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Background: The information of quaternary structure attributes of proteins is very important because it is closely related to the biological functions of proteins. With the rapid development of new generation sequencing technology, we are facing a challenge: how to automatically identify the four-level attributes of new polypeptide chains according to their sequence information (i.e., whether they are formed as just as a monomer, or as a hetero-oligomer, or a homo-oligomer)., Objective: In this article, our goal is to find a new way to represent protein sequences, thereby improving the prediction rate of protein quaternary structure., Methods: In this article, we developed a prediction system for protein quaternary structural type in which a protein sequence was expressed by combining the Pfam functional-domain and gene ontology. turn protein features into digital sequences, and complete the prediction of quaternary structure through specific machine learning algorithms and verification algorithm., Results: Our data set contains 5495 protein samples. Through the method provided in this paper, we classify proteins into monomer, or as a hetero-oligomer, or a homo-oligomer, and the prediction rate is 74.38%, which is 3.24% higher than that of previous studies. Through this new feature extraction method, we can further classify the four-level structure of proteins, and the results are also correspondingly improved., Conclusion: After the applying the new prediction system, compared with the previous results, we have successfully improved the prediction rate. We have reason to believe that the feature extraction method in this paper has better practicability and can be used as a reference for other protein classification problems., (Copyright© Bentham Science Publishers; For any queries, please email at epub@benthamscience.net.)

Meiotic recombination caused by meiotic double-strand DNA breaks. In some regions the frequency of DNA recombination is relatively higher, while in other regions the frequency is lower: the former is usually called "recombination hotspot", while the latter the "recombination coldspot". Information of the hot and cold spots may provide important clues for understanding the mechanism of genome revolution. Therefore, it is important to accurately predict these spots. In this study, we rebuilt the benchmark dataset by unifying its samples with a same length (131 bp). Based on such a foundation and using SVM (Support Vector Machine) classifier, a new predictor called "iRSpot-Pse6NC" was developed by incorporating the key hexamer features into the general PseKNC (Pseudo K-tuple Nucleotide Composition) via the binomial distribution approach. It has been observed via rigorous cross-validations that the proposed predictor is superior to its counterparts in overall accuracy, stability, sensitivity and specificity. For the convenience of most experimental scientists, the web-server for iRSpot-Pse6NC has been established at http://lin-group.cn/server/iRSpot-Pse6NC, by which users can easily obtain their desired result without the need to go through the detailed mathematical equations involved., Competing Interests: Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interest exists.

Objective: Lysine crotonylation (Kcr) is a newly discovered histone posttranslational modification, which is specifically enriched at active gene promoters and potential enhancers in mammalian cell genomes. Although lysine crotonylation sites can be correctly identified with high-resolution mass spectrometry, the experimental methods are time-consuming and expensive. Therefore, it is necessary to develop computational methods to deal with this problem., Methods: We proposed a new encoding scheme named position weight amino acid composition to extract sequence information of histone around crotonylation sites. We chose protein data from Uniprot database. A series of steps were used to construct a strict and objective benchmark dataset for training and testing the proposed method. All samples were characterized by a significant number of features derived from position weight amino acid composition. The support vector machine was used to perform classification., Results: Based on a series of experiments, we found that the sensitivity (Sn), specificity (Sp), accuracy (Acc), and Matthew's correlation coefficient (MCC) were respectively 71.69%, 98.7%, 94.43%, and 0.778 in jackknife cross-validation. Comparison results demonstrated that our proposed model was better than random forest algorithm. We also performed the feature analysis on samples., Conclusion: Identification of the Kcr sites in histone is an indispensable step for decoding protein function. Therefore, the method can promote the deep understanding of the physiological roles of crotonylation and provide useful information for developing drugs to treat various diseases associated with crotonylation., (Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Occurring at cytosine (C) of RNA, 5-methylcytosine (m5C) is an important post-transcriptional modification (PTCM). The modification plays significant roles in biological processes by regulating RNA metabolism in both eukaryotes and prokaryotes. It may also, however, cause cancers and other major diseases. Given an uncharacterized RNA sequence that contains many C residues, can we identify which one of them can be of m5C modification, and which one cannot? It is no doubt a crucial problem, particularly with the explosive growth of RNA sequences in the postgenomic age. Unfortunately, so far no user-friendly web-server whatsoever has been developed to address such a problem. To meet the increasingly high demand from most experimental scientists working in the area of drug development, we have developed a new predictor called iRNAm5C-PseDNC by incorporating ten types of physical-chemical properties into pseudo dinucleotide composition via the auto/cross-covariance approach. Rigorous jackknife tests show that its anticipated accuracy is quite high. For most experimental scientists' convenience, a user-friendly web-server for the predictor has been provided at http://www.jci-bioinfo.cn/iRNAm5C-PseDNC along with a step-by-step user guide, by which users can easily obtain their desired results without the need to go through the complicated mathematical equations involved. It has not escaped our notice that the approach presented here can also be used to deal with many other problems in genome analysis.

Protein phosphorylation plays a critical role in human body by altering the structural conformation of a protein, causing it to become activated/deactivated, or functional modification. Given an uncharacterized protein sequence, can we predict whether it may be phosphorylated or may not? This is no doubt a very meaningful problem for both basic research and drug development. Unfortunately, to our best knowledge, so far no high throughput bioinformatics tool whatsoever has been developed to address such a very basic but important problem due to its extremely complexity and lacking sufficient training data. Here we proposed a predictor called iPhos-PseEvo by (1) incorporating the protein sequence evolutionary information into the general pseudo amino acid composition (PseAAC) via the grey system theory, (2) balancing out the skewed training datasets by the asymmetric bootstrap approach, and (3) constructing an ensemble predictor by fusing an array of individual random forest classifiers thru a voting system. Rigorous jackknife tests have indicated that very promising success rates have been achieved by iPhos-PseEvo even for such a difficult problem. A user-friendly web-server for iPhos-PseEvo has been established at http://www.jci-bioinfo.cn/iPhos-PseEvo, by which users can easily obtain their desired results without the need to go through the complicated mathematical equations involved. It has not escaped our notice that the formulation and approach presented here can be used to analyze many other problems in protein science as well., (© 2017 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.)

Predicting phosphorylation protein is a challenging problem, particularly when query proteins have multi-label features meaning that they may be phosphorylated at two or more different type amino acids. In fact, human protein usually be phosphorylated at serine, threonine and tyrosine. By introducing the "multi-label learning" approach, a novel predictor has been developed that can be used to deal with the systems containing both single- and multi-label phosphorylation protein. Here we proposed a predictor called Multi-iPPseEvo by (1) incorporating the protein sequence evolutionary information into the general pseudo amino acid composition (PseAAC) via the grey system theory, (2) balancing out the skewed training datasets by the asymmetric bootstrap approach, and (3) constructing an ensemble predictor by fusing an array of individual random forest classifiers thru a voting system. Rigorous cross-validations via a set of multi-label metrics indicate that the multi-label phosphorylation predictor is very promising and encouraging. The current approach represents a new strategy to deal with the multi-label biological problems, and the software is freely available for academic use at http://www.jci-bioinfo.cn/Multi-iPPseEvo., (© 2017 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.)

Protein phosphorylation is a posttranslational modification (PTM or PTLM), where a phosphoryl group is added to the residue(s) of a protein molecule. The most commonly phosphorylated amino acids occur at serine (S), threonine (T), and tyrosine (Y). Protein phosphorylation plays a significant role in a wide range of cellular processes; meanwhile its dysregulation is also involved with many diseases. Therefore, from the angles of both basic research and drug development, we are facing a challenging problem: for an uncharacterized protein sequence containing many residues of S, T, or Y, which ones can be phosphorylated, and which ones cannot? To address this problem, we have developed a predictor called iPhos-PseEn by fusing four different pseudo component approaches (amino acids' disorder scores, nearest neighbor scores, occurrence frequencies, and position weights) into an ensemble classifier via a voting system. Rigorous cross-validations indicated that the proposed predictor remarkably outperformed its existing counterparts. For the convenience of most experimental scientists, a user-friendly web-server for iPhos-PseEn has been established at http://www.jci-bioinfo.cn/iPhos-PseEn, by which users can easily obtain their desired results without the need to go through the complicated mathematical equations involved., Competing Interests: The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

Enzymes play pivotal roles in most of the biological reaction. The catalytic residues of an enzyme are defined as the amino acids which are directly involved in chemical catalysis; the knowledge of these residues is important for understanding enzyme function. Given an enzyme, which residues are the catalytic sites, and which residues are not? This is the first important problem for in-depth understanding the catalytic mechanism and drug development. With the explosive of protein sequences generated during the post-genomic era, it is highly desirable for both basic research and drug design to develop fast and reliable method for identifying the catalytic sites of enzymes according to their sequences. To address this problem, we proposed a new predictor, called iCataly-PseAAC. In the prediction system, the peptide sample was formulated with sequence evolution information via grey system model GM(2,1). It was observed by the rigorous jackknife test and independent dataset test that iCataly-PseAAC was superior to exist predictions though its only use sequence information. As a user-friendly web server, iCataly-PseAAC is freely accessible at http://www.jci-bioinfo.cn/iCataly-PseAAC. A step-by-step guide has been provided on how to use the web server to get the desired results for the convenience of most experimental scientists.

Predominantly occurring on cytosine, DNA methylation is a process by which cells can modify their DNAs to change the expression of gene products. It plays very important roles in life development but also in forming nearly all types of cancer. Therefore, knowledge of DNA methylation sites is significant for both basic research and drug development. Given an uncharacterized DNA sequence containing many cytosine residues, which one can be methylated and which one cannot? With the avalanche of DNA sequences generated during the postgenomic age, it is highly desired to develop computational methods for accurately identifying the methylation sites in DNA. Using the trinucleotide composition, pseudo amino acid components, and a dataset-optimizing technique, we have developed a new predictor called "iDNA-Methyl" that has achieved remarkably higher success rates in identifying the DNA methylation sites than the existing predictors. A user-friendly web-server for the new predictor has been established at http://www.jci-bioinfo.cn/iDNA-Methyl, where users can easily get their desired results. We anticipate that the web-server predictor will become a very useful high-throughput tool for basic research and drug development and that the novel approach and technique can also be used to investigate many other DNA-related problems and genome analysis., (Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

G-Protein-Coupled Receptors (GPCRs) are the largest of cell surface receptor, accounting for >1% of the human genome. They play a key role in cellular signaling networks that regulate various physiological processes. The functions of many of GPCRs are unknown, because they are difficult to crystallize and most of them will not dissolve in normal solvents. This difficulty has motivated and challenged the development of a computational method which can predict the classification of the families and subfamilies of GPCRs based on their primary sequence so as to help us classify drugs. In this paper the adaptive K-nearest neighbor algorithm and protein cellular automata image (CAI) is introduced. Based on the CAI, the complexity measure factors derived from each of the protein sequences concerned are adopted for its Pseudo amino acid composition. GPCRs were categorized into nine subtypes. The overall success rate in identifying GPCRs among their nine family classes was about 83.5%. The high success rate suggests that the adaptive K-nearest neighbor algorithm and protein CAI holds very high potential to become a useful tool for understanding the actions of drugs that target GPCRs and designing new medications with fewer side effects and greater efficacy.