Complete sequence and gene organization of the mitochondrial genome of Batocera lineolata Chevrolat (Coleoptera: Cerambycidae)

Batocera lineolata Chevrolat,1852 is an important forest pest that is found mainly in China,Vietnam,India,and Japan.The complete mitochondrial genome(mitogenome) sequence of B.lineolata was determined by long polymerase chain reaction(PCR) and conserved primer walking approaches.The results showed that the entire mitogenome is 15418 bp long with 74.48% A+T content.The positions and arrangement of the 37 genes encoded by the genome are identical to the mitogenomes of two other longhorn beetles for which the complete gene content and arrangement are publicly available.All protein-coding genes start with the ATN codon that is a typical initiation codon in insects.All transfer RNAs(tRNAs) were predicted to form the standard clover-leaf structure,except for tRNA Ser(AGN),which lacks the dihydrouridine(DHU) arm.The most unusual feature that was found was the use of TCT as the tRNA Ser(AGN) anticodon instead of the GCT that is used in most other arthropods.The lack of tandem repeat motif in the 735 bp long A+T-rich region was another unusual feature of the B.lineolata mitogenome.The short,highly conserved polythymidine stretch that was previously described in the Orthoptera and Diptera orders was also present in the A+T-rich region of the B.lineolata(order Coleoptera) mitogenome.The sequence and annotation of the mitogenome of B.lineolata will provide further insights into the diversity and evolution of the Cerambycidae family of long-horned beetles.The B.lineolata mitogenome sequence has been deposited in GenBank(http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/Genbank/) under accession number JN986793.     

Sequence and analysis of chromosome 1 of the plant Arabidopsis thaliana

The genome of the flowering plant Arabidopsis thaliana has five chromosomes. Here we report the sequence of the largest, chromosome 1, in two contigs of around 14.2 and 14.6 megabases. The contigs extend from the telomeres to the centromeric borders, regions rich in transposons, retrotransposons and repetitive elements such as the 180-base-pair repeat. The chromosome represents 25% of the genome and contains about 6,850 open reading frames, 236 transfer RNAs (tRNAs) and 12 small nuclear RNAs. There are two clusters of tRNA genes at different places on the chromosome. One consists of 27 tRNA(Pro) genes and the other contains 27 tandem repeats of tRNA(Tyr)-tRNA(Tyr)-tRNA(Ser) genes. Chromosome 1 contains about 300 gene families with clustered duplications. There are also many repeat elements, representing 8% of the sequence.     

A Novel Structural Measure Separating Non-Coding RNAs from Genomic Backgrounds

RNA secondary structure has become the most exploitable feature for ab initio detection of non-coding RNA(nc RNA) genes from genome sequences. Previous work has used Minimum Free Energy(MFE) based methods developed to identify nc RNAs by measuring sequence fold stability and certainty. However, these methods yielded variable performances across different nc RNA species. Designing novel reliable structural measures will help to develop effective nc RNA gene finding tools. This paper introduces a new RNA structural measure based on a novel RNA secondary structure ensemble constrained by characteristics of native RNA tertiary structures. The new method makes it possible to achieve a performance leap from the previous structure-based methods. Test results on standard nc RNA datasets(benchmarks) demonstrate that this method can effectively separate most nc RNAs families from genome backgrounds.     

Sequence and analysis of chromosome 4 of the plant Arabidopsis thaliana

The higher plant Arabidopsis thaliana (Arabidopsis) is an important model for identifying plant genes and determining their function. To assist biological investigations and to define chromosome structure, a coordinated effort to sequence the Arabidopsis genome was initiated in late 1996. Here we report one of the first milestones of this project, the sequence of chromosome 4. Analysis of 17.38 megabases of unique sequence, representing about 17% of the genome, reveals 3,744 protein coding genes, 81 transfer RNAs and numerous repeat elements. Heterochromatic regions surrounding the putative centromere, which has not yet been completely sequenced, are characterized by an increased frequency of a variety of repeats, new repeats, reduced recombination, lowered gene density and lowered gene expression. Roughly 60% of the predicted protein-coding genes have been functionally characterized on the basis of their homology to known genes. Many genes encode predicted proteins that are homologous to human and Caenorhabditis elegans proteins.     

Prevalence of off-target effects in Drosophila RNA interference screens

RNA interference (RNAi) in both plants and animals is mediated by small RNAs of approximately 21-23 nucleotides in length for regulation of target gene expression at multiple levels through partial sequence complementarities. Combined with widespread genome sequencing, experimental use of RNAi has the potential to interrogate systematically all genes in a given organism with respect to a particular function. However, owing to a tolerance for mismatches and gaps in base-pairing with targets, small RNAs could have up to hundreds of potential target sequences in a genome, and some small RNAs in mammalian systems have been shown to affect the levels of many messenger RNAs besides their intended targets. The use of long double-stranded RNAs (dsRNAs) in Drosophila, where Dicer-mediated processing produces small RNAs inside cells, has been thought to reduce the probability of such 'off-target effects' (OTEs). Here we show, however, that OTEs mediated by short homology stretches within long dsRNAs are prevalent in Drosophila. We have performed a genome-wide RNAi screen for novel components of Wingless (Wg) signal transduction in Drosophila S2R + cells, and found few, if any, legitimate candidates. Rather, many of the top candidates exert their effects on Wg response through OTEs on known pathway components or through promiscuous OTEs produced by tandem trinucleotide repeats present in many dsRNAs and genes. Genes containing such repeats are over-represented in candidate lists from published screens, suggesting that they represent a common class of false positives. Our results suggest simple measures to improve the reliability of genome-wide RNAi screens in Drosophila and other organisms.     

广西5种常见星虫动物的线粒体基因组特征和系统进化分析

为探明广西北部湾星虫动物的线粒体基因组遗传变异和基因序列特征,采用高通量测序测定广西北部湾5种常见星虫动物的线粒体基因组,并对其基因序列特征、遗传变异、系统进化进行分析。结果显示,星虫动物线粒体基因组具有典型的无脊椎动物线粒体基因组的特征,基因排列高度保守,特别是其13个蛋白质编码基因（PCGs）。此外,星虫动物线粒体基因组的基因均编码在H链上,并存在3个高度保守的基因排列区块,与环节动物和螠虫动物线粒体基因组特征较为相似。cox1、cox2和cob等3个基因进化速率最慢、遗传变异水平最低,适合作为星虫动物种属系统进化研究以及不同种间生物条形码构建的分子标记。nad6、nad4、nad5和nad2等4个基因的遗传变异水平较高（大于60%）,变异位点数量较多,适合作为星虫动物种群遗传多样性研究的分子标记。星虫动物线粒体13个蛋白质编码基因的Ka/Ks比值均低于1（0.058 2-0.726 6）,其中cox1、cox3和cob等3个基因的Ka/Ks比值最低（小于0.1）,表明在星虫动物线粒体遗传进化过程中,这3个蛋白质编码基因承受强烈的自然选择压力和功能束缚。基于线粒体基因组蛋白质编码基因系统进化树的研究结果表明,星虫动物可分为方格星虫纲和革囊星虫纲两个进化分支,星虫动物与环节动物的进化地位、亲缘关系较近,而与软体动物的亲缘关系较远。本研究结果不仅为广西北部湾特色星虫动物渔业资源多样性调查和保护提供分子遗传数据,也为星虫动物系统进化研究提供了科学参考。     

Gene regulation: ancient microRNA target sequences in plants

MicroRNAs are an abundant class of small RNAs that are thought to regulate the expression of protein-coding genes in plants and animals. Here we show that the target sequence of two microRNAs, known to regulate genes in the class-III homeodomain-leucine zipper (HD-Zip) gene family of the flowering plant Arabidopsis, is conserved in homologous sequences from all lineages of land plants, including bryophytes, lycopods, ferns and seed plants. We also find that the messenger RNAs from these genes are cleaved within the same microRNA-binding site in representatives of each land-plant group, as they are in Arabidopsis. Our results indicate not only that microRNAs mediate gene regulation in non-flowering as well as flowering plants, but also that the regulation of this class of plant genes dates back more than 400 million years.     

Sequence identification of 2,375 human brain genes.

We recently described a new approach for the rapid characterization of expressed genes by partial DNA sequencing to generate 'expressed sequence tags'. From a set of 600 human brain complementary DNA clones, 348 were informative nuclear-encoded messenger RNAs. We have now partially sequenced 2,672 new, independent cDNA clones isolated from four human brain cDNA libraries to generate 2,375 expressed sequence tags to nuclear-encoded genes. These sequences, together with 348 brain expressed sequence tags from our previous study, comprise more than 2,500 new human genes and 870,769 base pairs of DNA sequence. These data represent an approximate doubling of the number of human genes identified by DNA sequencing and may represent as many as 5% of the genes in the human genome.     

The class I major histocompatibility antigen gene activated in a line of SV40-transformed mouse cells is H-2Dd, not Qa/Tla

We have previously described several complementary DNA clones isolated because they correspond to messenger RNAs present at higher levels in the simian virus 40 (SV40)-transformed BALB/c 3T3 cell line SV3T3 Cl38 than in the normal, parental BALB/c 3T3 line. One of these clones, pAG64, hybridizes to RNAs which, while present in BALB/c 3T3 cells, are 10-20-fold more abundant in SV3T3 Cl38 and are found at high levels in a wide variety of transformed cell lines. Nucleotide sequence analysis showed that pAG64 encodes a class I antigen of the major histocompatibility complex. To ascertain the identity of pAG64, we compared its sequence with the available sequences of d haplotype class I antigen genes [K locus, L locus, D locus and the Qa gene defined by genomic clone 27.1] and found that it showed multiple clustered differences from each of these sequences. We therefore concluded that it was not derived from the H-2Kd, H-2Ld or H-2Dd genes and thus must correspond to one of the other class I antigen genes, namely those of the Qa/Tla complex, although it was clearly not the Qa gene defined by the genomic clone 27.1. We now report subsequent findings which indicate that pAG64 in fact corresponds to the H-2Dd gene and not to a Qa/Tla gene.     

RNA interference in adult mice

RNA interference is an evolutionarily conserved surveillance mechanism that responds to double-stranded RNA by sequence-specific silencing of homologous genes. Here we show that transgene expression can be suppressed in adult mice by synthetic small interfering RNAs and by small-hairpin RNAs transcribed in vivo from DNA templates. We also show the therapeutic potential of this technique by demonstrating effective targeting of a sequence from hepatitis C virus by RNA interference in vivo.     

Identifying Micro RNA and Gene Expression Networks Using Graph Communities

Integrative network analysis is powerful in helping understand the underlying mechanisms of genetic and epigenetic perturbations for disease studies.Although it becomes clear that micro RNAs,one type of epigenetic factors,have direct effect on target genes,it is unclear how micro RNAs perturb downstream genetic neighborhood.Hence,we propose a network community approach to integrate micro RNA and gene expression profiles,to construct an integrative genetic network perturbed by micro RNAs.We apply this approach to an ovarian cancer dataset from The Cancer Genome Atlas project to identify the fluctuation of micro RNA expression and its effects on gene expression.First,we perform expression quantitative loci analysis between micro RNA and gene expression profiles via both a classical regression framework and a sparse learning model.Then,we apply the spin glass community detection algorithm to find genetic neighborhoods of the micro RNAs and their associated genes.Finally,we construct an integrated network between micro RNA and gene expression based on their community structure.Various disease related micro RNAs and genes,particularly related to ovarian cancer,are identified in this network.Such an integrative network allows us to investigate the genetic neighborhood affected by micro RNA expression that may lead to disease manifestation and progression.