• Journal of Life Science
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• v.27 no.6
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• pp.694-701
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• 2017

Mycoplasma genitalium represents the smallest genome among mono-cultivable prokaryotes. To discover and compare the orthologs (conservative genes) among M. genitalium and 14 prokaryotes that are uncultivable and have less orthologs than M. genitalium, COG (clusters of orthologous groups of protein) analyses were applied. The analyzed prokaryotes were M. genitalium, one hyperthermophilic exosymbiotic archaeon Nanoarchaeum equitans, four intracellular plant pathogenic eubacteria of Candidatus Phytoplasma genus, and nine endosymbiotic eubacteria of phloem- and xylem-feeding insects. Among 367 orthologs of M. genitalium, 284 orthologs were conservative between M. genitalium and at least one other prokaryote. All 15 prokaryotes commonly have 29 orthologs, representing the significance of proteins in life. They belong to 25 translation-related, including 22 ribosomal proteins, 3 subunits of RNA polymerase, and 1 protein-folding-related. Among the 15 prokaryotes, 40 orthologs were only found in all four Candidatus Phytoplasma. The other nine Candidatus, all endosymbionts with insects, showed only a single common COG0539 (ribosomal protein S1), representing the diversity of orthologs among them. These results might provide clues to understand conservative genes in uncultivable prokaryotes, and may be helpful in industrial areas, such as handling prokaryotes producing amino acids and antibiotics, and as precursors of organic synthesis.

• IMMUNE NETWORK
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.7-13
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• 2014

Molecular mimicry is an attractive mechanism for triggering autoimmunity. In this review, we explore the potential role of evolutionary conserved bacterial proteins in the production of autoantibodies with focus on granulomatosis with polyangiitis (GPA) and rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Seven autoantigens characterized in GPA and RA were BLASTed against a bacterial protein database. Of the seven autoantigens, proteinase 3, type II collagen, binding immunoglobulin protein, glucose-6-phosphate isomerase, ${\alpha}$-enolase, and heterogeneous nuclear ribonuclear protein have well-conserved bacterial orthologs. Importantly, those bacterial orthologs are also found in human-associated bacteria. The wide distribution of the highly conserved stress proteins or enzymes among the members of the normal flora and common infectious microorganisms raises a new question on how cross-reactive autoantibodies are not produced during the immune response to these bacteria in most healthy people. Understanding the mechanisms that deselect auto-reactive B cell clones during the germinal center reaction to homologous foreign antigens may provide a novel strategy to treat autoimmune diseases.

• Genomics & Informatics
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• v.7 no.3
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• pp.141-147
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• 2009

Developed proteome-scale ortholog and paralog prediction methods are mainly based on sequence similarity. However, it is known that even the closest BLAST hit often does not mean the closest neighbor. For this reason, we added conserved interaction information to find orthologs. We propose a genome-scale, automated ortholog prediction method, named OrthoInterBlast. The method is based on both sequence and interaction similarity. When we applied this method to fly and yeast, 17% of the ortholog candidates were different compared with the results of Inparanoid. By adding protein-protein interaction information, proteins that have low sequence similarity still can be selected as orthologs, which can not be easily detected by sequence homology alone.

• Molecules and Cells
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• v.43 no.4
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• pp.313-322
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• 2020

Eukaryotes transport biomolecules between intracellular organelles and between cells and the environment via vesicle trafficking. Soluble N-ethylmaleimide-sensitive factor attachment protein receptors (SNARE proteins) play pivotal roles in vesicle and membrane trafficking. These proteins are categorized as Qa, Qb, Qc, and R SNAREs and form a complex that induces vesicle fusion for targeting of vesicle cargos. As the core components of the SNARE complex, the SNAP25 Qbc SNAREs perform various functions related to cellular homeostasis. The Arabidopsis thaliana SNAP25 homolog AtSNAP33 interacts with Qa and R SNAREs and plays a key role in cytokinesis and in triggering innate immune responses. However, other Arabidopsis SNAP25 homologs, such as AtSNAP29 and AtSNAP30, are not well studied; this includes their localization, interactions, structures, and functions. Here, we discuss three biological functions of plant SNAP25 orthologs in the context of AtSNAP33 and highlight recent findings on SNAP25 orthologs in various plants. We propose future directions for determining the roles of the less well-characterized AtSNAP29 and AtSNAP30 proteins.

• Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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• v.6 no.3
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• pp.110-115
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• 2003

Expressed sequence tag (EST) analysis was conducted using a cDNA library made from the liver mRNA of olive flounder (Paralichthys olivaceus). In the survey of 421 ESTs, 362 showed significant homology to previously described genes while 59 were unidentified or novel. Comparative analysis of the identified ESTs showed that 69 $(19.0\%)$ clones were identified as homologous to the previously reported olive flounder ESTs, and 279 $(77.1\%)$ clones were identified as orthologs of known genes from other organisms. The remaining 14 $(3.9\%)$ clones were identified as orthologs of known sequences with unknown functions. These tagged cDNA clones, identified and unidentified, could provide fundamental baseline data for genomic studies of this species.

• Journal of KIISE:Databases
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• v.35 no.2
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• pp.125-131
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• 2008

It is very useful to predict orthologs for new genome annotation and research on genome evolution. We showed that the previous work can be extended to construct OCs(Ortholog Clusters) automatically from multiple complete-genomes. The proposed method also has the quality of production of InParanoid, which produces orthologs from just two genomes. On the other hand, in order to predict more exactly the function of a newly sequenced gene it can be an important issue to prevent unwanted inclusion of paralogs into the OCs. We have, here, investigated how well it is possible to construct a functionally purer OCs with score cut-offs. Our OCs were generated from the datasets of 20 procaryotes. The similarity with both COG(Clusters of Orthologous Group) and KO(Kegg Orthology) against our OCs has about 90% and inclines to increase with the growth of score cut-offs.

• Genomics & Informatics
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.32-35
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• 2008

Little evidence supports the existence of imprinted genes in chicken. Imprinted genes are thought to be intimately connected with the acquisition of parental resources in mammals; thus, the predicted lack of this type of gene in chicken is not surprising, given that they leave their offspring to their own heritance after conception. In this study, we identified several imprinted genes and their orthologs in human, mouse, and zebrafish, including 30 previously identified human and mouse imprinted genes. Next, using the HomoloGene database, we identified six orthologous genes in human, mouse, and chicken; however, no orthologs were identified for SLC22A18, and mouse Ppp1r9a was not included in the HomoloGene database. Thus, from our analysis, four candidate chicken imprinted genes (IGF2, UBE3A, PHLDA2, and GRB10) were identified. To expand our analysis, zebrafish was included, but no probe ID for UBE3A exists in this species. Thus, ultimately, three candidate imprinted genes (IGF2, PHLDA2, and GRB10) in chicken were identified. GRB10 was not significant in chicken and zebrafish based on the Wilcoxon-Mann-Whitney test, whereas a weak correlation between PHLDA2 in chicken and human was identified from the Spearman's rank correlation coefficient. Significant associations between human, mouse, chicken, and zebrafish were found for IGF2 and GRB10 using the Friedman's test. Based on our results, IGF2, PHLDA2, and GRB10 are candidate imprinted genes in chicken. Importantly, the strongest candidate was PHLDA2.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.11-18
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• 2008

We created a cDNA microarray representing approximately 3,500 pig genes for functional genomic studies. The array elements were selected from 6,494 cDNA clones identified in a large-scale expressed sequence tag (EST) project. These cDNA clones came from normalized and subtracted porcine adipose tissue cDNA libraries. Sequence similarity searches of the 3,426 ESTs represented on the array using BLASTN identified 2,790 (81.4%) as putative human orthologs, with the remainder consisting of "novel" genes or highly divergent orthologs. We used the gene microarray to profile transcripts expressed by adipose tissue of fatty Chinese Xiang pig (XP) and muscley Large White (LW). Microarray analysis of RNA extracted from adipose tissue of fatty XP and muscley LW identified 81 genes that were differently expressed two fold or more. Transcriptional differences of four of these genes, adipocyte fatty acid binding protein (aP2), stearyl-CoA desaturase (SCD), sterol regulatory element binding transcription factor 1 (SREBF1) and lipoprotein lipase (LPL) were confirmed using SYBR Green quantitative RT-PCR technology. Our results showed that high expression of SCD and SREBF1 may be one of the reasons that larger fat deposits are observed in the XP. In addition, our findings also illustrate the potential power of microarrays for understanding the molecular mechanisms of porcine development, disease resistance, nutrition, fertility and production traits.

• KSBB Journal
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.39-44
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• 2003

A Gene content phylogenetic tree and a 16s rRNA based phylogenetic tree were compared for 33 whole-genome sequenced procaryotes, neighbor joining and bootstrap methods (n=1,000). Ratio of conserved COG (clusters of orthologous groups of proteins) to orthologs revealed that they were within the range of 4.60% (Mezorhizobium loti) or 56.57% (Mycopiasma genitalium). This meant that the ratio was diverse among analyzed procaryotes and indicated the possibility of searching for useful genes. Over 20% of orthologs were independent among the same species. The gene content tree and the 16s rDNA tree showed coincidence and discordance in Archaeabacteria, Proteobacteria and Firmicutes. This might have resulted from non-conservative genes in the gene content phylogenetic tree and horizontal gene transfer. The COG based gene content tree could be regarded as a midway phylogeny based on biochemical tests and nucleotide sequences.

• Korean Journal of Microbiology
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• v.55 no.2
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• pp.112-116
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• 2019

Thp1/PCID2 is a subunit of the evolutionally conserved TREX-2 complex, which is required for transcription-coupled mRNA export from the nucleus to the cytoplasm. In fission yeast, Schizosaccharomyces pombe, there are two orthologs of the Thp1/PCID2 protein. In addition to pci2 (SPBC1105.07c) gene, SPAC1B3.08 gene encodes a PCI domain-containing protein that is predicted as a component of TREX-2 complex. Overexpression of SPAC1B3.08 cause slight defects of both growth and mRNA export. Yeast two-hybrid and co-immunoprecipitation analysis exhibits that the SPAC1B3.08 protein interacted with Sac3 and Dss1, which are another components of TREX-2 complex. These observations support the possibility that the S. pombe SPAC1B3.08 protein, as a component of TREX-2 complex, is involved in mRNA export.