Brad T. Sherman

Extracting Biological Meaning from Large Gene Lists with DAVID

High‐throughput genomics screening studies, such as microarray, proteomics, etc., often result in large, “interesting” gene lists, ranging in size from hundreds to thousands of genes. Given the challenges of functionally interpreting such large gene lists, it is necessary to incorporate bioinformatics tools in the analysis. DAVID is a Web‐based application that provides a high‐throughput and integrative gene functional annotation environment to systematically extract biological themes behind large gene lists. High‐throughput gene functional analysis with DAVID will provide important insights that allow investigators to understand the biological themes within their given genomic study. This unit will describe step‐by‐step procedures to use DAVID tools, as well as a brief rationale and key parameters in the DAVID analysis. Curr. Protoc. Bioinform. 27:13.11.1‐13.11.13.

DAVID gene ID conversion tool.

Our current biological knowledge is spread over many independent bioinformatics databases where many different types of gene and protein identifiers are used. The heterogeneous and redundant nature of these identifiers limits data analysis across different bioinformatics resources. It is an even more serious bottleneck of data analysis for larger datasets, such as gene lists derived from microarray and proteomic experiments. The DAVID Gene ID Conversion Tool (DICT), a web-based application, is able to convert users input gene or gene product identifiers from one type to another in a more comprehensive and high-throughput manner with a uniquely enhanced ID-ID mapping database. Availability http://david.abcc.ncifcrf.gov/conversion.jsp.

Genome analysis of three Pneumocystis species reveals adaptation mechanisms to life exclusively in mammalian hosts

Pneumocystis jirovecii is a major cause of life-threatening pneumonia in immunosuppressed patients including transplant recipients and those with HIV/AIDS, yet surprisingly little is known about the biology of this fungal pathogen. Here we report near complete genome assemblies for three Pneumocystis species that infect humans, rats and mice. Pneumocystis genomes are highly compact relative to other fungi, with substantial reductions of ribosomal RNA genes, transporters, transcription factors and many metabolic pathways, but contain expansions of surface proteins, especially a unique and complex surface glycoprotein superfamily, as well as proteases and RNA processing proteins. Unexpectedly, the key fungal cell wall components chitin and outer chain N-mannans are absent, based on genome content and experimental validation. Our findings suggest that Pneumocystis has developed unique mechanisms of adaptation to life exclusively in mammalian hosts, including dependence on the lungs for gas and nutrients and highly efficient strategies to escape both host innate and acquired immune defenses.

A Benchmark Study on Error Assessment and Quality Control of CCS Reads Derived from the PacBio RS.

PacBio RS, a newly emerging third-generation DNA sequencing platform, is based on a real-time, single-molecule, nano-nitch sequencing technology that can generate very long reads (up to 20-kb) in contrast to the shorter reads produced by the first and second generation sequencing technologies. As a new platform, it is important to assess the sequencing error rate, as well as the quality control (QC) parameters associated with the PacBio sequence data. In this study, a mixture of 10 prior known, closely related DNA amplicons were sequenced using the PacBio RS sequencing platform. After aligning Circular Consensus Sequence (CCS) reads derived from the above sequencing experiment to the known reference sequences, we found that the median error rate was 2.5% without read QC, and improved to 1.3% with an SVM based multi-parameter QC method. In addition, a De Novo assembly was used as a downstream application to evaluate the effects of different QC approaches. This benchmark study indicates that even though CCS reads are post error-corrected it is still necessary to perform appropriate QC on CCS reads in order to produce successful downstream bioinformatics analytical results.

Gene duplications in prokaryotes can be associated with environmental adaptation

BackgroundGene duplication is a normal evolutionary process. If there is no selective advantage in keeping the duplicated gene, it is usually reduced to a pseudogene and disappears from the genome. However, some paralogs are retained. These gene products are likely to be beneficial to the organism, e.g. in adaptation to new environmental conditions. The aim of our analysis is to investigate the properties of paralog-forming genes in prokaryotes, and to analyse the role of these retained paralogs by relating gene properties to life style of the corresponding prokaryotes.ResultsParalogs were identified in a number of prokaryotes, and these paralogs were compared to singletons of persistent orthologs based on functional classification. This showed that the paralogs were associated with for example energy production, cell motility, ion transport, and defence mechanisms. A statistical overrepresentation analysis of gene and protein annotations was based on paralogs of the 200 prokaryotes with the highest fraction of paralog-forming genes. Biclustering of overrepresented gene ontology terms versus species was used to identify clusters of properties associated with clusters of species. The clusters were classified using similarity scores on properties and species to identify interesting clusters, and a subset of clusters were analysed by comparison to literature data. This analysis showed that paralogs often are associated with properties that are important for survival and proliferation of the specific organisms. This includes processes like ion transport, locomotion, chemotaxis and photosynthesis. However, the analysis also showed that the gene ontology terms sometimes were too general, imprecise or even misleading for automatic analysis.ConclusionsProperties described by gene ontology terms identified in the overrepresentation analysis are often consistent with individual prokaryote lifestyles and are likely to give a competitive advantage to the organism. Paralogs and singletons dominate different categories of functional classification, where paralogs in particular seem to be associated with processes involving interaction with the environment.

Towards Better Precision Medicine: PacBio Single-Molecule Long Reads Resolve the Interpretation of HIV Drug Resistant Mutation Profiles at Explicit Quasispecies (Haplotype) Level.

Development of HIV-1 drug resistance mutations (HDRMs) is one of the major reasons for the clinical failure of antiretroviral therapy. Treatment success rates can be improved by applying personalized anti-HIV regimens based on a patient’s HDRM profile. However, the sensitivity and specificity of the HDRM profile is limited by the methods used for detection. Sanger-based sequencing technology has traditionally been used for determining HDRM profiles at the single nucleotide variant (SNV) level, but with a sensitivity of only ≥ 20% in the HIV population of a patient. Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) technologies offer greater detection sensitivity (~ 1%) and larger scope (hundreds of samples per run). However, NGS technologies produce reads that are too short to enable the detection of the physical linkages of individual SNVs across the haplotype of each HIV strain present. In this article, we demonstrate that the single-molecule long reads generated using the Third Generation Sequencer (TGS), PacBio RS II, along with the appropriate bioinformatics analysis method, can resolve the HDRM profile at a more advanced quasispecies level. The case studies on patients’ HIV samples showed that the quasispecies view produced using the PacBio method offered greater detection sensitivity and was more comprehensive for understanding HDRM situations, which is complement to both Sanger and NGS technologies. In conclusion, the PacBio method, providing a promising new quasispecies level of HDRM profiling, may effect an important change in the field of HIV drug resistance research.

β-glucans are Masked but Contribute to Pulmonary Inflammation During Pneumocystis Pneumonia

β-glucans, which can activate innate immune responses, are a major component in the cell wall of the cyst form of Pneumocystis In the current study, we examined whether β-1,3-glucans are masked by surface proteins in Pneumocystis and what role β-glucans play in Pneumocystis-associated inflammation. For 3 species, including Pneumocystis jirovecii, which causes Pneumocystis pneumonia in humans, Pneumocystis carinii, and Pneumocystis murina, β-1,3-glucans were masked in most organisms, as demonstrated by increased exposure following trypsin treatment. Using quantitative polymerase chain reaction and microarray techniques, we demonstrated in a mouse model of Pneumocystis pneumonia that treatment with caspofungin, an inhibitor of β-1,3-glucan synthesis, for 21 days decreased expression of a broad panel of inflammatory markers, including interferon γ, tumor necrosis factor α, interleukin 1β, interleukin 6, and multiple chemokines/chemokine ligands. Thus, β-glucans in Pneumocystis cysts are largely masked, which likely decreases innate immune activation; this mechanism presumably was developed for interactions with immunocompetent hosts, in whom organism loads are substantially lower. In immunosuppressed hosts with a high organism burden, organism death and release of glucans appears to be an important contributor to deleterious host inflammatory responses.

Interleukin-15 (IL-15) Strongly Correlates with Increasing HIV-1 Viremia and Markers of Inflammation.

Objective IL-15 has been postulated to play an important role in HIV-1 infection, yet there are conflicting reports regarding its expression levels in these patients. We sought to measure the level of IL-15 in a large, well characterised cohort of HIV-1 infected patients and correlate this with well known markers of inflammation, including CRP, D-dimer, sCD163 and sCD14. Design and Methods IL-15 levels were measured in 501 people (460 patients with HIV-1 infection and 41 uninfected controls). The HIV-1 infected patients were divided into 4 groups based on viral load: <50 copies/ml, 51–10,000 copies/ml, 10,001–100,000 copies/ml and >100,000 copies/ml. The Mann Whitney test (non-parametric) was used to identify significant relationships between different patient groups. Results IL-15 levels were significantly higher in patients with viral loads >100,000 copies/ml (3.02 ± 1.53 pg/ml) compared to both uninfected controls (1.69 ± 0.37 pg/ml, p<0.001) or patients with a viral load <50 copies/ml (1.59 ± 0.40 pg/ml (p<0.001). There was a significant correlation between HIV-1 viremia and IL-15 levels (Spearman r = 0.54, p<0.001) and between CD4+ T cell counts and IL-15 levels (Spearman r = -0.56, p<0.001). Conclusions IL-15 levels are significantly elevated in HIV-1 infected patients with viral loads >100,000 copies/ml compared to uninfected controls, with a significant direct correlation noted between IL-15 and HIV-1 viremia and an inverse correlation between IL-15 levels and CD4+ T cell counts. These data support a potential role for IL-15 in the pathogenesis of HIV-associated immune activation.

STING is an essential mediator of the Ku70-mediated production of IFN-λ1 in response to exogenous DNA

The adaptor protein STING mediates the production of type III interferon in response to cytosolic DNA and DNA viruses. STINGing viruses with IFN-λ1 When cells sense cytosolic DNA, such as occurs during viral infection, they produce type I interferons (IFNs) as part of the antiviral response. Various cytosolic DNA sensors and their downstream effectors stimulate activation of the transcription factor IFN regulatory factor 3 (IRF3) to induce expression of genes encoding type I IFNs. Sui et al. investigated the mechanism by which the DNA protein kinase (DNA-PK) component Ku70, a DNA repair protein, induced production of the type III IFN IFN-λ1 in human cells exposed to cytosolic DNA or infected with the DNA virus HSV-2. Ku70 translocated from the nucleus to the cytosol to interact with the adaptor protein STING, a well-characterized mediator of type I IFN production. However, in the Ku70 pathway, IRF1 and IRF7 were required in addition to IRF3, and type III IFN production was slower than that of type I IFN. Together, these data suggest a role for STING in the late phase of the antiviral IFN response to DNA viruses. We previously identified Ku70, a subunit of a DNA repair protein complex, as a cytosolic DNA sensor that induces the production of interferon-λ1 (IFN-λ1) by human primary cells and cell lines. IFN-λ1 is a type III IFN and has similar antiviral activity to that of the type I IFNs (IFN-α and IFN-β). We observed that human embryonic kidney (HEK) 293T cells, which are deficient in the innate immune adaptor protein STING (stimulator of IFN genes), did not produce IFN-λ1 in response to DNA unless they were reconstituted with STING. Conversely, parental HEK 293 cells produced IFN-λ1 after they were exposed to exogenous DNA; however, when STING was knocked out in the HEK 293 cells through the CRISPR (clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats)/Cas9 genome editing system, they lost this response. Through confocal microscopy, we demonstrated that endogenous Ku70 was located in the nucleus and then translocated to the cytoplasm upon DNA exposure to form a complex with STING. Additionally, the DNA binding domain of Ku70 was essential for formation of the Ku70-STING complex. Knocking down STING in primary human macrophages inhibited their ability to produce IFN-λ1 in response to transfection with DNA or infection with the DNA virus HSV-2 (herpes simplex virus–2). Together, these data suggest that STING mediates the Ku70-mediated IFN-λ1 innate immune response to exogenous DNA or DNA virus infection.

A novel microRNA, hsa-miR-6852 differentially regulated by Interleukin-27 induces necrosis in cervical cancer cells by downregulating the FoxM1 expression.

We have previously demonstrated that Interleukin-27 differentially regulates the expression of seven novel microRNAs. Here we elucidate the functional significance of these novel microRNAs. Of the seven microRNAs, over expression of miRNA-6852 (miR-SX4) mimic induces cell cycle arrest at G2/M phase and induces necrosis in HEK293 and panel of cervical cancer cells (Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) infected cell lines; HeLa, CaSki and SiHa cells). To define the mechanism of the miR-SX4-mediated G2/M arrest, a microarray gene chip array and western blot analysis were performed. FoxM1, a transcription factor is identified as a key protein down-regulated by miR-SX4, even though the miR-SX4 does not target 3’UTR of FoxM1. Knock down of FoxM1 using si-RNA demonstrate that FoxM1 silenced cell induces G2/M cell cycle arrest and necrosis. Our data demonstrated for the first time that miR-SX4 could be a potent anti-cancer microRNA.