Zhongyang Tan

Similar distribution of simple sequence repeats in diverse completed Human Immunodeficiency Virus Type 1 genomes

The survey of simple sequence repeats (SSRs) has been extensively made in eukaryotes and prokaryotes. However, its still rare in viruses. Thus, we undertook a survey of SSRs in Human Immunodeficiency Virus Type 1 (HIV‐1) which is an excellent system to study evolution and roles of SSRs in viruses. Distribution of SSRs was examined in 81 completed HIV‐1 genome sequences which come from 34 different countries or districts over 6 continents. In these surveyed sequences, although relative abundance and relative density exhibit very high similarity, some of these sequences show different preference for most common SSRs and longest SSRs. Our results suggest proportion of various repeat types might be related to genome stability.

Compound microsatellites in complete Escherichia coli genomes.

Compound microsatellites consisting of two or more repeats in close proximity have been found in eukaryotic genomes. So far such compound microsatellites have not been investigated in any prokaryotic genomes. We have therefore examined compound microsatellites in 22 complete genomes of Escherichia coli, which is one of the ideal model organisms to analyze the nature and evolution of prokaryotic compound microsatellites. Our results indicated that about 1.75–2.85% of all microsatellites could be accounted as compound microsatellites with very low complexity, and most compound microsatellites were composed of very different motifs. Compound microsatellites were significantly overrepresented in all surveyed genomes. These results were dramatically different from those in eukaryotes. We discussed the possible reasons for the observed divergence.

Differential distribution of compound microsatellites in various Human Immunodeficiency Virus Type 1 complete genomes

Compound microsatellites consist of two or more individual microsatellites, and may originate from dynamic mutations or imperfection of microsatellites. Previous studies have found microsatellites were present in 81 completed Human Immunodeficiency Virus Type 1 (HIV-1) genomes, suggesting compound microsatellites may exist in viral genomes. However, up to now, compound microsatellites have not been analyzed in any viral genomes. We identified and characterized 238 compound microsatellites in 81 completed HIV-1 genomes. About 0-24.24% of all microsatellites could be categorized as compound microsatellites. Compound microsatellite distribution is very different in two aspects between diverse HIV-1 genomes. First, the number and motifs of compound microsatellites are variable between surveyed genomes. Second, the relative abundance and relative density of compound microsatellites exhibit very significant differences between these surveyed genomes, respectively. The relative abundance and relative density of compound microsatellites were weakly correlated with genome size and microsatellite density. We observed a more dynamic picture of compound microsatellites than previously reported in eukaryotes. This might be attributed to the lack of proofreading in HIV-1 genomes, as it has been demonstrated that the loss of polymerase proofreading activity can greatly enhance the mutation rate of microsatellites.

Microsatellites in different Potyvirus genomes: survey and analysis.

Simple sequence repeats (SSRs) have been extensively used for various genetic and evolutionary studies in eukaryotic and prokaryotic organisms, while few relevant researches have been made in viruses. The Potyvirus is a fine system to study roles and evolution of SSRs in viruses. The densities, relative abundances, compositions and evolutionary inferences of SSRs in 45 different Potyvirus genomes have been analyzed in this study. Results showed that the densities and relative abundances of SSRs are similar in all those Potyvirus genomes. The number of SSRs decreases with an increase in the length of repeat unit. Dinucleotide repeats are the most abundant and followed by trinucleotide repeats, and the numbers of tetra-, penta- and hexanucleotide repeats are very small. Repeats of AC/CA, AG/GA and AAG/GAA predominate, whereas repeats of CG/GC, ATA and CAC are rare. The genome sizes of the Potyvirus species have little influence on the total number and relative abundance of SSRs. Our study suggested that the variety of SSRs may be related to the genome diversity of Potyvirus. Maybe Potyvirus and HIV genomes have the similar evolution mode and parallel evolution level.

High GC content of simple sequence repeats in Herpes simplex virus type 1 genome.

The presence, locations and composition of simple sequence repeats (SSRs) in Herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1) genome were extracted and analyzed by using the software Imperfect Microsatellite Extractor (IMEx). There were 663 mon-, 502 di-, 184 tri-, 20 tetra-, 4 penta- and 4 hexanucleotide SSRs that were observed in different distribution between coding and noncoding regions in the HSV-1 genome. G/C, GC/CG, and (GGC)(n) were predominant in mononucleotide, dinucletide, trinucleotide repeats respectively. Indeed, the results showed that GC content in simple sequence repeats was notably higher than that in entire HSV-1 genome. Our data might be helpful for studying the pathogenesis, genome structure and evolution of HSV-1.

Coevolution between simple sequence repeats (SSRs) and virus genome size

BackgroundRelationship between the level of repetitiveness in genomic sequence and genome size has been investigated by making use of complete prokaryotic and eukaryotic genomes, but relevant studies have been rarely made in virus genomes.ResultsIn this study, a total of 257 viruses were examined, which cover 90% of genera. The results showed that simple sequence repeats (SSRs) is strongly, positively and significantly correlated with genome size. Certain repeat class is distributed in a certain range of genome sequence length. Mono-, di- and tri- repeats are widely distributed in all virus genomes, tetra- SSRs as a common component consist in genomes which more than 100 kb in size; in the range of genome < 100 kb, genomes containing penta- and hexa- SSRs are not more than 50%. Principal components analysis (PCA) indicated that dinucleotide repeat affects the differences of SSRs most strongly among virus genomes. Results showed that SSRs tend to accumulate in larger virus genomes; and the longer genome sequence, the longer repeat units.ConclusionsWe conducted this research standing on the height of the whole virus. We concluded that genome size is an important factor in affecting the occurrence of SSRs; hosts are also responsible for the variances of SSRs content to a certain degree.

A New Fluorescence Immunosensing Method Based on Aptamer-plasmid Complex Amplification

Abstract A novel simple, sensitive fluorescence immunosensing method based on aptamer-plasmid complex amplification was developed. This method used the specific recognition between antibody and antigen, as well as aptamer-plasmid complex, and the intercalation of fluorescence dye SYBR Green I in the groove of duplex plasmid DNA in detection of platelet-derived growth factor-BB (PDGF-BB). The immunoassay was performed in the microtiter wells in which rabbit anti-PDGF-BB antibody was immobilized. The PDGF-BB analyte was captured by the primary antibody and then sandwiched by the aptamer-plasmid DNA complex. The introduction of SYBR Green I fluorescence dye allowed for the detection of the sandwiched complex of antibody/antigen/aptamer-plasmid. The optimized salt concentration and ratio of aptamer to PUC19 and SYBR Green I concentration were also analyzed. A linear relationship for the detection of PDGF-BB was at the range from 0.2 to 200 ng ml −1 with a detection limit of 0.1 ng ml −1 .

The analysis of microsatellites and compound microsatellites in 56 complete genomes of Herpesvirales.

Simple sequence repeats (SSRs), or microsatellites, are special DNA/RNA sequences with repeated unit of 1-6 bp. The genomes of Herpesvirales have many repeating structures, which is an excellent system to study the evolution and roles of microsatellites and compound microsatellites in viruses. Therefore, 56 genomes of Herpesvirales were selected and the occurrence, composition and complexity of different repeats were investigated in the genomes. A total of 63,939 microsatellites and 5825 compound microsatellites were extracted from 56 genomes. It found that GC content has a significant strong correlation with both the counts of microsatellites (CM) and the counts of compound microsatellites (CCM). However, genome size has a moderate correlation only with CM and almost no correlation with CCM. The compound microsatellites occurring in genic regions are obviously more than that in intergenic regions. In general, the number of compound microsatellite decreases with the increase of complexity (C) (the count of individual microsatellites being part of a compound microsatellite) and the complexity hardly exceeds C=4. The vast majority of compound microsatellites exist in intergenic regions, when C≥10. The distributions of SSRs tend to be organism-specific rather than host-specific in herpesvirus genomes. The diversity of microsatellites and compound microsatellites may be helpful for a better understanding of the viral genetic diversity, genotyping, and evolutionary biology in herpesviruses genomes.

Comparative analysis of microsatellites and compound microsatellites in T4-like viruses

Microsatellites or simple sequence repeats (SSRs) are known to present ubiquitously in genomes of eukaryotes and prokaryotes, as well as viruses. A comprehensive analysis of microsatellites and compound microsatellites (CM) was performed for 67 T4-like bacteriophage genomes. We found that the number of repeats was generally proportional to the size of the genome. CM were more abundant in genic regions, while their relative abundance was higher in intergenic regions. Meanwhile, the number of CM rapidly decreased with the increase of complexity but gradually increased with higher dMAX (maximum distance between any two adjacent microsatellites). (A)n/(T)n, (AT)n/(TA)n and (AAG)n were the most abundant repeats of mono-, di- and trinucleotide microsatellites, respectively. The number of microsatellites in reference sequences was significantly lower than that in corresponding random sequences. This result was mainly attributed to mono- and dinucleotide repeats which hardly exceeded 6bp in T4-like viruses. These observations may be helpful to understand the distribution of microsatellites and viral genetic diversity in T4-like viruses.

Differential distributions of mononucleotide repeat sequences in 256 viral genomes and its potential implications.

Mononucleotide repeats (MNRs) have been systematically investigated in the genomes of eukaryotic and prokaryotic organisms. However, detailed information on the distribution of MNRs in viral genomes is limited. In this study, we examined the distributions of MNRs in 256 fully sequenced virus genomes which showed extensive variations across viral genomes, and is significantly influenced by both genome size and CG content. Furthermore, the ratio of the observed to the expected number of MNRs (O/E ratio) appears to be influenced by both the host range and genome type of a particular virus. Additionally, the densities and frequencies of MNRs in genic regions are lower than in non-coding regions, suggesting that selective pressure acts on viral genomes. We also discuss the potential functional roles that these MNR loci could play in virus genomes. To our knowledge, this is the first analysis focusing on MNRs in viruses, and our study could have potential implications for a deeper understanding of virus genome stability and the co-evolution that occurs between a virus and its host.