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  • BioMed Central  (7,960)
  • 2015-2019
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  • 1
    Publication Date: 2022-05-25
    Description: © The Author(s), 2011. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in BMC Bioinformatics 12 Suppl. 15 (2011): S5, doi:10.1186/1471-2105-12-S15-S5.
    Description: Today, an unprecedented volume of primary biodiversity data are being generated worldwide, yet significant amounts of these data have been and will continue to be lost after the conclusion of the projects tasked with collecting them. To get the most value out of these data it is imperative to seek a solution whereby these data are rescued, archived and made available to the biodiversity community. To this end, the biodiversity informatics community requires investment in processes and infrastructure to mitigate data loss and provide solutions for long-term hosting and sharing of biodiversity data. We review the current state of biodiversity data hosting and investigate the technological and sociological barriers to proper data management. We further explore the rescuing and re-hosting of legacy data, the state of existing toolsets and propose a future direction for the development of new discovery tools. We also explore the role of data standards and licensing in the context of data hosting and preservation. We provide five recommendations for the biodiversity community that will foster better data preservation and access: (1) encourage the community's use of data standards, (2) promote the public domain licensing of data, (3) establish a community of those involved in data hosting and archival, (4) establish hosting centers for biodiversity data, and (5) develop tools for data discovery. The community's adoption of standards and development of tools to enable data discovery is essential to sustainable data preservation. Furthermore, the increased adoption of open content licensing, the establishment of data hosting infrastructure and the creation of a data hosting and archiving community are all necessary steps towards the community ensuring that data archival policies become standardized.
    Repository Name: Woods Hole Open Access Server
    Type: Article
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  • 2
    Publication Date: 2022-05-25
    Description: © The Author(s), 2012. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in BMC Evolutionary Biology 12 (2012): 134, doi:10.1186/1471-2148-12-134.
    Description: Chemically mediated prezygotic barriers to reproduction likely play an important role in speciation. In facultatively sexual monogonont rotifers from the Brachionus plicatilis cryptic species complex, mate recognition of females by males is mediated by the Mate Recognition Protein (MRP), a globular glycoprotein on the surface of females, encoded by the mmr-b gene family. In this study, we sequenced mmr-b copies from 27 isolates representing 11 phylotypes of the B. plicatilis species complex, examined the mode of evolution and selection of mmr-b, and determined the relationship between mmr-b genetic distance and mate recognition among isolates. Isolates of the B. plicatilis species complex have 1–4 copies of mmr-b, each composed of 2–9 nearly identical tandem repeats. The repeats within a gene copy are generally more similar than are gene copies among phylotypes, suggesting concerted evolution. Compared to housekeeping genes from the same isolates, mmr-b has accumulated only half as many synonymous differences but twice as many non-synonymous differences. Most of the amino acid differences between repeats appear to occur on the outer face of the protein, and these often result in changes in predicted patterns of phosphorylation. However, we found no evidence of positive selection driving these differences. Isolates with the most divergent copies were unable to mate with other isolates and rarely self-crossed. Overall the degree of mate recognition was significantly correlated with the genetic distance of mmr-b. Discrimination of compatible mates in the B. plicatilis species complex is determined by proteins encoded by closely related copies of a single gene, mmr-b. While concerted evolution of the tandem repeats in mmr-b may function to maintain identity, it can also lead to the rapid spread of a mutation through all copies in the genome and thus to reproductive isolation. The mmr-b gene is evolving rapidly, and novel alleles may be maintained and increase in frequency via asexual reproduction. Our analyses indicate that mate recognition, controlled by MMR-B, may drive reproductive isolation and allow saltational sympatric speciation within the B. plicatilis cryptic species complex, and that this process may be largely neutral.
    Description: This work was supported by the National Science Foundation grant BE/GenEn MCG- 0412647.
    Keywords: Mate recognition ; Reproductive isolation ; Speciation ; Concerted evolution ; Gene family
    Repository Name: Woods Hole Open Access Server
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  • 3
    Publication Date: 2022-05-25
    Description: © The Author(s), 2011. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in BMC Systems Biology 5 Suppl 2 (2011): S15, doi:10.1186/1752-0509-5-S2-S15.
    Description: The increasing availability of time series microbial community data from metagenomics and other molecular biological studies has enabled the analysis of large-scale microbial co-occurrence and association networks. Among the many analytical techniques available, the Local Similarity Analysis (LSA) method is unique in that it captures local and potentially time-delayed co-occurrence and association patterns in time series data that cannot otherwise be identified by ordinary correlation analysis. However LSA, as originally developed, does not consider time series data with replicates, which hinders the full exploitation of available information. With replicates, it is possible to understand the variability of local similarity (LS) score and to obtain its confidence interval. We extended our LSA technique to time series data with replicates and termed it extended LSA, or eLSA. Simulations showed the capability of eLSA to capture subinterval and time-delayed associations. We implemented the eLSA technique into an easy-to-use analytic software package. The software pipeline integrates data normalization, statistical correlation calculation, statistical significance evaluation, and association network construction steps. We applied the eLSA technique to microbial community and gene expression datasets, where unique time-dependent associations were identified. The extended LSA analysis technique was demonstrated to reveal statistically significant local and potentially time-delayed association patterns in replicated time series data beyond that of ordinary correlation analysis. These statistically significant associations can provide insights to the real dynamics of biological systems. The newly designed eLSA software efficiently streamlines the analysis and is freely available from the eLSA homepage, which can be accessed at http://meta.usc.edu/softs/lsa
    Description: This research is partially supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF) DMS-1043075 and OCE 1136818.
    Repository Name: Woods Hole Open Access Server
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  • 4
    Publication Date: 2012-02-15
    Description: Background: In agricultural regions, streamside forests have been reduced in age and extent, or removed entirely to maximize arable cropland. Restoring and reforesting such riparian zones to mature forest, particularly along headwater streams (which constitute 90% of stream network length) would both increase carbon storage and improve water quality. Age and management-related cover/condition classes of headwater stream networks can be used to rapidly inventory carbon storage and sequestration potential if carbon storage capacity of conditions classes and their relative distribution on the landscape are known. Results: Based on the distribution of riparian zone cover/condition classes in sampled headwater reaches, current and potential carbon storage was extrapolated to the remainder of the North Carolina Coastal Plain stream network. Carbon stored in headwater riparian reaches is only about 40% of its potential capacity, based on 242 MgC/ha stored in sampled mature riparian forest (forest 〉 50 y old). The carbon deficit along 57,700 km of headwater Coastal Plain streams is equivalent to about 25TgC in 30-m-wide riparian buffer zones and 50 TgC in 60-m-wide buffer zones. Conclusions: Estimating carbon storage in recognizable age-and cover-related condition classes provides a rapid way to better inventory current carbon storage, estimate storage capacity, and calculate the potential for additional storage. In light of the particular importance of buffer zones in headwater reaches in agricultural landscapes in ameliorating nutrient and sediment input to streams, encouraging the restoration of riparian zones to mature forest along headwater reaches worldwide has the potential to not only improve water quality, but also simultaneously reduce atmospheric CO2.
    Electronic ISSN: 1750-0680
    Topics: Geosciences
    Published by BioMed Central
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  • 5
    Publication Date: 2012-12-28
    Description: Background: Trypanosoma cruzi, the causal agent of Chagas Disease, affects more than 16 million people in Latin America. The clinical outcome of the disease results from a complex interplay between environmental factors and the genetic background of both the human host and the parasite. However, knowledge of the genetic diversity of the parasite, is currently limited to a number of highly studied loci. The availability of a number of genomes from different evolutionary lineages of T. cruzi provides an unprecedented opportunity to look at the genetic diversity of the parasite at a genomic scale. Results: Using a bioinformatic strategy, we have clustered T. cruzi sequence data available in the public domain and obtained multiple sequence alignments in which one or two alleles from the reference CL-Brener were included. These data covers 4 major evolutionary lineages (DTUs): TcI, TcII, TcIII, and the hybrid TcVI. Using these set of alignments we have identified 288,957 high quality single nucleotide polymorphisms and 1,480 indels. In a reduced re-sequencing study we were able to validate ~ 97% of high-quality SNPs identified in 47 loci. Analysis of how these changes affect encoded protein products showed a 0.77 ratio of synonymous to non-synonymous changes in the T. cruzi genome. We observed 113 changes that introduce or remove a stop codon, some causing significant functional changes, and a number of tri-allelic and tetra-allelic SNPs that could be exploited in strain typing assays. Based on an analysis of the observed nucleotide diversity we show that the T. cruzi genome contains a core set of genes that are under apparent purifying selection. Interestingly, orthologs of known druggable targets show statistically significant lower nucleotide diversity values. Conclusions: This study provides the first look at the genetic diversity of T. cruzi at a genomic scale. The analysis covers an estimated ~ 60% of the genetic diversity present in the population, providing an essential resource for future studies on the development of new drugs and diagnostics, for Chagas Disease. These data is available through the TcSNP database (http://snps.tcruzi.org).
    Electronic ISSN: 1471-2164
    Topics: Biology
    Published by BioMed Central
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  • 6
    Publication Date: 2012-12-28
    Description: Background: MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are a class of small non-coding RNAs that regulate gene expression by targeting mRNAs for translation repression or mRNA degradation. Although many miRNAs have been discovered and studied in human and mouse, few studies focused on porcine miRNAs, especially in genome wide. Results: Here, we adopted computational approaches including support vector machine (SVM) and homology searching to make a global scanning on the pre-miRNAs of pigs. In our study, we built the SVM-based porcine pre-miRNAs classifier with a sensitivity of 100%, a specificity of 91.2% and a total prediction accuracy of 95.6%, respectively. Moreover, 2204 novel porcine pre-miRNA candidates were found by using SVM-based pre-miRNAs classifier. Besides, 116 porcine pre-miRNA candidates were detected by homology searching. Conclusions: We identified the porcine pre-miRNA in genome-wide through computational approaches by utilizing the data sets of pigs and set up the porcine pre-miRNAs library which may provide us a global scanning on the pre-miRNAs of pigs in genome level and would benefit subsequent experimental research on porcine miRNA functional and expression analysis.
    Electronic ISSN: 1471-2164
    Topics: Biology
    Published by BioMed Central
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  • 7
    Publication Date: 2012-12-28
    Description: Background: Rhizobium tropici CIAT 899 and Rhizobium sp. PRF 81 are alpha-Proteobacteria that establish nitrogen-fixing symbioses with a range of legume hosts. These strains are broadly used in commercial inoculants for application to common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris) in South America and Africa. Both strains display intrinsic resistance to several abiotic stressful conditions such as low soil pH and high temperatures, which are common in tropical environments, and to several antimicrobials, including pesticides. The genetic determinants of these interesting characteristics remain largely unknown. Results: Genome sequencing revealed that CIAT 899 and PRF 81 share a highly-conserved symbiotic plasmid (pSym) that is present also in Rhizobium leucaenae CFN 299, a rhizobium displaying a similar host range. This pSym seems to have arisen by a co-integration event between two replicons. Remarkably, three distinct nodA genes were found in the pSym, a characteristic that may contribute to the broad host range of these rhizobia. Genes for biosynthesis and modulation of plant-hormone levels were also identified in the pSym. Analysis of genes involved in stress response showed that CIAT 899 and PRF 81 are well equipped to cope with low pH, high temperatures and also with oxidative and osmotic stresses. Interestingly, the genomes of CIAT 899 and PRF 81 had large numbers of genes encoding drug-efflux systems, which may explain their high resistance to antimicrobials. Genome analysis also revealed a wide array of traits that may allow these strains to be successful rhizosphere colonizers, including surface polysaccharides, uptake transporters and catabolic enzymes for nutrients, diverse iron-acquisition systems, cell wall-degrading enzymes, type I and IV pili, and novel T1SS and T5SS secreted adhesins. Conclusions: Availability of the complete genome sequences of CIAT 899 and PRF 81 may be exploited in further efforts to understand the interaction of tropical rhizobia with common bean and other legume hosts.
    Electronic ISSN: 1471-2164
    Topics: Biology
    Published by BioMed Central
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  • 8
    Publication Date: 2012-12-28
    Description: Background: The objective of the research was to evaluate the current effectiveness of Ciprofloxacin on the uropathogens prevalent in infected urines of a cross-section of patients in Karachi, Pakistan.FindingsAn observational study conducted in a private diagnostic laboratory and its branches in key areas of Karachi City from February 2010 to July 2011. A total of 2963 consecutive urine samples were cultured on chocolate agar, CLED medium and selective EMB agar. Growth of possible uropathogens was noted, and compared retrospectively with earlier lab data of suggestive urine cultures (n = 1997) recorded during January 2009 and December 2009. The isolates were identified using routine procedures and the API 20 system and evaluated for their sensitivity to ciprofloxacin by Kirby-Bauer disk diffusion method. Data was subjected to statistical analysis on SPSS version 16. Out of the present-day culture-positive urines, 2409 (80.4%) yielded gram-negative rods, and 554 (18.5%) gram-positive cocci. E.coli (43.1%) was most frequent, followed by Klebsiella pneumoniae (22.4%) and Staphylococcus aureus (15.5%). 57.2% of the Gram-negative bacteria and 48.7% of the Gram-positive isolates were resistant to ciprofloxacin. In the earlier (2009) screening, 39% of Gram-negative rods and 48% of Gram-positive cocci were indifferent to the drug. Conclusions: A decrease in bacterial susceptibility of uropathogens to ciprofloxacin, a commonly prescribed drug in our population, is underlined, occurring possibly due to overuse pressure. Empirical initial treatment with ciprofloxacin would be inadequate in more than half of UTI cases, thereby counseling increased C/S testing of urines to provide existing sensitivity data for apt drug prescription.
    Electronic ISSN: 1756-0500
    Topics: Biology , Medicine
    Published by BioMed Central
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  • 9
    Publication Date: 2012-12-28
    Description: Background: Data accuracy and completeness are crucial for ensuring both the correctness and epidemiological relevance of a given data set. In this study we evaluated a clinical register in the administrative district of Marburg-Biedenkopf, Germany, for these criteria. Methods: The register contained data gathered from a comprehensive integrated breast-cancer network from three hospitals that treated all included incident cases of malignant breast cancer in two distinct time periods from 1996--97 (N=389) and 2003--04 (N=488). To assess the accuracy of this data, we compared distributions of risk, prognostic, and predictive factors with distributions from established secondary databases to detect any deviations from these [prime][prime]true[prime][prime] population parameters. To evaluate data completeness, we calculated epidemiological standard measures as well as incidence-mortality-ratios (IMRs). Results: In total, 12% (13 of 109) of the variables exhibited inaccuracies: 9% (5 out of 56) in 1996--97 and 15% (8 out of 53) in 2003--04. In contrast to raw, unstandardized incidence rates, (in-) directly age-standardized incidence rates showed no systematic deviations. Our final completeness estimates were IMR=36% (1996--97) and IMR=43% (2003--04). Conclusion: Overall, the register contained accurate, complete, and correct data. Regional differences accounted for detected inaccuracies. Demographic shifts occurred. Age-standardized measures indicate an acceptable degree of completeness. The IMR method of measuring completeness was inappropriate for incidence-based data registers. For the rising number of population-based health-care networks, further methodological advancements are necessary. Correct and epidemiologically relevant data are crucial for clinical and health-policy decision-making.
    Electronic ISSN: 1756-0500
    Topics: Biology , Medicine
    Published by BioMed Central
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  • 10
    Publication Date: 2012-12-28
    Description: Background: Patients increasingly turn to the Internet for information on medical conditions, including clinical news and treatment options. In recent years, an online patient community has arisen alongside the rapidly expanding world of social media, or "Web 2.0." Twitter provides real-time dissemination of news, information, personal accounts and other details via a highly interactive form of social media, and has become an important online tool for patients. This medium is now considered to play an important role in the modern social community of online, "wired" cancer patients. Results: Fifty-one highly influential "power accounts" belonging to cancer patients were extracted from a dataset of 731 Twitter accounts with cancer terminology in their profiles. In accordance with previously established methodology, "power accounts" were defined as those Twitter accounts with 500 or more followers. We extracted data on the cancer patient (female) with the most followers to study the specific relationships that existed between the user and her followers, and found that the majority of the examined tweets focused on greetings, treatment discussions, and other instances of psychological support. These findings went against our hypothesis that cancer patients' tweets would be centered on the dissemination of medical information and similar "newsy" details. Conclusions: At present, there exists a rapidly evolving network of cancer patients engaged in information exchange via Twitter. This network is valuable in the sharing of psychological support among the cancer community.
    Electronic ISSN: 1756-0500
    Topics: Biology , Medicine
    Published by BioMed Central
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