Claire Rioualen

RSAT::Plants: Motif discovery within clusters of upstream sequences in plant genomes

The plant-dedicated mirror of the Regulatory Sequence Analysis Tools (RSAT, http://plants.rsat.eu ) offers specialized options for researchers dealing with plant transcriptional regulation. The website contains whole-sequenced genomes from species regularly updated from Ensembl Plants and other sources (currently 40), and supports an array of tasks frequently required for the analysis of regulatory sequences, such as retrieving upstream sequences, motif discovery, motif comparison, and pattern matching. RSAT::Plants also integrates the footprintDB collection of DNA motifs. This protocol explains step-by-step how to discover DNA motifs in regulatory regions of clusters of co-expressed genes in plants. It also explains how to empirically control the significance of the result, and how to associate the discovered motifs with putative binding factors.

RSAT::Plants: Motif Discovery in ChIP-Seq Peaks of Plant Genomes

In this protocol, we explain how to run ab initio motif discovery in order to gather putative transcription factor binding motifs (TFBMs) from sets of genomic regions returned by ChIP-seq experiments. The protocol starts from a set of peak coordinates (genomic regions) which can be either downloaded from ChIP-seq databases, or produced by a peak-calling software tool. We provide a concise description of the successive steps to discover motifs, cluster the motifs returned by different motif discovery algorithms, and compare them with reference motif databases. The protocol is documented with detailed notes explaining the rationale underlying the choice of options. The interpretation of the results is illustrated with an example from the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana.

Sequanix: a dynamic graphical interface for Snakemake workflows

Abstract Summary We designed a PyQt graphical user interface—Sequanix—aimed at democratizing the use of Snakemake pipelines in the NGS space and beyond. By default, Sequanix includes Sequana NGS pipelines (Snakemake format) (http://sequana.readthedocs.io), and is also capable of loading any external Snakemake pipeline. New users can easily, visually, edit configuration files of expert-validated pipelines and can interactively execute these production-ready workflows. Sequanix will be useful to both Snakemake developers in exposing their pipelines and to a wide audience of users. Availability and implementation Source on http://github.com/sequana/sequana, bio-containers on http://bioconda.github.io and Singularity hub (http://singularity-hub.org). Supplementary information Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.

SnakeChunks: modular blocks to build Snakemake workflows for reproducible NGS analyses

Summary Next-Generation Sequencing (NGS) is becoming a routine approach for most domains of life sciences, yet there is a crucial need to improve the automation of processing for the huge amounts of data generated and to ensure reproducible results. We present SnakeChunks, a collection of Snakemake rules enabling to compose modular and user-configurable workflows, and show its usage with analyses of transcriptome (RNA-seq) and genome-wide location (ChIP-seq) data. Availability The code is freely available (github.com/SnakeChunks/SnakeChunks), and documented with tutorials and illustrative demos (snakechunks.readthedocs.io). Contact claire.rioualen@inserm.fr, jacques.van-helden@univ-amu.fr Supplementary information Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.

Transcriptional Profiling of Midguts Prepared from Trypanosoma/T. congolense-Positive Glossina palpalis palpalis Collected from Two Distinct Cameroonian Foci: Coordinated Signatures of the Midguts' Remodeling As T. congolense-Supportive Niches.

Our previous transcriptomic analysis of Glossina palpalis gambiensis experimentally infected or not with Trypanosoma brucei gambiense aimed to detect differentially expressed genes (DEGs) associated with infection. Specifically, we selected candidate genes governing tsetse fly vector competence that could be used in the context of an anti-vector strategy, to control human and/or animal trypanosomiasis. The present study aimed to verify whether gene expression in field tsetse flies (G. p. palpalis) is modified in response to natural infection by trypanosomes (T. congolense), as reported when insectary-raised flies (G. p. gambiensis) are experimentally infected with T. b. gambiense. This was achieved using the RNA-seq approach, which identified 524 DEGs in infected vs. non-infected tsetse flies, including 285 downregulated genes and 239 upregulated genes (identified using DESeq2). Several of these genes were highly differentially expressed, with log2 fold change values in the vicinity of either +40 or −40. Downregulated genes were primarily involved in transcription/translation processes, whereas encoded upregulated genes governed amino acid and nucleotide biosynthesis pathways. The BioCyc metabolic pathways associated with infection also revealed that downregulated genes were mainly involved in fly immunity processes. Importantly, our study demonstrates that data on the molecular cross-talk between the host and the parasite (as well as the always present fly microbiome) recorded from an experimental biological model has a counterpart in field flies, which in turn validates the use of experimental host/parasite couples.