• Journal of fish pathology
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.133-143
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• 2015

The antigenic proteins of Lymphocystis disease virus (LCDV) from tumors of olive flounder, Paralichthys olivaceus, are described following characterization by mass spectrometry. In SDS-PAGE, predominant protein bands were observed at 114, 88, 70, 54, 52, 47, 42 and 24 kDa. Western blot analysis showed that antisera reacted strongly at molecular weights of 114, 67 and 54 kDa, and reacted weakly at molecular weights of 74, 70, 36, 24 and 22 kDa. In the identification of LCDV antigenic proteins by matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization (MALDI) TOF mass spectrometry, 10 of 14 excised bands consisted mostly of proteins with amino acid sequences that matched LCDV-C (lymphocystis disease virus isolate China) ORFs. Strong antigens with molecular weights of 114, 67 and 54 kDa were identified as LDVICp236 (chromosome segregation ATPase), LDVICp033 (membrane bound metallopeptidase) and LDVICp157 (hypothetical protein), respectively. Minor antigens with molecular weights of 70, 36, 24 and 22 kDa proteins were identified as LDVICp160 (acetyl-coA hydrolase), LDVICp213 (hypothetical protein), LDVICp039 (hypothetical protein) and LDVICp213 (hypothetical protein). However, the major capsid protein (LDVICp043) did not react with the polyclonal antibody.

• Genomics & Informatics
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.28.1-28.9
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• 2020

Streptomyces coelicolor is a gram-positive soil bacterium which is well known for the production of several antibiotics used in various biotechnological applications. But numerous proteins from its genome are considered hypothetical proteins. Therefore, the present study aimed to reveal the functions of a hypothetical protein from the genome of S. coelicolor. Several bioinformatics tools were employed to predict the structure and function of this protein. Sequence similarity was searched through the available bioinformatics databases to find out the homologous protein. The secondary and tertiary structure were predicted and further validated with quality assessment tools. Furthermore, the active site and the interacting proteins were also explored with the utilization of CASTp and STRING server. The hypothetical protein showed the important biological activity having with two functional domain including POD-like_MBL-fold and rhodanese homology domain. The functional annotation exposed that the selected hypothetical protein could show the hydrolase activity. Furthermore, protein-protein interactions of selected hypothetical protein revealed several functional partners those have the significant role for the bacterial survival. At last, the current study depicts that the annotated hypothetical protein is linked with hydrolase activity which might be of great interest to the further research in bacterial genetics.

• Genomics & Informatics
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.53-59
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• 2015

In developing countries threat of cholera is a significant health concern whenever water purification and sewage disposal systems are inadequate. Vibrio cholerae is one of the responsible bacteria involved in cholera disease. The complete genome sequence of V. cholerae deciphers the presence of various genes and hypothetical proteins whose function are not yet understood. Hence analyzing and annotating the structure and function of hypothetical proteins is important for understanding the V. cholerae. V. cholerae O139 is the most common and pathogenic bacterial strain among various V. cholerae strains. In this study sequence of six hypothetical proteins of V. cholerae O139 has been annotated from NCBI. Various computational tools and databases have been used to determine domain family, protein-protein interaction, solubility of protein, ligand binding sites etc. The three dimensional structure of two proteins were modeled and their ligand binding sites were identified. We have found domains and families of only one protein. The analysis revealed that these proteins might have antibiotic resistance activity, DNA breaking-rejoining activity, integrase enzyme activity, restriction endonuclease, etc. Structural prediction of these proteins and detection of binding sites from this study would indicate a potential target aiding docking studies for therapeutic designing against cholera.

• Genomics & Informatics
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.125-135
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• 2016

Helicobacter pylori is a Gram-negative bacteria that is responsible for gastritis in human. Its spiral flagellated body helps in locomotion and colonization in the host environment. It is capable of living in the highly acidic environment of the stomach with the help of acid adaptive genes. The genome of H. pylori 26695 strain contains 1,555 coding genes that encode 1,445 proteins. Out of these, 340 proteins are characterized as hypothetical proteins (HP). This study involves extensive analysis of the HPs using an established pipeline which comprises various bioinformatics tools and databases to find out probable functions of the HPs and identification of virulence factors. After extensive analysis of all the 340 HPs, we found that 104 HPs are showing characteristic similarities with the proteins with known functions. Thus, on the basis of such similarities, we assigned probable functions to 104 HPs with high confidence and precision. All the predicted HPs contain representative members of diverse functional classes of proteins such as enzymes, transporters, binding proteins, regulatory proteins, proteins involved in cellular processes and other proteins with miscellaneous functions. Therefore, we classified 104 HPs into aforementioned functional groups. During the virulence factors analysis of the HPs, we found 11 HPs are showing significant virulence. The identification of virulence proteins with the help their predicted functions may pave the way for drug target estimation and development of effective drug to counter the activity of that protein.

• Genomics & Informatics
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.26.1-26.12
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• 2018

Shigella spp. constitutes some of the key pathogens responsible for the global burden of diarrhoeal disease. With over 164 million reported cases per annum, shigellosis accounts for 1.1 million deaths each year. Majority of these cases occur among the children of the developing nations and the emergence of multi-drug resistance Shigella strains in clinical isolates demands the development of better/new drugs against this pathogen. The genome of Shigella flexneri was extensively analyzed and found 4,362 proteins among which the functions of 674 proteins, termed as hypothetical proteins (HPs) had not been previously elucidated. Amino acid sequences of all these 674 HPs were studied and the functions of a total of 39 HPs have been assigned with high level of confidence. Here we have utilized a combination of the latest versions of databases to assign the precise function of HPs for which no experimental information is available. These HPs were found to belong to various classes of proteins such as enzymes, binding proteins, signal transducers, lipoprotein, transporters, virulence and other proteins. Evaluation of the performance of the various computational tools conducted using receiver operating characteristic curve analysis and a resoundingly high average accuracy of 93.6% were obtained. Our comprehensive analysis will help to gain greater understanding for the development of many novel potential therapeutic interventions to defeat Shigella infection.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.207-217
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• 2007

The Saccharomyces0 cerevisiae KNU5377 strain, which was isolated from spoilage in nature, has the ability to convert biomass to alcohol at high temperatures and it can resist against various stresses [18, 19]. In order to understand the defense mechanisms of the KNU5377 strain under menadione (MD) as oxidative stress, we used several techniques for study: peptide mass fingerprinting (PMF) by matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization-time of flight (MALDI-TOF) mass spectrometry (MS) followed by two-dimensional (2D) gel electrophoresis, liquid chromatography electrospray ionization tandem mass spectrometry (LC-ESI-MS/MS), and surface-enhanced laser desorption ionization-time of flight (SELDI-TOF) technology. Among the 35 proteins identified by MALDI-TOF MS, 19 proteins including Sod1p, Sod2p, Tsa1p, and Ahp1p were induced under stress condition, while 16 proteins were augmented under normal condition. In particular, five proteins, Sod1p, Sod2p, Ahp1p, Rib3p, Yaf9p, and Mnt1p, were induced in only stressed cells. By LC-ESI-MS/MS analysis, 37 proteins were identified in normal cells and 49 proteins were confirmed in the stressed cells. Among the identified proteins, 32 proteins were found in both cells. Five proteins including Yel047cp and Met6p were only upregulated in the normal cells, whereas 17 proteins including Abp1P and Sam1p were elevated in the stressed cells. It was interesting that highly hypothetical proteins such as Ynl281wp, Ygr279cp, Ypl273wp, Ykl133cp, and Ykr074wp were only expressed in the stressed cells. SELDI-TOF analysis using the SAX2 and WCX2 chips showed that highly multiple-specific protein patterns were reproducibly detected in ranges from 2.9 to 27.0 kDa both under normal and stress conditions. Therefore, induction of antioxidant proteins, hypothetical proteins, and low molecular weight proteins were revealed by different proteomic techniques. These results suggest that comparative analyses using proteomics might contribute to elucidate the defense mechanisms of KNU5377 under MD stress.

• Genomics & Informatics
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.41.1-41.9
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• 2022

The pathogen Gallibacterium anatis has caused heavy economic losses for commercial poultry farms around the world. However, despite its importance, the functions of its hypothetical proteins (HPs) have been poorly characterized. The present study analyzed the functions and structures of HPs obtained from Gallibacterium anatis (NCTC11413) using various bioinformatics tools. Initially, all the functions of HPs were predicted using the VICMpred tool, and the physicochemical properties of the identified virulence proteins were then analyzed using Expasy's ProtParam server. A virulence protein (WP_013745346.1) that can act as a potential drug target was further analyzed for its secondary structure, followed by homology modeling and three-dimensional (3D) structure determination using the Swiss-Model and Phyre2 servers. The quality assessment and validation of the 3D model were conducted using ERRAT, Verify3D, and PROCHECK programs. The functional and phylogenetic analysis was conducted using ProFunc, STRING, KEGG servers, and MEGA software. The bioinformatics analysis revealed 201 HPs related to cellular processes (n = 119), metabolism (n = 61), virulence (n = 11), and information/storage molecules (n = 10). Among the virulence proteins, three were detected as drug targets and six as vaccine targets. The characterized virulence protein WP_013745346.1 is proven to be stable, a drug target, and an enzyme related to the citrate cycle in the present pathogen. This enzyme was also found to facilitate other metabolic pathways, the biosynthesis of secondary metabolites, and the biosynthesis of amino acids.

• Genomics & Informatics
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.3.1-3.10
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• 2023

Characterization as well as prediction of the secondary and tertiary structure of hypothetical proteins from their amino acid sequences uploaded in databases by in silico approach are the critical issues in computational biology. Severe acute respiratory syndrome-associated coronavirus (SARS-CoV), which is responsible for pneumonia alike diseases, possesses a wide range of proteins of which many are still uncharacterized. The current study was conducted to reveal the physicochemical characteristics and structures of an uncharacterized protein Q6S8D9_SARS of SARS-CoV. Following the common flowchart of characterizing a hypothetical protein, several sophisticated computerized tools e.g., ExPASy Protparam, CD Search, SOPMA, PSIPRED, HHpred, etc. were employed to discover the functions and structures of Q6S8D9_SARS. After delineating the secondary and tertiary structures of the protein, some quality evaluating tools e.g., PROCHECK, ProSA-web etc. were performed to assess the structures and later the active site was identified also by CASTp v.3.0. The protein contains more negatively charged residues than positively charged residues and a high aliphatic index value which make the protein more stable. The 2D and 3D structures modeled by several bioinformatics tools ensured that the proteins had domain in it which indicated it was functional protein having the ability to trouble host antiviral inflammatory cytokine and interferon production pathways. Moreover, active site was found in the protein where ligand could bind. The study was aimed to unveil the features and structures of an uncharacterized protein of SARS-CoV which can be a therapeutic target for development of vaccines against the virus. Further research are needed to accomplish the task.

• Molecules and Cells
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.442-445
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• 2005

HP0894 (SwissProt/TrEMBL ID O25554) is an 88-residue conserved hypothetical protein from Helicobacter pylori strain 26695 with a calculated pI of 8.5 and a molecular weight of 10.38 kDa. Proteins with sequence similarity to HP0894 exist in Vibrio choierae, Enterococcus faecalis, Campylobacter jejuni, Streptococcus pneumoniae, Haemophilus influenzae, Escherichia coli O157, etc. Here we report the sequence-specific backbone resonance assignments of HP0894. About 97.5% (418/429) of the HN, N, CO, $C{\alpha}$, $C{\beta}$ resonances of the 88 residues of HP0894 were assigned. On the basis of these assignments, three helical regions and four strand regions were identified using the CSI program. This study is a prerequisite for calculating the solution structure of HP0894, and studying its interaction with its substrates, if any, and/or with other proteins.

• Genomics & Informatics
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.21.1-21.14
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• 2023

Fusobacterium nucleatum is a gram-negative bacteria associated with diverse infections like appendicitis and colorectal cancer. It mainly attacks the epithelial cells in the oral cavity and throat of the infected individual. It has a single circular genome of 2.7 Mb. Many proteins in F. nucleatum genome are listed as "Uncharacterized." Annotation of these proteins is crucial for obtaining new facts about the pathogen and deciphering the gene regulation, functions, and pathways along with discovery of novel target proteins. In the light of new genomic information, an armoury of bioinformatic tools were used for predicting the physicochemical parameters, domain and motif search, pattern search, and localization of the uncharacterized proteins. The programs such as receiver operating characteristics determine the efficacy of the databases that have been employed for prediction of different parameters at 83.6%. Functions were successfully assigned to 46 uncharacterized proteins which included enzymes, transporter proteins, membrane proteins, binding proteins, etc. Apart from the function prediction, the proteins were also subjected to string analysis to reveal the interacting partners. The annotated proteins were also put through homology-based structure prediction and modeling using Swiss PDB and Phyre2 servers. Two probable virulent factors were also identified which could be investigated further for potential drug-related studies. The assigning of functions to uncharacterized proteins has shown that some of these proteins are important for cell survival inside the host and can act as effective drug targets.