RESUMO
Genome-wide epistasis analysis is a powerful tool to infer gene interactions, which can guide drug and vaccine development and lead to deeper understanding of microbial pathogenesis. We have considered all complete severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) genomes deposited in the Global Initiative on Sharing All Influenza Data (GISAID) repository until four different cutoff dates, and used direct coupling analysis together with an assumption of quasi-linkage equilibrium to infer epistatic contributions to fitness from polymorphic loci. We find eight interactions, of which three are between pairs where one locus lies in gene ORF3a, both loci holding nonsynonymous mutations. We also find interactions between two loci in gene nsp13, both holding nonsynonymous mutations, and four interactions involving one locus holding a synonymous mutation. Altogether, we infer interactions between loci in viral genes ORF3a and nsp2, nsp12, and nsp6, between ORF8 and nsp4, and between loci in genes nsp2, nsp13, and nsp14. The paper opens the prospect to use prominent epistatically linked pairs as a starting point to search for combinatorial weaknesses of recombinant viral pathogens.
Assuntos
Epistasia Genética/genética , Genes Virais/genética , SARS-CoV-2/genética , COVID-19/patologia , Proteínas do Nucleocapsídeo de Coronavírus/genética , RNA-Polimerase RNA-Dependente de Coronavírus/genética , Exorribonucleases/genética , Genoma Viral/genética , Humanos , Metiltransferases/genética , RNA Helicases/genética , Seleção Genética/genética , Proteínas não Estruturais Virais/genética , Proteínas Virais/genética , Proteínas Viroporinas/genéticaRESUMO
Coevolution-based contact prediction, either directly by coevolutionary couplings resulting from global statistical sequence models or using structural supervision and deep learning, has found widespread application in protein-structure prediction from sequence. However, one of the basic assumptions in global statistical modeling is that sequences form an at least approximately independent sample of an unknown probability distribution, which is to be learned from data. In the case of protein families, this assumption is obviously violated by phylogenetic relations between protein sequences. It has turned out to be notoriously difficult to take phylogenetic correlations into account in coevolutionary model learning. Here, we propose a complementary approach: we develop strategies to randomize or resample sequence data, such that conservation patterns and phylogenetic relations are preserved, while intrinsic (i.e. structure- or function-based) coevolutionary couplings are removed. A comparison between the results of Direct Coupling Analysis applied to real and to resampled data shows that the largest coevolutionary couplings, i.e. those used for contact prediction, are only weakly influenced by phylogeny. However, the phylogeny-induced spurious couplings in the resampled data are compatible in size with the first false-positive contact predictions from real data. Dissecting functional from phylogeny-induced couplings might therefore extend accurate contact predictions to the range of intermediate-size couplings.
Assuntos
Evolução Molecular , Filogenia , Proteínas/química , Algoritmos , Biologia Computacional/métodos , Conformação Proteica , Alinhamento de SequênciaRESUMO
The stacking problem is approached by computational mechanics, using an Ising next-nearest-neighbour model. Computational mechanics allows one to treat the stacking arrangement as an information processing system in the light of a symbol-generating process. A general method for solving the stochastic matrix of the random Gibbs field is presented and then applied to the problem at hand. The corresponding phase diagram is then discussed in terms of the underlying â-machine, or optimal finite-state machine. The occurrence of higher-order polytypes at the borders of the phase diagram is also analysed. The applicability of the model to real systems such as ZnS and cobalt is discussed. The method derived is directly generalizable to any one-dimensional model with finite-range interaction.
RESUMO
This is the second contribution in a series of papers dealing with dynamical models in equilibrium theories of polytypism. A Hamiltonian introduced by Ahmad & Khan [Phys. Status Solidi B (2000), 218, 425-430] avoids the unphysical assignment of interaction terms to fictitious entities given by spins in the Hägg coding of the stacking arrangement. In this paper an analysis of polytype generation and disorder in close-packed structures is made for such a Hamiltonian. Results are compared with a previous analysis using the Ising model. Computational mechanics is the framework under which the analysis is performed. The competing effects of disorder and structure, as given by entropy density and excess entropy, respectively, are discussed. It is argued that the Ahmad & Khan model is simpler and predicts a larger set of polytypes than previous treatments.