基于位置关联权重矩阵及DNA结构信息预测人类剪接位点

人类剪接位点的识别是当前研究的一个重要课题.根据人类剪接位点附近区域的保守性,以位置关联权重矩阵及DNA结构信息作为特征输入参数,应用支持向量机(SVM)对人类基因组中的供体端和受体端剪接位点做了预测.对于供体端,5-fold交叉检验总体预测精度为92.55%,3-way data split检验总体预测精度为92.25%;受体端5-fold交叉检验总体预测精度为90.70%,3-way data split检验总体预测精度为89.87%.     

真核生物内含子数据库统计规律研究

根据GenBank的序列数据,构建了真核生物内含子数据库(EID).对EID统计规律的研究表明,数据库共有103 848个基因,478 484个内含子,582 332个外显子,平均每个基因有4.61个内含子,5.61个外显子,内含子长度为40～120个核苷酸的最多.对人、大鼠、小鼠、鸡、果蝇、线虫、拟南芥、玉米和裂殖酵母等9种模式生物的数据的统计分析表明,在真核生物中,并不是生物越高等,基因中的内含子数或外显子数就越大.进一步,对各种模式生物的基因组大小与内含子比例及内含子密度的关系、内含子相位、内含子剪接位点等特征进行了统计研究.     

新型T+1断裂蛋白质内含子的构建

首次从天然C端外显子为苏氨酸(Thr)的标准蛋白质内含子(TerSnf2)构建出两类T+1型断裂蛋白质内含子:Snf-S0和Snf-S1,通过蛋白印迹法测定Snf-S0和Snf-S1介导的蛋白质反式剪接效率分别达到53.5%和33.3%;当这两类断裂蛋白质内含子C端外显子分别为半胱氨酸(Cys)和丝氨酸(Ser)时均具有剪接活性.所获的两类具有剪接活性的T+1型断裂蛋白质内含子具备一定的插入位点通用性,这一特点为蛋白质反式剪接技术在蛋白质工程领域广泛应用提供了新的契机.     

一种基于综合信息的剪接位点识别方法

为提高剪接位点识别的精度,提出一种基于综合信息的剪接位点识别方法.通过分析供体位点与受体位点的剪接信号、剪接序列、位点附近序列的二级结构,以及剪接因子作用过程等特征,分别为供体位点与受体位点建立信号模型和序列模型;应用Vienna软件中的Mfold包预测每个剪接位点附近序列最稳定的二级结构,将传统的四字符核酸表转化为八字符核酸表,每个序列用八字符进行描述,用结合了结构信息的序列对信号模型和序列模型进行训练学习;最后用训练好的模型进行剪接位点的识别.实验结果证明:该方法对剪接位点的识别取得了很好的效果,其识别精度可达95%以上.     

人转铁蛋白基因的克隆及序列分析

目的:克隆人转铁蛋白基因并对其编码序列进行分析.方法:以人胎肝cDNA为模板,利用PCR方法克隆人转铁蛋白基因;通过与基因组序列对比分析基因组结构;通过TargetP 1.1和SignalP 3.0预测信号肽;通过Clustal X(1.81)进行蛋白序列联配.结果:PCR扩增了一个长2 160 bp的基因片断,序列分析表明其覆盖了完整编码框,编码由698个氨基酸组成的人转铁蛋白.进一步分析发现人转铁蛋白基因有19个外显子和18个内含子,编码人转铁蛋白N端具有19个氨基酸组成的信号肽序列.人转铁蛋白与猩猩、猴子、兔子和老鼠的转铁蛋白氨基酸相似率分别为94%、91%、78%、73%.生物信息分析表明,人转铁蛋白含有高度保守的参与蛋白二硫键形成的半胱氨酸以及铁离子结合位点,有两个序列较同源的结构域.结论:成功克隆人转铁蛋白基因,人转铁蛋白与其它物种转铁蛋白同源.     

模式生物基因序列的识别

真核生物的全基因组序列可分为三种:外显子、内含子和基因间序列.基于剪切位点附近序列的保守性,序列的组分特征和编码序列阅读框存在三周期性,三种序列的标准离散源由序列上64个三联体的概率和5′端与3′尾剪切位点附近(共30位点)上4个碱基的概率,共184个参数构成.某条序列的类型就可以由该序列的离散量与上面三个标准离散源的离散量之间的离散增量最小值决定.当标准离散源具有184个信息参数时预测率比64参数预测的成功率至少提高4.61%,前者的预测成功率依次如下:线虫88.37%,酵母菌90.72%,拟南芥91.08%,果蝇92.28%,大肠杆菌92.88%.对预测成功的和错误的两类序列进行比较,发现这些预测错误序列的184个参数值与其预测结果所属的那类序列本身的参数值十分类似.     

基于序列信息理论预测线虫基因选择性剪切位点

基因的选择性剪切使得在DNA上一段相同的序列翻译成多个不同的蛋白质序列.选择性剪切的出现把剪切位点分为选择性供体位点、组成性供体位点、选择性受体位点和组成性受体位点.基于EBI中的线虫基因选择性剪切位点数据库,选取不同位点的单碱基频率和序列片段的三联体频数作为参数,利用位置权重矩阵和离散增量结合支持向量机,对选择性剪切位点进行了理论预测.对选择性供体位点和选择性受体位点的预测成功率分别为63.78%和72.63%,特异性分别为68.02%和83.96%.     

广东汉族人群LDL受体基因PvuⅡ多态性位点的研究

建立了ＬＤＬ受体基因内含子１５ｐｖｕⅡ多态性位点的ＰＣＲ－ＲＦＬＰ技术．利用该技术从人类外周血基因组ＤＮＡ中分离到一个长为０．８１ｋｂ的片段,核酸序列测定证明分离的片段是ＬＤＬ受体基因内含子１５．对广东汉族人群内含子１５的ＰｖｕⅡ位点多态性状况进行了研究,实验显示：广东汉族人群ＬＤＬ受体基因中存在着ＰｖｕⅡ多态性位点;２１２个ＬＤＬ受体等位基因ＰｖｕⅡ酶切位点出现的频率为０．１６,说明ＰｖｕⅡ多态性位点可以作为广东人群的遗传标记．     

人类基因组非冗余Exon/Intron数据库的构建

以Homo.sapiensRefSeq作为原始数据库来构建EID(Exon/Intron Database)可以克服GenBank所带来的冗余问题.通过分析RefSeq基因组数据库中每个CDS(Coding Sequence,编码序列),获得构建EID的相关的数据(基因的定义、基因标识符、基因序列、蛋白质标识符、蛋白质序列、外显子和内含子的数量、大小、总数、非翻译区(UTR)内含子、内含子相位、内含子剪切位点模式).结果表明,人类24条染色体(22条常染色体和2条性染色体,共计2 870 827355 bps)中含有32 157个基因标识符(gene blocks),其中7 398个基因为假基因,4 014个基因发生了可变剪切(Al-ternative Splicing,AS),15 533个基因含有CDS内含子,765个基因含有UTR内含子,2 585个基因不含有内含子,其他的为异常基因.     

基于CDS..join特征域的Exon/Intron数据库的构建

基因进化的研究和重构通常是在序列水平上进行的，包括比对它们的遗传序列或蛋白序列。而对基因外显子/内含子结构的分析能够提供更多有价值的信息，比如绘制更为可靠的系统发生图谱，或更精确地阐明内含子的进化。为此，本文设计了相应的Perl脚本程序来提取、比较和搜索基因说明文档中CDS..join特征域的Exon/Intron结构。通过该方法，可构建相关物种的Exon/Intron数据库（EID），其主要内容包括内含子的相位，Exon或Intron的数量、大小，剪接位点的模式以及选择性剪接（Alternative splicing, AS）的相关信息。     

A role for branchpoints in splicing in vivo

The nucleotides immediately surrounding intron/exon junctions of genes transcribed by RNA polymerase B can be derived from 'consensus' sequences for donor and acceptor splice sites by only a few base changes. Studies in vivo have underlined the importance of these junction nucleotides for splicing. In higher eukaryotes, no evidence has been found for specific internal intron sequences involved in splicing. However, the recent discovery that, in vitro, introns are excised in a lariat form where the 5' end of the intron is joined via a 2'-5'-phosphodiester linkage to an A residue (branchpoint acceptor) close to the 3' end of the intron, suggests that internal intron sequences may nonetheless be important for splicing. Indeed, in yeast nuclear genes, the internal sequence 5'-TACTAAC-3' (or close homologue) is essential for splicing in vivo. A proposed consensus sequence for branchpoints in mammalian introns is 5'-CT(A/G)A(C/T)-3'. This sequence resembles the essential yeast internal sequence. Are branchpoints involved in the splicing of introns of higher eukaryotes in vivo? We show here that a branchpoint sequence from a human globin gene (5'-CTGACTCTCTCTG-3') greatly enhances the efficiency of splicing of a 'synthetic' intron in HeLa cells. A mutated branchpoint sequence, 5'-CTCCTCTCTCTG-3', in which the branchpoint acceptor nucleotide A has been deleted and the neighbouring purine G mutated to a C, does not exhibit this enhancing capability. We conclude that branchpoints have an important function in the splicing process in vivo.     

Correction of RNA aberrant splice increases foreign gene expression in transgenic mice

Transgenic mice with mammary gland secreting human granulocyte colony stimulating factor (G-CSF) were produced using mice whey acid protein gene promoter. It was found that there was very low expression level in mammary gland. Human G-CSF cDNA was obtained by RT-PCR from transgenic mice mammary gland. Sequence analysis showed that this G-CSF gene deleted the 4th exon, and compared with human G-CSF genomic DNA, there were donor and acceptor splice sites in the deletion fragment. It was considered that the 3rd and 4th introns also delete in G-CSF fragment. The transgenic construct was corrected by deleting the 3rd and 4th introns to construct the minigene, which was used to produce transgenic mice by microinjection. Northern blot showed that G-CSF expression using the new construct increased 5.4 times as that before in transgenic mice. The results suggested that it was possible that RNA aberrant splice result in low expression in transgenic mice.     

Are vertebrate exons scanned during splice-site selection?

Pairwise recognition of splice sites as a result of a scanning mechanism is an attractive model to explain the coordination of vertebrate splicing. Such a mechanism would predict a polarity-of-site recognition in the scanned unit, but no evidence for a polarity gradient across introns has been found. We have suggested that the exon rather than the intron is the unit of recognition in vertebrates and that polyadenylation and splicing factors interact during recognition of 3'-terminal exons. Interaction is reflected in maximal rates of in vitro polyadenylation. If scanning across the exon is operating during this interaction, then insertion of a 5' splice site should depress polyadenylation. Here we report recognition in vitro and in vivo of a 5' splice site situated within a 3'-terminal exon, and a concomitant depression of polyadenylation and ultraviolet crosslinking of a polyadenylation factor. Decreased crosslinking was only found when the 3' and 5' splice sites were within 300 nucleotides of each other. These results are consistent with an exon scanning mechanism for splice-site selection.     

模式生物的外显子、内含子和基因间序列的识别

基于核酸序列在剪切位点上保守性、组分的不同和编码序列阅读框架的3周期性,模式生物全基因组序列分为外显子、内含子和基因间序列三类.三个标准离散源分别由64个三联体在整条序列上的概率和4个碱基序列首尾(剪切位点附近)共30个位点上的概率共同构成.某条序列的类型就由该序列的离散量同相应区间上三个标准离散量的离散增量确定.结果表明:具有184个信号参数的离散量预测比只有64个三联体参数的结果要高出5%,总体预测成功率:线虫为87.37%,拟南芥为91.08%,果蝇为92.28%,原核生物大肠杆菌的二种序列预测率为92.88%,酵母菌为94.88%.     

Translational control of intron splicing in eukaryotes

Most eukaryotic genes are interrupted by non-coding introns that must be accurately removed from pre-messenger RNAs to produce translatable mRNAs. Splicing is guided locally by short conserved sequences, but genes typically contain many potential splice sites, and the mechanisms specifying the correct sites remain poorly understood. In most organisms, short introns recognized by the intron definition mechanism cannot be efficiently predicted solely on the basis of sequence motifs. In multicellular eukaryotes, long introns are recognized through exon definition and most genes produce multiple mRNA variants through alternative splicing. The nonsense-mediated mRNA decay (NMD) pathway may further shape the observed sets of variants by selectively degrading those containing premature termination codons, which are frequently produced in mammals. Here we show that the tiny introns of the ciliate Paramecium tetraurelia are under strong selective pressure to cause premature termination of mRNA translation in the event of intron retention, and that the same bias is observed among the short introns of plants, fungi and animals. By knocking down the two P. tetraurelia genes encoding UPF1, a protein that is crucial in NMD, we show that the intrinsic efficiency of splicing varies widely among introns and that NMD activity can significantly reduce the fraction of unspliced mRNAs. The results suggest that, independently of alternative splicing, species with large intron numbers universally rely on NMD to compensate for suboptimal splicing efficiency and accuracy.     

Construction of chimaeric processed immunoglobulin genes containing mouse variable and human constant region sequences

The specificity of monoclonal antibodies provides a powerful diagnostic and therapeutic tool in investigating human neoplasia. Radiological scanning and immunotherapy with mouse tumour-specific monoclonal antibodies have been applied to patients with some success, but a major problem is the neutralization of the mouse antibody induced by repeated administration of heterologous antibodies. To avoid or reduce such immune reactions, chimaeric immunoglobulins consisting of mouse variable (V) and human constant (C) regions can be synthesized. We have constructed a recombinant retrovirus DNA carrying genomic heavy-chain (H) variable-diversity joining (VH-D-JH) and C gamma 1 genes from different species and show here that the chimaeric intervening sequences are spliced out precisely. This procedure provides a useful method to construct the chimaeric mouse-human immunoglobulin gene to be expressed in Escherichia coli, yeast and animal cells. Unexpectedly, a hidden splice donor site in the 5'-flanking region of a human VH gene is used in place of the donor site of the leader sequence exon, resulting in the formation of the V region without the leader sequence.