Identification of novel modifiers of Aß toxicity by transcriptomic analysis in the fruitfly.

The strongest risk factor for developing Alzheimer's Disease (AD) is age. Here, we study the relationship between ageing and AD using a systems biology approach that employs a Drosophila (fruitfly) model of AD in which the flies overexpress the human Aß42 peptide. We identified 712 genes that are differentially expressed between control and Aß-expressing flies. We further divided these genes according to how they change over the animal's lifetime and discovered that the AD-related gene expression signature is age-independent. We have identified a number of differentially expressed pathways that are likely to play an important role in the disease, including oxidative stress and innate immunity. In particular, we uncovered two new modifiers of the Aß phenotype, namely Sod3 and PGRP-SC1b.

Global gene expression in recombinant and non-recombinant yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae in three different metabolic states.

Global gene expression of two strains of Saccharomyces cerevisiae, one recombinant (P+), accumulating large amounts of an intracellular protein Superoxide Dismutase (SOD) and one non-recombinant (P-) which does not contain the recombinant plasmid, were compared in batch culture during diauxic growth when cells were growing exponentially on glucose, when they were growing exponentially on ethanol, and in the early stationary phase when glycerol was being utilized. When comparing the gene expression for P- (and P+) during growth on ethanol to that on glucose (Eth/Gluc), overexpression is related to an increase in consumption of glycerol, activation of the TCA cycle, degradation of glycogen and metabolism of ethanol. Furthermore, 97.6% of genes (80 genes) involved in the central metabolic pathway are overexpressed. This is similar to that observed by DeRisi et al. [DeRisi, J.L., Iyer, V.R. & Brown, P.O. 1997. Exploring the metabolic and genetic control of gene expression on a genomic scale. Science 278:680-686.] but very different from was observed for Metabolic Flux Analysis (MFA), where the specific growth rate is lowered to ca. 40%, the fluxes in the TCA cycle are reduced to ca. 40% (to 30% in P+), glycolysis is reduced to virtually 0 and protein synthesis to ca. 50% (to 40% in P+). Clearly it is not possible to correlate in a simple or direct way, quantitative mRNA expression levels with cell function which is shown by the Metabolic Flux Analysis (MFA). When comparing the two strains in the 3 growth stages, 4 genes were found to be under or overexpressed in all cases. The products of all of these genes are expressed at the plasma membrane or cell wall of the yeast. While comparing the strains (P+/P-) when growing on glucose, ethanol and in the early stationary phase, many of the genes of the central metabolic pathways are underexpressed in P+, which is similar to the behaviour of the metabolic fluxes of both strains (MFA). Comparing the gene expression for P- (and to some extent P+) during the early stationary phase to growth on ethanol (Stat/Eth), underexpression is generalized. This shows that the switch in metabolism between ethanol and early stationary phases has an almost instantaneous effect on gene expression but a much more retarded effect on metabolic fluxes and that the "early stationary" phase represents a "late ethanol" phase from the metabolic analysis point of view since ethanol is still present and being consumed although at a much slower rate.

Production of recombinant human erythropoietin from Pichia pastoris and its structural analysis.

AIMS: To design and investigate a recombinant expression system producing a therapeutically important glycoprotein, human erythropoietin (rHuEPO), by Pichia pastoris. METHODS AND RESULTS: EPO cDNA was cloned into pPICZalphaA for expression under control of AOX1 promoter and fused, on the amino-terminal end, with a polyhistidine tag for rapid purification. A target site for factor Xa protease was also introduced, such that cleavage in vitro produced a mature form of rHuEPO having the native N- and C-termini. RHuEPO was characterized as to the extent and nature of N-linked glycosylation using matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry and western blotting. The rHuEPO produced was approximately 30 kDa. All three N-linked glycosylation sites were occupied dominantly by Man(17)(GlcNAc)(2). N-glycanase-treated rHuEPO purified but not digested with factor-Xa-protease, showed a spectral peak centered about m/z 20400 Da. CONCLUSIONS: The native polypeptide form of human EPO (c. 18 kDa) was obtained for the first time in P. pastoris expression system, after affinity purification, deglycosylation and factor-Xa-protease digestion. The amount of sodium dodecyl sulfate used prior to deglycosylation was found to be crucial in determining the dominant form of glycan in glycoproteins. SIGNIFICANCE AND IMPACT OF THE STUDY: The novel approaches to protein expression and purification system and structural analysis presented, would be important especially for therapeutic proteins expressed in P. pastoris.

One billion years of bZIP transcription factor evolution: conservation and change in dimerization and DNA-binding site specificity.

The genomic era has revealed that the large repertoire of observed animal phenotypes is dependent on changes in the expression patterns of a finite number of genes, which are mediated by a plethora of transcription factors (TFs) with distinct specificities. The dimerization of TFs can also increase the complexity of a genetic regulatory network manifold, by combining a small number of monomers into dimers with distinct functions. Therefore, studying the evolution of these dimerizing TFs is vital for understanding how complexity increased during animal evolution. We focus on the second largest family of dimerizing TFs, the basic-region leucine zipper (bZIP), and infer when it expanded and how bZIP DNA-binding and dimerization functions evolved during the major phases of animal evolution. Specifically, we classify the metazoan bZIPs into 19 families and confirm the ancient nature of at least 13 of these families, predating the split of the cnidaria. We observe fixation of a core dimerization network in the last common ancestor of protostomes-deuterostomes. This was followed by an expansion of the number of proteins in the network, but no major dimerization changes in interaction partners, during the emergence of vertebrates. In conclusion, the bZIPs are an excellent model with which to understand how DNA binding and protein interactions of TFs evolved during animal evolution.

Application of TOF-SIMS with chemometrics to discriminate between four different yeast strains from the species Candida glabrata and Saccharomyces cerevisiae.

We present a TOF-SIMS analysis of the cell surface differences between four yeast strains from two species, Candida glabrata and Saccharomyces cerevisiae (haploid strains BY4742 and BY4741 and the derived diploid BY4743). The study assesses the suitability of TOF-SIMS analysis in combination with statistical methods (principal component analysis, Fisher's discriminant analysis, and cluster analysis) for the discrimination between the four yeast strains. We demonstrate that a combination of these statistical methods identifies 34 ions, from a total data set of 1200, which can be used to distinguish between the four yeasts. The study discusses the assignments of surface cell membrane phospholipids for the identified ions and the resulting differences in the phospholipid pattern between the four yeasts, particularly in relation to ploidy and budding pattern. The method shows that fatty acids, phosphatidylglycerols, phosphatidylethanolamines, phosphatidylserines, and phosphatidylcholines, as well as cardiolipins, are of diagnostic importance.

CADRE: the Central Aspergillus Data REpository.

CADRE is a public resource for housing and analysing genomic data extracted from species of Aspergillus. It arose to enable maintenance of the complete annotated genomic sequence of Aspergillus fumigatus and to provide tools for searching, analysing and visualizing features of fungal genomes. By implementing CADRE using Ensembl, a framework is in place for storing and comparing several genomes: the resource will thus expand by including other Aspergillus genomes (such as Aspergillus nidulans) as they become available. CADRE is accessible at http://www.cadre. man.ac.uk.

Transcriptome profiling of a Saccharomyces cerevisiae mutant with a constitutively activated Ras/cAMP pathway.

Often changes in gene expression levels have been considered significant only when above/below some arbitrarily chosen threshold. We investigated the effect of applying a purely statistical approach to microarray analysis and demonstrated that small changes in gene expression have biological significance. Whole genome microarray analysis of a pde2Delta mutant, constructed in the Saccharomyces cerevisiae reference strain FY23, revealed altered expression of approximately 11% of protein encoding genes. The mutant, characterized by constitutive activation of the Ras/cAMP pathway, has increased sensitivity to stress, reduced ability to assimilate nonfermentable carbon sources, and some cell wall integrity defects. Applying the Munich Information Centre for Protein Sequences (MIPS) functional categories revealed increased expression of genes related to ribosome biogenesis and downregulation of genes in the cell rescue, defense, cell death and aging category, suggesting a decreased response to stress conditions. A reduced level of gene expression in the unfolded protein response pathway (UPR) was observed. Cell wall genes whose expression was affected by this mutation were also identified. Several of the cAMP-responsive orphan genes, upon further investigation, revealed cell wall functions; others had previously unidentified phenotypes assigned to them. This investigation provides a statistical global transcriptome analysis of the cellular response to constitutive activation of the Ras/cAMP pathway.

Chromatographic separations as a prelude to two-dimensional electrophoresis in proteomics analysis.

Current methods of proteome analysis rely almost solely on two-dimensional polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (2-D PAGE) followed by the excision of individual spots and protein identification using mass spectrometry (MS) and database searching. 2-D PAGE is denaturing in both dimensions and, thus, cannot indicate functional associations between individual proteins. Moreover, less abundant proteins are difficult to identify. To simplify the proteome, and explore functional associations, nondenaturing anion exchange column chromatography was used to separate a soluble protein extract from Escherichia coli. Successive fractions were then analysed using 2-D PAGE and selected spots from both the gels for the start material and the fractionated material were quantified and identified by peptide mass fingerprinting using a MALDI-TOF mass spectrometer. Enrichments of up to 13-fold were attained for individual protein spots and peptide mass fingerprints were of significantly higher quality after chromatographic separation. The marked anomalies between predicted p/and column elution position contrasted with the almost perfect correlation with migration distance on isoelectric focusing (IEF) and were explored further for basic proteins.

Transcript analysis of 1003 novel yeast genes using high-throughput northern hybridizations.

The expression of 1008 open reading frames (ORFs) from the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae has been examined under eight different physiological conditions, using classical northern analysis. These northern data have been compared with publicly available data from a microarray analysis of the diauxic transition in S.cerevisiae. The results demonstrate the importance of comparing biologically equivalent situations and of the standardization of data normalization procedures. We have also used our northern data to identify co-regulated gene clusters and define the putative target sites of transcriptional activators responsible for their control. Clusters containing genes of known function identify target sites of known activators. In contrast, clusters comprised solely of genes of unknown function usually define novel putative target sites. Finally, we have examined possible global controls on gene expression. It was discovered that ORFs that are highly expressed following a nutritional upshift tend to employ favoured codons, whereas those overexpressed in starvation conditions do not. These results are interpreted in terms of a model in which competition between mRNA molecules for translational capacity selects for codons translated by abundant tRNAs.

A new family of yeast vectors and S288C-derived strains for the systematic analysis of gene function.

The yeast genome has been shown to contain a significant number of gene families with more than three members. In order to study these families it is often necessary to generate strains carrying deletions of all members of the family, which can require a wide range of auxotrophic markers. To facilitate such studies, we have generated yeast strains containing deletions of a selection of nutritional marker genes (ade2, ade4, ade8, met3 and met14). We have also cloned the corresponding cognate genes, allowing their use in PCR-based gene disruptions. Two new pRS family Saccharomyces cerevisiae-Escherichia coli shuttle vectors containing ADE8 (one low-copy, pRS4110, and one high-copy, pRS4210) have been produced for use in conjunction with the new strains. A system for easier synthetic lethal screening using one of these new markers is also presented. The ADE8 and HIS3 genes have been cloned together on a high-copy vector (pRS4213), providing a plasmid for red-white colour screening in the ade2 Delta 0 ade8 Delta 0 strains we have generated. In contrast to some conventional systems, this plasmid allows for screening using gene libraries constructed in URA3 plasmids.

A combination of chemical derivatisation and improved bioinformatic tools optimises protein identification for proteomics.

The identification of individual protein species within an organism's proteome has been optimised by increasing the information produced from mass spectral analysis through the chemical derivatisation of tryptic peptides and the development of new software tools. Peptide fragments are subjected to two forms of derivatisation. First, lysine residues are converted to homoarginine moieties by guanidination. This procedure has two advantages, first, it usually identifies the C-terminal amino acid of the tryptic peptide and also greatly increases the total information content of the mass spectrum by improving the signal response of C-terminal lysine fragments. Second, an Edman-type phenylthiocarbamoyl (PTC) modification is carried out on the N-terminal amino acid. The renders the first peptide bond highly susceptible to cleavage during mass spectrometry (MS) analysis and consequently allows the ready identification of the N-terminal residue. The utility of the procedure has been demonstrated by developing novel bioinformatic tools to exploit the additional mass spectral data in the identification of proteome proteins from the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae. With this combination of novel chemistry and bioinformatics, it should be possible to identify unambiguously any yeast protein spot or band from either two-dimensional or one-dimensional electropheretograms.

Towards a truly integrative biology through the functional genomics of yeast.

A complete library of mutant Saccharomyces cerevisiae strains, each deleted for a single representative of yeast's 6000 protein-encoding genes, has been constructed. This represents a major biological resource for the study of eukaryotic functional genomics. However, yeast is also being used as a test-bed for the development of functional genomic technologies at all levels of analysis, including the transcriptome, proteome and metabolome.

Functional Analysis of six novel ORFs on the left arm of Chromosome XII of Saccharomyces cerevisiae reveals three of them responding to S-starvation.

Six novel Open Reading Frames (ORFs) located on the left arm of the chromosome XII (YLL061w, YLL060c, YLL059c, YLL058w, YLL057c and YLL056c) have been analysed using either short-flanking homology (SFH) or long-flanking homology (LFH) gene replacement. Sporulation and tetrad analysis showed none of these ORFs to be essential for vegetative growth. The standard EUROFAN growth tests failed to reveal any obvious phenotypes resulting from deletion of each of the ORFs. Bioinformatic analysis revealed that YLL061w is probably an amino acid permease for S-methylmethionine and that YLL060c encodes a glutathione transferase which is involved in cellular detoxification, while YLL058w may play a role in sulphur-containing amino-acid metabolism, YLL057c in sulphonate catabolism and YLL056c in stress response. The transcription of three ORFs (YLL061w, YLL057c and YLL056c) has been shown to increase more than 10-fold under sulphate starvation. Replacement cassettes, comprising the kanMX marker flanked by each ORF's promoter and terminator regions, were cloned into pUG7. All the cognate clones, were generated using direct PCR products amplified from genomic DNA or using gap-repair. All clones and strains produced have been deposited in the EUROFAN genetic stock centre (EUROSCARF, Frankfurt).

A functional genomics strategy that uses metabolome data to reveal the phenotype of silent mutations.

A large proportion of the 6,000 genes present in the genome of Saccharomyces cerevisiae, and of those sequenced in other organisms, encode proteins of unknown function. Many of these genes are "silent, " that is, they show no overt phenotype, in terms of growth rate or other fluxes, when they are deleted from the genome. We demonstrate how the intracellular concentrations of metabolites can reveal phenotypes for proteins active in metabolic regulation. Quantification of the change of several metabolite concentrations relative to the concentration change of one selected metabolite can reveal the site of action, in the metabolic network, of a silent gene. In the same way, comprehensive analyses of metabolite concentrations in mutants, providing "metabolic snapshots," can reveal functions when snapshots from strains deleted for unstudied genes are compared to those deleted for known genes. This approach to functional analysis, using comparative metabolomics, we call FANCY-an abbreviation for functional analysis by co-responses in yeast.

Sequence search algorithms for single pass sequence identification: does one size fit all?

Bioinformatic tools have become essential to biologists in their quest to understand the vast quantities of sequence data, and now whole genomes, which are being produced at an ever increasing rate. Much of these sequence data are single-pass sequences, such as sample sequences from organisms closely related to other organisms of interest which have already been sequenced, or cDNAs or expressed sequence tags (ESTs). These single-pass sequences often contain errors, including frameshifts, which complicate the identification of homologues, especially at the protein level. Therefore, sequence searches with this type of data are often performed at the nucleotide level. The most commonly used sequence search algorithms for the identification of homologues are Washington University's and the National Center for Biotechnology Information's (NCBI) versions of the BLAST suites of tools, which are to be found on websites all over the world. The work reported here examines the use of these tools for comparing sample sequence datasets to a known genome. It shows that care must be taken when choosing the parameters to use with the BLAST algorithms. NCBI's version of gapped BLASTn gives much shorter, and sometimes different, top alignments to those found using Washington University's version of BLASTn (which also allows for gaps), when both are used with their default parameters. Most of the differences in performance were found to be due to the choices of default parameters rather than underlying differences between the two algorithms. Washington University's version, used with defaults, compares very favourably with the results obtained using the accurate but computationally intensive Smith-Waterman algorithm.

Bioinformatic assessment of mass spectrometric chemical derivatisation techniques for proteome database searching.

Identification of proteins from the mass spectra of peptide fragments generated by proteolytic cleavage using database searching has become one of the most powerful techniques in proteome science, capable of rapid and efficient protein identification. Using computer simulation, we have studied how the application of chemical derivatisation techniques may improve the efficiency of protein identification from mass spectrometric data. These approaches enhance ion yield and lead to the promotion of specific ions and fragments, yielding additional database search information. The impact of three alternative techniques has been assessed by searching representative proteome databases for both single proteins and simple protein mixtures. For example, by reliably promoting fragmentation of singly-charged peptide ions at aspartic acid residues after homoarginine derivatisation, 82% of yeast proteins can be unambiguously identified from a single typical peptide-mass datum, with a measured mass accuracy of 50 ppm, by using the associated secondary ion data. The extra search information also provides a means to confidently identify proteins in protein mixtures where only limited data are available. Furthermore, the inclusion of limited sequence information for the peptides can compensate and exceed the search efficiency available via high accuracy searches of around 5 ppm, suggesting that this is a potentially useful approach for simple protein mixtures routinely obtained from two-dimensional gels.

Functional analysis of eight open reading frames on chromosomes XII and XIV of Saccharomyces cerevisiae.

Deletion, together with basic functional and bioinformatic analyses has been carried out on eight novel ORFs discovered during the sequencing of the Saccharomyces cerevisiae genome. Six ORFs (YLL049w, YLL051c, YLL052c, YLL053c, YLL054c and YLL055w) located on the left arm, and one (YLR130c) on the right arm, of chromosome XII, and an eighth ORF (YNL331c) on the left arm of the chromosome XIV, have been investigated. ORFs were deleted by the SFH-PCR gene-replacement strategy. Basic functional analysis revealed no obvious phenotype for any of the eight ORFs. Bioinformatic analysis, however, revealed possible functions for seven of the ORFs on the basis of the amino acid sequence similarity of their predicted protein products to those of proteins with known functions. ORF YLL051c (FRE6) shows similarity to iron transport proteins, such as ferric reductase. YLL052c and YLL053c appear to be aquaporins. The product of YLL054c (Yll054p) is highly similar to the oleate-specific transcriptional activator protein (Pip2p), which is involved in the peroxisomal induction pathway (pip). ORF YLL055w is similar to Dal5p, allantoate permease, and may play role in allantoin transport. YLR130c (ZRT2) is a low-affinity zinc transporter protein. YNL331c is also named AAD14, which is induced by chemicals that induce oxidative stress by depleting the cell of glutathione.

Improved matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization mass spectrometric analysis of tryptic hydrolysates of proteins following guanidination of lysine-containing peptides.

Analysis of tryptic digests of proteins using matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization (MALDI) mass spectrometry commonly results in superior detection of arginine-containing peptides compared with lysine-containing counterparts. The effect is attributable in part to the greater stability of the arginine-containing peptide ions associated with the sequestration of the single ionizing proton on the arginine side-chain. Reaction of peptides with O-methylisourea resulted in conversion of lysine to homoarginine residues with consequent improved detection during MALDI-MS. Analysis of the underivatized tryptic digest of the yeast protein, enolase, revealed peptides representing 20% of the protein; the corresponding figure after derivatization was 46%.

Conceptual modelling of genomic information.

MOTIVATION: Genome sequencing projects are making available complete records of the genetic make-up of organisms. These core data sets are themselves complex, and present challenges to those who seek to store, analyse and present the information. However, in addition to the sequence data, high throughput experiments are making available distinctive new data sets on protein interactions, the phenotypic consequences of gene deletions, and on the transcriptome, proteome, and metabolome. The effective description and management of such data is of considerable importance to bioinformatics in the post-genomic era. The provision of clear and intuitive models of complex information is surprisingly challenging, and this paper presents conceptual models for a range of important emerging information resources in bioinformatics. It is hoped that these can be of benefit to bioinformaticians as they attempt to integrate genetic and phenotypic data with that from genomic sequences, in order to both assign gene functions and elucidate the different pathways of gene action and interaction. RESULTS: This paper presents a collection of conceptual (i.e. implementation-independent) data models for genomic data. These conceptual models are amenable to (more or less direct) implementation on different computing platforms.

Exploring redundancy in the yeast genome: an improved strategy for use of the cre-loxP system.

Gene families having more than three members are a common phenomenon in the Saccharomyces cerevisiae genome. As yeast research enters the post-genome era, the development of existing deletion strategies is crucial for tackling this apparent redundancy, hence a method for performing rapid multiple gene disruptions in this organism has been developed. We constructed three replacement cassettes in which different selectable markers were placed between two loxP loci. Multiple deletions (of members of a gene family) were generated, in one strain, using sequential integration of different replacement markers (kanMX, LYS2, KlURA3 and SpHIS5). Their excision from the genome was performed simultaneously, as the final step, using a new cre recombinase vector, which carries the cycloheximide-resistance gene from Candida maltosa as a selectable marker. Our multiple gene deletion system significantly accelerates and facilitates the functional analysis process and is particularly useful for studying gene families in either laboratory or industrial yeast strains.