Genome duplication in the teleost fish Tetraodon nigroviridis reveals the early vertebrate proto-karyotype.

Tetraodon nigroviridis is a freshwater puffer fish with the smallest known vertebrate genome. Here, we report a draft genome sequence with long-range linkage and substantial anchoring to the 21 Tetraodon chromosomes. Genome analysis provides a greatly improved fish gene catalogue, including identifying key genes previously thought to be absent in fish. Comparison with other vertebrates and a urochordate indicates that fish proteins have diverged markedly faster than their mammalian homologues. Comparison with the human genome suggests approximately 900 previously unannotated human genes. Analysis of the Tetraodon and human genomes shows that whole-genome duplication occurred in the teleost fish lineage, subsequent to its divergence from mammals. The analysis also makes it possible to infer the basic structure of the ancestral bony vertebrate genome, which was composed of 12 chromosomes, and to reconstruct much of the evolutionary history of ancient and recent chromosome rearrangements leading to the modern human karyotype.

A complete collection of single-gene deletion mutants of Acinetobacter baylyi ADP1.

We have constructed a collection of single-gene deletion mutants for all dispensable genes of the soil bacterium Acinetobacter baylyi ADP1. A total of 2594 deletion mutants were obtained, whereas 499 (16%) were not, and are therefore candidate essential genes for life on minimal medium. This essentiality data set is 88% consistent with the Escherichia coli data set inferred from the Keio mutant collection profiled for growth on minimal medium, while 80% of the orthologous genes described as essential in Pseudomonas aeruginosa are also essential in ADP1. Several strategies were undertaken to investigate ADP1 metabolism by (1) searching for discrepancies between our essentiality data and current metabolic knowledge, (2) comparing this essentiality data set to those from other organisms, (3) systematic phenotyping of the mutant collection on a variety of carbon sources (quinate, 2-3 butanediol, glucose, etc.). This collection provides a new resource for the study of gene function by forward and reverse genetic approaches and constitutes a robust experimental data source for systems biology approaches.

Novel metabolic features in Acinetobacter baylyi ADP1 revealed by a multiomics approach.

Expansive knowledge of bacterial metabolism has been gained from genome sequencing output, but the high proportion of genes lacking a proper functional annotation in a given genome still impedes the accurate prediction of the metabolism of a cell. To access to a more global view of the functioning of the soil bacterium Acinetobacter baylyi ADP1, we adopted a multi 'omics' approach. Application of RNA-seq transcriptomics and LC/MS-based metabolomics, along with the systematic phenotyping of the complete collection of single-gene deletion mutants of A. baylyi ADP1 made possible to interrogate on the metabolic perturbations encountered by the bacterium upon a biotic change. Shifting the sole carbon source from succinate to quinate elicited in the cell not only a specific transcriptional response, necessary to catabolize the new carbon source, but also a major reorganization of the transcription pattern. Here, the expression of more than 12 % of the total number of genes was affected, most of them being of unknown function. These perturbations were ultimately reflected in the metabolome, in which the concentration of about 50 % of the LC/MS-detected metabolites was impacted. And the differential regulation of many genes of unknown function is probably related to the synthesis of the numerous unidentified compounds that were present exclusively in quinate-grown cells. Together, these data suggest that A. baylyi ADP1 metabolism involves unsuspected enzymatic reactions that await discovery.

A tribute to disorder in the genome of the bloom-forming freshwater cyanobacterium Microcystis aeruginosa.

Microcystis aeruginosa is one of the most common bloom-forming cyanobacteria in freshwater ecosystems worldwide. This species produces numerous secondary metabolites, including microcystins, which are harmful to human health. We sequenced the genomes of ten strains of M. aeruginosa in order to explore the genomic basis of their ability to occupy varied environments and proliferate. Our findings show that M. aeruginosa genomes are characterized by having a large open pangenome, and that each genome contains similar proportions of core and flexible genes. By comparing the GC content of each gene to the mean value of the whole genome, we estimated that in each genome, around 11% of the genes seem to result from recent horizontal gene transfer events. Moreover, several large gene clusters resulting from HGT (up to 19 kb) have been found, illustrating the ability of this species to integrate such large DNA molecules. It appeared also that all M. aeruginosa displays a large genomic plasticity, which is characterized by a high proportion of repeat sequences and by low synteny values between the strains. Finally, we identified 13 secondary metabolite gene clusters, including three new putative clusters. When comparing the genomes of Microcystis and Prochlorococcus, one of the dominant picocyanobacteria living in marine ecosystems, our findings show that they are characterized by having almost opposite evolutionary strategies, both of which have led to ecological success in their respective environments.

ASEtrap: a biological method for speeding up the exploration of spliceomes.

Alternative splicing (AS) of pre-messenger RNA is a major mechanism for generating protein diversity from a limited number of genes in higher eukaryotes, and it constitutes a central mode of genetic regulation. Thus, efficient methods are needed to systematically identify new AS events at a genomic scale across different tissues, stages of development, and physiological or pathological conditions in order to better understand gene expression. To fulfill this goal, we have designed the ASEtrap, which is a cloning procedure for producing AS libraries that is based on a single-stranded trap consisting of an ssDNA-binding protein. In this paper, we have applied our approach to the construction of an AS library and a Control library from human placenta. By analyzing 9226 and 9999 sequences of the AS and Control libraries, respectively, we show that internal AS events (events that can be identified by the sole resources provided by either the AS or the Control library) and the discovery rate of new AS events measured at early stages of sequencing were nine to 10 times higher in the former than in the latter. Moreover, by performing a search for new AS events within a group of 162 known drug target genes, we identified six new events in six genes, and we observed that they all were discovered exclusively through the AS library. Thus, it appears that ASEtrap has the potential to greatly facilitate the determination of the total complement of splice variants expressed in human, as well as other organisms.

Numerous novel annotations of the human genome sequence supported by a 5'-end-enriched cDNA collection.

A collection of 90,000 human cDNA clones generated to increase the fraction of "full-length" cDNAs available was analyzed by sequence alignment on the human genome assembly. Five hundred fifty-two gene models not found in LocusLink, with coding regions of at least 300 bp, were defined by using this collection. Exon composition proposed for novel genes showed an average of 4.7 exons per gene. In 20% of the cases, at least half of the exons predicted for new genes coincided with evolutionary conserved regions defined by sequence comparisons with the pufferfish Tetraodon nigroviridis. Among this subset, CpG islands were observed at the 5' end of 75%. In-frame stop codons upstream of the initiator ATG were present in 49% of the new genes, and 16% contained a coding region comprising at least 50% of the cDNA sequence. This cDNA resource also provided candidate small protein-coding genes, usually not included in genome annotations. In addition, analysis of a sample from this cDNA collection indicates that approximately 380 gene models described in LocusLink could be extended at their 5' end by at least one new exon. Finally, this cDNA resource provided an experimental support for annotations based exclusively on predictions, thus representing a resource substantially improving the human genome annotation.

Whole genome sequence comparisons and "full-length" cDNA sequences: a combined approach to evaluate and improve Arabidopsis genome annotation.

To evaluate the existing annotation of the Arabidopsis genome further, we generated a collection of evolutionary conserved regions (ecores) between Arabidopsis and rice. The ecore analysis provides evidence that the gene catalog of Arabidopsis is not yet complete, and that a number of these annotations require re-examination. To improve the Arabidopsis genome annotation further, we used a novel "full-length" enriched cDNA collection prepared from several tissues. An additional 1931 genes were covered by new "full-length" cDNA sequences, raising the number of annotated genes with a corresponding "full-length" cDNA sequence to about 14,000. Detailed comparisons between these "full-length" cDNA sequences and annotated genes show that this resource is very helpful in determining the correct structure of genes, in particular, those not yet supported by "full-length" cDNAs. In addition, a total of 326 genomic regions not included previously in the Arabidopsis genome annotation were detected by this cDNA resource, providing clues for new gene discovery. Because, as expected, the two data sets only partially overlap, their combination produces very useful information for improving the Arabidopsis genome annotation.