of leaves. The reddish-purple color of symptomatic leaves may be due to the accumulation of anthocyanins and could reflect an up-regulation of genes involved in their biosynthesis. Results We examined six putative constitutively expressed genes, Ubiquitin, Actin, GAPDH, EF1-a, SAND and NAD5, for their potential as references for normalization of gene expression in reverse transcription-quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR. Using the geNorm program, a combination of two genes (Actin and NAD5 was identified as the stable set of reference genes for normalization of gene expression data obtained from grapevine leaves. By using gene-specific RT-qPCR in combination with a reliable normalization factor, we compared relative expression of the flavonoid biosynthetic pathway genes between leaves infected with Grapevine leafroll-associated virus 3 (GLRaV-3 and exhibiting GLRD symptoms and virus-free green leaves obtained from a red-fruited wine grape cultivar (cv. Merlot. The expression levels of these different genes ranged from two- to fifty-fold increase in virus-infected leaves. Among them, CHS3, F3'5'H, F3H1, LDOX, LAR1 and MybA1 showed greater than 10-fold increase suggesting that they were expressed at significantly higher levels in virus-infected symptomatic leaves. HPLC profiling of anthocyanins extracted from leaves indicated the presence of cyanidin-3-glucoside and malvidin-3-glucoside only in virus-infected symptomatic leaves. The results also showed 24% higher levels of flavonols in virus-infected symptomatic leaves than in virus-free green leaves, with quercetin followed by myricetin being the predominant compounds. Proanthocyanidins, estimated as total tannins by protein precipitation method, were 36% higher in virus

In silico analysis and expression profiling of miRNAs targeting genes of steviol glycosides biosynthetic pathway and their relationship with steviol glycosides content in different tissues of Stevia rebaudiana.

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Saifi, Monica; Nasrullah, Nazima; Ahmad, Malik Mobeen; Ali, Athar; Khan, Jawaid A; Abdin, M Z

2015-09-01

miRNAs are emerging as potential regulators of the gene expression. Their proven promising role in regulating biosynthetic pathways related gene networks may hold the key to understand the genetic regulation of these pathways which may assist in selection and manipulation to get high performing plant genotypes with better secondary metabolites yields and increased biomass. miRNAs associated with genes of steviol glycosides biosynthetic pathway, however, have not been identified so far. In this study miRNAs targeting genes of steviol glycosides biosynthetic pathway were identified for the first time whose precursors were potentially generated from ESTs and nucleotide sequences of Stevia rebaudiana. Thereafter, stem-loop coupled real time PCR based expressions of these miRNAs in different tissues of Stevia rebaudiana were investigated and their relationship pattern was analysed with the expression levels of their target mRNAs as well as steviol glycoside contents. All the miRNAs investigated showed differential expressions in all the three tissues studied, viz. leaves, flowers and stems. Out of the eleven miRNAs validated, the expression levels of nine miRNAs (miR319a, miR319b, miR319c, miR319d, miR319e, miR319f, miR319h, miRstv_7, miRstv_9) were found to be inversely related, while expression levels of the two, i.e. miR319g and miRstv_11 on the contrary, showed direct relation with the expression levels of their target mRNAs and steviol glycoside contents in the leaves, flowers and stems. This study provides a platform for better understanding of the steviol glycosides biosynthetic pathway and these miRNAs can further be employed to manipulate the biosynthesis of these metabolites to enhance their contents and yield in S. rebaudiana. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.

Prediction of operon-like gene clusters in the Arabidopsis thaliana genome based on co-expression analysis of neighboring genes.

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Wada, Masayoshi; Takahashi, Hiroki; Altaf-Ul-Amin, Md; Nakamura, Kensuke; Hirai, Masami Y; Ohta, Daisaku; Kanaya, Shigehiko

2012-07-15

Operon-like arrangements of genes occur in eukaryotes ranging from yeasts and filamentous fungi to nematodes, plants, and mammals. In plants, several examples of operon-like gene clusters involved in metabolic pathways have recently been characterized, e.g. the cyclic hydroxamic acid pathways in maize, the avenacin biosynthesis gene clusters in oat, the thalianol pathway in Arabidopsis thaliana, and the diterpenoid momilactone cluster in rice. Such operon-like gene clusters are defined by their co-regulation or neighboring positions within immediate vicinity of chromosomal regions. A comprehensive analysis of the expression of neighboring genes therefore accounts a crucial step to reveal the complete set of operon-like gene clusters within a genome. Genome-wide prediction of operon-like gene clusters should contribute to functional annotation efforts and provide novel insight into evolutionary aspects acquiring certain biological functions as well. We predicted co-expressed gene clusters by comparing the Pearson correlation coefficient of neighboring genes and randomly selected gene pairs, based on a statistical method that takes false discovery rate (FDR) into consideration for 1469 microarray gene expression datasets of A. thaliana. We estimated that A. thaliana contains 100 operon-like gene clusters in total. We predicted 34 statistically significant gene clusters consisting of 3 to 22 genes each, based on a stringent FDR threshold of 0.1. Functional relationships among genes in individual clusters were estimated by sequence similarity and functional annotation of genes. Duplicated gene pairs (determined based on BLAST with a cutoff of EOperon-like clusters tend to include genes encoding bio-machinery associated with ribosomes, the ubiquitin/proteasome system, secondary metabolic pathways, lipid and fatty-acid metabolism, and the lipid transfer system. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

A roadmap for natural product discovery based on large-scale genomics and metabolomics

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Actinobacteria encode a wealth of natural product biosynthetic gene clusters, whose systematic study is complicated by numerous repetitive motifs. By combining several metrics we developed a method for global classification of these gene clusters into families (GCFs) and analyzed the biosynthetic ca...

Identification of loci and functional characterization of trichothecene biosynthesis genes in the filamentous fungus of the genus Trichoderma

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Trichothecenes are mycotoxins produced by Trichoderma, Fusarium and at least four other genera in the fungal order Hypocreales. Fusarium has a trichothecene biosynthetic gene (TRI) cluster that encodes transport and regulatory proteins as well as most enzymes required for formation of the mycotoxin...

A gene expression analysis of cell wall biosynthetic genes in Malus × domestica infected by ‘Candidatus Phytoplasma mali’

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Guerriero, Gea; Giorno, Filomena; Ciccotti, Anna Maria; Schmidt, Silvia; Baric, Sanja

2016-01-01

Apple proliferation (AP) represents a serious threat to several fruit-growing areas and is responsible for great economic losses. Several studies have highlighted the key role played by the cell wall in response to pathogen attack. The existence of a cell wall integrity signaling pathway which senses perturbations in the cell wall architecture upon abiotic/biotic stresses and activates specific defence responses has been widely demonstrated in plants. More recently a role played by cell wall-related genes has also been reported in plants infected by phytoplasmas. With the aim of shedding light on the cell wall response to AP disease in the economically relevant fruit-tree Malus × domestica Borkh., we investigated the expression of the cellulose (CesA) and callose synthase (CalS) genes in different organs (i.e., leaves, roots and branch phloem) of healthy and infected symptomatic outdoor-grown trees, sampled over the course of two time points (i.e., spring and autumn 2011), as well as in in vitro micropropagated control and infected plantlets. A strong up-regulation in the expression of cell wall biosynthetic genes was recorded in roots from infected trees. Secondary cell wall CesAs showed up-regulation in the phloem tissue from branches of infected plants, while either a down-regulation of some genes or no major changes were observed in the leaves. Micropropagated plantlets also showed an increase in cell wall-related genes and constitute a useful system for a general assessment of gene expression analysis upon phytoplasma infection. Finally, we also report the presence of several ‘knot’-like structures along the roots of infected apple trees and discuss the occurrence of this interesting phenotype in relation to the gene expression results and the modalities of phytoplasma diffusion. PMID:23086810

Nearest Neighbor Networks: clustering expression data based on gene neighborhoods

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Olszewski Kellen L

2007-07-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background The availability of microarrays measuring thousands of genes simultaneously across hundreds of biological conditions represents an opportunity to understand both individual biological pathways and the integrated workings of the cell. However, translating this amount of data into biological insight remains a daunting task. An important initial step in the analysis of microarray data is clustering of genes with similar behavior. A number of classical techniques are commonly used to perform this task, particularly hierarchical and K-means clustering, and many novel approaches have been suggested recently. While these approaches are useful, they are not without drawbacks; these methods can find clusters in purely random data, and even clusters enriched for biological functions can be skewed towards a small number of processes (e.g. ribosomes. Results We developed Nearest Neighbor Networks (NNN, a graph-based algorithm to generate clusters of genes with similar expression profiles. This method produces clusters based on overlapping cliques within an interaction network generated from mutual nearest neighborhoods. This focus on nearest neighbors rather than on absolute distance measures allows us to capture clusters with high connectivity even when they are spatially separated, and requiring mutual nearest neighbors allows genes with no sufficiently similar partners to remain unclustered. We compared the clusters generated by NNN with those generated by eight other clustering methods. NNN was particularly successful at generating functionally coherent clusters with high precision, and these clusters generally represented a much broader selection of biological processes than those recovered by other methods. Conclusion The Nearest Neighbor Networks algorithm is a valuable clustering method that effectively groups genes that are likely to be functionally related. It is particularly attractive due to its simplicity, its success in the

Unusual Gene Order and Organization of the Sea Urchin HoxCluster

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Richardson, Paul M.; Lucas, Susan; Cameron, R. Andrew; Rowen,Lee; Nesbitt, Ryan; Bloom, Scott; Rast, Jonathan P.; Berney, Kevin; Arenas-Mena, Cesar; Martinez, Pedro; Davidson, Eric H.; Peterson, KevinJ.; Hood, Leroy

2005-05-10

The highly consistent gene order and axial colinear expression patterns found in vertebrate hox gene clusters are less well conserved across the rest of bilaterians. We report the first deuterostome instance of an intact hox cluster with a unique gene order where the paralog groups are not expressed in a sequential manner. The finished sequence from BAC clones from the genome of the sea urchin, Strongylocentrotus purpuratus, reveals a gene order wherein the anterior genes (Hox1, Hox2 and Hox3) lie nearest the posterior genes in the cluster such that the most 3' gene is Hox5. (The gene order is : 5'-Hox1,2, 3, 11/13c, 11/13b, '11/13a, 9/10, 8, 7, 6, 5 - 3)'. The finished sequence result is corroborated by restriction mapping evidence and BAC-end scaffold analyses. Comparisons with a putative ancestral deuterostome Hox gene cluster suggest that the rearrangements leading to the sea urchin gene order were many and complex.

Recursive Cluster Elimination (RCE for classification and feature selection from gene expression data

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Showe Louise C

2007-05-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Classification studies using gene expression datasets are usually based on small numbers of samples and tens of thousands of genes. The selection of those genes that are important for distinguishing the different sample classes being compared, poses a challenging problem in high dimensional data analysis. We describe a new procedure for selecting significant genes as recursive cluster elimination (RCE rather than recursive feature elimination (RFE. We have tested this algorithm on six datasets and compared its performance with that of two related classification procedures with RFE. Results We have developed a novel method for selecting significant genes in comparative gene expression studies. This method, which we refer to as SVM-RCE, combines K-means, a clustering method, to identify correlated gene clusters, and Support Vector Machines (SVMs, a supervised machine learning classification method, to identify and score (rank those gene clusters for the purpose of classification. K-means is used initially to group genes into clusters. Recursive cluster elimination (RCE is then applied to iteratively remove those clusters of genes that contribute the least to the classification performance. SVM-RCE identifies the clusters of correlated genes that are most significantly differentially expressed between the sample classes. Utilization of gene clusters, rather than individual genes, enhances the supervised classification accuracy of the same data as compared to the accuracy when either SVM or Penalized Discriminant Analysis (PDA with recursive feature elimination (SVM-RFE and PDA-RFE are used to remove genes based on their individual discriminant weights. Conclusion SVM-RCE provides improved classification accuracy with complex microarray data sets when it is compared to the classification accuracy of the same datasets using either SVM-RFE or PDA-RFE. SVM-RCE identifies clusters of correlated genes that when considered together

Hox gene cluster of the ascidian, Halocynthia roretzi, reveals multiple ancient steps of cluster disintegration during ascidian evolution.

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Sekigami, Yuka; Kobayashi, Takuya; Omi, Ai; Nishitsuji, Koki; Ikuta, Tetsuro; Fujiyama, Asao; Satoh, Noriyuki; Saiga, Hidetoshi

2017-01-01

Hox gene clusters with at least 13 paralog group (PG) members are common in vertebrate genomes and in that of amphioxus. Ascidians, which belong to the subphylum Tunicata (Urochordata), are phylogenetically positioned between vertebrates and amphioxus, and traditionally divided into two groups: the Pleurogona and the Enterogona. An enterogonan ascidian, Ciona intestinalis ( Ci ), possesses nine Hox genes localized on two chromosomes; thus, the Hox gene cluster is disintegrated. We investigated the Hox gene cluster of a pleurogonan ascidian, Halocynthia roretzi ( Hr ) to investigate whether Hox gene cluster disintegration is common among ascidians, and if so, how such disintegration occurred during ascidian or tunicate evolution. Our phylogenetic analysis reveals that the Hr Hox gene complement comprises nine members, including one with a relatively divergent Hox homeodomain sequence. Eight of nine Hr Hox genes were orthologous to Ci-Hox1 , 2, 3, 4, 5, 10, 12 and 13. Following the phylogenetic classification into 13 PGs, we designated Hr Hox genes as Hox1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 10, 11/12/13.a , 11/12/13.b and HoxX . To address the chromosomal arrangement of the nine Hox genes, we performed two-color chromosomal fluorescent in situ hybridization, which revealed that the nine Hox genes are localized on a single chromosome in Hr , distinct from their arrangement in Ci . We further examined the order of the nine Hox genes on the chromosome by chromosome/scaffold walking. This analysis suggested a gene order of Hox1 , 11/12/13.b, 11/12/13.a, 10, 5, X, followed by either Hox4, 3, 2 or Hox2, 3, 4 on the chromosome. Based on the present results and those previously reported in Ci , we discuss the establishment of the Hox gene complement and disintegration of Hox gene clusters during the course of ascidian or tunicate evolution. The Hox gene cluster and the genome must have experienced extensive reorganization during the course of evolution from the ancestral tunicate to Hr and Ci

Calcitonin gene-related peptide antagonism and cluster headache

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Ashina, Håkan; Newman, Lawrence; Ashina, Sait

2017-01-01

Calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP) is a key signaling molecule involved in migraine pathophysiology. Efficacy of CGRP monoclonal antibodies and antagonists in migraine treatment has fueled an increasing interest in the prospect of treating cluster headache (CH) with CGRP antagonism. The exact...... role of CGRP and its mechanism of action in CH have not been fully clarified. A search for original studies and randomized controlled trials (RCTs) published in English was performed in PubMed and in ClinicalTrials.gov . The search term used was "cluster headache and calcitonin gene related peptide......" and "primary headaches and calcitonin gene related peptide." Reference lists of identified articles were also searched for additional relevant papers. Human experimental studies have reported elevated plasma CGRP levels during both spontaneous and glyceryl trinitrate-induced cluster attacks. CGRP may play...

Saponin determination, expression analysis and functional characterization of saponin biosynthetic genes in Chenopodium quinoa leaves.

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Fiallos-Jurado, Jennifer; Pollier, Jacob; Moses, Tessa; Arendt, Philipp; Barriga-Medina, Noelia; Morillo, Eduardo; Arahana, Venancio; de Lourdes Torres, Maria; Goossens, Alain; Leon-Reyes, Antonio

2016-09-01

Quinoa (Chenopodium quinoa Willd.) is a highly nutritious pseudocereal with an outstanding protein, vitamin, mineral and nutraceutical content. The leaves, flowers and seed coat of quinoa contain triterpenoid saponins, which impart bitterness to the grain and make them unpalatable without postharvest removal of the saponins. In this study, we quantified saponin content in quinoa leaves from Ecuadorian sweet and bitter genotypes and assessed the expression of saponin biosynthetic genes in leaf samples elicited with methyl jasmonate. We found saponin accumulation in leaves after MeJA treatment in both ecotypes tested. As no reference genes were available to perform qPCR in quinoa, we mined publicly available RNA-Seq data for orthologs of 22 genes known to be stably expressed in Arabidopsis thaliana using geNorm, NormFinder and BestKeeper algorithms. The quinoa ortholog of At2g28390 (Monensin Sensitivity 1, MON1) was stably expressed and chosen as a suitable reference gene for qPCR analysis. Candidate saponin biosynthesis genes were screened in the quinoa RNA-Seq data and subsequent functional characterization in yeast led to the identification of CqbAS1, CqCYP716A78 and CqCYP716A79. These genes were found to be induced by MeJA, suggesting this phytohormone might also modulate saponin biosynthesis in quinoa leaves. Knowledge of the saponin biosynthesis and its regulation in quinoa may aid the further development of sweet cultivars that do not require postharvest processing. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Elucidation and in planta reconstitution of the parthenolide biosynthetic pathway

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Liu, Qing; Manzano, David; Tanić, Nikola

2014-01-01

Parthenolide, the main bioactive compound of the medicinal plant feverfew (Tanacetum parthenium), is a promising anti-cancer drug. However, the biosynthetic pathway of parthenolide has not been elucidated yet. Here we report on the isolation and characterization of all the genes from feverfew tha...

A phylogenomic gene cluster resource: The phylogeneticallyinferred groups (PhlGs) database

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Dehal, Paramvir S.; Boore, Jeffrey L.

2005-08-25

We present here the PhIGs database, a phylogenomic resource for sequenced genomes. Although many methods exist for clustering gene families, very few attempt to create truly orthologous clusters sharing descent from a single ancestral gene across a range of evolutionary depths. Although these non-phylogenetic gene family clusters have been used broadly for gene annotation, errors are known to be introduced by the artifactual association of slowly evolving paralogs and lack of annotation for those more rapidly evolving. A full phylogenetic framework is necessary for accurate inference of function and for many studies that address pattern and mechanism of the evolution of the genome. The automated generation of evolutionary gene clusters, creation of gene trees, determination of orthology and paralogy relationships, and the correlation of this information with gene annotations, expression information, and genomic context is an important resource to the scientific community.

Accurate prediction of secondary metabolite gene clusters in filamentous fungi

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Andersen, Mikael Rørdam; Nielsen, Jakob Blæsbjerg; Klitgaard, Andreas

2013-01-01

Biosynthetic pathways of secondary metabolites from fungi are currently subject to an intense effort to elucidate the genetic basis for these compounds due to their large potential within pharmaceutics and synthetic biochemistry. The preferred method is methodical gene deletions to identify...... used A. nidulans for our method development and validation due to the wealth of available biochemical data, but the method can be applied to any fungus with a sequenced and assembled genome, thus supporting further secondary metabolite pathway elucidation in the fungal kingdom....

An Effective Tri-Clustering Algorithm Combining Expression Data with Gene Regulation Information

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Ao Li

2009-04-01

Full Text Available Motivation: Bi-clustering algorithms aim to identify sets of genes sharing similar expression patterns across a subset of conditions. However direct interpretation or prediction of gene regulatory mechanisms may be difficult as only gene expression data is used. Information about gene regulators may also be available, most commonly about which transcription factors may bind to the promoter region and thus control the expression level of a gene. Thus a method to integrate gene expression and gene regulation information is desirable for clustering and analyzing. Methods: By incorporating gene regulatory information with gene expression data, we define regulated expression values (REV as indicators of how a gene is regulated by a specific factor. Existing bi-clustering methods are extended to a three dimensional data space by developing a heuristic TRI-Clustering algorithm. An additional approach named Automatic Boundary Searching algorithm (ABS is introduced to automatically determine the boundary threshold. Results: Results based on incorporating ChIP-chip data representing transcription factor-gene interactions show that the algorithms are efficient and robust for detecting tri-clusters. Detailed analysis of the tri-cluster extracted from yeast sporulation REV data shows genes in this cluster exhibited significant differences during the middle and late stages. The implicated regulatory network was then reconstructed for further study of defined regulatory mechanisms. Topological and statistical analysis of this network demonstrated evidence of significant changes of TF activities during the different stages of yeast sporulation, and suggests this approach might be a general way to study regulatory networks undergoing transformations.

De Novo Transcriptomes of Forsythia koreana Using a Novel Assembly Method: Insight into Tissue- and Species-Specific Expression of Lignan Biosynthesis-Related Gene.

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Akira Shiraishi

Full Text Available Forsythia spp. are perennial woody plants which are one of the most extensively used medicinal sources of Chinese medicines and functional diets owing to their lignan contents. Lignans have received widespread attention as leading compounds in the development of antitumor drugs and healthy diets for reducing the risks of lifestyle-related diseases. However, the molecular basis of Forsythia has yet to be established. In this study, we have verified de novo deep transcriptome of Forsythia koreana leaf and callus using the Illumina HiSeq 1500 platform. A total of 89 million reads were assembled into 116,824 contigs using Trinity, and 1,576 of the contigs displayed the sequence similarity to the enzymes responsible for plant specialized metabolism including lignan biosynthesis. Notably, gene ontology (GO analysis indicated the remarkable enrichment of lignan-biosynthetic enzyme genes in the callus transcriptome. Nevertheless, precise annotation and molecular phylogenetic analyses were hindered by partial sequences of open reading frames (ORFs of the Trinity-based contigs. To obtain more numerous contigs harboring a full-length ORF, we developed a novel overlapping layout consensus-based procedure, virtual primer-based sequence reassembly (VP-seq. VP-seq elucidated 709 full-length ORFs, whereas only 146 full-length ORFs were assembled by Trinity. The comparison of expression profiles of leaf and callus using VP-seq-based full-length ORFs revealed 50-fold upregulation of secoisolariciresinol dehydrogenase (SIRD in callus. Expression and phylogenetic cluster analyses predicted candidates for matairesinol-glucosylating enzymes. We also performed VP-seq analysis of lignan-biosynthetic enzyme genes in the transcriptome data of other lignan-rich plants, Linum flavum, Linum usitatissimum and Podophyllum hexandrum. The comparative analysis indicated both common gene clusters involved in biosynthesis upstream of matairesinol such as SIRD and plant lineage

Global Analysis of miRNA Gene Clusters and Gene Families Reveals Dynamic and Coordinated Expression

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Li Guo

2014-01-01

Full Text Available To further understand the potential expression relationships of miRNAs in miRNA gene clusters and gene families, a global analysis was performed in 4 paired tumor (breast cancer and adjacent normal tissue samples using deep sequencing datasets. The compositions of miRNA gene clusters and families are not random, and clustered and homologous miRNAs may have close relationships with overlapped miRNA species. Members in the miRNA group always had various expression levels, and even some showed larger expression divergence. Despite the dynamic expression as well as individual difference, these miRNAs always indicated consistent or similar deregulation patterns. The consistent deregulation expression may contribute to dynamic and coordinated interaction between different miRNAs in regulatory network. Further, we found that those clustered or homologous miRNAs that were also identified as sense and antisense miRNAs showed larger expression divergence. miRNA gene clusters and families indicated important biological roles, and the specific distribution and expression further enrich and ensure the flexible and robust regulatory network.

Lampreys, the jawless vertebrates, contain only two ParaHox gene clusters.

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Zhang, Huixian; Ravi, Vydianathan; Tay, Boon-Hui; Tohari, Sumanty; Pillai, Nisha E; Prasad, Aravind; Lin, Qiang; Brenner, Sydney; Venkatesh, Byrappa

2017-08-22

ParaHox genes ( Gsx , Pdx , and Cdx ) are an ancient family of developmental genes closely related to the Hox genes. They play critical roles in the patterning of brain and gut. The basal chordate, amphioxus, contains a single ParaHox cluster comprising one member of each family, whereas nonteleost jawed vertebrates contain four ParaHox genomic loci with six or seven ParaHox genes. Teleosts, which have experienced an additional whole-genome duplication, contain six ParaHox genomic loci with six ParaHox genes. Jawless vertebrates, represented by lampreys and hagfish, are the most ancient group of vertebrates and are crucial for understanding the origin and evolution of vertebrate gene families. We have previously shown that lampreys contain six Hox gene loci. Here we report that lampreys contain only two ParaHox gene clusters (designated as α- and β-clusters) bearing five ParaHox genes ( Gsxα , Pdxα , Cdxα , Gsxβ , and Cdxβ ). The order and orientation of the three genes in the α-cluster are identical to that of the single cluster in amphioxus. However, the orientation of Gsxβ in the β-cluster is inverted. Interestingly, Gsxβ is expressed in the eye, unlike its homologs in jawed vertebrates, which are expressed mainly in the brain. The lamprey Pdxα is expressed in the pancreas similar to jawed vertebrate Pdx genes, indicating that the pancreatic expression of Pdx was acquired before the divergence of jawless and jawed vertebrate lineages. It is likely that the lamprey Pdxα plays a crucial role in pancreas specification and insulin production similar to the Pdx of jawed vertebrates.

Functional Reconstitution of a Fungal Natural Product Gene Cluster by Advanced Genome Editing

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Weber, Jakob; Valiante, Vito; Nødvig, Christina Spuur

2017-01-01

is not produced among different isolates. Combining computational analysis with targeted gene editing, we could link a single nucleotide insertion in the polyketide synthase of the trypacidin biosynthetic pathway and reconstitute its production in a nonproducing strain. Thus, we present a CRISPR/Cas9-based tool...... for advanced molecular genetic studies in filamentous fungi, exploiting selectable markers separated from the edited locus....

Comparative analysis of clustering methods for gene expression time course data

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Ivan G. Costa

2004-01-01

Full Text Available This work performs a data driven comparative study of clustering methods used in the analysis of gene expression time courses (or time series. Five clustering methods found in the literature of gene expression analysis are compared: agglomerative hierarchical clustering, CLICK, dynamical clustering, k-means and self-organizing maps. In order to evaluate the methods, a k-fold cross-validation procedure adapted to unsupervised methods is applied. The accuracy of the results is assessed by the comparison of the partitions obtained in these experiments with gene annotation, such as protein function and series classification.

Enrichment of provitamin A content in wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) by introduction of the bacterial carotenoid biosynthetic genes CrtB and CrtI.

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Wang, Cheng; Zeng, Jian; Li, Yin; Hu, Wei; Chen, Ling; Miao, Yingjie; Deng, Pengyi; Yuan, Cuihong; Ma, Cheng; Chen, Xi; Zang, Mingli; Wang, Qiong; Li, Kexiu; Chang, Junli; Wang, Yuesheng; Yang, Guangxiao; He, Guangyuan

2014-06-01

Carotenoid content is a primary determinant of wheat nutritional value and affects its end-use quality. Wheat grains contain very low carotenoid levels and trace amounts of provitamin A content. In order to enrich the carotenoid content in wheat grains, the bacterial phytoene synthase gene (CrtB) and carotene desaturase gene (CrtI) were transformed into the common wheat cultivar Bobwhite. Expression of CrtB or CrtI alone slightly increased the carotenoid content in the grains of transgenic wheat, while co-expression of both genes resulted in a darker red/yellow grain phenotype, accompanied by a total carotenoid content increase of approximately 8-fold achieving 4.76 μg g(-1) of seed dry weight, a β-carotene increase of 65-fold to 3.21 μg g(-1) of seed dry weight, and a provitamin A content (sum of α-carotene, β-carotene, and β-cryptoxanthin) increase of 76-fold to 3.82 μg g(-1) of seed dry weight. The high provitamin A content in the transgenic wheat was stably inherited over four generations. Quantitative PCR analysis revealed that enhancement of provitamin A content in transgenic wheat was also a result of the highly coordinated regulation of endogenous carotenoid biosynthetic genes, suggesting a metabolic feedback regulation in the wheat carotenoid biosynthetic pathway. These transgenic wheat lines are not only valuable for breeding wheat varieties with nutritional benefits for human health but also for understanding the mechanism regulating carotenoid biosynthesis in wheat endosperm. © The Author 2014. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Society for Experimental Biology.

Accumulation of Kaempferitrin and Expression of Phenyl-Propanoid Biosynthetic Genes in Kenaf (Hibiscus cannabinus

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Shicheng Zhao

2014-10-01

Full Text Available Kenaf (Hibiscus cannabinus is cultivated worldwide for its fiber; however, the medicinal properties of this plant are currently attracting increasing attention. In this study, we investigated the expression levels of genes involved in the biosynthesis of kaempferitrin, a compound with many biological functions, in different kenaf organs. We found that phenylalanine ammonia lyase (HcPAL was more highly expressed in stems than in other organs. Expression levels of cinnamate 4-hydroxylase (HcC4H and 4-coumarate-CoA ligase (Hc4CL were highest in mature leaves, followed by stems and young leaves, and lowest in roots and mature flowers. The expression of chalcone synthase (HcCHS, chalcone isomerase (HcCHI, and flavone 3-hydroxylase (HcF3H was highest in young flowers, whereas that of flavone synthase (HcFLS was highest in leaves. An analysis of kaempferitrin accumulation in the different organs of kenaf revealed that the accumulation of this compound was considerably higher (>10-fold in leaves than in other organs. On the basis of a comparison of kaempferitrin contents with the expression levels of different genes in different organs, we speculate that HcFLS plays an important regulatory role in the kaempferitrin biosynthetic pathway in kenaf.

Accumulation of kaempferitrin and expression of phenyl-propanoid biosynthetic genes in kenaf (Hibiscus cannabinus).

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Zhao, Shicheng; Li, Xiaohua; Cho, Dong Ha; Arasu, Mariadhas Valan; Al-Dhabi, Naif Abdullah; Park, Sang Un

2014-10-23

Kenaf (Hibiscus cannabinus) is cultivated worldwide for its fiber; however, the medicinal properties of this plant are currently attracting increasing attention. In this study, we investigated the expression levels of genes involved in the biosynthesis of kaempferitrin, a compound with many biological functions, in different kenaf organs. We found that phenylalanine ammonia lyase (HcPAL) was more highly expressed in stems than in other organs. Expression levels of cinnamate 4-hydroxylase (HcC4H) and 4-coumarate-CoA ligase (Hc4CL) were highest in mature leaves, followed by stems and young leaves, and lowest in roots and mature flowers. The expression of chalcone synthase (HcCHS), chalcone isomerase (HcCHI), and flavone 3-hydroxylase (HcF3H) was highest in young flowers, whereas that of flavone synthase (HcFLS) was highest in leaves. An analysis of kaempferitrin accumulation in the different organs of kenaf revealed that the accumulation of this compound was considerably higher (>10-fold) in leaves than in other organs. On the basis of a comparison of kaempferitrin contents with the expression levels of different genes in different organs, we speculate that HcFLS plays an important regulatory role in the kaempferitrin biosynthetic pathway in kenaf.

Evaluation of gene-expression clustering via mutual information distance measure

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Maimon Oded

2007-03-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background The definition of a distance measure plays a key role in the evaluation of different clustering solutions of gene expression profiles. In this empirical study we compare different clustering solutions when using the Mutual Information (MI measure versus the use of the well known Euclidean distance and Pearson correlation coefficient. Results Relying on several public gene expression datasets, we evaluate the homogeneity and separation scores of different clustering solutions. It was found that the use of the MI measure yields a more significant differentiation among erroneous clustering solutions. The proposed measure was also used to analyze the performance of several known clustering algorithms. A comparative study of these algorithms reveals that their "best solutions" are ranked almost oppositely when using different distance measures, despite the found correspondence between these measures when analysing the averaged scores of groups of solutions. Conclusion In view of the results, further attention should be paid to the selection of a proper distance measure for analyzing the clustering of gene expression data.

Cell wall composition and lignin biosynthetic gene expression along a developmental gradient in an Australian sugarcane cultivar

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William P. Bewg

2017-12-01

Full Text Available Sugarcane bagasse is an abundant source of lignocellulosic material for bioethanol production. Utilisation of bagasse for biofuel production would be environmentally and economically beneficial, but the recalcitrance of lignin continues to provide a challenge. Further understanding of lignin production in specific cultivars will provide a basis for modification of genomes for the production of phenotypes with improved processing characteristics. Here we evaluated the expression profile of lignin biosynthetic genes and the cell wall composition along a developmental gradient in KQ228 sugarcane. The expression levels of nine lignin biosynthesis genes were quantified in five stem sections of increasing maturity and in root tissue. Two distinct expression patterns were seen. The first saw highest gene expression in the youngest tissue, with expression decreasing as tissue matured. The second pattern saw little to no change in transcription levels across the developmental gradient. Cell wall compositional analysis of the stem sections showed total lignin content to be significantly higher in more mature tissue than in the youngest section assessed. There were no changes in structural carbohydrates across developmental sections. These gene expression and cell wall compositional patterns can be used, along with other work in grasses, to inform biotechnological approaches to crop improvement for lignocellulosic biofuel production.

Characterization of the largest effector gene cluster of Ustilago maydis.

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Thomas Brefort

2014-07-01

Full Text Available In the genome of the biotrophic plant pathogen Ustilago maydis, many of the genes coding for secreted protein effectors modulating virulence are arranged in gene clusters. The vast majority of these genes encode novel proteins whose expression is coupled to plant colonization. The largest of these gene clusters, cluster 19A, encodes 24 secreted effectors. Deletion of the entire cluster results in severe attenuation of virulence. Here we present the functional analysis of this genomic region. We show that a 19A deletion mutant behaves like an endophyte, i.e. is still able to colonize plants and complete the infection cycle. However, tumors, the most conspicuous symptoms of maize smut disease, are only rarely formed and fungal biomass in infected tissue is significantly reduced. The generation and analysis of strains carrying sub-deletions identified several genes significantly contributing to tumor formation after seedling infection. Another of the effectors could be linked specifically to anthocyanin induction in the infected tissue. As the individual contributions of these genes to tumor formation were small, we studied the response of maize plants to the whole cluster mutant as well as to several individual mutants by array analysis. This revealed distinct plant responses, demonstrating that the respective effectors have discrete plant targets. We propose that the analysis of plant responses to effector mutant strains that lack a strong virulence phenotype may be a general way to visualize differences in effector function.

IGSA: Individual Gene Sets Analysis, including Enrichment and Clustering.

Science.gov (United States)

Wu, Lingxiang; Chen, Xiujie; Zhang, Denan; Zhang, Wubing; Liu, Lei; Ma, Hongzhe; Yang, Jingbo; Xie, Hongbo; Liu, Bo; Jin, Qing

2016-01-01

Analysis of gene sets has been widely applied in various high-throughput biological studies. One weakness in the traditional methods is that they neglect the heterogeneity of genes expressions in samples which may lead to the omission of some specific and important gene sets. It is also difficult for them to reflect the severities of disease and provide expression profiles of gene sets for individuals. We developed an application software called IGSA that leverages a powerful analytical capacity in gene sets enrichment and samples clustering. IGSA calculates gene sets expression scores for each sample and takes an accumulating clustering strategy to let the samples gather into the set according to the progress of disease from mild to severe. We focus on gastric, pancreatic and ovarian cancer data sets for the performance of IGSA. We also compared the results of IGSA in KEGG pathways enrichment with David, GSEA, SPIA, ssGSEA and analyzed the results of IGSA clustering and different similarity measurement methods. Notably, IGSA is proved to be more sensitive and specific in finding significant pathways, and can indicate related changes in pathways with the severity of disease. In addition, IGSA provides with significant gene sets profile for each sample.

Pichia stipitis genomics, transcriptomics, and gene clusters

Science.gov (United States)

Thomas W. Jeffries; Jennifer R. Headman Van Vleet

2009-01-01

Genome sequencing and subsequent global gene expression studies have advanced our understanding of the lignocellulose-fermenting yeast Pichia stipitis. These studies have provided an insight into its central carbon metabolism, and analysis of its genome has revealed numerous functional gene clusters and tandem repeats. Specialized physiological traits are often the...

Enhancement of Nucleoside Production in Hirsutella sinensis Based on Biosynthetic Pathway Analysis

Science.gov (United States)

Liu, Zhi-Qiang; Zhang, Bo; Lin, Shan; Baker, Peter James; Chen, Mao-Sheng; Xue, Ya-Ping; Wu, Hui; Xu, Feng; Yuan, Shui-Jin; Teng, Yi; Wu, Ling-Fang

2017-01-01

To enhance nucleoside production in Hirsutella sinensis, the biosynthetic pathways of purine and pyrimidine nucleosides were constructed and verified. The differential expression analysis showed that purine nucleoside phosphorylase, inosine monophosphate dehydrogenase, and guanosine monophosphate synthase genes involved in purine nucleotide biosynthesis were significantly upregulated 16.56-fold, 8-fold, and 5.43-fold, respectively. Moreover, dihydroorotate dehydrogenase, uridine nucleosidase, uridine/cytidine monophosphate kinase, and inosine triphosphate pyrophosphatase genes participating in pyrimidine nucleoside biosynthesis were upregulated 4.53-fold, 10.63-fold, 4.26-fold, and 5.98-fold, respectively. To enhance the nucleoside production, precursors for synthesis of nucleosides were added based on the analysis of biosynthetic pathways. Uridine and cytidine contents, respectively, reached 5.04 mg/g and 3.54 mg/g when adding 2 mg/mL of ribose, resulting in an increase of 28.6% and 296% compared with the control, respectively. Meanwhile, uridine and cytidine contents, respectively, reached 10.83 mg/g 2.12 mg/g when adding 0.3 mg/mL of uracil, leading to an increase of 176.3% and 137.1%, respectively. This report indicated that fermentation regulation was an effective way to enhance the nucleoside production in H. sinensis based on biosynthetic pathway analysis. PMID:29333435

Comparison of two schemes for automatic keyword extraction from MEDLINE for functional gene clustering.

Science.gov (United States)

Liu, Ying; Ciliax, Brian J; Borges, Karin; Dasigi, Venu; Ram, Ashwin; Navathe, Shamkant B; Dingledine, Ray

2004-01-01

One of the key challenges of microarray studies is to derive biological insights from the unprecedented quatities of data on gene-expression patterns. Clustering genes by functional keyword association can provide direct information about the nature of the functional links among genes within the derived clusters. However, the quality of the keyword lists extracted from biomedical literature for each gene significantly affects the clustering results. We extracted keywords from MEDLINE that describes the most prominent functions of the genes, and used the resulting weights of the keywords as feature vectors for gene clustering. By analyzing the resulting cluster quality, we compared two keyword weighting schemes: normalized z-score and term frequency-inverse document frequency (TFIDF). The best combination of background comparison set, stop list and stemming algorithm was selected based on precision and recall metrics. In a test set of four known gene groups, a hierarchical algorithm correctly assigned 25 of 26 genes to the appropriate clusters based on keywords extracted by the TDFIDF weighting scheme, but only 23 og 26 with the z-score method. To evaluate the effectiveness of the weighting schemes for keyword extraction for gene clusters from microarray profiles, 44 yeast genes that are differentially expressed during the cell cycle were used as a second test set. Using established measures of cluster quality, the results produced from TFIDF-weighted keywords had higher purity, lower entropy, and higher mutual information than those produced from normalized z-score weighted keywords. The optimized algorithms should be useful for sorting genes from microarray lists into functionally discrete clusters.

GraphTeams: a method for discovering spatial gene clusters in Hi-C sequencing data.

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Schulz, Tizian; Stoye, Jens; Doerr, Daniel

2018-05-08

Hi-C sequencing offers novel, cost-effective means to study the spatial conformation of chromosomes. We use data obtained from Hi-C experiments to provide new evidence for the existence of spatial gene clusters. These are sets of genes with associated functionality that exhibit close proximity to each other in the spatial conformation of chromosomes across several related species. We present the first gene cluster model capable of handling spatial data. Our model generalizes a popular computational model for gene cluster prediction, called δ-teams, from sequences to graphs. Following previous lines of research, we subsequently extend our model to allow for several vertices being associated with the same label. The model, called δ-teams with families, is particular suitable for our application as it enables handling of gene duplicates. We develop algorithmic solutions for both models. We implemented the algorithm for discovering δ-teams with families and integrated it into a fully automated workflow for discovering gene clusters in Hi-C data, called GraphTeams. We applied it to human and mouse data to find intra- and interchromosomal gene cluster candidates. The results include intrachromosomal clusters that seem to exhibit a closer proximity in space than on their chromosomal DNA sequence. We further discovered interchromosomal gene clusters that contain genes from different chromosomes within the human genome, but are located on a single chromosome in mouse. By identifying δ-teams with families, we provide a flexible model to discover gene cluster candidates in Hi-C data. Our analysis of Hi-C data from human and mouse reveals several known gene clusters (thus validating our approach), but also few sparsely studied or possibly unknown gene cluster candidates that could be the source of further experimental investigations.

Clusters of Antibiotic Resistance Genes Enriched Together Stay Together in Swine Agriculture.

Science.gov (United States)

Johnson, Timothy A; Stedtfeld, Robert D; Wang, Qiong; Cole, James R; Hashsham, Syed A; Looft, Torey; Zhu, Yong-Guan; Tiedje, James M

2016-04-12

Antibiotic resistance is a worldwide health risk, but the influence of animal agriculture on the genetic context and enrichment of individual antibiotic resistance alleles remains unclear. Using quantitative PCR followed by amplicon sequencing, we quantified and sequenced 44 genes related to antibiotic resistance, mobile genetic elements, and bacterial phylogeny in microbiomes from U.S. laboratory swine and from swine farms from three Chinese regions. We identified highly abundant resistance clusters: groups of resistance and mobile genetic element alleles that cooccur. For example, the abundance of genes conferring resistance to six classes of antibiotics together with class 1 integrase and the abundance of IS6100-type transposons in three Chinese regions are directly correlated. These resistance cluster genes likely colocalize in microbial genomes in the farms. Resistance cluster alleles were dramatically enriched (up to 1 to 10% as abundant as 16S rRNA) and indicate that multidrug-resistant bacteria are likely the norm rather than an exception in these communities. This enrichment largely occurred independently of phylogenetic composition; thus, resistance clusters are likely present in many bacterial taxa. Furthermore, resistance clusters contain resistance genes that confer resistance to antibiotics independently of their particular use on the farms. Selection for these clusters is likely due to the use of only a subset of the broad range of chemicals to which the clusters confer resistance. The scale of animal agriculture and its wastes, the enrichment and horizontal gene transfer potential of the clusters, and the vicinity of large human populations suggest that managing this resistance reservoir is important for minimizing human risk. Agricultural antibiotic use results in clusters of cooccurring resistance genes that together confer resistance to multiple antibiotics. The use of a single antibiotic could select for an entire suite of resistance genes if

Chapter 7. Cloning and analysis of natural product pathways.

Science.gov (United States)

Gust, Bertolt

2009-01-01

The identification of gene clusters of natural products has lead to an enormous wealth of information about their biosynthesis and its regulation, and about self-resistance mechanisms. Well-established routine techniques are now available for the cloning and sequencing of gene clusters. The subsequent functional analysis of the complex biosynthetic machinery requires efficient genetic tools for manipulation. Until recently, techniques for the introduction of defined changes into Streptomyces chromosomes were very time-consuming. In particular, manipulation of large DNA fragments has been challenging due to the absence of suitable restriction sites for restriction- and ligation-based techniques. The homologous recombination approach called recombineering (referred to as Red/ET-mediated recombination in this chapter) has greatly facilitated targeted genetic modifications of complex biosynthetic pathways from actinomycetes by eliminating many of the time-consuming and labor-intensive steps. This chapter describes techniques for the cloning and identification of biosynthetic gene clusters, for the generation of gene replacements within such clusters, for the construction of integrative library clones and their expression in heterologous hosts, and for the assembly of entire biosynthetic gene clusters from the inserts of individual library clones. A systematic approach toward insertional mutation of a complete Streptomyces genome is shown by the use of an in vitro transposon mutagenesis procedure.

Seasonal alteration in amounts of lignans and their glucosides and gene expression of the relevant biosynthetic enzymes in the Forsythia suspense leaf.

Science.gov (United States)

Morimoto, Kinuyo; Satake, Honoo

2013-01-01

Lignans of Forsythia spp. are essential components of various Chinese medicines and health diets. However, the seasonal alteration in lignan amounts and the gene expression profile of lignan-biosynthetic enzymes has yet to be investigated. In this study, we have assessed seasonal alteration in amounts of major lignans, such as pinoresinol, matairesinol, and arctigenin, and examined the gene expression profile of pinoresinol/lariciresinol reductase (PLR), pinoresinol-glucosylating enzyme (UGT71A18), and secoisolariciresinol dehydrogenase (SIRD) in the leaf of Forsythia suspense from April to November. All of the lignans in the leaf continuously increased from April to June, reached the maximal level in June, and then decreased. Ninety percent of pinoresinol and matairesinol was converted into glucosides, while approximately 50% of arctigenin was aglycone. PLR was stably expressed from April to August, whereas the PLR expression was not detected from September to November. In contrast, the UGT71A18 expression was found from August to November, but not from April to July. The SIRD expression was prominent from April to May, not detected in June to July, and then increased again from September to November. These expression profiles of the lignan-synthetic enzymes are largely compatible with the alteration in lignan contents. Furthermore, such seasonal lignan profiles are in good agreement with the fact that the Forsythia leaves for Chinese medicinal tea are harvested in June. This is the first report on seasonal alteration in lignans and the relevant biosynthetic enzyme genes in the leaf of Forsythia species.

Challenges in microarray class discovery: a comprehensive examination of normalization, gene selection and clustering

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Landfors Mattias

2010-10-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Cluster analysis, and in particular hierarchical clustering, is widely used to extract information from gene expression data. The aim is to discover new classes, or sub-classes, of either individuals or genes. Performing a cluster analysis commonly involve decisions on how to; handle missing values, standardize the data and select genes. In addition, pre-processing, involving various types of filtration and normalization procedures, can have an effect on the ability to discover biologically relevant classes. Here we consider cluster analysis in a broad sense and perform a comprehensive evaluation that covers several aspects of cluster analyses, including normalization. Result We evaluated 2780 cluster analysis methods on seven publicly available 2-channel microarray data sets with common reference designs. Each cluster analysis method differed in data normalization (5 normalizations were considered, missing value imputation (2, standardization of data (2, gene selection (19 or clustering method (11. The cluster analyses are evaluated using known classes, such as cancer types, and the adjusted Rand index. The performances of the different analyses vary between the data sets and it is difficult to give general recommendations. However, normalization, gene selection and clustering method are all variables that have a significant impact on the performance. In particular, gene selection is important and it is generally necessary to include a relatively large number of genes in order to get good performance. Selecting genes with high standard deviation or using principal component analysis are shown to be the preferred gene selection methods. Hierarchical clustering using Ward's method, k-means clustering and Mclust are the clustering methods considered in this paper that achieves the highest adjusted Rand. Normalization can have a significant positive impact on the ability to cluster individuals, and there are indications that

Challenges in microarray class discovery: a comprehensive examination of normalization, gene selection and clustering

Science.gov (United States)

2010-01-01

Background Cluster analysis, and in particular hierarchical clustering, is widely used to extract information from gene expression data. The aim is to discover new classes, or sub-classes, of either individuals or genes. Performing a cluster analysis commonly involve decisions on how to; handle missing values, standardize the data and select genes. In addition, pre-processing, involving various types of filtration and normalization procedures, can have an effect on the ability to discover biologically relevant classes. Here we consider cluster analysis in a broad sense and perform a comprehensive evaluation that covers several aspects of cluster analyses, including normalization. Result We evaluated 2780 cluster analysis methods on seven publicly available 2-channel microarray data sets with common reference designs. Each cluster analysis method differed in data normalization (5 normalizations were considered), missing value imputation (2), standardization of data (2), gene selection (19) or clustering method (11). The cluster analyses are evaluated using known classes, such as cancer types, and the adjusted Rand index. The performances of the different analyses vary between the data sets and it is difficult to give general recommendations. However, normalization, gene selection and clustering method are all variables that have a significant impact on the performance. In particular, gene selection is important and it is generally necessary to include a relatively large number of genes in order to get good performance. Selecting genes with high standard deviation or using principal component analysis are shown to be the preferred gene selection methods. Hierarchical clustering using Ward's method, k-means clustering and Mclust are the clustering methods considered in this paper that achieves the highest adjusted Rand. Normalization can have a significant positive impact on the ability to cluster individuals, and there are indications that background correction is

Differential gene expression in liver and small intestine from lactating rats compared to age-matched virgin controls detects increased mRNA of cholesterol biosynthetic genes

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jungsuwadee Paiboon

2011-02-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Lactation increases energy demands four- to five-fold, leading to a two- to three-fold increase in food consumption, requiring a proportional adjustment in the ability of the lactating dam to absorb nutrients and to synthesize critical biomolecules, such as cholesterol, to meet the dietary needs of both the offspring and the dam. The size and hydrophobicity of the bile acid pool increases during lactation, implying an increased absorption and disposition of lipids, sterols, nutrients, and xenobiotics. In order to investigate changes at the transcriptomics level, we utilized an exon array and calculated expression levels to investigate changes in gene expression in the liver, duodenum, jejunum, and ileum of lactating dams when compared against age-matched virgin controls. Results A two-way mixed models ANOVA was applied to detect differentially expressed genes. Significance calls were defined as a p Cyp7a1, which catalyzes the rate limiting step in the bile acid biosynthetic pathway, was also significantly increased in liver. In addition, decreased levels of mRNA associated with T-cell signaling were found in the jejunum and ileum. Several members of the Solute Carrier (SLC and Adenosine Triphosphate Binding Cassette (ABC superfamilies of membrane transporters were found to be differentially expressed; these genes may play a role in differences in nutrient and xenobiotic absorption and disposition. mRNA expression of SLC39a4_predicted, a zinc transporter, was increased in all tissues, suggesting that it is involved in increased zinc uptake during lactation. Microarray data are available through GEO under GSE19175. Conclusions We detected differential expression of mRNA from several pathways in lactating dams, including upregulation of the cholesterol biosynthetic pathway in liver and intestine, consistent with Srebp activation. Differential T-Cell signaling in the two most distal regions of the small intestine (ileum and

Perturbations in the Photosynthetic Pigment Status Result in Photooxidation-Induced Crosstalk between Carotenoid and Porphyrin Biosynthetic Pathways

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Joon-Heum Park

2017-11-01

Full Text Available Possible crosstalk between the carotenoid and porphyrin biosynthetic pathways under photooxidative conditions was investigated by using their biosynthetic inhibitors, norflurazon (NF and oxyfluorfen (OF. High levels of protoporphyrin IX (Proto IX accumulated in rice plants treated with OF, whereas Proto IX decreased in plants treated with NF. Both NF and OF treatments resulted in greater decreases in MgProto IX, MgProto IX methyl ester, and protochlorophyllide. Activities and transcript levels of most porphyrin biosynthetic enzymes, particularly in the Mg-porphyrin branch, were greatly down-regulated in NF and OF plants. In contrast, the transcript levels of GSA, PPO1, and CHLD as well as FC2 and HO2 were up-regulated in NF-treated plants, while only moderate increases in FC2 and HO2 were observed in the early stage of OF treatment. Phytoene, antheraxanthin, and zeaxanthin showed high accumulation in NF-treated plants, whereas other carotenoid intermediates greatly decreased. Transcript levels of carotenoid biosynthetic genes, PSY1 and PDS, decreased in response to NF and OF, whereas plants in the later stage of NF treatment exhibited up-regulation of BCH and VDE as well as recovery of PDS. However, perturbed porphyrin biosynthesis by OF did not noticeably influence levels of carotenoid metabolites, regardless of the strong down-regulation of carotenoid biosynthetic genes. Both NF and OF plants appeared to provide enhanced protection against photooxidative damage, not only by scavenging of Mg-porphyrins, but also by up-regulating FC2, HO2, and Fe-chelatase, particularly with increased levels of zeaxanthin via up-regulation of BCH and VDE in NF plants. On the other hand, the up-regulation of GSA, PPO1, and CHLD under inhibition of carotenogenic flux may be derived from the necessity to recover impaired chloroplast biogenesis during photooxidative stress. Our study demonstrates that perturbations in carotenoid and porphyrin biosynthesis coordinate

Perturbations in the Photosynthetic Pigment Status Result in Photooxidation-Induced Crosstalk between Carotenoid and Porphyrin Biosynthetic Pathways.

Science.gov (United States)

Park, Joon-Heum; Tran, Lien H; Jung, Sunyo

2017-01-01

Possible crosstalk between the carotenoid and porphyrin biosynthetic pathways under photooxidative conditions was investigated by using their biosynthetic inhibitors, norflurazon (NF) and oxyfluorfen (OF). High levels of protoporphyrin IX (Proto IX) accumulated in rice plants treated with OF, whereas Proto IX decreased in plants treated with NF. Both NF and OF treatments resulted in greater decreases in MgProto IX, MgProto IX methyl ester, and protochlorophyllide. Activities and transcript levels of most porphyrin biosynthetic enzymes, particularly in the Mg-porphyrin branch, were greatly down-regulated in NF and OF plants. In contrast, the transcript levels of GSA, PPO1 , and CHLD as well as FC2 and HO2 were up-regulated in NF-treated plants, while only moderate increases in FC2 and HO2 were observed in the early stage of OF treatment. Phytoene, antheraxanthin, and zeaxanthin showed high accumulation in NF-treated plants, whereas other carotenoid intermediates greatly decreased. Transcript levels of carotenoid biosynthetic genes, PSY1 and PDS , decreased in response to NF and OF, whereas plants in the later stage of NF treatment exhibited up-regulation of BCH and VDE as well as recovery of PDS . However, perturbed porphyrin biosynthesis by OF did not noticeably influence levels of carotenoid metabolites, regardless of the strong down-regulation of carotenoid biosynthetic genes. Both NF and OF plants appeared to provide enhanced protection against photooxidative damage, not only by scavenging of Mg - porphyrins, but also by up-regulating FC2, HO2 , and Fe-chelatase, particularly with increased levels of zeaxanthin via up-regulation of BCH and VDE in NF plants. On the other hand, the up-regulation of GSA, PPO1 , and CHLD under inhibition of carotenogenic flux may be derived from the necessity to recover impaired chloroplast biogenesis during photooxidative stress. Our study demonstrates that perturbations in carotenoid and porphyrin biosynthesis coordinate the

Heterologous expression and transcript analysis of gibberellin biosynthetic genes of grasses reveals novel functionality in the GA3ox family.

Science.gov (United States)

Pearce, Stephen; Huttly, Alison K; Prosser, Ian M; Li, Yi-dan; Vaughan, Simon P; Gallova, Barbora; Patil, Archana; Coghill, Jane A; Dubcovsky, Jorge; Hedden, Peter; Phillips, Andrew L

2015-06-05

The gibberellin (GA) pathway plays a central role in the regulation of plant development, with the 2-oxoglutarate-dependent dioxygenases (2-ODDs: GA20ox, GA3ox, GA2ox) that catalyse the later steps in the biosynthetic pathway of particularly importance in regulating bioactive GA levels. Although GA has important impacts on crop yield and quality, our understanding of the regulation of GA biosynthesis during wheat and barley development remains limited. In this study we identified or assembled genes encoding the GA 2-ODDs of wheat, barley and Brachypodium distachyon and characterised the wheat genes by heterologous expression and transcript analysis. The wheat, barley and Brachypodium genomes each contain orthologous copies of the GA20ox, GA3ox and GA2ox genes identified in rice, with the exception of OsGA3ox1 and OsGA2ox5 which are absent in these species. Some additional paralogs of 2-ODD genes were identified: notably, a novel gene in the wheat B genome related to GA3ox2 was shown to encode a GA 1-oxidase, named as TaGA1ox-B1. This enzyme is likely to be responsible for the abundant 1β-hydroxylated GAs present in developing wheat grains. We also identified a related gene in barley, located in a syntenic position to TaGA1ox-B1, that encodes a GA 3,18-dihydroxylase which similarly accounts for the accumulation of unusual GAs in barley grains. Transcript analysis showed that some paralogs of the different classes of 2-ODD were expressed mainly in a single tissue or at specific developmental stages. In particular, TaGA20ox3, TaGA1ox1, TaGA3ox3 and TaGA2ox7 were predominantly expressed in developing grain. More detailed analysis of grain-specific gene expression showed that while the transcripts of biosynthetic genes were most abundant in the endosperm, genes encoding inactivation and signalling components were more highly expressed in the seed coat and pericarp. The comprehensive expression and functional characterisation of the multigene families encoding the 2-ODD

Sequence analysis of porothramycin biosynthetic gene cluster

Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

Najmanová, Lucie; Ulanová, Dana; Jelínková, Markéta; Kameník, Zdeněk; Kettnerová, Eliška; Koběrská, Markéta; Gažák, Radek; Radojevič, Bojana; Janata, Jiří

2014-01-01

Roč. 59, č. 6 (2014), s. 543-552 ISSN 0015-5632 R&D Projects: GA MŠk(CZ) ED1.1.00/02.0109; GA MŠk(CZ) EE2.3.20.0055; GA MŠk(CZ) EE2.3.30.0003 Institutional support: RVO:61388971 Keywords : BIOLOGICAL-ACTIVITY * ANTHRAMYCIN * SPECIFICITY Subject RIV: EE - Microbiology, Virology Impact factor: 1.000, year: 2014

Didemnin Biosynthetic Gene Cluster In Tistrella Mobilis

KAUST Repository

Qian, Pei-Yuan; Xu, Ying Sharon; Lai, Pok-Yui

2014-01-01

A novel Tistrella mobilis strain having Accession Deposit Number NRRL B-50531 is provided. A method of producing a didemnin precursor, didemnin or didemnin derivative by using the Tistrella mobilis strain, and the therapeutic composition comprising

Minimum Information about a Biosynthetic Gene cluster

Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

Medema, M.H.; Petříček, Miroslav

2015-01-01

Roč. 11, č. 9 (2015), s. 625-631 ISSN 1552-4450 Institutional support: RVO:61388971 Keywords : NATURAL-PRODUCTS * DATABASE * DISCOVERY Subject RIV: CE - Biochemistry Impact factor: 12.709, year: 2015

Didemnin Biosynthetic Gene Cluster In Tistrella Mobilis

KAUST Repository

Qian, Pei-Yuan

2014-10-02

A novel Tistrella mobilis strain having Accession Deposit Number NRRL B-50531 is provided. A method of producing a didemnin precursor, didemnin or didemnin derivative by using the Tistrella mobilis strain, and the therapeutic composition comprising at least one didemnin or didemnin derivative produced from the strain or modified strain thereof are also provided.

Inactivation of human α-globin gene expression by a de novo deletion located upstream of the α-globin gene cluster

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Liebhaber, S.A.; Weiss, I.; Cash, F.E.; Griese, E.U.; Horst, J.; Ayyub, H.; Higgs, D.R.

1990-01-01

Synthesis of normal human hemoglobin A, α 2 β 2 , is based upon balanced expression of genes in the α-globin gene cluster on chromosome 15 and the β-globin gene cluster on chromosome 11. Full levels of erythroid-specific activation of the β-globin cluster depend on sequences located at a considerable distance 5' to the β-globin gene, referred to as the locus-activating or dominant control region. The existence of an analogous element(s) upstream of the α-globin cluster has been suggested from observations on naturally occurring deletions and experimental studies. The authors have identified an individual with α-thalassemia in whom structurally normal α-globin genes have been inactivated in cis by a discrete de novo 35-kilobase deletion located ∼30 kilobases 5' from the α-globin gene cluster. They conclude that this deletion inactivates expression of the α-globin genes by removing one or more of the previously identified upstream regulatory sequences that are critical to expression of the α-globin genes

Gene transcript profiles of the TIA biosynthetic pathway in response to ethylene and copper reveal their interactive role in modulating TIA biosynthesis in Catharanthus roseus.

Science.gov (United States)

Pan, Ya-Jie; Liu, Jia; Guo, Xiao-Rui; Zu, Yuan-Gang; Tang, Zhong-Hua

2015-05-01

Research on transcriptional regulation of terpenoid indole alkaloid (TIA) biosynthesis of the medicinal plant, Catharanthus roseus, has largely been focused on gene function and not clustering analysis of multiple genes at the transcript level. Here, more than ten key genes encoding key enzyme of alkaloid synthesis in TIA biosynthetic pathways were chosen to investigate the integrative responses to exogenous elicitor ethylene and copper (Cu) at both transcriptional and metabolic levels. The ethylene-induced gene transcripts in leaves and roots, respectively, were subjected to principal component analysis (PCA) and the results showed the overall expression of TIA pathway genes indicated as the Q value followed a standard normal distribution after ethylene treatments. Peak gene expression was at 15-30 μM of ethephon, and the pre-mature leaf had a higher Q value than the immature or mature leaf and root. Treatment with elicitor Cu found that Cu up-regulated overall TIA gene expression more in roots than in leaves. The combined effects of Cu and ethephon on TIA gene expression were stronger than their separate effects. It has been documented that TIA gene expression is tightly regulated by the transcriptional factor (TF) ethylene responsive factor (ERF) and mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) cascade. The loading plot combination with correlation analysis for the genes of C. roseus showed that expression of the MPK gene correlated with strictosidine synthase (STR) and strictosidine b-D-glucosidase(SGD). In addition, ERF expression correlated with expression of secologanin synthase (SLS) and tryptophan decarboxylase (TDC), specifically in roots, whereas MPK and myelocytomatosis oncogene (MYC) correlated with STR and SGD genes. In conclusion, the ERF regulates the upstream pathway genes in response to heavy metal Cu mainly in C. roseus roots, while the MPK mainly participates in regulating the STR gene in response to ethylene in pre-mature leaf. Interestingly, the

Targeted Gene Disruption of the Cyclo (L-Phe, L-Pro Biosynthetic Pathway in Streptomyces sp. US24 Strain

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Samiha Sioud

2007-01-01

Full Text Available We have previously isolated a new actinomycete strain from Tunisian soil called Streptomyces sp. US24, and have shown that it produces two bioactive molecules including a Cyclo (L-Phe, L-Pro diketopiperazine (DKP. To identify the structural genes responsible for the synthesis of this DKP derivative, a PCR amplification (696 bp was carried out using the Streptomyces sp. US24 genomic DNA as template and two degenerate oligonucleotides designed by analogy with genes encoding peptide synthetases (NRPS. The detection of DKP derivative biosynthetic pathway of the Streptomyces sp. US24 strain was then achieved by gene disruption via homologous recombination using a suicide vector derived from the conjugative plasmid pSET152 and containing the PCR product. Chromatography analysis, biological tests and spectroscopic studies of supernatant cultures of the wild-type Streptomyces sp. US24 strain and three mutants obtained by this gene targeting disruption approach showed that the amplified DNA fragment is required for Cyclo (L-Phe, L-Pro biosynthesis in Streptomyces sp. US24 strain. This DKP derivative seems to be produced either directly via a nonribosomal pathway or as a side product in the course of nonribosomal synthesis of a longer peptide.

Dominant control region of the human β- like globin gene cluster

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Blom van Assendelft, Margaretha van

1989-01-01

The structure and regulation of the human β -like globin gene cluster has been studied extensively. Genetic disorders connected with this gene cluster are responsible for human diseases associated with high levels of morbidity and mortality, such as β-thalassaemia and sickle cell anaemia. The work

Identification, characterization and metagenome analysis of oocyte-specific genes organized in clusters in the mouse genome

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Vaiman Daniel

2005-05-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Genes specifically expressed in the oocyte play key roles in oogenesis, ovarian folliculogenesis, fertilization and/or early embryonic development. In an attempt to identify novel oocyte-specific genes in the mouse, we have used an in silico subtraction methodology, and we have focused our attention on genes that are organized in genomic clusters. Results In the present work, five clusters have been studied: a cluster of thirteen genes characterized by an F-box domain localized on chromosome 9, a cluster of six genes related to T-cell leukaemia/lymphoma protein 1 (Tcl1 on chromosome 12, a cluster composed of a SPErm-associated glutamate (E-Rich (Speer protein expressed in the oocyte in the vicinity of four unknown genes specifically expressed in the testis on chromosome 14, a cluster composed of the oocyte secreted protein-1 (Oosp-1 gene and two Oosp-related genes on chromosome 19, all three being characterized by a partial N-terminal zona pellucida-like domain, and another small cluster of two genes on chromosome 19 as well, composed of a TWIK-Related spinal cord K+ channel encoding-gene, and an unknown gene predicted in silico to be testis-specific. The specificity of expression was confirmed by RT-PCR and in situ hybridization for eight and five of them, respectively. Finally, we showed by comparing all of the isolated and clustered oocyte-specific genes identified so far in the mouse genome, that the oocyte-specific clusters are significantly closer to telomeres than isolated oocyte-specific genes are. Conclusion We have studied five clusters of genes specifically expressed in female, some of them being also expressed in male germ-cells. Moreover, contrarily to non-clustered oocyte-specific genes, those that are organized in clusters tend to map near chromosome ends, suggesting that this specific near-telomere position of oocyte-clusters in rodents could constitute an evolutionary advantage. Understanding the biological

A Proteomic Approach to Investigating Gene Cluster Expression and Secondary Metabolite Functionality in Aspergillus fumigatus

Science.gov (United States)

Owens, Rebecca A.; Hammel, Stephen; Sheridan, Kevin J.; Jones, Gary W.; Doyle, Sean

2014-01-01

A combined proteomics and metabolomics approach was utilised to advance the identification and characterisation of secondary metabolites in Aspergillus fumigatus. Here, implementation of a shotgun proteomic strategy led to the identification of non-redundant mycelial proteins (n = 414) from A. fumigatus including proteins typically under-represented in 2-D proteome maps: proteins with multiple transmembrane regions, hydrophobic proteins and proteins with extremes of molecular mass and pI. Indirect identification of secondary metabolite cluster expression was also achieved, with proteins (n = 18) from LaeA-regulated clusters detected, including GliT encoded within the gliotoxin biosynthetic cluster. Biochemical analysis then revealed that gliotoxin significantly attenuates H2O2-induced oxidative stress in A. fumigatus (p>0.0001), confirming observations from proteomics data. A complementary 2-D/LC-MS/MS approach further elucidated significantly increased abundance (pproteome and experimental strategies, plus mechanistic data pertaining to gliotoxin functionality in the organism. PMID:25198175

Genetic analysis of the capsular biosynthetic locus from all 90 pneumococcal serotypes.

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Stephen D Bentley

2006-03-01

Full Text Available Several major invasive bacterial pathogens are encapsulated. Expression of a polysaccharide capsule is essential for survival in the blood, and thus for virulence, but also is a target for host antibodies and the basis for effective vaccines. Encapsulated species typically exhibit antigenic variation and express one of a number of immunochemically distinct capsular polysaccharides that define serotypes. We provide the sequences of the capsular biosynthetic genes of all 90 serotypes of Streptococcus pneumoniae and relate these to the known polysaccharide structures and patterns of immunological reactivity of typing sera, thereby providing the most complete understanding of the genetics and origins of bacterial polysaccharide diversity, laying the foundations for molecular serotyping. This is the first time, to our knowledge, that a complete repertoire of capsular biosynthetic genes has been available, enabling a holistic analysis of a bacterial polysaccharide biosynthesis system. Remarkably, the total size of alternative coding DNA at this one locus exceeds 1.8 Mbp, almost equivalent to the entire S. pneumoniae chromosomal complement.

In silico exploration of Red Sea Bacillus genomes for natural product biosynthetic gene clusters

KAUST Repository

Othoum, Ghofran K; Bougouffa, Salim; Razali, Rozaimi; Bokhari, Ameerah; Alamoudi, Soha; Antunes, André ; Gao, Xin; Hoehndorf, Robert; Arold, Stefan T.; Gojobori, Takashi; Hirt, Heribert; Mijakovic, Ivan; Bajic, Vladimir B.; Lafi, Feras Fawzi; Essack, Magbubah

2018-01-01

are better potential sources for novel antibiotics. Moreover, the genome of the Red Sea strain B. paralicheniformis Bac48 is more enriched in modular PKS genes compared to B. licheniformis strains and other B. paralicheniformis strains. This may be linked

Hessian regularization based non-negative matrix factorization for gene expression data clustering.

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Liu, Xiao; Shi, Jun; Wang, Congzhi

2015-01-01

Since a key step in the analysis of gene expression data is to detect groups of genes that have similar expression patterns, clustering technique is then commonly used to analyze gene expression data. Data representation plays an important role in clustering analysis. The non-negative matrix factorization (NMF) is a widely used data representation method with great success in machine learning. Although the traditional manifold regularization method, Laplacian regularization (LR), can improve the performance of NMF, LR still suffers from the problem of its weak extrapolating power. Hessian regularization (HR) is a newly developed manifold regularization method, whose natural properties make it more extrapolating, especially for small sample data. In this work, we propose the HR-based NMF (HR-NMF) algorithm, and then apply it to represent gene expression data for further clustering task. The clustering experiments are conducted on five commonly used gene datasets, and the results indicate that the proposed HR-NMF outperforms LR-based NMM and original NMF, which suggests the potential application of HR-NMF for gene expression data.

Identification of the First Riboflavin Catabolic Gene Cluster Isolated from Microbacterium maritypicum G10*

OpenAIRE

Xu, Hui; Chakrabarty, Yindrila; Philmus, Benjamin; Mehta, Angad P.; Bhandari, Dhananjay; Hohmann, Hans-Peter; Begley, Tadhg P.

2016-01-01

Riboflavin is a common cofactor, and its biosynthetic pathway is well characterized. However, its catabolic pathway, despite intriguing hints in a few distinct organisms, has never been established. This article describes the isolation of a Microbacterium maritypicum riboflavin catabolic strain, and the cloning of the riboflavin catabolic genes. RcaA, RcaB, RcaD, and RcaE were overexpressed and biochemically characterized as riboflavin kinase, riboflavin reductase, ribokinase, and riboflavin ...

Conservation of gene linkage in dispersed vertebrate NK homeobox clusters.

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Wotton, Karl R; Weierud, Frida K; Juárez-Morales, José L; Alvares, Lúcia E; Dietrich, Susanne; Lewis, Katharine E

2009-10-01

Nk homeobox genes are important regulators of many different developmental processes including muscle, heart, central nervous system and sensory organ development. They are thought to have arisen as part of the ANTP megacluster, which also gave rise to Hox and ParaHox genes, and at least some NK genes remain tightly linked in all animals examined so far. The protostome-deuterostome ancestor probably contained a cluster of nine Nk genes: (Msx)-(Nk4/tinman)-(Nk3/bagpipe)-(Lbx/ladybird)-(Tlx/c15)-(Nk7)-(Nk6/hgtx)-(Nk1/slouch)-(Nk5/Hmx). Of these genes, only NKX2.6-NKX3.1, LBX1-TLX1 and LBX2-TLX2 remain tightly linked in humans. However, it is currently unclear whether this is unique to the human genome as we do not know which of these Nk genes are clustered in other vertebrates. This makes it difficult to assess whether the remaining linkages are due to selective pressures or because chance rearrangements have "missed" certain genes. In this paper, we identify all of the paralogs of these ancestrally clustered NK genes in several distinct vertebrates. We demonstrate that tight linkages of Lbx1-Tlx1, Lbx2-Tlx2 and Nkx3.1-Nkx2.6 have been widely maintained in both the ray-finned and lobe-finned fish lineages. Moreover, the recently duplicated Hmx2-Hmx3 genes are also tightly linked. Finally, we show that Lbx1-Tlx1 and Hmx2-Hmx3 are flanked by highly conserved noncoding elements, suggesting that shared regulatory regions may have resulted in evolutionary pressure to maintain these linkages. Consistent with this, these pairs of genes have overlapping expression domains. In contrast, Lbx2-Tlx2 and Nkx3.1-Nkx2.6, which do not seem to be coexpressed, are also not associated with conserved noncoding sequences, suggesting that an alternative mechanism may be responsible for the continued clustering of these genes.

Integrating Data Clustering and Visualization for the Analysis of 3D Gene Expression Data

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Data Analysis and Visualization (IDAV) and the Department of Computer Science, University of California, Davis, One Shields Avenue, Davis CA 95616, USA,; nternational Research Training Group ``Visualization of Large and Unstructured Data Sets,' ' University of Kaiserslautern, Germany; Computational Research Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, One Cyclotron Road, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA; Genomics Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, One Cyclotron Road, Berkeley CA 94720, USA; Life Sciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, One Cyclotron Road, Berkeley CA 94720, USA,; Computer Science Division,University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA,; Computer Science Department, University of California, Irvine, CA, USA,; All authors are with the Berkeley Drosophila Transcription Network Project, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory,; Rubel, Oliver; Weber, Gunther H.; Huang, Min-Yu; Bethel, E. Wes; Biggin, Mark D.; Fowlkes, Charless C.; Hendriks, Cris L. Luengo; Keranen, Soile V. E.; Eisen, Michael B.; Knowles, David W.; Malik, Jitendra; Hagen, Hans; Hamann, Bernd

2008-05-12

The recent development of methods for extracting precise measurements of spatial gene expression patterns from three-dimensional (3D) image data opens the way for new analyses of the complex gene regulatory networks controlling animal development. We present an integrated visualization and analysis framework that supports user-guided data clustering to aid exploration of these new complex datasets. The interplay of data visualization and clustering-based data classification leads to improved visualization and enables a more detailed analysis than previously possible. We discuss (i) integration of data clustering and visualization into one framework; (ii) application of data clustering to 3D gene expression data; (iii) evaluation of the number of clusters k in the context of 3D gene expression clustering; and (iv) improvement of overall analysis quality via dedicated post-processing of clustering results based on visualization. We discuss the use of this framework to objectively define spatial pattern boundaries and temporal profiles of genes and to analyze how mRNA patterns are controlled by their regulatory transcription factors.

HOXA genes cluster: clinical implications of the smallest deletion

OpenAIRE

Pezzani, Lidia; Milani, Donatella; Manzoni, Francesca; Baccarin, Marco; Silipigni, Rosamaria; Guerneri, Silvana; Esposito, Susanna

2015-01-01

Background HOXA genes cluster plays a fundamental role in embryologic development. Deletion of the entire cluster is known to cause a clinically recognizable syndrome with mild developmental delay, characteristic facies, small feet with unusually short and big halluces, abnormal thumbs, and urogenital malformations. The clinical manifestations may vary with different ranges of deletions of HOXA cluster and flanking regions. Case presentation We report a girl with the smallest deletion reporte...

Reconstitution of Biosynthetic Machinery for the Synthesis of the Highly Elaborated Indole Diterpene Penitrem

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Liu, Chengwei; Tagami, Koichi; Minami, Atsushi

2015-01-01

KULNJ). Importantly, without conventional gene disruption, reconstitution of the biosynthetic machinery provided sufficient data to determine the pathway. It was thus demonstrated that the Aspergillus oryzae reconstitution system is a powerful method for studying the biosynthesis of complex natural products....

Gene identification and protein classification in microbial metagenomic sequence data via incremental clustering

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Li Weizhong

2008-04-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background The identification and study of proteins from metagenomic datasets can shed light on the roles and interactions of the source organisms in their communities. However, metagenomic datasets are characterized by the presence of organisms with varying GC composition, codon usage biases etc., and consequently gene identification is challenging. The vast amount of sequence data also requires faster protein family classification tools. Results We present a computational improvement to a sequence clustering approach that we developed previously to identify and classify protein coding genes in large microbial metagenomic datasets. The clustering approach can be used to identify protein coding genes in prokaryotes, viruses, and intron-less eukaryotes. The computational improvement is based on an incremental clustering method that does not require the expensive all-against-all compute that was required by the original approach, while still preserving the remote homology detection capabilities. We present evaluations of the clustering approach in protein-coding gene identification and classification, and also present the results of updating the protein clusters from our previous work with recent genomic and metagenomic sequences. The clustering results are available via CAMERA, (http://camera.calit2.net. Conclusion The clustering paradigm is shown to be a very useful tool in the analysis of microbial metagenomic data. The incremental clustering method is shown to be much faster than the original approach in identifying genes, grouping sequences into existing protein families, and also identifying novel families that have multiple members in a metagenomic dataset. These clusters provide a basis for further studies of protein families.

Dual biosynthetic pathways to phytosterol via cycloartenol and lanosterol in Arabidopsis.

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Ohyama, Kiyoshi; Suzuki, Masashi; Kikuchi, Jun; Saito, Kazuki; Muranaka, Toshiya

2009-01-20

The differences between the biosynthesis of sterols in higher plants and yeast/mammals are believed to originate at the cyclization step of oxidosqualene, which is cyclized to cycloartenol in higher plants and lanosterol in yeast/mammals. Recently, lanosterol synthase genes were identified from dicotyledonous plant species including Arabidopsis, suggesting that higher plants possess dual biosynthetic pathways to phytosterols via lanosterol, and through cycloartenol. To identify the biosynthetic pathway to phytosterol via lanosterol, and to reveal the contributions to phytosterol biosynthesis via each cycloartenol and lanosterol, we performed feeding experiments by using [6-(13)C(2)H(3)]mevalonate with Arabidopsis seedlings. Applying (13)C-{(1)H}{(2)H} nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) techniques, the elucidation of deuterium on C-19 behavior of phytosterol provided evidence that small amounts of phytosterol were biosynthesized via lanosterol. The levels of phytosterol increased on overexpression of LAS1, and phytosterols derived from lanosterol were not observed in a LAS1-knockout plant. This is direct evidence to indicate that the biosynthetic pathway for phytosterol via lanosterol exists in plant cells. We designate the biosynthetic pathway to phytosterols via lanosterol "the lanosterol pathway." LAS1 expression is reported to be induced by the application of jasmonate and is thought to have evolved from an ancestral cycloartenol synthase to a triterpenoid synthase, such as beta-amyrin synthase and lupeol synthase. Considering this background, the lanosterol pathway may contribute to the biosynthesis of not only phytosterols, but also steroids as secondary metabolites.

Sequence diversity and differential expression of major phenylpropanoid-flavonoid biosynthetic genes among three mango varieties.

Science.gov (United States)

Hoang, Van L T; Innes, David J; Shaw, P Nicholas; Monteith, Gregory R; Gidley, Michael J; Dietzgen, Ralf G

2015-07-30

Mango fruits contain a broad spectrum of phenolic compounds which impart potential health benefits; their biosynthesis is catalysed by enzymes in the phenylpropanoid-flavonoid (PF) pathway. The aim of this study was to reveal the variability in genes involved in the PF pathway in three different mango varieties Mangifera indica L., a member of the family Anacardiaceae: Kensington Pride (KP), Irwin (IW) and Nam Doc Mai (NDM) and to determine associations with gene expression and mango flavonoid profiles. A close evolutionary relationship between mango genes and those from the woody species poplar of the Salicaceae family (Populus trichocarpa) and grape of the Vitaceae family (Vitis vinifera), was revealed through phylogenetic analysis of PF pathway genes. We discovered 145 SNPs in total within coding sequences with an average frequency of one SNP every 316 bp. Variety IW had the highest SNP frequency (one SNP every 258 bp) while KP and NDM had similar frequencies (one SNP every 369 bp and 360 bp, respectively). The position in the PF pathway appeared to influence the extent of genetic diversity of the encoded enzymes. The entry point enzymes phenylalanine lyase (PAL), cinnamate 4-mono-oxygenase (C4H) and chalcone synthase (CHS) had low levels of SNP diversity in their coding sequences, whereas anthocyanidin reductase (ANR) showed the highest SNP frequency followed by flavonoid 3'-hydroxylase (F3'H). Quantitative PCR revealed characteristic patterns of gene expression that differed between mango peel and flesh, and between varieties. The combination of mango expressed sequence tags and availability of well-established reference PF biosynthetic genes from other plant species allowed the identification of coding sequences of genes that may lead to the formation of important flavonoid compounds in mango fruits and facilitated characterisation of single nucleotide polymorphisms between varieties. We discovered an association between the extent of sequence variation and

Secondary metabolite gene clusters in the entomopathogen fungus Metarhizium anisopliae: genome identification and patterns of expression in a cuticle infection model

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Nicolau Sbaraini

2016-10-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background The described species from the Metarhizium genus are cosmopolitan fungi that infect arthropod hosts. Interestingly, while some species infect a wide range of hosts (host-generalists, other species infect only a few arthropods (host-specialists. This singular evolutionary trait permits unique comparisons to determine how pathogens and virulence determinants emerge. Among the several virulence determinants that have been described, secondary metabolites (SMs are suggested to play essential roles during fungal infection. Despite progress in the study of pathogen-host relationships, the majority of genes related to SM production in Metarhizium spp. are uncharacterized, and little is known about their genomic organization, expression and regulation. To better understand how infection conditions may affect SM production in Metarhizium anisopliae, we have performed a deep survey and description of SM biosynthetic gene clusters (BGCs in M. anisopliae, analyzed RNA-seq data from fungi grown on cattle-tick cuticles, evaluated the differential expression of BGCs, and assessed conservation among the Metarhizium genus. Furthermore, our analysis extended to the construction of a phylogeny for the following three BGCs: a tropolone/citrinin-related compound (MaPKS1, a pseurotin-related compound (MaNRPS-PKS2, and a putative helvolic acid (MaTERP1. Results Among 73 BGCs identified in M. anisopliae, 20 % were up-regulated during initial tick cuticle infection and presumably possess virulence-related roles. These up-regulated BGCs include known clusters, such as destruxin, NG39x and ferricrocin, together with putative helvolic acid and, pseurotin and tropolone/citrinin-related compound clusters as well as uncharacterized clusters. Furthermore, several previously characterized and putative BGCs were silent or down-regulated in initial infection conditions, indicating minor participation over the course of infection. Interestingly, several up

Clustering gene expression regulators: new approach to disease subtyping.

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Mikhail Pyatnitskiy

Full Text Available One of the main challenges in modern medicine is to stratify different patient groups in terms of underlying disease molecular mechanisms as to develop more personalized approach to therapy. Here we propose novel method for disease subtyping based on analysis of activated expression regulators on a sample-by-sample basis. Our approach relies on Sub-Network Enrichment Analysis algorithm (SNEA which identifies gene subnetworks with significant concordant changes in expression between two conditions. Subnetwork consists of central regulator and downstream genes connected by relations extracted from global literature-extracted regulation database. Regulators found in each patient separately are clustered together and assigned activity scores which are used for final patients grouping. We show that our approach performs well compared to other related methods and at the same time provides researchers with complementary level of understanding of pathway-level biology behind a disease by identification of significant expression regulators. We have observed the reasonable grouping of neuromuscular disorders (triggered by structural damage vs triggered by unknown mechanisms, that was not revealed using standard expression profile clustering. For another experiment we were able to suggest the clusters of regulators, responsible for colorectal carcinoma vs adenoma discrimination and identify frequently genetically changed regulators that could be of specific importance for the individual characteristics of cancer development. Proposed approach can be regarded as biologically meaningful feature selection, reducing tens of thousands of genes down to dozens of clusters of regulators. Obtained clusters of regulators make possible to generate valuable biological hypotheses about molecular mechanisms related to a clinical outcome for individual patient.

Perturbations of carotenoid and tetrapyrrole biosynthetic pathways result in differential alterations in chloroplast function and plastid signaling

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Park, Joon-Heum; Jung, Sunyo

2017-01-01

In this study, we used the biosynthetic inhibitors of carotenoid and tetrapyrrole biosynthetic pathways, norflurazon (NF) and oxyfluorfen (OF), as tools to gain insight into mechanisms of photooxidation in rice plants. NF resulted in bleaching symptom on leaves of the treated plants, whereas OF treatment developed a fast symptom of an apparent necrotic phenotype. Both plants exhibited decreases in photosynthetic efficiency, as indicated by F v /F m . NF caused severe disruption in thylakoid membranes, whereas OF-treated plants exhibited disruption of chloroplast envelope and plasma membrane. Levels of Lhca and Lhcb proteins in photosystem I (PSI) and PSII were reduced by photooxidative stress in NF- and OF-treated plants, with a greater decrease in NF plants. The down-regulation of nuclear-encoded photosynthesis genes Lhcb and rbcS was also found in both NF- and OF-treated plants, whereas plastid-encoded photosynthetic genes including RbcL, PsaC, and PsbD accumulated normally in NF plants but decreased drastically in OF plants. This proposes that the plastids in NF plants retain their potential to develop thylakoid membranes and that photobleaching is mainly controlled by nuclear genes. Distinct photooxidation patterns between NF- and OF-treated plants developed differential signaling, which might enable the plant to coordinate the expression of photosynthetic genes from the nuclear and plastidic genomes. - Highlights: • Two modes of photooxidation by carotenoid and tetrapyrrole biosynthetic inhibitors. • We examine differential alterations in chloroplast function and plastid signaling. • NF and OF cause differential alterations in chloroplast ultrastructure and function. • Photooxidation coordinates photosynthetic gene expression from nucleus and plastid.

Evolutionary conservation of regulatory elements in vertebrate HOX gene clusters

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Santini, Simona; Boore, Jeffrey L.; Meyer, Axel

2003-12-31

Due to their high degree of conservation, comparisons of DNA sequences among evolutionarily distantly-related genomes permit to identify functional regions in noncoding DNA. Hox genes are optimal candidate sequences for comparative genome analyses, because they are extremely conserved in vertebrates and occur in clusters. We aligned (Pipmaker) the nucleotide sequences of HoxA clusters of tilapia, pufferfish, striped bass, zebrafish, horn shark, human and mouse (over 500 million years of evolutionary distance). We identified several highly conserved intergenic sequences, likely to be important in gene regulation. Only a few of these putative regulatory elements have been previously described as being involved in the regulation of Hox genes, while several others are new elements that might have regulatory functions. The majority of these newly identified putative regulatory elements contain short fragments that are almost completely conserved and are identical to known binding sites for regulatory proteins (Transfac). The conserved intergenic regions located between the most rostrally expressed genes in the developing embryo are longer and better retained through evolution. We document that presumed regulatory sequences are retained differentially in either A or A clusters resulting from a genome duplication in the fish lineage. This observation supports both the hypothesis that the conserved elements are involved in gene regulation and the Duplication-Deletion-Complementation model.

Environmental cues induce changes of steviol glycosides contents and transcription of corresponding biosynthetic genes in Stevia rebaudiana.

Science.gov (United States)

Yang, Yongheng; Huang, Suzhen; Han, Yulin; Yuan, Haiyan; Gu, Chunsun; Wang, Zhongwei

2015-01-01

Plant growth and secondary metabolism are commonly regulated by external cues such as light, temperature and water availability. In this study, the influences of low and high temperatures, dehydration, photoperiods, and different growing stages on the changes of steviol glycosides (SGs) contents and transcription levels of fifteen genes involved in SGs biosynthesis of Stevia rebaudiana Bertoni were examined using HPLC and RT-PCR. The observations showed that the transcript levels of all the fifteen genes were maximum under 25 °C treatment, and the transcription of SrDXS, SrDXR, SrMCT, SrCMK, SrMDS, SrHDS, SrHDR, SrIDI, SrGGDPS, SrCPPS1, SrUGT85C2 and SrUGT76G1 were restrained both in low temperature (15 °C) and high temperature (35 °C). Most genes in SGs biosynthesis pathway exhibited down-regulation in dehydration. To elucidate the effect of photoperiods, the plants were treated by different simulated photoperiods (8 L/16 D, 1 0L/14 D, 14 L/10 D and 16 L/8 D), but no significant transcription changes were observed. In the study of growing stages, there were evident changes of SGs contents, and the transcript levels of all the fifteen genes were minimal in fast growing period, and exhibited evident increase both in flower-bud appearing stage and flowering stage. The obtained results strongly suggest that the effect of environmental cues on steviol glycosides contents and transcription of corresponding biosynthetic genes in S. rebaudiana is significant. It is worth to study deeply. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.

ICGE: an R package for detecting relevant clusters and atypical units in gene expression

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Irigoien Itziar

2012-02-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Gene expression technologies have opened up new ways to diagnose and treat cancer and other diseases. Clustering algorithms are a useful approach with which to analyze genome expression data. They attempt to partition the genes into groups exhibiting similar patterns of variation in expression level. An important problem associated with gene classification is to discern whether the clustering process can find a relevant partition as well as the identification of new genes classes. There are two key aspects to classification: the estimation of the number of clusters, and the decision as to whether a new unit (gene, tumor sample... belongs to one of these previously identified clusters or to a new group. Results ICGE is a user-friendly R package which provides many functions related to this problem: identify the number of clusters using mixed variables, usually found by applied biomedical researchers; detect whether the data have a cluster structure; identify whether a new unit belongs to one of the pre-identified clusters or to a novel group, and classify new units into the corresponding cluster. The functions in the ICGE package are accompanied by help files and easy examples to facilitate its use. Conclusions We demonstrate the utility of ICGE by analyzing simulated and real data sets. The results show that ICGE could be very useful to a broad research community.

Designing universal primers for the isolation of DNA sequences encoding Proanthocyanidins biosynthetic enzymes in Crataegus aronia

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Zuiter Afnan

2012-08-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Hawthorn is the common name of all plant species in the genus Crataegus, which belongs to the Rosaceae family. Crataegus are considered useful medicinal plants because of their high content of proanthocyanidins (PAs and other related compounds. To improve PAs production in Crataegus tissues, the sequences of genes encoding PAs biosynthetic enzymes are required. Findings Different bioinformatics tools, including BLAST, multiple sequence alignment and alignment PCR analysis were used to design primers suitable for the amplification of DNA fragments from 10 candidate genes encoding enzymes involved in PAs biosynthesis in C. aronia. DNA sequencing results proved the utility of the designed primers. The primers were used successfully to amplify DNA fragments of different PAs biosynthesis genes in different Rosaceae plants. Conclusion To the best of our knowledge, this is the first use of the alignment PCR approach to isolate DNA sequences encoding PAs biosynthetic enzymes in Rosaceae plants.

A Link-Based Cluster Ensemble Approach For Improved Gene Expression Data Analysis

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P.Balaji

2015-01-01

Full Text Available Abstract It is difficult from possibilities to select a most suitable effective way of clustering algorithm and its dataset for a defined set of gene expression data because we have a huge number of ways and huge number of gene expressions. At present many researchers are preferring to use hierarchical clustering in different forms this is no more totally optimal. Cluster ensemble research can solve this type of problem by automatically merging multiple data partitions from a wide range of different clusterings of any dimensions to improve both the quality and robustness of the clustering result. But we have many existing ensemble approaches using an association matrix to condense sample-cluster and co-occurrence statistics and relations within the ensemble are encapsulated only at raw level while the existing among clusters are totally discriminated. Finding these missing associations can greatly expand the capability of those ensemble methodologies for microarray data clustering. We propose general K-means cluster ensemble approach for the clustering of general categorical data into required number of partitions.

Construction of an engineering strain which knocked out the gene of thioesterase for Streptomyces parvus HCCB10043 and the reach of metabolites

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YIN Fang

2013-08-01

Full Text Available The major metabolites of Streptomyces parvus HCCB10043 is lipopeptide compounds A21978C,its genome sequence includes the non ribosomal peptide synthetase(NRPS,polyketide synthases(PKS and hybrid NRPS-PKS multi-enzyme system gene clusters,they do have a their common feature in the metabolite biosynthetic cluster,which is called TE domain as well.Thioesterase can synthesized the synthesis of compounds of the chain termination,and with functions to release mature lipopeptide hydrolysis and cyclized peptide chain aliphatic linear.This study,we knockout the TE domain of a gene cluster,which guide the biosynthesis of bipyridine,to obtain engineered bacteria.The fermentation results demonstrates reduced yields for metabolites 2,2′-Bipyridine (2,2′-BP.

Cloning and characterization of genes involved in nostoxanthin biosynthesis of Sphingomonas elodea ATCC 31461.

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Liang Zhu

Full Text Available Most Sphingomonas species synthesize the yellow carotenoid nostoxanthin. However, the carotenoid biosynthetic pathway of these species remains unclear. In this study, we cloned and characterized a carotenoid biosynthesis gene cluster containing four carotenogenic genes (crtG, crtY, crtI and crtB and a β-carotene hydroxylase gene (crtZ located outside the cluster, from the gellan-gum producing bacterium Sphingomonas elodea ATCC 31461. Each of these genes was inactivated, and the biochemical function of each gene was confirmed based on chromatographic and spectroscopic analysis of the intermediates accumulated in the knockout mutants. Moreover, the crtG gene encoding the 2,2'-β-hydroxylase and the crtZ gene encoding the β-carotene hydroxylase, both responsible for hydroxylation of β-carotene, were confirmed by complementation studies using Escherichia coli producing different carotenoids. Expression of crtG in zeaxanthin and β-carotene accumulating E. coli cells resulted in the formation of nostoxanthin and 2,2'-dihydroxy-β-carotene, respectively. Based on these results, a biochemical pathway for synthesis of nostoxanthin in S. elodea ATCC 31461 is proposed.

Cloning and characterization of genes involved in nostoxanthin biosynthesis of Sphingomonas elodea ATCC 31461.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhu, Liang; Wu, Xuechang; Li, Ou; Qian, Chaodong; Gao, Haichun

2012-01-01

Most Sphingomonas species synthesize the yellow carotenoid nostoxanthin. However, the carotenoid biosynthetic pathway of these species remains unclear. In this study, we cloned and characterized a carotenoid biosynthesis gene cluster containing four carotenogenic genes (crtG, crtY, crtI and crtB) and a β-carotene hydroxylase gene (crtZ) located outside the cluster, from the gellan-gum producing bacterium Sphingomonas elodea ATCC 31461. Each of these genes was inactivated, and the biochemical function of each gene was confirmed based on chromatographic and spectroscopic analysis of the intermediates accumulated in the knockout mutants. Moreover, the crtG gene encoding the 2,2'-β-hydroxylase and the crtZ gene encoding the β-carotene hydroxylase, both responsible for hydroxylation of β-carotene, were confirmed by complementation studies using Escherichia coli producing different carotenoids. Expression of crtG in zeaxanthin and β-carotene accumulating E. coli cells resulted in the formation of nostoxanthin and 2,2'-dihydroxy-β-carotene, respectively. Based on these results, a biochemical pathway for synthesis of nostoxanthin in S. elodea ATCC 31461 is proposed.

Activation and clustering of a Plasmodium falciparum var gene are affected by subtelomeric sequences.

Science.gov (United States)

Duffy, Michael F; Tang, Jingyi; Sumardy, Fransisca; Nguyen, Hanh H T; Selvarajah, Shamista A; Josling, Gabrielle A; Day, Karen P; Petter, Michaela; Brown, Graham V

2017-01-01

The Plasmodium falciparum var multigene family encodes the cytoadhesive, variant antigen PfEMP1. P. falciparum antigenic variation and cytoadhesion specificity are controlled by epigenetic switching between the single, or few, simultaneously expressed var genes. Most var genes are maintained in perinuclear clusters of heterochromatic telomeres. The active var gene(s) occupy a single, perinuclear var expression site. It is unresolved whether the var expression site forms in situ at a telomeric cluster or whether it is an extant compartment to which single chromosomes travel, thus controlling var switching. Here we show that transcription of a var gene did not require decreased colocalisation with clusters of telomeres, supporting var expression site formation in situ. However following recombination within adjacent subtelomeric sequences, the same var gene was persistently activated and did colocalise less with telomeric clusters. Thus, participation in stable, heterochromatic, telomere clusters and var switching are independent but are both affected by subtelomeric sequences. The var expression site colocalised with the euchromatic mark H3K27ac to a greater extent than it did with heterochromatic H3K9me3. H3K27ac was enriched within the active var gene promoter even when the var gene was transiently repressed in mature parasites and thus H3K27ac may contribute to var gene epigenetic memory. © 2016 Federation of European Biochemical Societies.

Discovering potential Streptomyces hormone producers by using disruptants of essential biosynthetic genes as indicator strains.

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Thao, Nguyen B; Kitani, Shigeru; Nitta, Hiroko; Tomioka, Toshiya; Nihira, Takuya

2017-10-01

Autoregulators are low-molecular-weight signaling compounds that control the production of many secondary metabolites in actinomycetes and have been referred to as 'Streptomyces hormones'. Here, potential producers of Streptomyces hormones were investigated in 40 Streptomyces and 11 endophytic actinomycetes. Production of γ-butyrolactone-type (IM-2, VB) and butenolide-type (avenolide) Streptomyces hormones was screened using Streptomyces lavendulae FRI-5 (ΔfarX), Streptomyces virginiae (ΔbarX) and Streptomyces avermitilis (Δaco), respectively. In these strains, essential biosynthetic genes for Streptomyces hormones were disrupted, enabling them to respond solely to the externally added hormones. The results showed that 20% of each of the investigated strains produced IM-2 and VB, confirming that γ-butyrolactone-type Streptomyces hormones are the most common in actinomycetes. Unlike the γ-butyrolactone type, butenolide-type Streptomyces hormones have been discovered in recent years, but their distribution has been unclear. Our finding that 24% of actinomycetes (12 of 51 strains) showed avenolide activity revealed for the first time that the butenolide-type Streptomyces hormone is also common in actinomycetes.

Physical and genetic map of the major nif gene cluster from Azotobacter vinelandii.

OpenAIRE

Jacobson, M R; Brigle, K E; Bennett, L T; Setterquist, R A; Wilson, M S; Cash, V L; Beynon, J; Newton, W E; Dean, D R

1989-01-01

Determination of a 28,793-base-pair DNA sequence of a region from the Azotobacter vinelandii genome that includes and flanks the nitrogenase structural gene region was completed. This information was used to revise the previously proposed organization of the major nif cluster. The major nif cluster from A. vinelandii encodes 15 nif-specific genes whose products bear significant structural identity to the corresponding nif-specific gene products from Klebsiella pneumoniae. These genes include ...

Evolution of the C-Type Lectin-Like Receptor Genes of the DECTIN-1 Cluster in the NK Gene Complex

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Susanne Sattler

2012-01-01

Full Text Available Pattern recognition receptors are crucial in initiating and shaping innate and adaptive immune responses and often belong to families of structurally and evolutionarily related proteins. The human C-type lectin-like receptors encoded in the DECTIN-1 cluster within the NK gene complex contain prominent receptors with pattern recognition function, such as DECTIN-1 and LOX-1. All members of this cluster share significant homology and are considered to have arisen from subsequent gene duplications. Recent developments in sequencing and the availability of comprehensive sequence data comprising many species showed that the receptors of the DECTIN-1 cluster are not only homologous to each other but also highly conserved between species. Even in Caenorhabditis elegans, genes displaying homology to the mammalian C-type lectin-like receptors have been detected. In this paper, we conduct a comprehensive phylogenetic survey and give an up-to-date overview of the currently available data on the evolutionary emergence of the DECTIN-1 cluster genes.

GenClust: A genetic algorithm for clustering gene expression data

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Raimondi Alessandra

2005-12-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Clustering is a key step in the analysis of gene expression data, and in fact, many classical clustering algorithms are used, or more innovative ones have been designed and validated for the task. Despite the widespread use of artificial intelligence techniques in bioinformatics and, more generally, data analysis, there are very few clustering algorithms based on the genetic paradigm, yet that paradigm has great potential in finding good heuristic solutions to a difficult optimization problem such as clustering. Results GenClust is a new genetic algorithm for clustering gene expression data. It has two key features: (a a novel coding of the search space that is simple, compact and easy to update; (b it can be used naturally in conjunction with data driven internal validation methods. We have experimented with the FOM methodology, specifically conceived for validating clusters of gene expression data. The validity of GenClust has been assessed experimentally on real data sets, both with the use of validation measures and in comparison with other algorithms, i.e., Average Link, Cast, Click and K-means. Conclusion Experiments show that none of the algorithms we have used is markedly superior to the others across data sets and validation measures; i.e., in many cases the observed differences between the worst and best performing algorithm may be statistically insignificant and they could be considered equivalent. However, there are cases in which an algorithm may be better than others and therefore worthwhile. In particular, experiments for GenClust show that, although simple in its data representation, it converges very rapidly to a local optimum and that its ability to identify meaningful clusters is comparable, and sometimes superior, to that of more sophisticated algorithms. In addition, it is well suited for use in conjunction with data driven internal validation measures and, in particular, the FOM methodology.

Clustering based gene expression feature selection method: A computational approach to enrich the classifier efficiency of differentially expressed genes

KAUST Repository

Abusamra, Heba

2016-07-20

The native nature of high dimension low sample size of gene expression data make the classification task more challenging. Therefore, feature (gene) selection become an apparent need. Selecting a meaningful and relevant genes for classifier not only decrease the computational time and cost, but also improve the classification performance. Among different approaches of feature selection methods, however most of them suffer from several problems such as lack of robustness, validation issues etc. Here, we present a new feature selection technique that takes advantage of clustering both samples and genes. Materials and methods We used leukemia gene expression dataset [1]. The effectiveness of the selected features were evaluated by four different classification methods; support vector machines, k-nearest neighbor, random forest, and linear discriminate analysis. The method evaluate the importance and relevance of each gene cluster by summing the expression level for each gene belongs to this cluster. The gene cluster consider important, if it satisfies conditions depend on thresholds and percentage otherwise eliminated. Results Initial analysis identified 7120 differentially expressed genes of leukemia (Fig. 15a), after applying our feature selection methodology we end up with specific 1117 genes discriminating two classes of leukemia (Fig. 15b). Further applying the same method with more stringent higher positive and lower negative threshold condition, number reduced to 58 genes have be tested to evaluate the effectiveness of the method (Fig. 15c). The results of the four classification methods are summarized in Table 11. Conclusions The feature selection method gave good results with minimum classification error. Our heat-map result shows distinct pattern of refines genes discriminating between two classes of leukemia.

Ultraviolet Radiation-Elicited Enhancement of Isoflavonoid Accumulation, Biosynthetic Gene Expression, and Antioxidant Activity in Astragalus membranaceus Hairy Root Cultures.

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Jiao, Jiao; Gai, Qing-Yan; Wang, Wei; Luo, Meng; Gu, Cheng-Bo; Fu, Yu-Jie; Ma, Wei

2015-09-23

In this work, Astragalus membranaceus hairy root cultures (AMHRCs) were exposed to ultraviolet radiation (UV-A, UV-B, and UV-C) for promoting isoflavonoid accumulation. The optimum enhancement for isoflavonoid production was achieved in 34-day-old AMHRCs elicited by 86.4 kJ/m(2) of UV-B. The resulting isoflavonoid yield was 533.54 ± 13.61 μg/g dry weight (DW), which was 2.29-fold higher relative to control (232.93 ± 3.08 μg/g DW). UV-B up-regulated the transcriptional expressions of all investigated genes involved in isoflavonoid biosynthetic pathway. PAL and C4H were found to be two potential key genes that controlled isoflavonoid biosynthesis. Moreover, a significant increase was noted in antioxidant activity of extracts from UV-B-elicited AMHRCs (IC50 values = 0.85 and 1.08 mg/mL) in comparison with control (1.38 and 1.71 mg/mL). Overall, this study offered a feasible elicitation strategy to enhance isoflavonoid accumulation in AMHRCs and also provided a basis for metabolic engineering of isoflavonoid biosynthesis in the future.

Action of multiple intra-QTL genes concerted around a co-localized transcription factor underpins a large effect QTL

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Dixit, Shalabh; Kumar Biswal, Akshaya; Min, Aye; Henry, Amelia; Oane, Rowena H.; Raorane, Manish L.; Longkumer, Toshisangba; Pabuayon, Isaiah M.; Mutte, Sumanth K.; Vardarajan, Adithi R.; Miro, Berta; Govindan, Ganesan; Albano-Enriquez, Blesilda; Pueffeld, Mandy; Sreenivasulu, Nese; Slamet-Loedin, Inez; Sundarvelpandian, Kalaipandian; Tsai, Yuan-Ching; Raghuvanshi, Saurabh; Hsing, Yue-Ie C.; Kumar, Arvind; Kohli, Ajay

2015-01-01

Sub-QTLs and multiple intra-QTL genes are hypothesized to underpin large-effect QTLs. Known QTLs over gene families, biosynthetic pathways or certain traits represent functional gene-clusters of genes of the same gene ontology (GO). Gene-clusters containing genes of different GO have not been elaborated, except in silico as coexpressed genes within QTLs. Here we demonstrate the requirement of multiple intra-QTL genes for the full impact of QTL qDTY12.1 on rice yield under drought. Multiple evidences are presented for the need of the transcription factor ‘no apical meristem’ (OsNAM12.1) and its co-localized target genes of separate GO categories for qDTY12.1 function, raising a regulon-like model of genetic architecture. The molecular underpinnings of qDTY12.1 support its effectiveness in further improving a drought tolerant genotype and for its validity in multiple genotypes/ecosystems/environments. Resolving the combinatorial value of OsNAM12.1 with individual intra-QTL genes notwithstanding, identification and analyses of qDTY12.1has fast-tracked rice improvement towards food security. PMID:26507552

Functions of some capsular polysaccharide biosynthetic genes in Klebsiella pneumoniae NTUH K-2044.

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Jin-Yuan Ho

Full Text Available The growing number of Klebsiella pneumoniae infections, commonly acquired in hospitals, has drawn great concern. It has been shown that the K1 and K2 capsular serotypes are the most detrimental strains, particularly to those with diabetes. The K1 cps (capsular polysaccharide locus in the NTUH-2044 strain of the pyogenic liver abscess (PLA K. pneumoniae has been identified recently, but little is known about the functions of the genes therein. Here we report characterization of a group of cps genes and their roles in the pathogenesis of K1 K. pneumoniae. By sequential gene deletion, the cps gene cluster was first re-delimited between genes galF and ugd, which serve as up- and down-stream ends, respectively. Eight gene products were characterized in vitro and in vivo to be involved in the syntheses of UDP-glucose, UDP-glucuronic acid and GDP-fucose building units. Twelve genes were identified as virulence factors based on the observation that their deletion mutants became avirulent or lost K1 antigenicity. Furthermore, deletion of kp3706, kp3709 or kp3712 (ΔwcaI, ΔwcaG or Δatf, respectively, which are all involved in fucose biosynthesis, led to a broad range of transcriptional suppression for 52 upstream genes. The genes suppressed include those coding for unknown regulatory membrane proteins and six multidrug efflux system proteins, as well as proteins required for the K1 CPS biosynthesis. In support of the suppression of multidrug efflux genes, we showed that these three mutants became more sensitive to antibiotics. Taken together, the results suggest that kp3706, kp3709 or kp3712 genes are strongly related to the pathogenesis of K. pneumoniae K1.

Identification and Functional Characterization of Genes Encoding Omega-3 Polyunsaturated Fatty Acid Biosynthetic Activities from Unicellular Microalgae

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Royah Vaezi

2013-12-01

Full Text Available In order to identify novel genes encoding enzymes involved in the biosynthesis of nutritionally important omega-3 long chain polyunsaturated fatty acids, a database search was carried out in the genomes of the unicellular photoautotrophic green alga Ostreococcus RCC809 and cold-water diatom Fragilariopsis cylindrus. The search led to the identification of two putative “front-end” desaturases (Δ6 and Δ4 from Ostreococcus RCC809 and one Δ6-elongase from F. cylindrus. Heterologous expression of putative open reading frames (ORFs in yeast revealed that the encoded enzyme activities efficiently convert their respective substrates: 54.1% conversion of α-linolenic acid for Δ6-desaturase, 15.1% conversion of 22:5n-3 for Δ4-desaturase and 38.1% conversion of γ-linolenic acid for Δ6-elongase. The Δ6-desaturase from Ostreococcus RCC809 displays a very strong substrate preference resulting in the predominant synthesis of stearidonic acid (C18:4Δ6,9,12,15. These data confirm the functional characterization of omega-3 long chain polyunsaturated fatty acid biosynthetic genes from these two species which have until now not been investigated for such activities. The identification of these new genes will also serve to expand the repertoire of activities available for metabolically engineering the omega-3 trait in heterologous hosts as well as providing better insights into the synthesis of eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA in marine microalgae.

Rice ethylene-response AP2/ERF factor OsEATB restricts internode elongation by down-regulating a gibberellin biosynthetic gene.

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Qi, Weiwei; Sun, Fan; Wang, Qianjie; Chen, Mingluan; Huang, Yunqing; Feng, Yu-Qi; Luo, Xiaojin; Yang, Jinshui

2011-09-01

Plant height is a decisive factor in plant architecture. Rice (Oryza sativa) plants have the potential for rapid internodal elongation, which determines plant height. A large body of physiological research has shown that ethylene and gibberellin are involved in this process. The APETALA2 (AP2)/Ethylene-Responsive Element Binding Factor (ERF) family of transcriptional factors is only present in the plant kingdom. This family has various developmental and physiological functions. A rice AP2/ERF gene, OsEATB (for ERF protein associated with tillering and panicle branching) was cloned from indica rice variety 9311. Bioinformatic analysis suggested that this ERF has a potential new function. Ectopic expression of OsEATB showed that the cross talk between ethylene and gibberellin, which is mediated by OsEATB, might underlie differences in rice internode elongation. Analyses of gene expression demonstrated that OsEATB restricts ethylene-induced enhancement of gibberellin responsiveness during the internode elongation process by down-regulating the gibberellin biosynthetic gene, ent-kaurene synthase A. Plant height is negatively correlated with tiller number, and higher yields are typically obtained from dwarf crops. OsEATB reduces rice plant height and panicle length at maturity, promoting the branching potential of both tillers and spikelets. These are useful traits for breeding high-yielding crops.

The complete coenzyme B12 biosynthesis gene cluster of Lactobacillus reuteri CRL 1098

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Santos, dos F.; Vera, J.L.; Heijden, van der R.; Valdez, G.F.; Vos, de W.M.; Sesma, F.; Hugenholtz, J.

2008-01-01

The coenzyme B12 production pathway in Lactobacillus reuteri has been deduced using a combination of genetic, biochemical and bioinformatics approaches. The coenzyme B12 gene cluster of Lb. reuteri CRL1098 has the unique feature of clustering together the cbi, cob and hem genes. It consists of 29

Elucidation of the biosynthetic pathway for the production of the pigment chrysogine by Penicillium chrysogenum

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Viggiano, Annarita; Salo, Oleksandr; Ali, Hazrat; Szymanski, Wiktor; Lankhorst, Peter P; Nygård, Yvonne; Bovenberg, Roel A L; Driessen, Arnold J M

Chrysogine is a yellow pigment produced by Penicillium chrysogenum and other filamentous fungi. Although it was first isolated in 1973, the biosynthetic pathway has so far not been resolved. Here, we show that the deletion of the highly expressed non-ribosomal peptide synthetase (NRPS) gene

Resistance gene candidates identified by PCR with degenerate oligonucleotide primers map to clusters of resistance genes in lettuce.

Science.gov (United States)

Shen, K A; Meyers, B C; Islam-Faridi, M N; Chin, D B; Stelly, D M; Michelmore, R W

1998-08-01

The recent cloning of genes for resistance against diverse pathogens from a variety of plants has revealed that many share conserved sequence motifs. This provides the possibility of isolating numerous additional resistance genes by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) with degenerate oligonucleotide primers. We amplified resistance gene candidates (RGCs) from lettuce with multiple combinations of primers with low degeneracy designed from motifs in the nucleotide binding sites (NBSs) of RPS2 of Arabidopsis thaliana and N of tobacco. Genomic DNA, cDNA, and bacterial artificial chromosome (BAC) clones were successfully used as templates. Four families of sequences were identified that had the same similarity to each other as to resistance genes from other species. The relationship of the amplified products to resistance genes was evaluated by several sequence and genetic criteria. The amplified products contained open reading frames with additional sequences characteristic of NBSs. Hybridization of RGCs to genomic DNA and to BAC clones revealed large numbers of related sequences. Genetic analysis demonstrated the existence of clustered multigene families for each of the four RGC sequences. This parallels classical genetic data on clustering of disease resistance genes. Two of the four families mapped to known clusters of resistance genes; these two families were therefore studied in greater detail. Additional evidence that these RGCs could be resistance genes was gained by the identification of leucine-rich repeat (LRR) regions in sequences adjoining the NBS similar to those in RPM1 and RPS2 of A. thaliana. Fluorescent in situ hybridization confirmed the clustered genomic distribution of these sequences. The use of PCR with degenerate oligonucleotide primers is therefore an efficient method to identify numerous RGCs in plants.

Two Gene Clusters Coordinate Galactose and Lactose Metabolism in Streptococcus gordonii

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Zeng, Lin; Martino, Nicole C.

2012-01-01

Streptococcus gordonii is an early colonizer of the human oral cavity and an abundant constituent of oral biofilms. Two tandemly arranged gene clusters, designated lac and gal, were identified in the S. gordonii DL1 genome, which encode genes of the tagatose pathway (lacABCD) and sugar phosphotransferase system (PTS) enzyme II permeases. Genes encoding a predicted phospho-β-galactosidase (LacG), a DeoR family transcriptional regulator (LacR), and a transcriptional antiterminator (LacT) were also present in the clusters. Growth and PTS assays supported that the permease designated EIILac transports lactose and galactose, whereas EIIGal transports galactose. The expression of the gene for EIIGal was markedly upregulated in cells growing on galactose. Using promoter-cat fusions, a role for LacR in the regulation of the expressions of both gene clusters was demonstrated, and the gal cluster was also shown to be sensitive to repression by CcpA. The deletion of lacT caused an inability to grow on lactose, apparently because of its role in the regulation of the expression of the genes for EIILac, but had little effect on galactose utilization. S. gordonii maintained a selective advantage over Streptococcus mutans in a mixed-species competition assay, associated with its possession of a high-affinity galactose PTS, although S. mutans could persist better at low pHs. Collectively, these results support the concept that the galactose and lactose systems of S. gordonii are subject to complex regulation and that a high-affinity galactose PTS may be advantageous when S. gordonii is competing against the caries pathogen S. mutans in oral biofilms. PMID:22660715

Identification of the First Riboflavin Catabolic Gene Cluster Isolated from Microbacterium maritypicum G10*

Science.gov (United States)

Xu, Hui; Chakrabarty, Yindrila; Philmus, Benjamin; Mehta, Angad P.; Bhandari, Dhananjay; Hohmann, Hans-Peter; Begley, Tadhg P.

2016-01-01

Riboflavin is a common cofactor, and its biosynthetic pathway is well characterized. However, its catabolic pathway, despite intriguing hints in a few distinct organisms, has never been established. This article describes the isolation of a Microbacterium maritypicum riboflavin catabolic strain, and the cloning of the riboflavin catabolic genes. RcaA, RcaB, RcaD, and RcaE were overexpressed and biochemically characterized as riboflavin kinase, riboflavin reductase, ribokinase, and riboflavin hydrolase, respectively. Based on these activities, a pathway for riboflavin catabolism is proposed. PMID:27590337

Regulatory role of tetR gene in a novel gene cluster of Acidovorax avenae subsp. avenae RS-1 under oxidative stress

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He eLiu

2014-10-01

Full Text Available Acidovorax avenae subsp. avenae is the causal agent of bacterial brown stripe disease in rice. In this study, we characterized a novel horizontal transfer of a gene cluster, including tetR, on the chromosome of A. avenae subsp. avenae RS-1 by genome-wide analysis. TetR acted as a repressor in this gene cluster and the oxidative stress resistance was enhanced in tetR-deletion mutant strain. Electrophoretic mobility shift assay (EMSA demonstrated that TetR regulator bound directly to the promoter of this gene cluster. Consistently, the results of quantitative real-time PCR also showed alterations in expression of associated genes. Moreover, the proteins affected by TetR under oxidative stress were revealed by comparing proteomic profiles of wild-type and mutant strains via 1D SDS-PAGE and LC-MS/MS analyses. Taken together, our results demonstrated that tetR gene in this novel gene cluster contributed to cell survival under oxidative stress, and TetR protein played an important regulatory role in growth kinetics, biofilm-forming capability, SOD and catalase activity, and oxide detoxicating ability.

Regulatory role of tetR gene in a novel gene cluster of Acidovorax avenae subsp. avenae RS-1 under oxidative stress.

Science.gov (United States)

Liu, He; Yang, Chun-Lan; Ge, Meng-Yu; Ibrahim, Muhammad; Li, Bin; Zhao, Wen-Jun; Chen, Gong-You; Zhu, Bo; Xie, Guan-Lin

2014-01-01

Acidovorax avenae subsp. avenae is the causal agent of bacterial brown stripe disease in rice. In this study, we characterized a novel horizontal transfer of a gene cluster, including tetR, on the chromosome of A. avenae subsp. avenae RS-1 by genome-wide analysis. TetR acted as a repressor in this gene cluster and the oxidative stress resistance was enhanced in tetR-deletion mutant strain. Electrophoretic mobility shift assay demonstrated that TetR regulator bound directly to the promoter of this gene cluster. Consistently, the results of quantitative real-time PCR also showed alterations in expression of associated genes. Moreover, the proteins affected by TetR under oxidative stress were revealed by comparing proteomic profiles of wild-type and mutant strains via 1D SDS-PAGE and LC-MS/MS analyses. Taken together, our results demonstrated that tetR gene in this novel gene cluster contributed to cell survival under oxidative stress, and TetR protein played an important regulatory role in growth kinetics, biofilm-forming capability, superoxide dismutase and catalase activity, and oxide detoxicating ability.

QTL global meta-analysis: are trait determining genes clustered?

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Adelson David L

2009-04-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background A key open question in biology is if genes are physically clustered with respect to their known functions or phenotypic effects. This is of particular interest for Quantitative Trait Loci (QTL where a QTL region could contain a number of genes that contribute to the trait being measured. Results We observed a significant increase in gene density within QTL regions compared to non-QTL regions and/or the entire bovine genome. By grouping QTL from the Bovine QTL Viewer database into 8 categories of non-redundant regions, we have been able to analyze gene density and gene function distribution, based on Gene Ontology (GO with relation to their location within QTL regions, outside of QTL regions and across the entire bovine genome. We identified a number of GO terms that were significantly over represented within particular QTL categories. Furthermore, select GO terms expected to be associated with the QTL category based on common biological knowledge have also proved to be significantly over represented in QTL regions. Conclusion Our analysis provides evidence of over represented GO terms in QTL regions. This increased GO term density indicates possible clustering of gene functions within QTL regions of the bovine genome. Genes with similar functions may be grouped in specific locales and could be contributing to QTL traits. Moreover, we have identified over-represented GO terminology that from a biological standpoint, makes sense with respect to QTL category type.

MADIBA: A web server toolkit for biological interpretation of Plasmodium and plant gene clusters

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Louw Abraham I

2008-02-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Microarray technology makes it possible to identify changes in gene expression of an organism, under various conditions. Data mining is thus essential for deducing significant biological information such as the identification of new biological mechanisms or putative drug targets. While many algorithms and software have been developed for analysing gene expression, the extraction of relevant information from experimental data is still a substantial challenge, requiring significant time and skill. Description MADIBA (MicroArray Data Interface for Biological Annotation facilitates the assignment of biological meaning to gene expression clusters by automating the post-processing stage. A relational database has been designed to store the data from gene to pathway for Plasmodium, rice and Arabidopsis. Tools within the web interface allow rapid analyses for the identification of the Gene Ontology terms relevant to each cluster; visualising the metabolic pathways where the genes are implicated, their genomic localisations, putative common transcriptional regulatory elements in the upstream sequences, and an analysis specific to the organism being studied. Conclusion MADIBA is an integrated, online tool that will assist researchers in interpreting their results and understand the meaning of the co-expression of a cluster of genes. Functionality of MADIBA was validated by analysing a number of gene clusters from several published experiments – expression profiling of the Plasmodium life cycle, and salt stress treatments of Arabidopsis and rice. In most of the cases, the same conclusions found by the authors were quickly and easily obtained after analysing the gene clusters with MADIBA.

The mangotoxin biosynthetic operon (mbo) is specifically distributed within Pseudomonas syringae genomospecies 1 and was acquired only once during evolution.

Science.gov (United States)

Carrión, Víctor J; Gutiérrez-Barranquero, José A; Arrebola, Eva; Bardaji, Leire; Codina, Juan C; de Vicente, Antonio; Cazorla, Francisco M; Murillo, Jesús

2013-02-01

Mangotoxin production was first described in Pseudomonas syringae pv. syringae strains. A phenotypic characterization of 94 P. syringae strains was carried out to determine the genetic evolution of the mangotoxin biosynthetic operon (mbo). We designed a PCR primer pair specific for the mbo operon to examine its distribution within the P. syringae complex. These primers amplified a 692-bp DNA fragment from 52 mangotoxin-producing strains and from 7 non-mangotoxin-producing strains that harbor the mbo operon, whereas 35 non-mangotoxin-producing strains did not yield any amplification. This, together with the analysis of draft genomes, allowed the identification of the mbo operon in five pathovars (pathovars aptata, avellanae, japonica, pisi, and syringae), all of which belong to genomospecies 1, suggesting a limited distribution of the mbo genes in the P. syringae complex. Phylogenetic analyses using partial sequences from housekeeping genes differentiated three groups within genomospecies 1. All of the strains containing the mbo operon clustered in groups I and II, whereas those lacking the operon clustered in group III; however, the relative branching order of these three groups is dependent on the genes used to construct the phylogeny. The mbo operon maintains synteny and is inserted in the same genomic location, with high sequence conservation around the insertion point, for all the strains in groups I and II. These data support the idea that the mbo operon was acquired horizontally and only once by the ancestor of groups I and II from genomospecies 1 within the P. syringae complex.

Statistical indicators of collective behavior and functional clusters in gene networks of yeast

Science.gov (United States)

Živković, J.; Tadić, B.; Wick, N.; Thurner, S.

2006-03-01

We analyze gene expression time-series data of yeast (S. cerevisiae) measured along two full cell-cycles. We quantify these data by using q-exponentials, gene expression ranking and a temporal mean-variance analysis. We construct gene interaction networks based on correlation coefficients and study the formation of the corresponding giant components and minimum spanning trees. By coloring genes according to their cell function we find functional clusters in the correlation networks and functional branches in the associated trees. Our results suggest that a percolation point of functional clusters can be identified on these gene expression correlation networks.

Genome-wide identification of physically clustered genes suggests chromatin-level co-regulation in male reproductive development in Arabidopsis thaliana.

Science.gov (United States)

Reimegård, Johan; Kundu, Snehangshu; Pendle, Ali; Irish, Vivian F; Shaw, Peter; Nakayama, Naomi; Sundström, Jens F; Emanuelsson, Olof

2017-04-07

Co-expression of physically linked genes occurs surprisingly frequently in eukaryotes. Such chromosomal clustering may confer a selective advantage as it enables coordinated gene regulation at the chromatin level. We studied the chromosomal organization of genes involved in male reproductive development in Arabidopsis thaliana. We developed an in-silico tool to identify physical clusters of co-regulated genes from gene expression data. We identified 17 clusters (96 genes) involved in stamen development and acting downstream of the transcriptional activator MS1 (MALE STERILITY 1), which contains a PHD domain associated with chromatin re-organization. The clusters exhibited little gene homology or promoter element similarity, and largely overlapped with reported repressive histone marks. Experiments on a subset of the clusters suggested a link between expression activation and chromatin conformation: qRT-PCR and mRNA in situ hybridization showed that the clustered genes were up-regulated within 48 h after MS1 induction; out of 14 chromatin-remodeling mutants studied, expression of clustered genes was consistently down-regulated only in hta9/hta11, previously associated with metabolic cluster activation; DNA fluorescence in situ hybridization confirmed that transcriptional activation of the clustered genes was correlated with open chromatin conformation. Stamen development thus appears to involve transcriptional activation of physically clustered genes through chromatin de-condensation. © The Author(s) 2017. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Nucleic Acids Research.

AutoSOME: a clustering method for identifying gene expression modules without prior knowledge of cluster number

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Cooper James B

2010-03-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Clustering the information content of large high-dimensional gene expression datasets has widespread application in "omics" biology. Unfortunately, the underlying structure of these natural datasets is often fuzzy, and the computational identification of data clusters generally requires knowledge about cluster number and geometry. Results We integrated strategies from machine learning, cartography, and graph theory into a new informatics method for automatically clustering self-organizing map ensembles of high-dimensional data. Our new method, called AutoSOME, readily identifies discrete and fuzzy data clusters without prior knowledge of cluster number or structure in diverse datasets including whole genome microarray data. Visualization of AutoSOME output using network diagrams and differential heat maps reveals unexpected variation among well-characterized cancer cell lines. Co-expression analysis of data from human embryonic and induced pluripotent stem cells using AutoSOME identifies >3400 up-regulated genes associated with pluripotency, and indicates that a recently identified protein-protein interaction network characterizing pluripotency was underestimated by a factor of four. Conclusions By effectively extracting important information from high-dimensional microarray data without prior knowledge or the need for data filtration, AutoSOME can yield systems-level insights from whole genome microarray expression studies. Due to its generality, this new method should also have practical utility for a variety of data-intensive applications, including the results of deep sequencing experiments. AutoSOME is available for download at http://jimcooperlab.mcdb.ucsb.edu/autosome.

Clustering gene expression data based on predicted differential effects of GV interaction.

Science.gov (United States)

Pan, Hai-Yan; Zhu, Jun; Han, Dan-Fu

2005-02-01

Microarray has become a popular biotechnology in biological and medical research. However, systematic and stochastic variabilities in microarray data are expected and unavoidable, resulting in the problem that the raw measurements have inherent "noise" within microarray experiments. Currently, logarithmic ratios are usually analyzed by various clustering methods directly, which may introduce bias interpretation in identifying groups of genes or samples. In this paper, a statistical method based on mixed model approaches was proposed for microarray data cluster analysis. The underlying rationale of this method is to partition the observed total gene expression level into various variations caused by different factors using an ANOVA model, and to predict the differential effects of GV (gene by variety) interaction using the adjusted unbiased prediction (AUP) method. The predicted GV interaction effects can then be used as the inputs of cluster analysis. We illustrated the application of our method with a gene expression dataset and elucidated the utility of our approach using an external validation.

Transcriptional regulation of gene expression clusters in motor neurons following spinal cord injury

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Westerdahl Ann-Charlotte

2010-06-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Spinal cord injury leads to neurological dysfunctions affecting the motor, sensory as well as the autonomic systems. Increased excitability of motor neurons has been implicated in injury-induced spasticity, where the reappearance of self-sustained plateau potentials in the absence of modulatory inputs from the brain correlates with the development of spasticity. Results Here we examine the dynamic transcriptional response of motor neurons to spinal cord injury as it evolves over time to unravel common gene expression patterns and their underlying regulatory mechanisms. For this we use a rat-tail-model with complete spinal cord transection causing injury-induced spasticity, where gene expression profiles are obtained from labeled motor neurons extracted with laser microdissection 0, 2, 7, 21 and 60 days post injury. Consensus clustering identifies 12 gene clusters with distinct time expression profiles. Analysis of these gene clusters identifies early immunological/inflammatory and late developmental responses as well as a regulation of genes relating to neuron excitability that support the development of motor neuron hyper-excitability and the reappearance of plateau potentials in the late phase of the injury response. Transcription factor motif analysis identifies differentially expressed transcription factors involved in the regulation of each gene cluster, shaping the expression of the identified biological processes and their associated genes underlying the changes in motor neuron excitability. Conclusions This analysis provides important clues to the underlying mechanisms of transcriptional regulation responsible for the increased excitability observed in motor neurons in the late chronic phase of spinal cord injury suggesting alternative targets for treatment of spinal cord injury. Several transcription factors were identified as potential regulators of gene clusters containing elements related to motor neuron hyper

Transcriptional regulation of gene expression clusters in motor neurons following spinal cord injury.

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Ryge, Jesper; Winther, Ole; Wienecke, Jacob; Sandelin, Albin; Westerdahl, Ann-Charlotte; Hultborn, Hans; Kiehn, Ole

2010-06-09

Spinal cord injury leads to neurological dysfunctions affecting the motor, sensory as well as the autonomic systems. Increased excitability of motor neurons has been implicated in injury-induced spasticity, where the reappearance of self-sustained plateau potentials in the absence of modulatory inputs from the brain correlates with the development of spasticity. Here we examine the dynamic transcriptional response of motor neurons to spinal cord injury as it evolves over time to unravel common gene expression patterns and their underlying regulatory mechanisms. For this we use a rat-tail-model with complete spinal cord transection causing injury-induced spasticity, where gene expression profiles are obtained from labeled motor neurons extracted with laser microdissection 0, 2, 7, 21 and 60 days post injury. Consensus clustering identifies 12 gene clusters with distinct time expression profiles. Analysis of these gene clusters identifies early immunological/inflammatory and late developmental responses as well as a regulation of genes relating to neuron excitability that support the development of motor neuron hyper-excitability and the reappearance of plateau potentials in the late phase of the injury response. Transcription factor motif analysis identifies differentially expressed transcription factors involved in the regulation of each gene cluster, shaping the expression of the identified biological processes and their associated genes underlying the changes in motor neuron excitability. This analysis provides important clues to the underlying mechanisms of transcriptional regulation responsible for the increased excitability observed in motor neurons in the late chronic phase of spinal cord injury suggesting alternative targets for treatment of spinal cord injury. Several transcription factors were identified as potential regulators of gene clusters containing elements related to motor neuron hyper-excitability, the manipulation of which potentially could be

Transcriptional analysis of exopolysaccharides biosynthesis gene clusters in Lactobacillus plantarum.

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Vastano, Valeria; Perrone, Filomena; Marasco, Rosangela; Sacco, Margherita; Muscariello, Lidia

2016-04-01

Exopolysaccharides (EPS) from lactic acid bacteria contribute to specific rheology and texture of fermented milk products and find applications also in non-dairy foods and in therapeutics. Recently, four clusters of genes (cps) associated with surface polysaccharide production have been identified in Lactobacillus plantarum WCFS1, a probiotic and food-associated lactobacillus. These clusters are involved in cell surface architecture and probably in release and/or exposure of immunomodulating bacterial molecules. Here we show a transcriptional analysis of these clusters. Indeed, RT-PCR experiments revealed that the cps loci are organized in five operons. Moreover, by reverse transcription-qPCR analysis performed on L. plantarum WCFS1 (wild type) and WCFS1-2 (ΔccpA), we demonstrated that expression of three cps clusters is under the control of the global regulator CcpA. These results, together with the identification of putative CcpA target sequences (catabolite responsive element CRE) in the regulatory region of four out of five transcriptional units, strongly suggest for the first time a role of the master regulator CcpA in EPS gene transcription among lactobacilli.

Swainsonine Biosynthesis Genes in Diverse Symbiotic and Pathogenic Fungi

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Daniel Cook

2017-06-01

Full Text Available Swainsonine—a cytotoxic fungal alkaloid and a potential cancer therapy drug—is produced by the insect pathogen and plant symbiont Metarhizium robertsii, the clover pathogen Slafractonia leguminicola, locoweed symbionts belonging to Alternaria sect. Undifilum, and a recently discovered morning glory symbiont belonging to order Chaetothyriales. Genome sequence analyses revealed that these fungi share orthologous gene clusters, designated “SWN,” which included a multifunctional swnK gene comprising predicted adenylylation and acyltransferase domains with their associated thiolation domains, a β-ketoacyl synthase domain, and two reductase domains. The role of swnK was demonstrated by inactivating it in M. robertsii through homologous gene replacement to give a ∆swnK mutant that produced no detectable swainsonine, then complementing the mutant with the wild-type gene to restore swainsonine biosynthesis. Other SWN cluster genes were predicted to encode two putative hydroxylases and two reductases, as expected to complete biosynthesis of swainsonine from the predicted SwnK product. SWN gene clusters were identified in six out of seven sequenced genomes of Metarhzium species, and in all 15 sequenced genomes of Arthrodermataceae, a family of fungi that cause athlete’s foot and ringworm diseases in humans and other mammals. Representative isolates of all of these species were cultured, and all Metarhizium spp. with SWN clusters, as well as all but one of the Arthrodermataceae, produced swainsonine. These results suggest a new biosynthetic hypothesis for this alkaloid, extending the known taxonomic breadth of swainsonine producers to at least four orders of Ascomycota, and suggest that swainsonine has roles in mutualistic symbioses and diseases of plants and animals.

Functional Reconstitution of a Fungal Natural Product Gene Cluster by Advanced Genome Editing.

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Weber, Jakob; Valiante, Vito; Nødvig, Christina S; Mattern, Derek J; Slotkowski, Rebecca A; Mortensen, Uffe H; Brakhage, Axel A

2017-01-20

Filamentous fungi produce varieties of natural products even in a strain dependent manner. However, the genetic basis of chemical speciation between strains is still widely unknown. One example is trypacidin, a natural product of the opportunistic human pathogen Aspergillus fumigatus, which is not produced among different isolates. Combining computational analysis with targeted gene editing, we could link a single nucleotide insertion in the polyketide synthase of the trypacidin biosynthetic pathway and reconstitute its production in a nonproducing strain. Thus, we present a CRISPR/Cas9-based tool for advanced molecular genetic studies in filamentous fungi, exploiting selectable markers separated from the edited locus.

Motif-Independent De Novo Detection of Secondary Metabolite Gene Clusters – Towards Identification of Novel Secondary Metabolisms from Filamentous Fungi -

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Myco eUmemura

2015-05-01

Full Text Available Secondary metabolites are produced mostly by clustered genes that are essential to their biosynthesis. The transcriptional expression of these genes is often cooperatively regulated by a transcription factor located inside or close to a cluster. Most of the secondary metabolism biosynthesis (SMB gene clusters identified to date contain so-called core genes with distinctive sequence features, such as polyketide synthase (PKS and non-ribosomal peptide synthetase (NRPS. Recent efforts in sequencing fungal genomes have revealed far more SMB gene clusters than expected based on the number of core genes in the genomes. Several bioinformatics tools have been developed to survey SMB gene clusters using the sequence motif information of the core genes, including SMURF and antiSMASH.More recently, accompanied by the development of sequencing techniques allowing to obtain large-scale genomic and transcriptomic data, motif-independent prediction methods of SMB gene clusters, including MIDDAS-M, have been developed. Most these methods detect the clusters in which the genes are cooperatively regulated at transcriptional levels, thus allowing the identification of novel SMB gene clusters regardless of the presence of the core genes. Another type of the method, MIPS-CG, uses the characteristics of SMB genes, which are highly enriched in non-syntenic blocks (NSBs, enabling the prediction even without transcriptome data although the results have not been evaluated in detail. Considering that large portion of SMB gene clusters might be sufficiently expressed only in limited uncommon conditions, it seems that prediction of SMB gene clusters by bioinformatics and successive experimental validation is an only way to efficiently uncover hidden SMB gene clusters. Here, we describe and discuss possible novel approaches for the determination of SMB gene clusters that have not been identified using conventional methods.

Identification of the First Riboflavin Catabolic Gene Cluster Isolated from Microbacterium maritypicum G10.

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Xu, Hui; Chakrabarty, Yindrila; Philmus, Benjamin; Mehta, Angad P; Bhandari, Dhananjay; Hohmann, Hans-Peter; Begley, Tadhg P

2016-11-04

Riboflavin is a common cofactor, and its biosynthetic pathway is well characterized. However, its catabolic pathway, despite intriguing hints in a few distinct organisms, has never been established. This article describes the isolation of a Microbacterium maritypicum riboflavin catabolic strain, and the cloning of the riboflavin catabolic genes. RcaA, RcaB, RcaD, and RcaE were overexpressed and biochemically characterized as riboflavin kinase, riboflavin reductase, ribokinase, and riboflavin hydrolase, respectively. Based on these activities, a pathway for riboflavin catabolism is proposed. © 2016 by The American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Inc.

Integrating toxin gene expression, growth and fumonisin B1 and B2 production by a strain of Fusarium verticillioides under different environmental factors

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Medina, Angel; Schmidt-Heydt, Markus; Cárdenas-Chávez, Diana L.; Parra, Roberto; Geisen, Rolf; Magan, Naresh

2013-01-01

The objective of this study was to integrate data on the effect of water activity (aw; 0.995–0.93) and temperature (20–35°C) on activation of the biosynthetic FUM genes, growth and the mycotoxins fumonisin (FB1, FB2) by Fusarium verticillioides in vitro. The relative expression of nine biosynthetic cluster genes (FUM1, FUM7, FUM10, FUM11, FUM12, FUM13, FUM14, FUM16 and FUM19) in relation to the environmental factors was determined using a microarray analysis. The expression was related to growth and phenotypic FB1 and FB2 production. These data were used to develop a mixed-growth-associated product formation model and link this to a linear combination of the expression data for the nine genes. The model was then validated by examining datasets outside the model fitting conditions used (35°C). The relationship between the key gene (FUM1) and other genes in the cluster (FUM11, FUM13, FUM9, FUM14) were examined in relation to aw, temperature, FB1 and FB2 production by developing ternary diagrams of relative expression. This model is important in developing an integrated systems approach to develop prevention strategies to control fumonisin biosynthesis in staple food commodities and could also be used to predict the potential impact that climate change factors may have on toxin production. PMID:23697716

A scan statistic to extract causal gene clusters from case-control genome-wide rare CNV data

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Scherer Stephen W

2011-05-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Several statistical tests have been developed for analyzing genome-wide association data by incorporating gene pathway information in terms of gene sets. Using these methods, hundreds of gene sets are typically tested, and the tested gene sets often overlap. This overlapping greatly increases the probability of generating false positives, and the results obtained are difficult to interpret, particularly when many gene sets show statistical significance. Results We propose a flexible statistical framework to circumvent these problems. Inspired by spatial scan statistics for detecting clustering of disease occurrence in the field of epidemiology, we developed a scan statistic to extract disease-associated gene clusters from a whole gene pathway. Extracting one or a few significant gene clusters from a global pathway limits the overall false positive probability, which results in increased statistical power, and facilitates the interpretation of test results. In the present study, we applied our method to genome-wide association data for rare copy-number variations, which have been strongly implicated in common diseases. Application of our method to a simulated dataset demonstrated the high accuracy of this method in detecting disease-associated gene clusters in a whole gene pathway. Conclusions The scan statistic approach proposed here shows a high level of accuracy in detecting gene clusters in a whole gene pathway. This study has provided a sound statistical framework for analyzing genome-wide rare CNV data by incorporating topological information on the gene pathway.

The Presence of Two Cyclase Thioesterases Expands the Conformational Freedom of the Cyclic Peptide Occidiofungin

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Ravichandran, Akshaya; Gu, Ganyu; Escano, Jerome; Lu, Shi-En; Smith, Leif

2014-01-01

Occidiofungin is a cyclic nonribosomally synthesized antifungal peptide with submicromolar activity produced by Gram-negative bacterium Burkholderia contaminans. The biosynthetic gene cluster was confirmed to contain two cyclase thioesterases. NMR analysis revealed that the presence of both thioesterases is used to increase the conformational repertoire of the cyclic peptide. The loss of the OcfN cyclic thioesterase by mutagenesis results in a reduction of conformational variants and an appreciable decrease in bioactivity against Candida species. Presumably, the presence of both asparagine and β-hydroxyasparagine variants coordinate the enzymatic function of both of the cyclase thioesterases. OcfN has presumably evolved to be part of the biosynthetic gene cluster due to its ability to produce structural variants that enhance antifungal activity against some fungi. The enhancement of the antifungal activity from the incorporation of an additional cyclase thioesterase into the biosynthetic gene cluster of occidiofungin supports the need to explore new conformational variants of other therapeutic or potentially therapeutic cyclic peptides. PMID:23394257

Gene structure and expression characteristic of a novel odorant receptor gene cluster in the parasitoid wasp Microplitis mediator (Hymenoptera: Braconidae).

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Wang, S-N; Shan, S; Zheng, Y; Peng, Y; Lu, Z-Y; Yang, Y-Q; Li, R-J; Zhang, Y-J; Guo, Y-Y

2017-08-01

Odorant receptors (ORs) expressed in the antennae of parasitoid wasps are responsible for detection of various lipophilic airborne molecules. In the present study, 107 novel OR genes were identified from Microplitis mediator antennal transcriptome data. Phylogenetic analysis of the set of OR genes from M. mediator and Microplitis demolitor revealed that M. mediator OR (MmedOR) genes can be classified into different subfamilies, and the majority of MmedORs in each subfamily shared high sequence identities and clear orthologous relationships to M. demolitor ORs. Within a subfamily, six MmedOR genes, MmedOR98, 124, 125, 126, 131 and 155, shared a similar gene structure and were tightly linked in the genome. To evaluate whether the clustered MmedOR genes share common regulatory features, the transcription profile and expression characteristics of the six closely related OR genes were investigated in M. mediator. Rapid amplification of cDNA ends-PCR experiments revealed that the OR genes within the cluster were transcribed as single mRNAs, and a bicistronic mRNA for two adjacent genes (MmedOR124 and MmedOR98) was also detected in female antennae by reverse transcription PCR. In situ hybridization experiments indicated that each OR gene within the cluster was expressed in a different number of cells. Moreover, there was no co-expression of the two highly related OR genes, MmedOR124 and MmedOR98, which appeared to be individually expressed in a distinct population of neurons. Overall, there were distinct expression profiles of closely related MmedOR genes from the same cluster in M. mediator. These data provide a basic understanding of the olfactory coding in parasitoid wasps. © 2017 The Royal Entomological Society.

Two Horizontally Transferred Xenobiotic Resistance Gene Clusters Associated with Detoxification of Benzoxazolinones by Fusarium Species

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Glenn, Anthony E.; Davis, C. Britton; Gao, Minglu; Gold, Scott E.; Mitchell, Trevor R.; Proctor, Robert H.; Stewart, Jane E.; Snook, Maurice E.

2016-01-01

Microbes encounter a broad spectrum of antimicrobial compounds in their environments and often possess metabolic strategies to detoxify such xenobiotics. We have previously shown that Fusarium verticillioides, a fungal pathogen of maize known for its production of fumonisin mycotoxins, possesses two unlinked loci, FDB1 and FDB2, necessary for detoxification of antimicrobial compounds produced by maize, including the γ-lactam 2-benzoxazolinone (BOA). In support of these earlier studies, microarray analysis of F. verticillioides exposed to BOA identified the induction of multiple genes at FDB1 and FDB2, indicating the loci consist of gene clusters. One of the FDB1 cluster genes encoded a protein having domain homology to the metallo-β-lactamase (MBL) superfamily. Deletion of this gene (MBL1) rendered F. verticillioides incapable of metabolizing BOA and thus unable to grow on BOA-amended media. Deletion of other FDB1 cluster genes, in particular AMD1 and DLH1, did not affect BOA degradation. Phylogenetic analyses and topology testing of the FDB1 and FDB2 cluster genes suggested two horizontal transfer events among fungi, one being transfer of FDB1 from Fusarium to Colletotrichum, and the second being transfer of the FDB2 cluster from Fusarium to Aspergillus. Together, the results suggest that plant-derived xenobiotics have exerted evolutionary pressure on these fungi, leading to horizontal transfer of genes that enhance fitness or virulence. PMID:26808652

Overexpression of the riboflavin biosynthetic pathway in Pichia pastoris

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Mattanovich Diethard

2008-07-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background High cell density cultures of Pichia pastoris grown on methanol tend to develop yellow colored supernatants, attributed to the release of free flavins. The potential of P. pastoris for flavin overproduction is therefore given, but not pronounced when the yeast is grown on glucose. The aim of this study is to characterize the relative regulatory impact of each riboflavin synthesis gene. Deeper insight into pathway control and the potential of deregulation is established by overexpression of the single genes as well as a combined deregulation of up to all six riboflavin synthesis genes. Results Overexpression of the first gene of the riboflavin biosynthetic pathway (RIB1 is already sufficient to obtain yellow colonies and the accumulation of riboflavin in the supernatant of shake flask cultures growing on glucose. Sequential deregulation of all the genes, by exchange of their native promoter with the strong and constitutive glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase promoter (PGAP increases the riboflavin accumulation significantly. Conclusion The regulation of the pathway is distributed over more than one gene. High cell density cultivations of a P. pastoris strain overexpressing all six RIB genes allow the accumulation of 175 mg/L riboflavin in the supernatant. The basis for rational engineering of riboflavin production in P. pastoris has thus been established.

An R2R3 MYB transcription factor associated with regulation of the anthocyanin biosynthetic pathway in Rosaceae (on linr)

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Wang, Kui-Lin; Bolitho, Karen; Grafton, Karryn; Kortstee, A.J.; Karunairetnam, Sakuntala; McGhie, T.K.; Espley, R.V.; Hellens, R.P.; Allan, A.C.

2010-01-01

Background - The control of plant anthocyanin accumulation is via transcriptional regulation of the genes encoding the biosynthetic enzymes. A key activator appears to be an R2R3 MYB transcription factor. In apple fruit, skin anthocyanin levels are controlled by a gene called MYBA or MYB1, while the

Horizontal transfer of a nitrate assimilation gene cluster and ecological transitions in fungi: a phylogenetic study.

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Jason C Slot

Full Text Available High affinity nitrate assimilation genes in fungi occur in a cluster (fHANT-AC that can be coordinately regulated. The clustered genes include nrt2, which codes for a high affinity nitrate transporter; euknr, which codes for nitrate reductase; and NAD(PH-nir, which codes for nitrite reductase. Homologs of genes in the fHANT-AC occur in other eukaryotes and prokaryotes, but they have only been found clustered in the oomycete Phytophthora (heterokonts. We performed independent and concatenated phylogenetic analyses of homologs of all three genes in the fHANT-AC. Phylogenetic analyses limited to fungal sequences suggest that the fHANT-AC has been transferred horizontally from a basidiomycete (mushrooms and smuts to an ancestor of the ascomycetous mold Trichoderma reesei. Phylogenetic analyses of sequences from diverse eukaryotes and eubacteria, and cluster structure, are consistent with a hypothesis that the fHANT-AC was assembled in a lineage leading to the oomycetes and was subsequently transferred to the Dikarya (Ascomycota+Basidiomycota, which is a derived fungal clade that includes the vast majority of terrestrial fungi. We propose that the acquisition of high affinity nitrate assimilation contributed to the success of Dikarya on land by allowing exploitation of nitrate in aerobic soils, and the subsequent transfer of a complete assimilation cluster improved the fitness of T. reesei in a new niche. Horizontal transmission of this cluster of functionally integrated genes supports the "selfish operon" hypothesis for maintenance of gene clusters.

Comparison of Expression of Secondary Metabolite Biosynthesis Cluster Genes in Aspergillus flavus, A. parasiticus, and A. oryzae

OpenAIRE

Ehrlich, Kenneth C.; Mack, Brian M.

2014-01-01

Fifty six secondary metabolite biosynthesis gene clusters are predicted to be in the Aspergillus flavus genome. In spite of this, the biosyntheses of only seven metabolites, including the aflatoxins, kojic acid, cyclopiazonic acid and aflatrem, have been assigned to a particular gene cluster. We used RNA-seq to compare expression of secondary metabolite genes in gene clusters for the closely related fungi A. parasiticus, A. oryzae, and A. flavus S and L sclerotial morphotypes. The data help ...

Increasing Power by Sharing Information from Genetic Background and Treatment in Clustering of Gene Expression Time Series

OpenAIRE

Sura Zaki Alrashid; Muhammad Arifur Rahman; Nabeel H Al-Aaraji; Neil D Lawrence; Paul R Heath

2018-01-01

Clustering of gene expression time series gives insight into which genes may be co-regulated, allowing us to discern the activity of pathways in a given microarray experiment. Of particular interest is how a given group of genes varies with different conditions or genetic background. This paper develops
a new clustering method that allows each cluster to be parameterised according to whether the behaviour of the genes across conditions is correlated or anti-correlated. By specifying correlati...

Identification of the Regulator Gene Responsible for the Acetone-Responsive Expression of the Binuclear Iron Monooxygenase Gene Cluster in Mycobacteria ▿

Science.gov (United States)

Furuya, Toshiki; Hirose, Satomi; Semba, Hisashi; Kino, Kuniki

2011-01-01

The mimABCD gene cluster encodes the binuclear iron monooxygenase that oxidizes propane and phenol in Mycobacterium smegmatis strain MC2 155 and Mycobacterium goodii strain 12523. Interestingly, expression of the mimABCD gene cluster is induced by acetone. In this study, we investigated the regulator gene responsible for this acetone-responsive expression. In the genome sequence of M. smegmatis strain MC2 155, the mimABCD gene cluster is preceded by a gene designated mimR, which is divergently transcribed. Sequence analysis revealed that MimR exhibits amino acid similarity with the NtrC family of transcriptional activators, including AcxR and AcoR, which are involved in acetone and acetoin metabolism, respectively. Unexpectedly, many homologs of the mimR gene were also found in the sequenced genomes of actinomycetes. A plasmid carrying a transcriptional fusion of the intergenic region between the mimR and mimA genes with a promoterless green fluorescent protein (GFP) gene was constructed and introduced into M. smegmatis strain MC2 155. Using a GFP reporter system, we confirmed by deletion and complementation analyses that the mimR gene product is the positive regulator of the mimABCD gene cluster expression that is responsive to acetone. M. goodii strain 12523 also utilized the same regulatory system as M. smegmatis strain MC2 155. Although transcriptional activators of the NtrC family generally control transcription using the σ54 factor, a gene encoding the σ54 factor was absent from the genome sequence of M. smegmatis strain MC2 155. These results suggest the presence of a novel regulatory system in actinomycetes, including mycobacteria. PMID:21856847

Increasing Power by Sharing Information from Genetic Background and Treatment in Clustering of Gene Expression Time Series

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Sura Zaki Alrashid

2018-02-01

Full Text Available Clustering of gene expression time series gives insight into which genes may be co-regulated, allowing us to discern the activity of pathways in a given microarray experiment. Of particular interest is how a given group of genes varies with different conditions or genetic background. This paper develops
a new clustering method that allows each cluster to be parameterised according to whether the behaviour of the genes across conditions is correlated or anti-correlated. By specifying correlation between such genes,more information is gain within the cluster about how the genes interrelate. Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS is an irreversible neurodegenerative disorder that kills the motor neurons and results in death within 2 to 3 years from the symptom onset. Speed of progression for different patients are heterogeneous with significant variability. The SOD1G93A transgenic mice from different backgrounds (129Sv and C57 showed consistent phenotypic differences for disease progression. A hierarchy of Gaussian isused processes to model condition-specific and gene-specific temporal co-variances. This study demonstrated about finding some significant gene expression profiles and clusters of associated or co-regulated gene expressions together from four groups of data (SOD1G93A and Ntg from 129Sv and C57 backgrounds. Our study shows the effectiveness of sharing information between replicates and different model conditions when modelling gene expression time series. Further gene enrichment score analysis and ontology pathway analysis of some specified clusters for a particular group may lead toward identifying features underlying the differential speed of disease progression.

Form gene clustering method about pan-ethnic-group products based on emotional semantic

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Chen, Dengkai; Ding, Jingjing; Gao, Minzhuo; Ma, Danping; Liu, Donghui

2016-09-01

The use of pan-ethnic-group products form knowledge primarily depends on a designer's subjective experience without user participation. The majority of studies primarily focus on the detection of the perceptual demands of consumers from the target product category. A pan-ethnic-group products form gene clustering method based on emotional semantic is constructed. Consumers' perceptual images of the pan-ethnic-group products are obtained by means of product form gene extraction and coding and computer aided product form clustering technology. A case of form gene clustering about the typical pan-ethnic-group products is investigated which indicates that the method is feasible. This paper opens up a new direction for the future development of product form design which improves the agility of product design process in the era of Industry 4.0.

Comparison of expression of secondary metabolite biosynthesis cluster genes in Aspergillus flavus, A. parasiticus, and A. oryzae.

Science.gov (United States)

Ehrlich, Kenneth C; Mack, Brian M

2014-06-23

Fifty six secondary metabolite biosynthesis gene clusters are predicted to be in the Aspergillus flavus genome. In spite of this, the biosyntheses of only seven metabolites, including the aflatoxins, kojic acid, cyclopiazonic acid and aflatrem, have been assigned to a particular gene cluster. We used RNA-seq to compare expression of secondary metabolite genes in gene clusters for the closely related fungi A. parasiticus, A. oryzae, and A. flavus S and L sclerotial morphotypes. The data help to refine the identification of probable functional gene clusters within these species. Our results suggest that A. flavus, a prevalent contaminant of maize, cottonseed, peanuts and tree nuts, is capable of producing metabolites which, besides aflatoxin, could be an underappreciated contributor to its toxicity.

A recently transferred cluster of bacterial genes in Trichomonas vaginalis - lateral gene transfer and the fate of acquired genes

Science.gov (United States)

2014-01-01

Background Lateral Gene Transfer (LGT) has recently gained recognition as an important contributor to some eukaryote proteomes, but the mechanisms of acquisition and fixation in eukaryotic genomes are still uncertain. A previously defined norm for LGTs in microbial eukaryotes states that the majority are genes involved in metabolism, the LGTs are typically localized one by one, surrounded by vertically inherited genes on the chromosome, and phylogenetics shows that a broad collection of bacterial lineages have contributed to the transferome. Results A unique 34 kbp long fragment with 27 clustered genes (TvLF) of prokaryote origin was identified in the sequenced genome of the protozoan parasite Trichomonas vaginalis. Using a PCR based approach we confirmed the presence of the orthologous fragment in four additional T. vaginalis strains. Detailed sequence analyses unambiguously suggest that TvLF is the result of one single, recent LGT event. The proposed donor is a close relative to the firmicute bacterium Peptoniphilus harei. High nucleotide sequence similarity between T. vaginalis strains, as well as to P. harei, and the absence of homologs in other Trichomonas species, suggests that the transfer event took place after the radiation of the genus Trichomonas. Some genes have undergone pseudogenization and degradation, indicating that they may not be retained in the future. Functional annotations reveal that genes involved in informational processes are particularly prone to degradation. Conclusions We conclude that, although the majority of eukaryote LGTs are single gene occurrences, they may be acquired in clusters of several genes that are subsequently cleansed of evolutionarily less advantageous genes. PMID:24898731

Identification of new genes in a cell envelope-cell division gene cluster of Escherichia coli: cell envelope gene murG.

Science.gov (United States)

Salmond, G P; Lutkenhaus, J F; Donachie, W D

1980-01-01

We report the identification, cloning, and mapping of a new cell envelope gene, murG. This lies in a group of five genes of similar phenotype (in the order murE murF murG murC ddl) all concerned with peptidoglycan biosynthesis. This group is in a larger cluster of at least 10 genes, all of which are involved in some way with cell envelope growth. Images PMID:6998962

Ensemble attribute profile clustering: discovering and characterizing groups of genes with similar patterns of biological features

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Bissell MJ

2006-03-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Ensemble attribute profile clustering is a novel, text-based strategy for analyzing a user-defined list of genes and/or proteins. The strategy exploits annotation data present in gene-centered corpora and utilizes ideas from statistical information retrieval to discover and characterize properties shared by subsets of the list. The practical utility of this method is demonstrated by employing it in a retrospective study of two non-overlapping sets of genes defined by a published investigation as markers for normal human breast luminal epithelial cells and myoepithelial cells. Results Each genetic locus was characterized using a finite set of biological properties and represented as a vector of features indicating attributes associated with the locus (a gene attribute profile. In this study, the vector space models for a pre-defined list of genes were constructed from the Gene Ontology (GO terms and the Conserved Domain Database (CDD protein domain terms assigned to the loci by the gene-centered corpus LocusLink. This data set of GO- and CDD-based gene attribute profiles, vectors of binary random variables, was used to estimate multiple finite mixture models and each ensuing model utilized to partition the profiles into clusters. The resultant partitionings were combined using a unanimous voting scheme to produce consensus clusters, sets of profiles that co-occured consistently in the same cluster. Attributes that were important in defining the genes assigned to a consensus cluster were identified. The clusters and their attributes were inspected to ascertain the GO and CDD terms most associated with subsets of genes and in conjunction with external knowledge such as chromosomal location, used to gain functional insights into human breast biology. The 52 luminal epithelial cell markers and 89 myoepithelial cell markers are disjoint sets of genes. Ensemble attribute profile clustering-based analysis indicated that both lists

Genomic organization of the rat alpha 2u-globulin gene cluster.

Science.gov (United States)

McFadyen, D A; Addison, W; Locke, J

1999-05-01

The alpha 2u-globulin are a group of similar proteins, belonging to the lipocalin superfamily of proteins, that are synthesized in a subset of secretory tissues in rats. The many alpha 2u-globulin isoforms are encoded by a multigene family that exhibits extensive homology. Despite a high degree of sequence identity, individual family members show diverse expression patterns involving complex hormonal, tissue-specific, and developmental regulation. Analysis suggests that there are approximately 20 alpha 2u-globulin genes in the rat genome. We have used fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) to show that the alpha 2u-globulin genes are clustered at a single site on rat Chromosome (Chr) 5 (5q22-24). Southern blots of rat genomic DNA separated by pulsed field gel electrophoresis indicated that the alpha 2u-globulin genes are contained on two NruI fragments with a total size of 880 kbp. Analysis of three P1 clones containing alpha 2u-globulin genes indicated that the alpha 2u-globulin genes are tandemly arranged in a head-to-tail fashion. The organization of the alpha 2u-globulin genes in the rat as a tandem array of single genes differs from the homologous major urinary protein genes in the mouse, which are organized as tandem arrays of divergently oriented gene pairs. The structure of these gene clusters may have consequences for the proposed function, as a pheromone transporter, for the protein products encoded by these genes.

Acquisition and evolution of plant pathogenesis-associated gene clusters and candidate determinants of tissue-specificity in xanthomonas.

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Hong Lu

Full Text Available Xanthomonas is a large genus of plant-associated and plant-pathogenic bacteria. Collectively, members cause diseases on over 392 plant species. Individually, they exhibit marked host- and tissue-specificity. The determinants of this specificity are unknown.To assess potential contributions to host- and tissue-specificity, pathogenesis-associated gene clusters were compared across genomes of eight Xanthomonas strains representing vascular or non-vascular pathogens of rice, brassicas, pepper and tomato, and citrus. The gum cluster for extracellular polysaccharide is conserved except for gumN and sequences downstream. The xcs and xps clusters for type II secretion are conserved, except in the rice pathogens, in which xcs is missing. In the otherwise conserved hrp cluster, sequences flanking the core genes for type III secretion vary with respect to insertion sequence element and putative effector gene content. Variation at the rpf (regulation of pathogenicity factors cluster is more pronounced, though genes with established functional relevance are conserved. A cluster for synthesis of lipopolysaccharide varies highly, suggesting multiple horizontal gene transfers and reassortments, but this variation does not correlate with host- or tissue-specificity. Phylogenetic trees based on amino acid alignments of gum, xps, xcs, hrp, and rpf cluster products generally reflect strain phylogeny. However, amino acid residues at four positions correlate with tissue specificity, revealing hpaA and xpsD as candidate determinants. Examination of genome sequences of xanthomonads Xylella fastidiosa and Stenotrophomonas maltophilia revealed that the hrp, gum, and xcs clusters are recent acquisitions in the Xanthomonas lineage.Our results provide insight into the ancestral Xanthomonas genome and indicate that differentiation with respect to host- and tissue-specificity involved not major modifications or wholesale exchange of clusters, but subtle changes in a small

MeSH key terms for validation and annotation of gene expression clusters

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Rechtsteiner, A. (Andreas); Rocha, L. M. (Luis Mateus)

2004-01-01

Integration of different sources of information is a great challenge for the analysis of gene expression data, and for the field of Functional Genomics in general. As the availability of numerical data from high-throughput methods increases, so does the need for technologies that assist in the validation and evaluation of the biological significance of results extracted from these data. In mRNA assaying with microarrays, for example, numerical analysis often attempts to identify clusters of co-expressed genes. The important task to find the biological significance of the results and validate them has so far mostly fallen to the biological expert who had to perform this task manually. One of the most promising avenues to develop automated and integrative technology for such tasks lies in the application of modern Information Retrieval (IR) and Knowledge Management (KM) algorithms to databases with biomedical publications and data. Examples of databases available for the field are bibliographic databases c ntaining scientific publications (e.g. MEDLINE/PUBMED), databases containing sequence data (e.g. GenBank) and databases of semantic annotations (e.g. the Gene Ontology Consortium and Medical Subject Headings (MeSH)). We present here an approach that uses the MeSH terms and their concept hierarchies to validate and obtain functional information for gene expression clusters. The controlled and hierarchical MeSH vocabulary is used by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to index all the articles cited in MEDLINE. Such indexing with a controlled vocabulary eliminates some of the ambiguity due to polysemy (terms that have multiple meanings) and synonymy (multiple terms have similar meaning) that would be encountered if terms would be extracted directly from the articles due to differing article contexts or author preferences and background. Further, the hierarchical organization of the MeSH terms can illustrate the conceptuallfunctional relationships of genes

Phylogeny-guided (meta)genome mining approach for the targeted discovery of new microbial natural products.

Science.gov (United States)

Kang, Hahk-Soo

2017-02-01

Genomics-based methods are now commonplace in natural products research. A phylogeny-guided mining approach provides a means to quickly screen a large number of microbial genomes or metagenomes in search of new biosynthetic gene clusters of interest. In this approach, biosynthetic genes serve as molecular markers, and phylogenetic trees built with known and unknown marker gene sequences are used to quickly prioritize biosynthetic gene clusters for their metabolites characterization. An increase in the use of this approach has been observed for the last couple of years along with the emergence of low cost sequencing technologies. The aim of this review is to discuss the basic concept of a phylogeny-guided mining approach, and also to provide examples in which this approach was successfully applied to discover new natural products from microbial genomes and metagenomes. I believe that the phylogeny-guided mining approach will continue to play an important role in genomics-based natural products research.

A remarkably stable TipE gene cluster: evolution of insect Para sodium channel auxiliary subunits

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Li Jia

2011-11-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background First identified in fruit flies with temperature-sensitive paralysis phenotypes, the Drosophila melanogaster TipE locus encodes four voltage-gated sodium (NaV channel auxiliary subunits. This cluster of TipE-like genes on chromosome 3L, and a fifth family member on chromosome 3R, are important for the optional expression and functionality of the Para NaV channel but appear quite distinct from auxiliary subunits in vertebrates. Here, we exploited available arthropod genomic resources to trace the origin of TipE-like genes by mapping their evolutionary histories and examining their genomic architectures. Results We identified a remarkably conserved synteny block of TipE-like orthologues with well-maintained local gene arrangements from 21 insect species. Homologues in the water flea, Daphnia pulex, suggest an ancestral pancrustacean repertoire of four TipE-like genes; a subsequent gene duplication may have generated functional redundancy allowing gene losses in the silk moth and mosquitoes. Intronic nesting of the insect TipE gene cluster probably occurred following the divergence from crustaceans, but in the flour beetle and silk moth genomes the clusters apparently escaped from nesting. Across Pancrustacea, TipE gene family members have experienced intronic nesting, escape from nesting, retrotransposition, translocation, and gene loss events while generally maintaining their local gene neighbourhoods. D. melanogaster TipE-like genes exhibit coordinated spatial and temporal regulation of expression distinct from their host gene but well-correlated with their regulatory target, the Para NaV channel, suggesting that functional constraints may preserve the TipE gene cluster. We identified homology between TipE-like NaV channel regulators and vertebrate Slo-beta auxiliary subunits of big-conductance calcium-activated potassium (BKCa channels, which suggests that ion channel regulatory partners have evolved distinct lineage

Widespread occurrence of secondary lipid biosynthesis potential in microbial lineages.

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Christine N Shulse

Full Text Available Bacterial production of long-chain omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs, such as eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA, 20:5n-3 and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA, 22:6n-3, is constrained to a narrow subset of marine γ-proteobacteria. The genes responsible for de novo bacterial PUFA biosynthesis, designated pfaEABCD, encode large, multi-domain protein complexes akin to type I iterative fatty acid and polyketide synthases, herein referred to as "Pfa synthases". In addition to the archetypal Pfa synthase gene products from marine bacteria, we have identified homologous type I FAS/PKS gene clusters in diverse microbial lineages spanning 45 genera representing 10 phyla, presumed to be involved in long-chain fatty acid biosynthesis. In total, 20 distinct types of gene clusters were identified. Collectively, we propose the designation of "secondary lipids" to describe these biosynthetic pathways and products, a proposition consistent with the "secondary metabolite" vernacular. Phylogenomic analysis reveals a high degree of functional conservation within distinct biosynthetic pathways. Incongruence between secondary lipid synthase functional clades and taxonomic group membership combined with the lack of orthologous gene clusters in closely related strains suggests horizontal gene transfer has contributed to the dissemination of specialized lipid biosynthetic activities across disparate microbial lineages.

Biosynthetic origin of acetic acid using SNIF-NMR

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Boffo, Elisangela Fabiana; Ferreira, Antonio Gilberto

2006-01-01

The main purpose of this work is to describe the use of the technique Site-Specific Natural Isotopic Fractionation of hydrogen (SNIF-NMR), using 2 H and 1 H NMR spectroscopy, to investigate the biosynthetic origin of acetic acid in commercial samples of Brazilian vinegar. This method is based on the deuterium to hydrogen ratio at a specific position (methyl group) of acetic acid obtained by fermentation, through different biosynthetic mechanisms, which result in different isotopic ratios. We measured the isotopic ratio of vinegars obtained through C 3 , C 4 , and CAM biosynthetic mechanisms, blends of C 3 and C 4 (agrins) and synthetic acetic acid. (author)

Clustering Gene Expression Time Series with Coregionalization: Speed propagation of ALS

OpenAIRE

Rahman, Muhammad Arifur; Heath, Paul R.; Lawrence, Neil D.

2018-01-01

Clustering of gene expression time series gives insight into which genes may be coregulated, allowing us to discern the activity of pathways in a given microarray experiment. Of particular interest is how a given group of genes varies with different model conditions or genetic background. Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), an irreversible diverse neurodegenerative disorder showed consistent phenotypic differences and the disease progression is heterogeneous with significant variability. Thi...

Structure-related clustering of gene expression fingerprints of thp-1 cells exposed to smaller polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons.

Science.gov (United States)

Wan, B; Yarbrough, J W; Schultz, T W

2008-01-01

This study was undertaken to test the hypothesis that structurally similar PAHs induce similar gene expression profiles. THP-1 cells were exposed to a series of 12 selected PAHs at 50 microM for 24 hours and gene expressions profiles were analyzed using both unsupervised and supervised methods. Clustering analysis of gene expression profiles revealed that the 12 tested chemicals were grouped into five clusters. Within each cluster, the gene expression profiles are more similar to each other than to the ones outside the cluster. One-methylanthracene and 1-methylfluorene were found to have the most similar profiles; dibenzothiophene and dibenzofuran were found to share common profiles with fluorine. As expression pattern comparisons were expanded, similarity in genomic fingerprint dropped off dramatically. Prediction analysis of microarrays (PAM) based on the clustering pattern generated 49 predictor genes that can be used for sample discrimination. Moreover, a significant analysis of Microarrays (SAM) identified 598 genes being modulated by tested chemicals with a variety of biological processes, such as cell cycle, metabolism, and protein binding and KEGG pathways being significantly (p < 0.05) affected. It is feasible to distinguish structurally different PAHs based on their genomic fingerprints, which are mechanism based.

Differential expression of anthocyanin biosynthetic genes in relation to anthocyanin accumulation in the pericarp of Litchi chinensis Sonn.

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Yong-Zan Wei

Full Text Available Litchi has diverse fruit color phenotypes, yet no research reflects the biochemical background of this diversity. In this study, we evaluated 12 litchi cultivars for chromatic parameters and pigments, and investigated the effects of abscisic acid, forchlorofenron (CPPU, bagging and debagging treatments on fruit coloration in cv. Feizixiao, an unevenly red cultivar. Six genes encoding chalcone synthase (CHS, chalcone isomerase (CHI, flavanone 3-hydroxylase (F3H, dihydroflavonol 4-reductase (DFR, anthocyanidin synthase (ANS and UDP-glucose: flavonoid 3-O-glucosyltransferase (UFGT were isolated from the pericarp of the fully red litchi cv. Nuomici, and their expression was analyzed in different cultivars and under the above mentioned treatments. Pericarp anthocyanin concentration varied from none to 734 mg m(-2 among the 12 litchi cultivars, which were divided into three coloration types, i.e. non-red ('Kuixingqingpitian', 'Xingqiumili', 'Yamulong'and 'Yongxing No. 2', unevenly red ('Feizixiao' and 'Sanyuehong' and fully red ('Meiguili', 'Baila', Baitangying' 'Guiwei', 'Nuomici' and 'Guinuo'. The fully red type cultivars had different levels of anthocyanin but with the same composition. The expression of the six genes, especially LcF3H, LcDFR, LcANS and LcUFGT, in the pericarp of non-red cultivars was much weaker as compared to those red cultivars. Their expression, LcDFR and LcUFGT in particular, was positively correlated with anthocyanin concentrations in the pericarp. These results suggest the late genes in the anthocyanin biosynthetic pathway were coordinately expressed during red coloration of litchi fruits. Low expression of these genes resulted in absence or extremely low anthocyanin accumulation in non-red cultivars. Zero-red pericarp from either immature or CPPU treated fruits appeared to be lacking in anthocyanins due to the absence of UFGT expression. Among these six genes, only the expression of UFGT was found significantly correlated

Patterns of genetic diversity and differentiation in resistance gene clusters of two hybridizing European Populus species

OpenAIRE

Casey, Céline; Stölting, Kai N.; Barbará, Thelma; González-Martínez, Santiago C.; Lexer, Christian

2015-01-01

Resistance genes (R-genes) are essential for long-lived organisms such as forest trees, which are exposed to diverse herbivores and pathogens. In short-lived model species, R-genes have been shown to be involved in species isolation. Here, we studied more than 400 trees from two natural hybrid zones of the European Populus species Populus alba and Populus tremula for microsatellite markers located in three R-gene clusters, including one cluster situated in the incipient sex chromosome region....

An R2R3 MYB transcription factor associated with regulation of the anthocyanin biosynthetic pathway in Rosaceae (on linr)

OpenAIRE

Wang, Kui-Lin; Bolitho, Karen; Grafton, Karryn; Kortstee, A.J.; Karunairetnam, Sakuntala; McGhie, T.K.; Espley, R.V.; Hellens, R.P.; Allan, A.C.

2010-01-01

Background - The control of plant anthocyanin accumulation is via transcriptional regulation of the genes encoding the biosynthetic enzymes. A key activator appears to be an R2R3 MYB transcription factor. In apple fruit, skin anthocyanin levels are controlled by a gene called MYBA or MYB1, while the gene determining fruit flesh and foliage anthocyanin has been termed MYB10. In order to further understand tissue-specific anthocyanin regulation we have isolated orthologous MYB genes from all th...

Mouse Nkrp1-Clr gene cluster sequence and expression analyses reveal conservation of tissue-specific MHC-independent immunosurveillance.

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Qiang Zhang

Full Text Available The Nkrp1 (Klrb1-Clr (Clec2 genes encode a receptor-ligand system utilized by NK cells as an MHC-independent immunosurveillance strategy for innate immune responses. The related Ly49 family of MHC-I receptors displays extreme allelic polymorphism and haplotype plasticity. In contrast, previous BAC-mapping and aCGH studies in the mouse suggest the neighboring and related Nkrp1-Clr cluster is evolutionarily stable. To definitively compare the relative evolutionary rate of Nkrp1-Clr vs. Ly49 gene clusters, the Nkrp1-Clr gene clusters from two Ly49 haplotype-disparate inbred mouse strains, BALB/c and 129S6, were sequenced. Both Nkrp1-Clr gene cluster sequences are highly similar to the C57BL/6 reference sequence, displaying the same gene numbers and order, complete pseudogenes, and gene fragments. The Nkrp1-Clr clusters contain a strikingly dissimilar proportion of repetitive elements compared to the Ly49 clusters, suggesting that certain elements may be partly responsible for the highly disparate Ly49 vs. Nkrp1 evolutionary rate. Focused allelic polymorphisms were found within the Nkrp1b/d (Klrb1b, Nkrp1c (Klrb1c, and Clr-c (Clec2f genes, suggestive of possible immune selection. Cell-type specific transcription of Nkrp1-Clr genes in a large panel of tissues/organs was determined. Clr-b (Clec2d and Clr-g (Clec2i showed wide expression, while other Clr genes showed more tissue-specific expression patterns. In situ hybridization revealed specific expression of various members of the Clr family in leukocytes/hematopoietic cells of immune organs, various tissue-restricted epithelial cells (including intestinal, kidney tubular, lung, and corneal progenitor epithelial cells, as well as myocytes. In summary, the Nkrp1-Clr gene cluster appears to evolve more slowly relative to the related Ly49 cluster, and likely regulates innate immunosurveillance in a tissue-specific manner.

Molecular evolution of the lysine biosynthetic pathways.

Science.gov (United States)

Velasco, A M; Leguina, J I; Lazcano, A

2002-10-01

Among the different biosynthetic pathways found in extant organisms, lysine biosynthesis is peculiar because it has two different anabolic routes. One is the diaminopimelic acid pathway (DAP), and the other over the a-aminoadipic acid route (AAA). A variant of the AAA route that includes some enzymes involved in arginine and leucine biosyntheses has been recently reported in Thermus thermophilus (Nishida et al. 1999). Here we describe the results of a detailed genomic analysis of each of the sequences involved in the two lysine anabolic routes, as well as of genes from other routes related to them. No evidence was found of an evolutionary relationship between the DAP and AAA enzymes. Our results suggest that the DAP pathway is related to arginine metabolism, since the lysC, asd, dapC, dapE, and lysA genes from lysine biosynthesis are related to the argB, argC, argD, argE, and speAC genes, respectively, whose products catalyze different steps in arginine metabolism. This work supports previous reports on the relationship between AAA gene products and some enzymes involved in leucine biosynthesis and the tricarboxylic acid cycle (Irvin and Bhattacharjee 1998; Miyazaki et al. 2001). Here we discuss the significance of the recent finding that several genes involved in the arginine (Arg) and leucine (Leu) biosynthesis participate in a new alternative route of the AAA pathway (Miyazaki et al. 2001). Our results demonstrate a clear relationship between the DAP and Arg routes, and between the AAA and Leu pathways.

Rice Ethylene-Response AP2/ERF Factor OsEATB Restricts Internode Elongation by Down-Regulating a Gibberellin Biosynthetic Gene1[W][OA

Science.gov (United States)

Qi, Weiwei; Sun, Fan; Wang, Qianjie; Chen, Mingluan; Huang, Yunqing; Feng, Yu-Qi; Luo, Xiaojin; Yang, Jinshui

2011-01-01

Plant height is a decisive factor in plant architecture. Rice (Oryza sativa) plants have the potential for rapid internodal elongation, which determines plant height. A large body of physiological research has shown that ethylene and gibberellin are involved in this process. The APETALA2 (AP2)/Ethylene-Responsive Element Binding Factor (ERF) family of transcriptional factors is only present in the plant kingdom. This family has various developmental and physiological functions. A rice AP2/ERF gene, OsEATB (for ERF protein associated with tillering and panicle branching) was cloned from indica rice variety 9311. Bioinformatic analysis suggested that this ERF has a potential new function. Ectopic expression of OsEATB showed that the cross talk between ethylene and gibberellin, which is mediated by OsEATB, might underlie differences in rice internode elongation. Analyses of gene expression demonstrated that OsEATB restricts ethylene-induced enhancement of gibberellin responsiveness during the internode elongation process by down-regulating the gibberellin biosynthetic gene, ent-kaurene synthase A. Plant height is negatively correlated with tiller number, and higher yields are typically obtained from dwarf crops. OsEATB reduces rice plant height and panicle length at maturity, promoting the branching potential of both tillers and spikelets. These are useful traits for breeding high-yielding crops. PMID:21753115

Fine Mapping of Two Wheat Powdery Mildew Resistance Genes Located at the Pm1 Cluster

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Junchao Liang

2016-07-01

Full Text Available Powdery mildew caused by (DC. f. sp. ( is a globally devastating foliar disease of wheat ( L.. More than a dozen genes against this disease, identified from wheat germplasms of different ploidy levels, have been mapped to the region surrounding the locus on the long arm of chromosome 7A, which forms a resistance (-gene cluster. and from einkorn wheat ( L. were two of the genes belonging to this cluster. This study was initiated to fine map these two genes toward map-based cloning. Comparative genomics study showed that macrocolinearity exists between L. chromosome 1 (Bd1 and the – region, which allowed us to develop markers based on the wheat sequences orthologous to genes contained in the Bd1 region. With these and other newly developed and published markers, high-resolution maps were constructed for both and using large F populations. Moreover, a physical map of was constructed through chromosome walking with bacterial artificial chromosome (BAC clones and comparative mapping. Eventually, and were restricted to a 0.12- and 0.86-cM interval, respectively. Based on the closely linked common markers, , , and (another powdery mildew resistance gene in the cluster were not allelic to one another. Severe recombination suppression and disruption of synteny were noted in the region encompassing . These results provided useful information for map-based cloning of the genes in the cluster and interpretation of their evolution.

Transcriptional repressor role of PocR on the 1,3-propanediol biosynthetic pathway by Lactobacillus panis PM1.

Science.gov (United States)

Kang, Tae Sun; Korber, Darren R; Tanaka, Takuji

2014-06-01

The regulatory role of a transcriptional regulator (PocR) in the 1,3-propanediol biosynthetic pathway of Lactobacillus panis PM1 contributes to the optimization of 1,3-propanediol production by this strain, which potentially will lead to 1,3-propanediol manufacturing efficiencies. Lactobacillus panis PM1 can utilize a 1,3-propanediol (1,3-PDO) biosynthetic pathway, consisting of diol dehydratase (PduCDE) and 1,3-PDO dehydrogenase, as a NADH recycling system, to survive under various environmental conditions. In this study, we identified a key transcriptional repressor (PocR) which was annotated as a transcriptional factor of AraC family as part of the 1,3-PDO biosynthetic pathway of L. panis PM1. The over-expression of the PocR gene resulted in the significant repression (81 %) of pduC (PduCDE large subunit) transcription, and subsequently, the decreased activity of PduCDE by 22 %. As a result of the regulation of PduCDE, production of both 3-hydroxypropionaldehyde and 1,3-PDO in the PocR over-expressing strain were significantly decreased by 40 % relative to the control strain. These results clearly demonstrate the transcriptional repressor role of PocR in the 1,3-PDO biosynthetic pathway.

Effect of immobilization stress on gene expression of catecholamine biosynthetic enzymes in heart auricles of socially isolated rats

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L. Gavrilovic

2009-12-01

Full Text Available Chronic stress is associated with the development of cardiovascular diseases. The sympathoneural system plays an important role in the regulation of cardiac function both in health and disease. In the present study, the changes in gene expression of the catecholamine biosynthetic enzymes tyrosine hydroxylase (TH, dopamine-β-hydroxylase (DBH and phenylethanolamine N-methyltransferase (PNMT and protein levels in the right and left heart auricles of naive control and long-term (12 weeks socially isolated rats were investigated by Taqman RT-PCR and Western blot analysis. The response of these animals to additional immobilization stress (2 h was also examined. Long-term social isolation produced a decrease in TH mRNA level in left auricles (about 70% compared to the corresponding control. Expression of the DBH gene was markedly decreased both in the right (about 62% and left (about 81% auricles compared to the corresponding control, group-maintained rats, whereas PNMT mRNA levels remained unchanged. Exposure of group-housed rats to acute immobilization for 2 h led to a significant increase of mRNA levels of TH (about 267%, DBH (about 37% and PNMT (about 60% only in the right auricles. Additional 2-h immobilization of individually housed rats did not affect gene expression of these enzymes in either the right or left auricle. Protein levels of TH, DBH and PNMT in left and right heart auricles were unchanged either in both individually housed and immobilized rats. The unchanged mRNA levels of the enzymes examined after short-term immobilization suggest that the catecholaminergic system of the heart auricles of animals previously exposed to chronic psychosocial stress was adapted to maintain appropriate cardiovascular homeostasis.

Gene expression data clustering and it’s application in differential analysis of leukemia

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M. Vahedi

2008-02-01

Full Text Available Introduction: DNA microarray technique is one of the most important categories in bioinformatics,which allows the possibility of monitoring thousands of expressed genes has been resulted in creatinggiant data bases of gene expression data, recently. Statistical analysis of such databases includednormalization, clustering, classification and etc.Materials and Methods: Golub et al (1999 collected data bases of leukemia based on the method ofoligonucleotide. The data is on the internet. In this paper, we analyzed gene expression data. It wasclustered by several methods including multi-dimensional scaling, hierarchical and non-hierarchicalclustering. Data set included 20 Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL patients and 14 Acute MyeloidLeukemia (AML patients. The results of tow methods of clustering were compared with regard to realgrouping (ALL & AML. R software was used for data analysis.Results: Specificity and sensitivity of divisive hierarchical clustering in diagnosing of ALL patientswere 75% and 92%, respectively. Specificity and sensitivity of partitioning around medoids indiagnosing of ALL patients were 90% and 93%, respectively. These results showed a wellaccomplishment of both methods of clustering. It is considerable that, due to clustering methodsresults, one of the samples was placed in ALL groups, which was in AML group in clinical test.Conclusion: With regard to concordance of the results with real grouping of data, therefore we canuse these methods in the cases where we don't have accurate information of real grouping of data.Moreover, Results of clustering might distinct subgroups of data in such a way that would be necessaryfor concordance with clinical outcomes, laboratory results and so on.

A novel polyketide biosynthesis gene cluster is involved in fruiting body morphogenesis in the filamentous fungi Sordaria macrospora and Neurospora crassa.

Science.gov (United States)

Nowrousian, Minou

2009-04-01

During fungal fruiting body development, hyphae aggregate to form multicellular structures that protect and disperse the sexual spores. Analysis of microarray data revealed a gene cluster strongly upregulated during fruiting body development in the ascomycete Sordaria macrospora. Real time PCR analysis showed that the genes from the orthologous cluster in Neurospora crassa are also upregulated during development. The cluster encodes putative polyketide biosynthesis enzymes, including a reducing polyketide synthase. Analysis of knockout strains of a predicted dehydrogenase gene from the cluster showed that mutants in N. crassa and S. macrospora are delayed in fruiting body formation. In addition to the upregulated cluster, the N. crassa genome comprises another cluster containing a polyketide synthase gene, and five additional reducing polyketide synthase (rpks) genes that are not part of clusters. To study the role of these genes in sexual development, expression of the predicted rpks genes in S. macrospora (five genes) and N. crassa (six genes) was analyzed; all but one are upregulated during sexual development. Analysis of knockout strains for the N. crassa rpks genes showed that one of them is essential for fruiting body formation. These data indicate that polyketides produced by RPKSs are involved in sexual development in filamentous ascomycetes.

Molecular cloning of a novel bioH gene from an environmental metagenome encoding a carboxylesterase with exceptional tolerance to organic solvents

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Shi, Yuping; Pan, Yingjie; Li, Bailin

2013-01-01

with a strong potential in industrial applications. CONCLUSIONS: This study constituted the first investigation of a novel bioHx gene in a biotin biosynthetic gene cluster cloned from an environmental metagenome. The bioHx gene was successfully cloned, expressed and characterized. The results demonstrated...... that BioHx is a novel carboxylesterase, displaying distinct biochemical properties with strong application potential in industry. Our results also provided the evidence for the effectiveness of functional metagenomic approach for identifying novel bioH genes from complex ecosystem.......ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND: BioH is one of the key enzymes to produce the precursor pimeloyl-ACP to initiate biotin biosynthesis de novo in bacteria. To date, very few bioH genes have been characterized. In this study, we cloned and identified a novel bioH gene, bioHx, from an environmental metagenome...

Comprehensive annotation of secondary metabolite biosynthetic genes and gene clusters of Aspergillus nidulans, A. fumigatus, A. niger and A. oryzae

OpenAIRE

Inglis, Diane O; Binkley, Jonathan; Skrzypek, Marek S; Arnaud, Martha B; Cerqueira, Gustavo C; Shah, Prachi; Wymore, Farrell; Wortman, Jennifer R; Sherlock, Gavin

2013-01-01

Background Secondary metabolite production, a hallmark of filamentous fungi, is an expanding area of research for the Aspergilli. These compounds are potent chemicals, ranging from deadly toxins to therapeutic antibiotics to potential anti-cancer drugs. The genome sequences for multiple Aspergilli have been determined, and provide a wealth of predictive information about secondary metabolite production. Sequence analysis and gene overexpression strategies have enabled the discovery of novel s...

Perturbations of carotenoid and tetrapyrrole biosynthetic pathways result in differential alterations in chloroplast function and plastid signaling.

Science.gov (United States)

Park, Joon-Heum; Jung, Sunyo

2017-01-22

In this study, we used the biosynthetic inhibitors of carotenoid and tetrapyrrole biosynthetic pathways, norflurazon (NF) and oxyfluorfen (OF), as tools to gain insight into mechanisms of photooxidation in rice plants. NF resulted in bleaching symptom on leaves of the treated plants, whereas OF treatment developed a fast symptom of an apparent necrotic phenotype. Both plants exhibited decreases in photosynthetic efficiency, as indicated by F v /F m . NF caused severe disruption in thylakoid membranes, whereas OF-treated plants exhibited disruption of chloroplast envelope and plasma membrane. Levels of Lhca and Lhcb proteins in photosystem I (PSI) and PSII were reduced by photooxidative stress in NF- and OF-treated plants, with a greater decrease in NF plants. The down-regulation of nuclear-encoded photosynthesis genes Lhcb and rbcS was also found in both NF- and OF-treated plants, whereas plastid-encoded photosynthetic genes including RbcL, PsaC, and PsbD accumulated normally in NF plants but decreased drastically in OF plants. This proposes that the plastids in NF plants retain their potential to develop thylakoid membranes and that photobleaching is mainly controlled by nuclear genes. Distinct photooxidation patterns between NF- and OF-treated plants developed differential signaling, which might enable the plant to coordinate the expression of photosynthetic genes from the nuclear and plastidic genomes. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Development of a Terpenoid-Production Platform in Streptomyces reveromyceticus SN-593.

Science.gov (United States)

Khalid, Ammara; Takagi, Hiroshi; Panthee, Suresh; Muroi, Makoto; Chappell, Joe; Osada, Hiroyuki; Takahashi, Shunji

2017-12-15

Terpenoids represent the largest class of natural products, some of which are resources for pharmaceuticals, fragrances, and fuels. Generally, mass production of valuable terpenoid compounds is hampered by their low production levels in organisms and difficulty of chemical synthesis. Therefore, the development of microbial biosynthetic platforms represents an alternative approach. Although microbial terpenoid-production platforms have been established in Escherichia coli and yeast, an optimal platform has not been developed for Streptomyces species, despite the large capacity to produce secondary metabolites, such as polyketide compounds. To explore this potential, we constructed a terpenoid-biosynthetic platform in Streptomyces reveromyceticus SN-593. This strain is unique in that it harbors the mevalonate gene cluster enabling the production of furaquinocin, which can be controlled by the pathway specific regulator Fur22. We simultaneously expressed the mevalonate gene cluster and subsequent terpenoid-biosynthetic genes under the control of Fur22. To achieve improved fur22 gene expression, we screened promoters from S. reveromyceticus SN-593. Our results showed that the promoter associated with rvr2030 gene enabled production of 212 ± 20 mg/L botryococcene to levels comparable to those previously reported for other microbial hosts. Given that the rvr2030 gene encodes for an enzyme involved in the primary metabolism, these results suggest that optimized expression of terpenoid-biosynthetic genes with primary and secondary metabolism might be as important for high yields of terpenoid compounds as is the absolute expression level of a target gene(s).

The ergot alkaloid gene cluster: Functional analyses and evolutionary aspects

Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

Lorenz, N.; Haarmann, T.; Pažoutová, Sylvie; Jung, M.; Tudzynski, P.

2009-01-01

Roč. 70, 15-16 (2009), s. 1822-1832 ISSN 0031-9422 Institutional research plan: CEZ:AV0Z50200510 Keywords : Claviceps purpurea * Ergot fungus * Ergot alkaloid gene cluster Subject RIV: EE - Microbiology, Virology Impact factor: 3.104, year: 2009

Leveraging long sequencing reads to investigate R-gene clustering and variation in sugar beet

Science.gov (United States)

Host-pathogen interactions are of prime importance to modern agriculture. Plants utilize various types of resistance genes to mitigate pathogen damage. Identification of the specific gene responsible for a specific resistance can be difficult due to duplication and clustering within R-gene families....

Sequencing and transcriptional analysis of the Streptococcus thermophilus histamine biosynthesis gene cluster: factors that affect differential hdcA expression

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Calles-Enríquez, Marina; Hjort, Benjamin Benn; Andersen, Pia Skov

2010-01-01

to produce histamine. The hdc clusters of S. thermophilus CHCC1524 and CHCC6483 were sequenced, and the factors that affect histamine biosynthesis and histidine-decarboxylating gene (hdcA) expression were studied. The hdc cluster began with the hdcA gene, was followed by a transporter (hdcP), and ended...... with the hdcB gene, which is of unknown function. The three genes were orientated in the same direction. The genetic organization of the hdc cluster showed a unique organization among the lactic acid bacterial group and resembled those of Staphylococcus and Clostridium species, thus indicating possible...... acquisition through a horizontal transfer mechanism. Transcriptional analysis of the hdc cluster revealed the existence of a polycistronic mRNA covering the three genes. The histidine-decarboxylating gene (hdcA) of S. thermophilus demonstrated maximum expression during the stationary growth phase, with high...

A multi-Poisson dynamic mixture model to cluster developmental patterns of gene expression by RNA-seq.

Science.gov (United States)

Ye, Meixia; Wang, Zhong; Wang, Yaqun; Wu, Rongling

2015-03-01

Dynamic changes of gene expression reflect an intrinsic mechanism of how an organism responds to developmental and environmental signals. With the increasing availability of expression data across a time-space scale by RNA-seq, the classification of genes as per their biological function using RNA-seq data has become one of the most significant challenges in contemporary biology. Here we develop a clustering mixture model to discover distinct groups of genes expressed during a period of organ development. By integrating the density function of multivariate Poisson distribution, the model accommodates the discrete property of read counts characteristic of RNA-seq data. The temporal dependence of gene expression is modeled by the first-order autoregressive process. The model is implemented with the Expectation-Maximization algorithm and model selection to determine the optimal number of gene clusters and obtain the estimates of Poisson parameters that describe the pattern of time-dependent expression of genes from each cluster. The model has been demonstrated by analyzing a real data from an experiment aimed to link the pattern of gene expression to catkin development in white poplar. The usefulness of the model has been validated through computer simulation. The model provides a valuable tool for clustering RNA-seq data, facilitating our global view of expression dynamics and understanding of gene regulation mechanisms. © The Author 2014. Published by Oxford University Press. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Reclassification of the Specialized Metabolite Producer Pseudomonas mesoacidophila ATCC 31433 as a Member of the Burkholderia cepacia Complex.

Science.gov (United States)

Loveridge, E Joel; Jones, Cerith; Bull, Matthew J; Moody, Suzy C; Kahl, Małgorzata W; Khan, Zainab; Neilson, Louis; Tomeva, Marina; Adams, Sarah E; Wood, Andrew C; Rodriguez-Martin, Daniel; Pinel, Ingrid; Parkhill, Julian; Mahenthiralingam, Eshwar; Crosby, John

2017-07-01

Pseudomonas mesoacidophila ATCC 31433 is a Gram-negative bacterium, first isolated from Japanese soil samples, that produces the monobactam isosulfazecin and the β-lactam-potentiating bulgecins. To characterize the biosynthetic potential of P. mesoacidophila ATCC 31433, its complete genome was determined using single-molecule real-time DNA sequence analysis. The 7.8-Mb genome comprised four replicons, three chromosomal (each encoding rRNA) and one plasmid. Phylogenetic analysis demonstrated that P. mesoacidophila ATCC 31433 was misclassified at the time of its deposition and is a member of the Burkholderia cepacia complex, most closely related to Burkholderia ubonensis The sequenced genome shows considerable additional biosynthetic potential; known gene clusters for malleilactone, ornibactin, isosulfazecin, alkylhydroxyquinoline, and pyrrolnitrin biosynthesis and several uncharacterized biosynthetic gene clusters for polyketides, nonribosomal peptides, and other metabolites were identified. Furthermore, P. mesoacidophila ATCC 31433 harbors many genes associated with environmental resilience and antibiotic resistance and was resistant to a range of antibiotics and metal ions. In summary, this bioactive strain should be designated B. cepacia complex strain ATCC 31433, pending further detailed taxonomic characterization. IMPORTANCE This work reports the complete genome sequence of Pseudomonas mesoacidophila ATCC 31433, a known producer of bioactive compounds. Large numbers of both known and novel biosynthetic gene clusters were identified, indicating that P. mesoacidophila ATCC 31433 is an untapped resource for discovery of novel bioactive compounds. Phylogenetic analysis demonstrated that P. mesoacidophila ATCC 31433 is in fact a member of the Burkholderia cepacia complex, most closely related to the species Burkholderia ubonensis Further investigation of the classification and biosynthetic potential of P. mesoacidophila ATCC 31433 is warranted. Copyright © 2017

A VTVH MCD and EPR Spectroscopic Study of the Maturation of the "Second" Nitrogenase P-Cluster.

Science.gov (United States)

Rupnik, Kresimir; Lee, Chi Chung; Hu, Yilin; Ribbe, Markus W; Hales, Brian J

2018-04-16

The P-cluster of the nitrogenase MoFe protein is a [ Fe 8 S 7 ] cluster that mediates efficient transfer of electrons to the active site for substrate reduction. Arguably the most complex homometallic FeS cluster found in nature, the biosynthetic mechanism of the P-cluster is of considerable theoretical and synthetic interest to chemists and biochemists alike. Previous studies have revealed a biphasic assembly mechanism of the two P-clusters in the MoFe protein upon incubation with Fe protein and ATP, in which the first P-cluster is formed through fast fusion of a pair of [ Fe 4 S 4 ] + clusters within 5 min and the second P-cluster is formed through slow fusion of the second pair of [ Fe 4 S 4 ] + clusters in a period of 2 h. Here we report a VTVH MCD and EPR spectroscopic study of the biosynthesis of the slow-forming, second P-cluster within the MoFe protein. Our results show that the first major step in the formation of the second P-cluster is the conversion of one of the precursor [ Fe 4 S 4 ] + clusters into the integer spin cluster [ Fe 4 S 3-4 ] α , a process aided by the assembly protein NifZ, whereas the second major biosynthetic step appears to be the formation of a diamagnetic cluster with a possible structure of [ Fe 8 S 7-8 ] β , which is eventually converted into the P-cluster.

Strategies to regulate transcription factor-mediated gene positioning and interchromosomal clustering at the nuclear periphery.

Science.gov (United States)

Randise-Hinchliff, Carlo; Coukos, Robert; Sood, Varun; Sumner, Michael Chas; Zdraljevic, Stefan; Meldi Sholl, Lauren; Garvey Brickner, Donna; Ahmed, Sara; Watchmaker, Lauren; Brickner, Jason H

2016-03-14

In budding yeast, targeting of active genes to the nuclear pore complex (NPC) and interchromosomal clustering is mediated by transcription factor (TF) binding sites in the gene promoters. For example, the binding sites for the TFs Put3, Ste12, and Gcn4 are necessary and sufficient to promote positioning at the nuclear periphery and interchromosomal clustering. However, in all three cases, gene positioning and interchromosomal clustering are regulated. Under uninducing conditions, local recruitment of the Rpd3(L) histone deacetylase by transcriptional repressors blocks Put3 DNA binding. This is a general function of yeast repressors: 16 of 21 repressors blocked Put3-mediated subnuclear positioning; 11 of these required Rpd3. In contrast, Ste12-mediated gene positioning is regulated independently of DNA binding by mitogen-activated protein kinase phosphorylation of the Dig2 inhibitor, and Gcn4-dependent targeting is up-regulated by increasing Gcn4 protein levels. These different regulatory strategies provide either qualitative switch-like control or quantitative control of gene positioning over different time scales. © 2016 Randise-Hinchliff et al.

Motif-independent prediction of a secondary metabolism gene cluster using comparative genomics: application to sequenced genomes of Aspergillus and ten other filamentous fungal species.

Science.gov (United States)

Takeda, Itaru; Umemura, Myco; Koike, Hideaki; Asai, Kiyoshi; Machida, Masayuki

2014-08-01

Despite their biological importance, a significant number of genes for secondary metabolite biosynthesis (SMB) remain undetected due largely to the fact that they are highly diverse and are not expressed under a variety of cultivation conditions. Several software tools including SMURF and antiSMASH have been developed to predict fungal SMB gene clusters by finding core genes encoding polyketide synthase, nonribosomal peptide synthetase and dimethylallyltryptophan synthase as well as several others typically present in the cluster. In this work, we have devised a novel comparative genomics method to identify SMB gene clusters that is independent of motif information of the known SMB genes. The method detects SMB gene clusters by searching for a similar order of genes and their presence in nonsyntenic blocks. With this method, we were able to identify many known SMB gene clusters with the core genes in the genomic sequences of 10 filamentous fungi. Furthermore, we have also detected SMB gene clusters without core genes, including the kojic acid biosynthesis gene cluster of Aspergillus oryzae. By varying the detection parameters of the method, a significant difference in the sequence characteristics was detected between the genes residing inside the clusters and those outside the clusters. © The Author 2014. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Kazusa DNA Research Institute.

Methods for simultaneously identifying coherent local clusters with smooth global patterns in gene expression profiles

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Lee Yun-Shien

2008-03-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background The hierarchical clustering tree (HCT with a dendrogram 1 and the singular value decomposition (SVD with a dimension-reduced representative map 2 are popular methods for two-way sorting the gene-by-array matrix map employed in gene expression profiling. While HCT dendrograms tend to optimize local coherent clustering patterns, SVD leading eigenvectors usually identify better global grouping and transitional structures. Results This study proposes a flipping mechanism for a conventional agglomerative HCT using a rank-two ellipse (R2E, an improved SVD algorithm for sorting purpose seriation by Chen 3 as an external reference. While HCTs always produce permutations with good local behaviour, the rank-two ellipse seriation gives the best global grouping patterns and smooth transitional trends. The resulting algorithm automatically integrates the desirable properties of each method so that users have access to a clustering and visualization environment for gene expression profiles that preserves coherent local clusters and identifies global grouping trends. Conclusion We demonstrate, through four examples, that the proposed method not only possesses better numerical and statistical properties, it also provides more meaningful biomedical insights than other sorting algorithms. We suggest that sorted proximity matrices for genes and arrays, in addition to the gene-by-array expression matrix, can greatly aid in the search for comprehensive understanding of gene expression structures. Software for the proposed methods can be obtained at http://gap.stat.sinica.edu.tw/Software/GAP.

Spatial expression of Hox cluster genes in the ontogeny of a sea urchin

Science.gov (United States)

Arenas-Mena, C.; Cameron, A. R.; Davidson, E. H.

2000-01-01

The Hox cluster of the sea urchin Strongylocentrous purpuratus contains ten genes in a 500 kb span of the genome. Only two of these genes are expressed during embryogenesis, while all of eight genes tested are expressed during development of the adult body plan in the larval stage. We report the spatial expression during larval development of the five 'posterior' genes of the cluster: SpHox7, SpHox8, SpHox9/10, SpHox11/13a and SpHox11/13b. The five genes exhibit a dynamic, largely mesodermal program of expression. Only SpHox7 displays extensive expression within the pentameral rudiment itself. A spatially sequential and colinear arrangement of expression domains is found in the somatocoels, the paired posterior mesodermal structures that will become the adult perivisceral coeloms. No such sequential expression pattern is observed in endodermal, epidermal or neural tissues of either the larva or the presumptive juvenile sea urchin. The spatial expression patterns of the Hox genes illuminate the evolutionary process by which the pentameral echinoderm body plan emerged from a bilateral ancestor.

Some statistical properties of gene expression clustering for array data

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Abreu, G C G; Pinheiro, A; Drummond, R D

2010-01-01

DNA array data without a corresponding statistical error measure. We propose an easy-to-implement and simple-to-use technique that uses bootstrap re-sampling to evaluate the statistical error of the nodes provided by SOM-based clustering. Comparisons between SOM and parametric clustering are presented...... for simulated as well as for two real data sets. We also implement a bootstrap-based pre-processing procedure for SOM, that improves the false discovery ratio of differentially expressed genes. Code in Matlab is freely available, as well as some supplementary material, at the following address: https...

Genomic and expression analysis of the vanG-like gene cluster of Clostridium difficile.

Science.gov (United States)

Peltier, Johann; Courtin, Pascal; El Meouche, Imane; Catel-Ferreira, Manuella; Chapot-Chartier, Marie-Pierre; Lemée, Ludovic; Pons, Jean-Louis

2013-07-01

Primary antibiotic treatment of Clostridium difficile intestinal diseases requires metronidazole or vancomycin therapy. A cluster of genes homologous to enterococcal glycopeptides resistance vanG genes was found in the genome of C. difficile 630, although this strain remains sensitive to vancomycin. This vanG-like gene cluster was found to consist of five ORFs: the regulatory region consisting of vanR and vanS and the effector region consisting of vanG, vanXY and vanT. We found that 57 out of 83 C. difficile strains, representative of the main lineages of the species, harbour this vanG-like cluster. The cluster is expressed as an operon and, when present, is found at the same genomic location in all strains. The vanG, vanXY and vanT homologues in C. difficile 630 are co-transcribed and expressed to a low level throughout the growth phases in the absence of vancomycin. Conversely, the expression of these genes is strongly induced in the presence of subinhibitory concentrations of vancomycin, indicating that the vanG-like operon is functional at the transcriptional level in C. difficile. Hydrophilic interaction liquid chromatography (HILIC-HPLC) and MS analysis of cytoplasmic peptidoglycan precursors of C. difficile 630 grown without vancomycin revealed the exclusive presence of a UDP-MurNAc-pentapeptide with an alanine at the C terminus. UDP-MurNAc-pentapeptide [d-Ala] was also the only peptidoglycan precursor detected in C. difficile grown in the presence of vancomycin, corroborating the lack of vancomycin resistance. Peptidoglycan structures of a vanG-like mutant strain and of a strain lacking the vanG-like cluster did not differ from the C. difficile 630 strain, indicating that the vanG-like cluster also has no impact on cell-wall composition.

Burkholderia thailandensis harbors two identical rhl gene clusters responsible for the biosynthesis of rhamnolipids

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Woods Donald E

2009-12-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Rhamnolipids are surface active molecules composed of rhamnose and β-hydroxydecanoic acid. These biosurfactants are produced mainly by Pseudomonas aeruginosa and have been thoroughly investigated since their early discovery. Recently, they have attracted renewed attention because of their involvement in various multicellular behaviors. Despite this high interest, only very few studies have focused on the production of rhamnolipids by Burkholderia species. Results Orthologs of rhlA, rhlB and rhlC, which are responsible for the biosynthesis of rhamnolipids in P. aeruginosa, have been found in the non-infectious Burkholderia thailandensis, as well as in the genetically similar important pathogen B. pseudomallei. In contrast to P. aeruginosa, both Burkholderia species contain these three genes necessary for rhamnolipid production within a single gene cluster. Furthermore, two identical, paralogous copies of this gene cluster are found on the second chromosome of these bacteria. Both Burkholderia spp. produce rhamnolipids containing 3-hydroxy fatty acid moieties with longer side chains than those described for P. aeruginosa. Additionally, the rhamnolipids produced by B. thailandensis contain a much larger proportion of dirhamnolipids versus monorhamnolipids when compared to P. aeruginosa. The rhamnolipids produced by B. thailandensis reduce the surface tension of water to 42 mN/m while displaying a critical micelle concentration value of 225 mg/L. Separate mutations in both rhlA alleles, which are responsible for the synthesis of the rhamnolipid precursor 3-(3-hydroxyalkanoyloxyalkanoic acid, prove that both copies of the rhl gene cluster are functional, but one contributes more to the total production than the other. Finally, a double ΔrhlA mutant that is completely devoid of rhamnolipid production is incapable of swarming motility, showing that both gene clusters contribute to this phenotype. Conclusions Collectively, these

Histone and ribosomal RNA repetitive gene clusters of the boll weevil are linked in a tandem array.

Science.gov (United States)

Roehrdanz, R; Heilmann, L; Senechal, P; Sears, S; Evenson, P

2010-08-01

Histones are the major protein component of chromatin structure. The histone family is made up of a quintet of proteins, four core histones (H2A, H2B, H3 & H4) and the linker histones (H1). Spacers are found between the coding regions. Among insects this quintet of genes is usually clustered and the clusters are tandemly repeated. Ribosomal DNA contains a cluster of the rRNA sequences 18S, 5.8S and 28S. The rRNA genes are separated by the spacers ITS1, ITS2 and IGS. This cluster is also tandemly repeated. We found that the ribosomal RNA repeat unit of at least two species of Anthonomine weevils, Anthonomus grandis and Anthonomus texanus (Coleoptera: Curculionidae), is interspersed with a block containing the histone gene quintet. The histone genes are situated between the rRNA 18S and 28S genes in what is known as the intergenic spacer region (IGS). The complete reiterated Anthonomus grandis histone-ribosomal sequence is 16,248 bp.

Molecular population genetics of the β-esterase gene cluster of ...

Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

We suggest that the demographic history (bottleneck and admixture of genetically differentiated populations) is the major factor shaping the pattern of nucleotide polymorphism in the -esterase gene cluster. However there are some 'footprints' of directional and balancing selection shaping specific distribution of nucleotide ...

VRprofile: gene-cluster-detection-based profiling of virulence and antibiotic resistance traits encoded within genome sequences of pathogenic bacteria.

Science.gov (United States)

Li, Jun; Tai, Cui; Deng, Zixin; Zhong, Weihong; He, Yongqun; Ou, Hong-Yu

2017-01-10

VRprofile is a Web server that facilitates rapid investigation of virulence and antibiotic resistance genes, as well as extends these trait transfer-related genetic contexts, in newly sequenced pathogenic bacterial genomes. The used backend database MobilomeDB was firstly built on sets of known gene cluster loci of bacterial type III/IV/VI/VII secretion systems and mobile genetic elements, including integrative and conjugative elements, prophages, class I integrons, IS elements and pathogenicity/antibiotic resistance islands. VRprofile is thus able to co-localize the homologs of these conserved gene clusters using HMMer or BLASTp searches. With the integration of the homologous gene cluster search module with a sequence composition module, VRprofile has exhibited better performance for island-like region predictions than the other widely used methods. In addition, VRprofile also provides an integrated Web interface for aligning and visualizing identified gene clusters with MobilomeDB-archived gene clusters, or a variety set of bacterial genomes. VRprofile might contribute to meet the increasing demands of re-annotations of bacterial variable regions, and aid in the real-time definitions of disease-relevant gene clusters in pathogenic bacteria of interest. VRprofile is freely available at http://bioinfo-mml.sjtu.edu.cn/VRprofile. © The Author 2017. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Genome-wide association study identifies the SERPINB gene cluster as a susceptibility locus for food allergy.

Science.gov (United States)

Marenholz, Ingo; Grosche, Sarah; Kalb, Birgit; Rüschendorf, Franz; Blümchen, Katharina; Schlags, Rupert; Harandi, Neda; Price, Mareike; Hansen, Gesine; Seidenberg, Jürgen; Röblitz, Holger; Yürek, Songül; Tschirner, Sebastian; Hong, Xiumei; Wang, Xiaobin; Homuth, Georg; Schmidt, Carsten O; Nöthen, Markus M; Hübner, Norbert; Niggemann, Bodo; Beyer, Kirsten; Lee, Young-Ae

2017-10-20

Genetic factors and mechanisms underlying food allergy are largely unknown. Due to heterogeneity of symptoms a reliable diagnosis is often difficult to make. Here, we report a genome-wide association study on food allergy diagnosed by oral food challenge in 497 cases and 2387 controls. We identify five loci at genome-wide significance, the clade B serpin (SERPINB) gene cluster at 18q21.3, the cytokine gene cluster at 5q31.1, the filaggrin gene, the C11orf30/LRRC32 locus, and the human leukocyte antigen (HLA) region. Stratifying the results for the causative food demonstrates that association of the HLA locus is peanut allergy-specific whereas the other four loci increase the risk for any food allergy. Variants in the SERPINB gene cluster are associated with SERPINB10 expression in leukocytes. Moreover, SERPINB genes are highly expressed in the esophagus. All identified loci are involved in immunological regulation or epithelial barrier function, emphasizing the role of both mechanisms in food allergy.

Genetic clusters and sex-biased gene flow in a unicolonial Formica ant

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Chapuisat Michel

2009-03-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Animal societies are diverse, ranging from small family-based groups to extraordinarily large social networks in which many unrelated individuals interact. At the extreme of this continuum, some ant species form unicolonial populations in which workers and queens can move among multiple interconnected nests without eliciting aggression. Although unicoloniality has been mostly studied in invasive ants, it also occurs in some native non-invasive species. Unicoloniality is commonly associated with very high queen number, which may result in levels of relatedness among nestmates being so low as to raise the question of the maintenance of altruism by kin selection in such systems. However, the actual relatedness among cooperating individuals critically depends on effective dispersal and the ensuing pattern of genetic structuring. In order to better understand the evolution of unicoloniality in native non-invasive ants, we investigated the fine-scale population genetic structure and gene flow in three unicolonial populations of the wood ant F. paralugubris. Results The analysis of geo-referenced microsatellite genotypes and mitochondrial haplotypes revealed the presence of cryptic clusters of genetically-differentiated nests in the three populations of F. paralugubris. Because of this spatial genetic heterogeneity, members of the same clusters were moderately but significantly related. The comparison of nuclear (microsatellite and mitochondrial differentiation indicated that effective gene flow was male-biased in all populations. Conclusion The three unicolonial populations exhibited male-biased and mostly local gene flow. The high number of queens per nest, exchanges among neighbouring nests and restricted long-distance gene flow resulted in large clusters of genetically similar nests. The positive relatedness among clustermates suggests that kin selection may still contribute to the maintenance of altruism in unicolonial

Regulatory role of tetR gene in a novel gene cluster of Acidovorax avenae subsp. avenae RS-1 under oxidative stress

OpenAIRE

Liu, He; Yang, Chun-Lan; Ge, Meng-Yu; Ibrahim, Muhammad; Li, Bin; Zhao, Wen-Jun; Chen, Gong-You; Zhu, Bo; Xie, Guan-Lin

2014-01-01

Acidovorax avenae subsp. avenae is the causal agent of bacterial brown stripe disease in rice. In this study, we characterized a novel horizontal transfer of a gene cluster, including tetR, on the chromosome of A. avenae subsp. avenae RS-1 by genome-wide analysis. TetR acted as a repressor in this gene cluster and the oxidative stress resistance was enhanced in tetR-deletion mutant strain. Electrophoretic mobility shift assay demonstrated that TetR regulator bound directly to the promoter of ...

Functional Characterization of a Novel R2R3-MYB Transcription Factor Modulating the Flavonoid Biosynthetic Pathway from Epimedium sagittatum

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Wenjun Huang

2017-07-01

Full Text Available Epimedium species have been widely used both as traditional Chinese medicinal plants and ornamental perennials. Both flavonols, acting as the major bioactive components (BCs and anthocyanins, predominantly contributing to the color diversity of Epimedium flowers belong to different classes of flavonoids. It is well-acknowledged that flavonoid biosynthetic pathway is predominantly regulated by R2R3-MYB transcription factor (TF as well as bHLH TF and WD40 protein at the transcriptional level. MYB TFs specifically regulating anthocyanin or flavonol biosynthetic pathway have been already isolated and functionally characterized from Epimedium sagittatum, but a R2R3-MYB TF involved in regulating both these two pathways has not been functionally characterized to date in Epimedium plants. In this study, we report the functional characterization of EsMYB9, a R2R3-MYB TF previously isolated from E. sagittatum. The previous study indicated that EsMYB9 belongs to a small subfamily of R2R3-MYB TFs containing grape VvMYB5a and VvMYB5b TFs, which regulate flavonoid biosynthetic pathway. The present studies show that overexpression of EsMYB9 in tobacco leads to increased transcript levels of flavonoid pathway genes and increased contents of anthocyanins and flavonols. Yeast two-hybrid assay indicates that the C-terminal region of EsMYB9 contributes to the autoactivation activity, and EsMYB9 interacts with EsTT8 or AtTT8 bHLH regulator. Transient reporter assay shows that EsMYB9 slightly activates the expression of EsCHS (chalcone synthase promoter in transiently transformed leaves of Nicotiana benthamiana, but the addition of AtTT8 or EsTT8 bHLH regulator strongly enhances the transcriptional activation of EsMYB9 against five promoters of the flavonoid pathway genes except EsFLS (flavonol synthase. In addition, co-transformation of EsMYB9 and EsTT8 in transiently transfected tobacco leaves strongly induces the expressions of flavonoid biosynthetic genes. The

Clustering of two genes putatively involved in cyanate detoxification evolved recently and independently in multiple fungal lineages

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Fungi that have the enzymes cyanase and carbonic anhydrase show a limited capacity to detoxify cyanate, a fungicide employed by both plants and humans. Here, we describe a novel two-gene cluster that comprises duplicated cyanase and carbonic anhydrase copies, which we name the CCA gene cluster, trac...

Bacillus sp.CDB3 isolated from cattle dip-sites possesses two ars gene clusters

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

Somanath Bhat; Xi Luo; Zhiqiang Xu; Lixia Liu; Ren Zhang

2011-01-01

Contamination of soil and water by arsenic is a global problem.In Australia, the dipping of cattle in arsenic-containing solution to control cattle ticks in last centenary has left many sites heavily contaminated with arsenic and other toxicants.We had previously isolated five soil bacterial strains (CDB1-5) highly resistant to arsenic.To understand the resistance mechanism, molecular studies have been carried out.Two chromosome-encoded arsenic resistance (ars) gene clusters have been cloned from CDB3 (Bacillus sp.).They both function in Escherichia coli and cluster 1 exerts a much higher resistance to the toxic metalloid.Cluster 2 is smaller possessing four open reading frames (ORFs) arsRorf2BC, similar to that identified in Bacillus subtilis Skin element.Among the eight ORFs in cluster 1 five are analogs of common ars genes found in other bacteria, however, organized in a unique order arsRBCDA instead of arsRDABC.Three other putative genes are located directly downstream and designated as arsTIP based on the homologies of their theoretical translation sequences respectively to thioredoxin reductases, iron-sulphur cluster proteins and protein phosphatases.The latter two are novel of any known ars operons.The arsD gene from Bacillus species was cloned for the first time and the predict protein differs from the well studied E.coli ArsD by lacking two pairs of C-terrninal cysteine residues.Its functional involvement in arsenic resistance has been confirmed by a deletion experiment.There exists also an inverted repeat in the intergenic region between arsC and arsD implying some unknown transcription regulation.

Transcriptional regulation of genes involved in terpenoid índole alkaloid production in Catharanthus roseus seedlings

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Pedro J. Rocha

2002-07-01

Full Text Available Catharanthus roseus (L. G Don is a medicinal plant that produces a variety of terpenoid indole alkaloids (TIAs, some of which display pharmacological activity. C. roseus plants and cell cultures have been used to elucidate the TIAs biosynthetic pathway. A considerable number or enzymes have also been characterised, and their respective genes cloned. TIAs production in C. roseus plant and cell cultures is highly regulated at transcriptional-, develop-mental-, and environmental-level. Studies into TIAs biosynthetic gene regulation have been carried out using cell cultures. However, regulation in plants is almost unknown. Here, biosynthetic genes idc, strl, d4h and dat expres-sion levels are qualitatively examined in a developmental series of C. roseus seedlings. The effect of water- and light-stress and methyl jasmonate (MeJa and acetyl salicylic acid (ASA elicitation is also examined. Comparison between seedlings and cell cultures strongly suggests that TIAs biosynthetic gene transcriptional regulation is different in C.roseus plants and cell cultures.

Analysis of the transcriptome of Panax notoginseng root uncovers putative triterpene saponin-biosynthetic genes and genetic markers

Science.gov (United States)

2011-01-01

Background Panax notoginseng (Burk) F.H. Chen is important medicinal plant of the Araliacease family. Triterpene saponins are the bioactive constituents in P. notoginseng. However, available genomic information regarding this plant is limited. Moreover, details of triterpene saponin biosynthesis in the Panax species are largely unknown. Results Using the 454 pyrosequencing technology, a one-quarter GS FLX titanium run resulted in 188,185 reads with an average length of 410 bases for P. notoginseng root. These reads were processed and assembled by 454 GS De Novo Assembler software into 30,852 unique sequences. A total of 70.2% of unique sequences were annotated by Basic Local Alignment Search Tool (BLAST) similarity searches against public sequence databases. The Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) assignment discovered 41 unique sequences representing 11 genes involved in triterpene saponin backbone biosynthesis in the 454-EST dataset. In particular, the transcript encoding dammarenediol synthase (DS), which is the first committed enzyme in the biosynthetic pathway of major triterpene saponins, is highly expressed in the root of four-year-old P. notoginseng. It is worth emphasizing that the candidate cytochrome P450 (Pn02132 and Pn00158) and UDP-glycosyltransferase (Pn00082) gene most likely to be involved in hydroxylation or glycosylation of aglycones for triterpene saponin biosynthesis were discovered from 174 cytochrome P450s and 242 glycosyltransferases by phylogenetic analysis, respectively. Putative transcription factors were detected in 906 unique sequences, including Myb, homeobox, WRKY, basic helix-loop-helix (bHLH), and other family proteins. Additionally, a total of 2,772 simple sequence repeat (SSR) were identified from 2,361 unique sequences, of which, di-nucleotide motifs were the most abundant motif. Conclusion This study is the first to present a large-scale EST dataset for P. notoginseng root acquired by next-generation sequencing (NGS

Analysis of the transcriptome of Panax notoginseng root uncovers putative triterpene saponin-biosynthetic genes and genetic markers

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Luo Hongmei

2011-12-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Panax notoginseng (Burk F.H. Chen is important medicinal plant of the Araliacease family. Triterpene saponins are the bioactive constituents in P. notoginseng. However, available genomic information regarding this plant is limited. Moreover, details of triterpene saponin biosynthesis in the Panax species are largely unknown. Results Using the 454 pyrosequencing technology, a one-quarter GS FLX titanium run resulted in 188,185 reads with an average length of 410 bases for P. notoginseng root. These reads were processed and assembled by 454 GS De Novo Assembler software into 30,852 unique sequences. A total of 70.2% of unique sequences were annotated by Basic Local Alignment Search Tool (BLAST similarity searches against public sequence databases. The Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG assignment discovered 41 unique sequences representing 11 genes involved in triterpene saponin backbone biosynthesis in the 454-EST dataset. In particular, the transcript encoding dammarenediol synthase (DS, which is the first committed enzyme in the biosynthetic pathway of major triterpene saponins, is highly expressed in the root of four-year-old P. notoginseng. It is worth emphasizing that the candidate cytochrome P450 (Pn02132 and Pn00158 and UDP-glycosyltransferase (Pn00082 gene most likely to be involved in hydroxylation or glycosylation of aglycones for triterpene saponin biosynthesis were discovered from 174 cytochrome P450s and 242 glycosyltransferases by phylogenetic analysis, respectively. Putative transcription factors were detected in 906 unique sequences, including Myb, homeobox, WRKY, basic helix-loop-helix (bHLH, and other family proteins. Additionally, a total of 2,772 simple sequence repeat (SSR were identified from 2,361 unique sequences, of which, di-nucleotide motifs were the most abundant motif. Conclusion This study is the first to present a large-scale EST dataset for P. notoginseng root acquired by next

Comparison of loline alkaloid gene clusters across fungal endophytes: predicting the co-regulatory sequence motifs and the evolutionary history.

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Kutil, Brandi L; Greenwald, Charles; Liu, Gang; Spiering, Martin J; Schardl, Christopher L; Wilkinson, Heather H

2007-10-01

LOL, a fungal secondary metabolite gene cluster found in Epichloë and Neotyphodium species, is responsible for production of insecticidal loline alkaloids. To analyze the genetic architecture and to predict the evolutionary history of LOL, we compared five clusters from four fungal species (single clusters from Epichloë festucae, Neotyphodium sp. PauTG-1, Neotyphodium coenophialum, and two clusters we previously characterized in Neotyphodium uncinatum). Using PhyloCon to compare putative lol gene promoter regions, we have identified four motifs conserved across the lol genes in all five clusters. Each motif has significant similarity to known fungal transcription factor binding sites in the TRANSFAC database. Conservation of these motifs is further support for the hypothesis that the lol genes are co-regulated. Interestingly, the history of asexual Neotyphodium spp. includes multiple interspecific hybridization events. Comparing clusters from three Neotyphodium species and E. festucae allowed us to determine which Epichloë ancestors are the most likely contributors of LOL in these asexual species. For example, while no present day Epichloë typhina isolates are known to produce lolines, our data support the hypothesis that the E. typhina ancestor(s) of three asexual endophyte species contained a LOL gene cluster. Thus, these data support a model of evolution in which the polymorphism in loline alkaloid production phenotypes among endophyte species is likely due to the loss of the trait over time.

Chassis organism from Corynebacterium glutamicum--a top-down approach to identify and delete irrelevant gene clusters.

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Unthan, Simon; Baumgart, Meike; Radek, Andreas; Herbst, Marius; Siebert, Daniel; Brühl, Natalie; Bartsch, Anna; Bott, Michael; Wiechert, Wolfgang; Marin, Kay; Hans, Stephan; Krämer, Reinhard; Seibold, Gerd; Frunzke, Julia; Kalinowski, Jörn; Rückert, Christian; Wendisch, Volker F; Noack, Stephan

2015-02-01

For synthetic biology applications, a robust structural basis is required, which can be constructed either from scratch or in a top-down approach starting from any existing organism. In this study, we initiated the top-down construction of a chassis organism from Corynebacterium glutamicum ATCC 13032, aiming for the relevant gene set to maintain its fast growth on defined medium. We evaluated each native gene for its essentiality considering expression levels, phylogenetic conservation, and knockout data. Based on this classification, we determined 41 gene clusters ranging from 3.7 to 49.7 kbp as target sites for deletion. 36 deletions were successful and 10 genome-reduced strains showed impaired growth rates, indicating that genes were hit, which are relevant to maintain biological fitness at wild-type level. In contrast, 26 deleted clusters were found to include exclusively irrelevant genes for growth on defined medium. A combinatory deletion of all irrelevant gene clusters would, in a prophage-free strain, decrease the size of the native genome by about 722 kbp (22%) to 2561 kbp. Finally, five combinatory deletions of irrelevant gene clusters were investigated. The study introduces the novel concept of relevant genes and demonstrates general strategies to construct a chassis suitable for biotechnological application. © 2014 The Authors. Biotechnology Journal published by Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-NoDerivs Licence, which permits use and distribution in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, the use is non- commercial and no modifications or adaptations are made.

Gravitation field algorithm and its application in gene cluster

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Zheng Ming

2010-09-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Searching optima is one of the most challenging tasks in clustering genes from available experimental data or given functions. SA, GA, PSO and other similar efficient global optimization methods are used by biotechnologists. All these algorithms are based on the imitation of natural phenomena. Results This paper proposes a novel searching optimization algorithm called Gravitation Field Algorithm (GFA which is derived from the famous astronomy theory Solar Nebular Disk Model (SNDM of planetary formation. GFA simulates the Gravitation field and outperforms GA and SA in some multimodal functions optimization problem. And GFA also can be used in the forms of unimodal functions. GFA clusters the dataset well from the Gene Expression Omnibus. Conclusions The mathematical proof demonstrates that GFA could be convergent in the global optimum by probability 1 in three conditions for one independent variable mass functions. In addition to these results, the fundamental optimization concept in this paper is used to analyze how SA and GA affect the global search and the inherent defects in SA and GA. Some results and source code (in Matlab are publicly available at http://ccst.jlu.edu.cn/CSBG/GFA.

Strain-Level Diversity of Secondary Metabolism in Streptomyces albus

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Seipke, Ryan F.

2015-01-01

Streptomyces spp. are robust producers of medicinally-, industrially- and agriculturally-important small molecules. Increased resistance to antibacterial agents and the lack of new antibiotics in the pipeline have led to a renaissance in natural product discovery. This endeavor has benefited from inexpensive high quality DNA sequencing technology, which has generated more than 140 genome sequences for taxonomic type strains and environmental Streptomyces spp. isolates. Many of the sequenced streptomycetes belong to the same species. For instance, Streptomyces albus has been isolated from diverse environmental niches and seven strains have been sequenced, consequently this species has been sequenced more than any other streptomycete, allowing valuable analyses of strain-level diversity in secondary metabolism. Bioinformatics analyses identified a total of 48 unique biosynthetic gene clusters harboured by Streptomyces albus strains. Eighteen of these gene clusters specify the core secondary metabolome of the species. Fourteen of the gene clusters are contained by one or more strain and are considered auxiliary, while 16 of the gene clusters encode the production of putative strain-specific secondary metabolites. Analysis of Streptomyces albus strains suggests that each strain of a Streptomyces species likely harbours at least one strain-specific biosynthetic gene cluster. Importantly, this implies that deep sequencing of a species will not exhaust gene cluster diversity and will continue to yield novelty. PMID:25635820

Molecular comparison of the structural proteins encoding gene clusters of two related Lactobacillus delbrueckii bacteriophages.

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Vasala, A; Dupont, L; Baumann, M; Ritzenthaler, P; Alatossava, T

1993-01-01

Virulent phage LL-H and temperate phage mv4 are two related bacteriophages of Lactobacillus delbrueckii. The gene clusters encoding structural proteins of these two phages have been sequenced and further analyzed. Six open reading frames (ORF-1 to ORF-6) were detected. Protein sequencing and Western immunoblotting experiments confirmed that ORF-3 (g34) encoded the main capsid protein Gp34. The presence of a putative late promoter in front of the phage LL-H g34 gene was suggested by primer extension experiments. Comparative sequence analysis between phage LL-H and phage mv4 revealed striking similarities in the structure and organization of this gene cluster, suggesting that the genes encoding phage structural proteins belong to a highly conservative module. Images PMID:8497043

Genetic variations and haplotype diversity of the UGT1 gene cluster in the Chinese population.

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Jing Yang

Full Text Available Vertebrates require tremendous molecular diversity to defend against numerous small hydrophobic chemicals. UDP-glucuronosyltransferases (UGTs are a large family of detoxification enzymes that glucuronidate xenobiotics and endobiotics, facilitating their excretion from the body. The UGT1 gene cluster contains a tandem array of variable first exons, each preceded by a specific promoter, and a common set of downstream constant exons, similar to the genomic organization of the protocadherin (Pcdh, immunoglobulin, and T-cell receptor gene clusters. To assist pharmacogenomics studies in Chinese, we sequenced nine first exons, promoter and intronic regions, and five common exons of the UGT1 gene cluster in a population sample of 253 unrelated Chinese individuals. We identified 101 polymorphisms and found 15 novel SNPs. We then computed allele frequencies for each polymorphism and reconstructed their linkage disequilibrium (LD map. The UGT1 cluster can be divided into five linkage blocks: Block 9 (UGT1A9, Block 9/7/6 (UGT1A9, UGT1A7, and UGT1A6, Block 5 (UGT1A5, Block 4/3 (UGT1A4 and UGT1A3, and Block 3' UTR. Furthermore, we inferred haplotypes and selected their tagSNPs. Finally, comparing our data with those of three other populations of the HapMap project revealed ethnic specificity of the UGT1 genetic diversity in Chinese. These findings have important implications for future molecular genetic studies of the UGT1 gene cluster as well as for personalized medical therapies in Chinese.

Identification and manipulation of the pleuromutilin gene cluster from Clitopilus passeckerianus for increased rapid antibiotic production

Science.gov (United States)

Bailey, Andy M.; Alberti, Fabrizio; Kilaru, Sreedhar; Collins, Catherine M.; de Mattos-Shipley, Kate; Hartley, Amanda J.; Hayes, Patrick; Griffin, Alison; Lazarus, Colin M.; Cox, Russell J.; Willis, Christine L.; O'Dwyer, Karen; Spence, David W.; Foster, Gary D.

2016-05-01

Semi-synthetic derivatives of the tricyclic diterpene antibiotic pleuromutilin from the basidiomycete Clitopilus passeckerianus are important in combatting bacterial infections in human and veterinary medicine. These compounds belong to the only new class of antibiotics for human applications, with novel mode of action and lack of cross-resistance, representing a class with great potential. Basidiomycete fungi, being dikaryotic, are not generally amenable to strain improvement. We report identification of the seven-gene pleuromutilin gene cluster and verify that using various targeted approaches aimed at increasing antibiotic production in C. passeckerianus, no improvement in yield was achieved. The seven-gene pleuromutilin cluster was reconstructed within Aspergillus oryzae giving production of pleuromutilin in an ascomycete, with a significant increase (2106%) in production. This is the first gene cluster from a basidiomycete to be successfully expressed in an ascomycete, and paves the way for the exploitation of a metabolically rich but traditionally overlooked group of fungi.

Molecular evolution of the nif gene cluster carrying nifI1 and nifI2 genes in the Gram-positive phototrophic bacterium Heliobacterium chlorum.

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Enkh-Amgalan, Jigjiddorj; Kawasaki, Hiroko; Seki, Tatsuji

2006-01-01

A major nif cluster was detected in the strictly anaerobic, Gram-positive phototrophic bacterium Heliobacterium chlorum. The cluster consisted of 11 genes arranged within a 10 kb region in the order nifI1, nifI2, nifH, nifD, nifK, nifE, nifN, nifX, fdx, nifB and nifV. The phylogenetic position of Hbt. chlorum was the same in the NifH, NifD, NifK, NifE and NifN trees; Hbt. chlorum formed a cluster with Desulfitobacterium hafniense, the closest neighbour of heliobacteria based on the 16S rRNA phylogeny, and two species of the genus Geobacter belonging to the Deltaproteobacteria. Two nifI genes, known to occur in the nif clusters of methanogenic archaea between nifH and nifD, were found upstream of the nifH gene of Hbt. chlorum. The organization of the nif operon and the phylogeny of individual and concatenated gene products showed that the Hbt. chlorum nif operon carrying nifI genes upstream of the nifH gene was an intermediate between the nif operon with nifI downstream of nifH (group II and III of the nitrogenase classification) and the nif operon lacking nifI (group I). Thus, the phylogenetic position of Hbt. chlorum nitrogenase may reflect an evolutionary stage of a divergence of the two nitrogenase groups, with group I consisting of the aerobic diazotrophs and group II consisting of strictly anaerobic prokaryotes.

Association of paraoxonase gene cluster polymorphisms with ALS in France, Quebec, and Sweden.

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Valdmanis, P N; Kabashi, E; Dyck, A; Hince, P; Lee, J; Dion, P; D'Amour, M; Souchon, F; Bouchard, J-P; Salachas, F; Meininger, V; Andersen, P M; Camu, W; Dupré, N; Rouleau, G A

2008-08-12

The paraoxonase gene cluster on chromosome 7 comprising the PON1-3 genes is an attractive candidate for association in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) given the role of paraoxonase genes during the response to oxidative stress and their contribution to the enzymatic break down of nerve toxins. Oxidative stress is considered one of the mechanisms involved in ALS pathogenesis. Evidence for this includes the fact that mutations of SOD1, which normally reduce the production of toxic superoxide anion, account for 12% to 23% of familial cases in ALS. In addition, PON variants were shown to be associated with susceptibility to ALS in several North American and European populations. We extended this analysis to examine 20 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) across the PON gene cluster in a set of patients from France (480 cases, 475 controls), Quebec (159 cases, 95 controls), and Sweden (558 cases, 506 controls). Although individual SNPs were not considered associated on their own, a haplotype of SNPs at the C-terminal portion of PON2 that includes the PON2 C311S amino acid change was significant in the French (p value 0.0075) and Quebec (p value 0.026) populations as well as all three populations combined (p value 1.69 x 10(-6)). Stratification of the samples showed that this variation was pertinent to ALS susceptibility as a whole, and not to a particular subset of patients. These findings contribute to the increasing weight of evidence that genetic variants in the paraoxonase gene cluster are associated with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.

Average correlation clustering algorithm (ACCA) for grouping of co-regulated genes with similar pattern of variation in their expression values.

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Bhattacharya, Anindya; De, Rajat K

2010-08-01

Distance based clustering algorithms can group genes that show similar expression values under multiple experimental conditions. They are unable to identify a group of genes that have similar pattern of variation in their expression values. Previously we developed an algorithm called divisive correlation clustering algorithm (DCCA) to tackle this situation, which is based on the concept of correlation clustering. But this algorithm may also fail for certain cases. In order to overcome these situations, we propose a new clustering algorithm, called average correlation clustering algorithm (ACCA), which is able to produce better clustering solution than that produced by some others. ACCA is able to find groups of genes having more common transcription factors and similar pattern of variation in their expression values. Moreover, ACCA is more efficient than DCCA with respect to the time of execution. Like DCCA, we use the concept of correlation clustering concept introduced by Bansal et al. ACCA uses the correlation matrix in such a way that all genes in a cluster have the highest average correlation values with the genes in that cluster. We have applied ACCA and some well-known conventional methods including DCCA to two artificial and nine gene expression datasets, and compared the performance of the algorithms. The clustering results of ACCA are found to be more significantly relevant to the biological annotations than those of the other methods. Analysis of the results show the superiority of ACCA over some others in determining a group of genes having more common transcription factors and with similar pattern of variation in their expression profiles. Availability of the software: The software has been developed using C and Visual Basic languages, and can be executed on the Microsoft Windows platforms. The software may be downloaded as a zip file from http://www.isical.ac.in/~rajat. Then it needs to be installed. Two word files (included in the zip file) need to

Correlation-based iterative clustering methods for time course data: The identification of temporal gene response modules for influenza infection in humans

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Michelle Carey

2016-10-01

Full Text Available Many pragmatic clustering methods have been developed to group data vectors or objects into clusters so that the objects in one cluster are very similar and objects in different clusters are distinct based on some similarity measure. The availability of time course data has motivated researchers to develop methods, such as mixture and mixed-effects modelling approaches, that incorporate the temporal information contained in the shape of the trajectory of the data. However, there is still a need for the development of time-course clustering methods that can adequately deal with inhomogeneous clusters (some clusters are quite large and others are quite small. Here we propose two such methods, hierarchical clustering (IHC and iterative pairwise-correlation clustering (IPC. We evaluate and compare the proposed methods to the Markov Cluster Algorithm (MCL and the generalised mixed-effects model (GMM using simulation studies and an application to a time course gene expression data set from a study containing human subjects who were challenged by a live influenza virus. We identify four types of temporal gene response modules to influenza infection in humans, i.e., single-gene modules (SGM, small-size modules (SSM, medium-size modules (MSM and large-size modules (LSM. The LSM contain genes that perform various fundamental biological functions that are consistent across subjects. The SSM and SGM contain genes that perform either different or similar biological functions that have complex temporal responses to the virus and are unique to each subject. We show that the temporal response of the genes in the LSM have either simple patterns with a single peak or trough a consequence of the transient stimuli sustained or state-transitioning patterns pertaining to developmental cues and that these modules can differentiate the severity of disease outcomes. Additionally, the size of gene response modules follows a power-law distribution with a consistent

The Local Maximum Clustering Method and Its Application in Microarray Gene Expression Data Analysis

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Chen Yidong

2004-01-01

Full Text Available An unsupervised data clustering method, called the local maximum clustering (LMC method, is proposed for identifying clusters in experiment data sets based on research interest. A magnitude property is defined according to research purposes, and data sets are clustered around each local maximum of the magnitude property. By properly defining a magnitude property, this method can overcome many difficulties in microarray data clustering such as reduced projection in similarities, noises, and arbitrary gene distribution. To critically evaluate the performance of this clustering method in comparison with other methods, we designed three model data sets with known cluster distributions and applied the LMC method as well as the hierarchic clustering method, the -mean clustering method, and the self-organized map method to these model data sets. The results show that the LMC method produces the most accurate clustering results. As an example of application, we applied the method to cluster the leukemia samples reported in the microarray study of Golub et al. (1999.

Biosynthesis and Total Synthesis of Pyrronazol B: a Secondary Metabolite from Nannocystis pusilla.

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Witte, Swjatoslaw N R; Hug, Joachim J; Géraldy, Magalie N E; Müller, Rolf; Kalesse, Markus

2017-11-13

The first stereoselective total synthesis of the natural product pyrronazol B, which contains a chlorinated pyrrole-oxazole-pyrone framework, has been achieved. Genome sequencing of the myxobacterial producer strain Nannocystis pusilla Ari7 led to the identification of the putative biosynthetic gene cluster. The proposed biosynthetic pathway was supported by feeding experiments with stable isotopes of three biosynthetic building blocks, namely l-proline, l-serine, and l-methionine. © 2017 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

Heterologous Reconstitution of the Intact Geodin Gene Cluster in Aspergillus nidulans through a Simple and Versatile PCR Based Approach

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Nielsen, Morten Thrane; Nielsen, Jakob Blæsbjerg; Anyaogu, Dianna Chinyere

2013-01-01

was transferred in a two step procedure to an expression platform in A. nidulans. The individual cluster fragments were generated by PCR and assembled via efficient USER fusion prior to ransformation and integration via re-iterative gene targeting. A total of 13 open reading frames contained in 25 kb of DNA were...... of solid methodology for genetic manipulation of most species severely hampers pathway haracterization. Here we present a simple PCR based approach for heterologous reconstitution of intact gene clusters. Specifically, the putative gene cluster responsible for geodin production from Aspergillus terreus...... successfully transferred between the two species enabling geodin synthesis in A. nidulans. Subsequently, functions of three genes in the cluster were validated by genetic and chemical analyses. Specifically, ATEG_08451 (gedC) encodes a polyketide synthase, ATEG_08453 (gedR) encodes a transcription factor...

The expression of antibiotic resistance genes in antibiotic-producing bacteria.

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Mak, Stefanie; Xu, Ye; Nodwell, Justin R

2014-08-01

Antibiotic-producing bacteria encode antibiotic resistance genes that protect them from the biologically active molecules that they produce. The expression of these genes needs to occur in a timely manner: either in advance of or concomitantly with biosynthesis. It appears that there have been at least two general solutions to this problem. In many cases, the expression of resistance genes is tightly linked to that of antibiotic biosynthetic genes. In others, the resistance genes can be induced by their cognate antibiotics or by intermediate molecules from their biosynthetic pathways. The regulatory mechanisms that couple resistance to antibiotic biosynthesis are mechanistically diverse and potentially relevant to the origins of clinical antibiotic resistance. © 2014 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Overexpression of the Squalene Epoxidase Gene Alone and in Combination with the 3-Hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl Coenzyme A Gene Increases Ganoderic Acid Production in Ganoderma lingzhi.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, De-Huai; Jiang, Lu-Xi; Li, Na; Yu, Xuya; Zhao, Peng; Li, Tao; Xu, Jun-Wei

2017-06-14

The squalene epoxidase (SE) gene from the biosynthetic pathway of ganoderic acid (GA) was cloned and overexpressed in Ganoderma lingzhi. The strain that overexpressed the SE produced approximately 2 times more GA molecules than the wild-type (WT) strain. Moreover, SE overexpression upregulated lanosterol synthase gene expression in the biosynthetic pathway. These results indicated that SE stimulates GA accumulation. Then, the SE and 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl coenzyme A (HMGR) genes were simultaneously overexpressed in G. lingzhi. Compared with the individual overexpression of SE or HMGR, the combined overexpression of the two genes further enhanced individual GA production. The overexpressing strain produced maximum GA-T, GA-S, GA-Mk, and GA-Me contents of 90.4 ± 7.5, 35.9 ± 5.4, 6.2 ± 0.5, and 61.8 ± 5.8 μg/100 mg dry weight, respectively. These values were 5.9, 4.5, 2.4, and 5.8 times higher than those produced by the WT strain. This is the first example of the successful manipulation of multiple biosynthetic genes to improve GA content in G. lingzhi.

Comprehensive cluster analysis with Transitivity Clustering.

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Wittkop, Tobias; Emig, Dorothea; Truss, Anke; Albrecht, Mario; Böcker, Sebastian; Baumbach, Jan

2011-03-01

Transitivity Clustering is a method for the partitioning of biological data into groups of similar objects, such as genes, for instance. It provides integrated access to various functions addressing each step of a typical cluster analysis. To facilitate this, Transitivity Clustering is accessible online and offers three user-friendly interfaces: a powerful stand-alone version, a web interface, and a collection of Cytoscape plug-ins. In this paper, we describe three major workflows: (i) protein (super)family detection with Cytoscape, (ii) protein homology detection with incomplete gold standards and (iii) clustering of gene expression data. This protocol guides the user through the most important features of Transitivity Clustering and takes ∼1 h to complete.

Transcriptional interference networks coordinate the expression of functionally related genes clustered in the same genomic loci.

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Boldogköi, Zsolt

2012-01-01

The regulation of gene expression is essential for normal functioning of biological systems in every form of life. Gene expression is primarily controlled at the level of transcription, especially at the phase of initiation. Non-coding RNAs are one of the major players at every level of genetic regulation, including the control of chromatin organization, transcription, various post-transcriptional processes, and translation. In this study, the Transcriptional Interference Network (TIN) hypothesis was put forward in an attempt to explain the global expression of antisense RNAs and the overall occurrence of tandem gene clusters in the genomes of various biological systems ranging from viruses to mammalian cells. The TIN hypothesis suggests the existence of a novel layer of genetic regulation, based on the interactions between the transcriptional machineries of neighboring genes at their overlapping regions, which are assumed to play a fundamental role in coordinating gene expression within a cluster of functionally linked genes. It is claimed that the transcriptional overlaps between adjacent genes are much more widespread in genomes than is thought today. The Waterfall model of the TIN hypothesis postulates a unidirectional effect of upstream genes on the transcription of downstream genes within a cluster of tandemly arrayed genes, while the Seesaw model proposes a mutual interdependence of gene expression between the oppositely oriented genes. The TIN represents an auto-regulatory system with an exquisitely timed and highly synchronized cascade of gene expression in functionally linked genes located in close physical proximity to each other. In this study, we focused on herpesviruses. The reason for this lies in the compressed nature of viral genes, which allows a tight regulation and an easier investigation of the transcriptional interactions between genes. However, I believe that the same or similar principles can be applied to cellular organisms too.

Transcriptional interference networks coordinate the expression of functionally-related genes clustered in the same genomic loci

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Zsolt eBoldogkoi

2012-07-01

Full Text Available The regulation of gene expression is essential for normal functioning of biological systems in every form of life. Gene expression is primarily controlled at the level of transcription, especially at the phase of initiation. Non-coding RNAs are one of the major players at every level of genetic regulation, including the control of chromatin organisation, transcription, various post-transcriptional processes and translation. In this study, the Transcriptional Interference Network (TIN hypothesis was put forward in an attempt to explain the global expression of antisense RNAs and the overall occurrence of tandem gene clusters in the genomes of various biological systems ranging from viruses to mammalian cells. The TIN hypothesis suggests the existence of a novel layer of genetic regulation, based on the interactions between the transcriptional machineries of neighbouring genes at their overlapping regions, which are assumed to play a fundamental role in coordinating gene expression within a cluster of functionally-linked genes. It is claimed that the transcriptional overlaps between adjacent genes are much more widespread in genomes than is thought today. The Waterfall model of the TIN hypothesis postulates a unidirectional effect of upstream genes on the transcription of downstream genes within a cluster of tandemly-arrayed genes, while the Seesaw model proposes a mutual interdependence of gene expression between the oppositely-oriented genes. The TIN represents an auto-regulatory system with an exquisitely timed and highly synchronised cascade of gene expression in functionally-linked genes located in close physical proximity to each other. In this study, we focused on herpesviruses. The reason for this lies in the compressed nature of viral genes, which allows a tight regulation and an easier investigation of the transcriptional interactions between genes. However, I believe that the same or similar principles can be applied to cellular

Hierarchical clustering of breast cancer methylomes revealed differentially methylated and expressed breast cancer genes.

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I-Hsuan Lin

Full Text Available Oncogenic transformation of normal cells often involves epigenetic alterations, including histone modification and DNA methylation. We conducted whole-genome bisulfite sequencing to determine the DNA methylomes of normal breast, fibroadenoma, invasive ductal carcinomas and MCF7. The emergence, disappearance, expansion and contraction of kilobase-sized hypomethylated regions (HMRs and the hypomethylation of the megabase-sized partially methylated domains (PMDs are the major forms of methylation changes observed in breast tumor samples. Hierarchical clustering of HMR revealed tumor-specific hypermethylated clusters and differential methylated enhancers specific to normal or breast cancer cell lines. Joint analysis of gene expression and DNA methylation data of normal breast and breast cancer cells identified differentially methylated and expressed genes associated with breast and/or ovarian cancers in cancer-specific HMR clusters. Furthermore, aberrant patterns of X-chromosome inactivation (XCI was found in breast cancer cell lines as well as breast tumor samples in the TCGA BRCA (breast invasive carcinoma dataset. They were characterized with differentially hypermethylated XIST promoter, reduced expression of XIST, and over-expression of hypomethylated X-linked genes. High expressions of these genes were significantly associated with lower survival rates in breast cancer patients. Comprehensive analysis of the normal and breast tumor methylomes suggests selective targeting of DNA methylation changes during breast cancer progression. The weak causal relationship between DNA methylation and gene expression observed in this study is evident of more complex role of DNA methylation in the regulation of gene expression in human epigenetics that deserves further investigation.

Gene clusters for insecticidal loline alkaloids in the grass-endophytic fungus Neotyphodium uncinatum.

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Spiering, Martin J; Moon, Christina D; Wilkinson, Heather H; Schardl, Christopher L

2005-03-01

Loline alkaloids are produced by mutualistic fungi symbiotic with grasses, and they protect the host plants from insects. Here we identify in the fungal symbiont, Neotyphodium uncinatum, two homologous gene clusters (LOL-1 and LOL-2) associated with loline-alkaloid production. Nine genes were identified in a 25-kb region of LOL-1 and designated (in order) lolF-1, lolC-1, lolD-1, lolO-1, lolA-1, lolU-1, lolP-1, lolT-1, and lolE-1. LOL-2 contained the homologs lolC-2 through lolE-2 in the same order and orientation. Also identified was lolF-2, but its possible linkage with either cluster was undetermined. Most lol genes were regulated in N. uncinatum and N. coenophialum, and all were expressed concomitantly with loline-alkaloid biosynthesis. A lolC-2 RNA-interference (RNAi) construct was introduced into N. uncinatum, and in two independent transformants, RNAi significantly decreased lolC expression (P lol-gene products indicate that the pathway has evolved from various different primary and secondary biosynthesis pathways.

Exopolysaccharide (EPS synthesis by Oenococcus oeni: from genes to phenotypes.

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Maria Dimopoulou

Full Text Available Oenococcus oeni is the bacterial species which drives malolactic fermentation in wine. The analysis of 50 genomic sequences of O. oeni (14 already available and 36 newly sequenced ones provided an inventory of the genes potentially involved in exopolysaccharide (EPS biosynthesis. The loci identified are: two gene clusters named eps1 and eps2, three isolated glycoside-hydrolase genes named dsrO, dsrV and levO, and three isolated glycosyltransferase genes named gtf, it3, it4. The isolated genes were present or absent depending on the strain and the eps gene clusters composition diverged from one strain to another. The soluble and capsular EPS production capacity of several strains was examined after growth in different culture media and the EPS structure was determined. Genotype to phenotype correlations showed that several EPS biosynthetic pathways were active and complementary in O. oeni. Can be distinguished: (i a Wzy-dependent synthetic pathway, allowing the production of heteropolysaccharides made of glucose, galactose and rhamnose, mainly in a capsular form, (ii a glucan synthase pathway (Gtf, involved in β-glucan synthesis in a free and a cell-associated form, giving a ropy phenotype to growth media and (iii homopolysaccharide synthesis from sucrose (α-glucan or β-fructan by glycoside-hydrolases of the GH70 and GH68 families. The eps gene distribution on the phylogenetic tree was examined. Fifty out of 50 studied genomes possessed several genes dedicated to EPS metabolism. This suggests that these polymers are important for the adaptation of O. oeni to its specific ecological niche, wine and possibly contribute to the technological performance of malolactic starters.

The preliminary research for biosynthetic engineering by radiation fusion technology

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Roh, Chang Hyun; Jung, U Hee; Park, Hae Ran [KAERI, Daejeon (Korea, Republic of)

2012-01-15

The purpose of this project is to elucidate the solution to the production of bioactive substance using biotransformation process from core technology of biosynthetic engineering by radiation fusion technology. And, this strategy will provide core technology for development of drugs as new concept and category. Research scopes and contents of project include 1) The development of mutant for biosynthetic engineering by radiation fusion technology 2) The development of host for biosynthetic engineering by radiation fusion technology 3) The preliminary study for biosynthetic engineering of isoflavone by radiation fusion technology. The results are as follows. Isoflavone compounds(daidzein, hydroxylated isoflavone) were analyzed by GC-MS. The study of radiation doses and p-NCA high-throughput screening for mutant development were elucidated. And, it was carried out the study of radiation doses for host development. Furthermore, the study of redox partner and construction of recombinant strain for region-specific hydroxylation(P450, redox partner). In addition, the biological effect of 6,7,4'-trihydroxyisoflavone as an anti-obesity agent was elucidated in this study.

Structure and gene cluster of the O-antigen of Escherichia coli O54.