Search

Abstract Background Mammalian antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) are effectors of the innate immune response. A multitude of signals coming from pathways of mammalian pathogen/pattern recognition receptors and other proteins affect the expression of AMP-coding genes (AMPcgs). For many AMPcgs the promoter elements and transcription factors that control their tissue cell-specific expression have yet to be fully identified and characterized. Results Based upon the RIKEN full-length cDNA and public sequence data derived from human, mouse and rat, we identified 178 candidate AMP transcripts derived from 61 genes belonging to 29 AMP families. However, only for 31 mouse genes belonging to 22 AMP families we were able to determine true orthologous relationships with 30 human and 15 rat sequences. We screened the promoter regions of AMPcgs in the three species for motifs by an ab initio motif finding method and analyzed the derived promoter characteristics. Promoter models were developed for alpha-defensins, penk and zap AMP families. The results suggest a core set of transcription factors (TFs) that regulate the transcription of AMPcg families in mouse, rat and human. The three most frequent core TFs groups include liver-, nervous system-specific and nuclear hormone receptors (NHRs). Out of 440 motifs analyzed, we found that three represent potentially novel TF-binding motifs enriched in promoters of AMPcgs, while the other four motifs appear to be species-specific. Conclusion Our large-scale computational analysis of promoters of 22 families of AMPcgs across three mammalian species suggests that their key transcriptional regulators are likely to be TFs of the liver-, nervous system-specific and NHR groups. The computationally inferred promoter elements and potential TF binding motifs provide a rich resource for targeted experimental validation of TF binding and signaling studies that aim at the regulation of mouse, rat or human AMPcgs.

Abstract Background Over application of phosphate fertilizers in modern agriculture contaminates waterways and disrupts natural ecosystems. Nevertheless, this is a common practice among farmers, especially in developing countries as abundant fertilizers are believed to boost crop yields. The study of plant phosphate metabolism and its underlying genetic pathways is key to discovering methods of efficient fertilizer usage. The work presented here describes a genome-wide resource on the molecular dynamics underpinning the response and recovery in roots and shoots of Arabidopsis thaliana to phosphate-starvation. Results Genome-wide profiling by micro- and tiling-arrays (accessible from GEO: GSE34004) revealed minimal overlap between root and shoot transcriptomes suggesting two independent phosphate-starvation regulons. Novel gene expression patterns were detected for over 1000 candidates and were classified as either initial, persistent, or latent responders. Comparative analysis to AtGenExpress identified cohorts of genes co-regulated across multiple stimuli. The hormone ABA displayed a dominant role in regulating many phosphate-responsive candidates. Analysis of co-regulation enabled the determination of specific versus generic members of closely related gene families with respect to phosphate-starvation. Thus, among others, we showed that PHR1-regulated members of closely related phosphate-responsive families (PHT1;1, PHT1;7–9, SPX1-3, and PHO1;H1) display greater specificity to phosphate-starvation than their more generic counterparts. Conclusion Our results uncover much larger, staged responses to phosphate-starvation than previously described. To our knowledge, this work describes the most complete genome-wide data on plant nutrient stress to-date.

Abstract Background Ovarian epithelial cancer (OEC) usually presents in the later stages of the disease. Factors, especially those associated with cell-cycle genes, affecting the genesis and tumour progression for ovarian cancer are largely unknown. We hypothesized that over-expressed transcription factors (TFs), as well as those that are driving the expression of the OEC over-expressed genes, could be the key for OEC genesis and potentially useful tissue and serum markers for malignancy associated with OEC. Methods Using a combination of computational (selection of candidate TF markers and malignancy prediction) and experimental approaches (tissue microarray and western blotting on patient samples) we identified and evaluated E2F5 transcription factor involved in cell proliferation, as a promising candidate regulatory target in early stage disease. Our hypothesis was supported by our tissue array experiments that showed E2F5 expression only in OEC samples but not in normal and benign tissues, and by significantly positively biased expression in serum samples done using western blotting studies. Results Analysis of clinical cases shows that of the E2F5 status is characteristic for a different population group than one covered by CA125, a conventional OEC biomarker. E2F5 used in different combinations with CA125 for distinguishing malignant cyst from benign cyst shows that the presence of CA125 or E2F5 increases sensitivity of OEC detection to 97.9% (an increase from 87.5% if only CA125 is used) and, more importantly, the presence of both CA125 and E2F5 increases specificity of OEC to 72.5% (an increase from 55% if only CA125 is used). This significantly improved accuracy suggests possibility of an improved diagnostics of OEC. Furthermore, detection of malignancy status in 86 cases (38 benign, 48 early and late OEC) shows that the use of E2F5 status in combination with other clinical characteristics allows for an improved detection of malignant cases with sensitivity, specificity, F-measure and accuracy of 97.92%, 97.37%, 97.92% and 97.67%, respectively. Conclusions Overall, our findings, in addition to opening a realistic possibility for improved OEC diagnosis, provide an indirect evidence that a cell-cycle regulatory protein E2F5 might play a significant role in OEC pathogenesis.

Abstract Background The transcriptional regulatory network involved in low temperature response leading to acclimation has been established in Arabidopsis. In japonica rice, which can only withstand transient exposure to milder cold stress (10°C), an oxidative-mediated network has been proposed to play a key role in configuring early responses and short-term defenses. The components, hierarchical organization and physiological consequences of this network were further dissected by a systems-level approach. Results Regulatory clusters responding directly to oxidative signals were prominent during the initial 6 to 12 hours at 10°C. Early events mirrored a typical oxidative response based on striking similarities of the transcriptome to disease, elicitor and wounding induced processes. Targets of oxidative-mediated mechanisms are likely regulated by several classes of bZIP factors acting on as1/ocs/TGA-like element enriched clusters, ERF factors acting on GCC-box/JAre-like element enriched clusters and R2R3-MYB factors acting on MYB2-like element enriched clusters. Temporal induction of several H2O2-induced bZIP, ERF and MYB genes coincided with the transient H2O2 spikes within the initial 6 to 12 hours. Oxidative-independent responses involve DREB/CBF, RAP2 and RAV1 factors acting on DRE/CRT/rav1-like enriched clusters and bZIP factors acting on ABRE-like enriched clusters. Oxidative-mediated clusters were activated earlier than ABA-mediated clusters. Conclusion Genome-wide, physiological and whole-plant level analyses established a holistic view of chilling stress response mechanism of japonica rice. Early response regulatory network triggered by oxidative signals is critical for prolonged survival under sub-optimal temperature. Integration of stress and developmental responses leads to modulated growth and vigor maintenance contributing to a delay of plastic injuries.

Abstract Background Macrophages are immune cells involved in various biological processes including host defence, homeostasis, differentiation, and organogenesis. Disruption of macrophage biology has been linked to increased pathogen infection, inflammation and malignant diseases. Differential gene expression observed in monocytic differentiation is primarily regulated by interacting transcription factors (TFs). Current research suggests that microRNAs (miRNAs) degrade and repress translation of mRNA, but also may target genes involved in differentiation. We focus on getting insights into the transcriptional circuitry regulating miRNA genes expressed during monocytic differentiation. Results We computationally analysed the transcriptional circuitry of miRNA genes during monocytic differentiation using in vitro time-course expression data for TFs and miRNAs. A set of TF→miRNA associations was derived from predicted TF binding sites in promoter regions of miRNA genes. Time-lagged expression correlation analysis was utilised to evaluate the TF→miRNA associations. Our analysis identified 12 TFs that potentially play a central role in regulating miRNAs throughout the differentiation process. Six of these 12 TFs (ATF2, E2F3, HOXA4, NFE2L1, SP3, and YY1) have not previously been described to be important for monocytic differentiation. The remaining six TFs are CEBPB, CREB1, ELK1, NFE2L2, RUNX1, and USF2. For several miRNAs (miR-21, miR-155, miR-424, and miR-17-92), we show how their inferred transcriptional regulation impacts monocytic differentiation. Conclusions The study demonstrates that miRNAs and their transcriptional regulatory control are integral molecular mechanisms during differentiation. Furthermore, it is the first study to decipher on a large-scale, how miRNAs are controlled by TFs during human monocytic differentiation. Subsequently, we have identified 12 candidate key controllers of miRNAs during this differentiation process.

Abstract Background Esophageal cancer ranks eighth in order of cancer occurrence. Its lethality primarily stems from inability to detect the disease during the early organ-confined stage and the lack of effective therapies for advanced-stage disease. Moreover, the understanding of molecular processes involved in esophageal cancer is not complete, hampering the development of efficient diagnostics and therapy. Efforts made by the scientific community to improve the survival rate of esophageal cancer have resulted in a wealth of scattered information that is difficult to find and not easily amendable to data-mining. To reduce this gap and to complement available cancer related bioinformatic resources, we have developed a comprehensive database (Dragon Database of Genes Implicated in Esophageal Cancer) with esophageal cancer related information, as an integrated knowledge database aimed at representing a gateway to esophageal cancer related data. Description Manually curated 529 genes differentially expressed in EC are contained in the database. We extracted and analyzed the promoter regions of these genes and complemented gene-related information with transcription factors that potentially control them. We further, precompiled text-mined and data-mined reports about each of these genes to allow for easy exploration of information about associations of EC-implicated genes with other human genes and proteins, metabolites and enzymes, toxins, chemicals with pharmacological effects, disease concepts and human anatomy. The resulting database, DDEC, has a useful feature to display potential associations that are rarely reported and thus difficult to identify. Moreover, DDEC enables inspection of potentially new 'association hypotheses' generated based on the precompiled reports. Conclusion We hope that this resource will serve as a useful complement to the existing public resources and as a good starting point for researchers and physicians interested in EC genetics. DDEC is freely accessible to academic and non-profit users at http://apps.sanbi.ac.za/ddec/. DDEC will be updated twice a year.

Abstract Background Sodium channels are heteromultimeric, integral membrane proteins that belong to a superfamily of ion channels. The mutations in genes encoding for sodium channel proteins have been linked with several inherited genetic disorders such as febrile epilepsy, Brugada syndrome, ventricular fibrillation, long QT syndrome, or channelopathy associated insensitivity to pain. In spite of these significant effects that sodium channel proteins/genes could have on human health, there is no publicly available resource focused on sodium channels that would support exploration of the sodium channel related information. Results We report here Dragon Database for Exploration of Sodium Channels in Human (DDESC), which provides comprehensive information related to sodium channels regarding different entities, such as "genes and proteins", "metabolites and enzymes", "toxins", "chemicals with pharmacological effects", "disease concepts", "human anatomy", "pathways and pathway reactions" and their potential links. DDESC is compiled based on text- and data-mining. It allows users to explore potential associations between different entities related to sodium channels in human, as well as to automatically generate novel hypotheses. Conclusion DDESC is first publicly available resource where the information related to sodium channels in human can be explored at different levels. This database is freely accessible for academic and non-profit users via the worldwide web http://apps.sanbi.ac.za/ddesc.

Abstract Background About 5% of western populations are afflicted by autoimmune diseases many of which are affected by sex hormones. Autoimmune diseases are complex and involve many genes. Identifying these disease-associated genes contributes to development of more effective therapies. Also, association studies frequently imply genomic regions that contain disease-associated genes but fall short of pinpointing these genes. The identification of disease-associated genes has always been challenging and to date there is no universal and effective method developed. Results We have developed a method to prioritize disease-associated genes for diseases affected strongly by sex hormones. Our method uses various types of information available for the genes, but no information that directly links genes with the disease. It generates a score for each of the considered genes and ranks genes based on that score. We illustrate our method on early-onset myasthenia gravis (MG) using genes potentially controlled by estrogen and localized in a genomic segment (which contains the MHC and surrounding region) strongly associated with MG. Based on the considered genomic segment 283 genes are ranked for their relevance to MG and responsiveness to estrogen. The top three ranked genes, HLA-G, TAP2 and HLA-DRB1, are implicated in autoimmune diseases, while TAP2 is associated with SNPs characteristic for MG. Within the top 35 prioritized genes our method identifies 90% of the 10 already known MG-associated genes from the considered region without using any information that directly links genes to MG. Among the top eight genes we identified HLA-G and TUBB as new candidates. We show that our ab-initio approach outperforms the other methods for prioritizing disease-associated genes. Conclusion We have developed a method to prioritize disease-associated genes under the potential control of sex hormones. We demonstrate the success of this method by prioritizing the genes localized in the MHC and surrounding region and evaluating the role of these genes as potential candidates for estrogen control as well as MG. We show that our method outperforms the other methods. The method has a potential to be adapted to prioritize genes relevant to other diseases.

Abstract Background Fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS) is a serious global health problem and is observed at high frequencies in certain South African communities. Although in utero alcohol exposure is the primary trigger, there is evidence for genetic- and other susceptibility factors in FAS development. No genome-wide association or linkage studies have been performed for FAS, making computational selection and -prioritization of candidate disease genes an attractive approach. Results 10174 Candidate genes were initially selected from the whole genome using a previously described method, which selects candidate genes according to their expression in disease-affected tissues. Hereafter candidates were prioritized for experimental investigation by investigating criteria pertinent to FAS and binary filtering. 29 Criteria were assessed by mining various database sources to populate criteria-specific gene lists. Candidate genes were then prioritized for experimental investigation using a binary system that assessed the criteria gene lists against the candidate list, and candidate genes were scored accordingly. A group of 87 genes was prioritized as candidates and for future experimental validation. The validity of the binary prioritization method was assessed by investigating the protein-protein interactions, functional enrichment and common promoter element binding sites of the top-ranked genes. Conclusion This analysis highlighted a list of strong candidate genes from the TGF-β, MAPK and Hedgehog signalling pathways, which are all integral to fetal development and potential targets for alcohol's teratogenic effect. We conclude that this novel bioinformatics approach effectively prioritizes credible candidate genes for further experimental analysis.

Abstract Background Plants respond to low temperature through an intricately coordinated transcriptional network. The CBF/DREB-regulated network of genes has been shown to play a prominent role in freeze-tolerance of Arabidopsis through the process of cold acclimation (CA). Recent evidence also showed that the CBF/DREB regulon is not unique to CA but evolutionarily conserved between chilling-insensitive (temperate) and chilling-sensitive (warm-season) plants. In this study, the wide contrast in chilling sensitivity between indica and japonica rice was used as model to identify other regulatory clusters by integrative analysis of promoter architecture (ab initio) and gene expression profiles. Results Transcriptome analysis in chilling tolerant japonica rice identified a subset of 121 'early response' genes that were upregulated during the initial 24 hours at 10°C. Among this group were four transcription factors including ROS-bZIP1 and another larger sub-group with a common feature of having as1/ocs-like elements in their promoters. Cold-induction of ROS-bZIP1 preceded the induction of as1/ocs-like element-containing genes and they were also induced by exogenous H2O2 at ambient temperature. Coordinated expression patterns and similar promoter architectures among the 'early response' genes suggest that they belong to a potential regulon (ROS-bZIP – as1/ocs regulatory module) that responds to elevated levels of ROS during chilling stress. Cultivar-specific expression signatures of the candidate genes indicate a positive correlation between the activity of the putative regulon and genotypic variation in chilling tolerance. Conclusion A hypothetical model of an ROS-mediated regulon (ROS-bZIP – as1/ocs) triggered by chilling stress was assembled in rice. Based on the current results, it appears that this regulon is independent of ABA and CBF/DREB, and that its activation has an important contribution in configuring the rapid responses of rice seedlings to chilling stress.

An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via a link at the top of the paper.

Plant growth-promoting bacteria (PGPB) are known to increase plant tolerance to several abiotic stresses, specifically those from dry and salty environments. In this study, we examined the endophyte bacterial community of five plant species growing in the Thar desert of Pakistan. Among a total of 368 culturable isolates, 58 Bacillus strains were identified from which the 16 most divergent strains were characterized for salt and heat stress resilience as well as antimicrobial and plant growth-promoting (PGP) activities. When the 16 Bacillus strains were tested on the non-host plant Arabidopsis thaliana, B. cereus PK6-15, B. subtilis PK5-26 and B. circulans PK3-109 significantly enhanced plant growth under salt stress conditions, doubling fresh weight levels when compared to uninoculated plants. B. circulans PK3-15 and PK3-109 did not promote plant growth under normal conditions, but increased plant fresh weight by more than 50% when compared to uninoculated plants under salt stress conditions, suggesting that these salt tolerant Bacillus strains exhibit PGP traits only in the presence of salt. Our data indicate that the collection of 58 plant endophytic Bacillus strains represents an important genomic resource to decipher plant growth promotion at the molecular level.

Genetic variants underlying complex traits, including disease susceptibility, are enriched within the transcriptional regulatory elements, promoters and enhancers. There is emerging evidence that regulatory elements associated with particular traits or diseases share similar patterns of transcriptional activity. Accordingly, shared transcriptional activity (coexpression) may help prioritise loci associated with a given trait, and help to identify underlying biological processes. Using cap analysis of gene expression (CAGE) profiles of promoter- and enhancer-derived RNAs across 1824 human samples, we have analysed coexpression of RNAs originating from trait-associated regulatory regions using a novel quantitative method (network density analysis; NDA). For most traits studied, phenotype-associated variants in regulatory regions were linked to tightly-coexpressed networks that are likely to share important functional characteristics. Coexpression provides a new signal, independent of phenotype association, to enable fine mapping of causative variants. The NDA coexpression approach identifies new genetic variants associated with specific traits, including an association between the regulation of the OCT1 cation transporter and genetic variants underlying circulating cholesterol levels. NDA strongly implicates particular cell types and tissues in disease pathogenesis. For example, distinct groupings of disease-associated regulatory regions implicate two distinct biological processes in the pathogenesis of ulcerative colitis; a further two separate processes are implicated in Crohn's disease. Thus, our functional analysis of genetic predisposition to disease defines new distinct disease endotypes. We predict that patients with a preponderance of susceptibility variants in each group are likely to respond differently to pharmacological therapy. Together, these findings enable a deeper biological understanding of the causal basis of complex traits.