This is where KiNext comes into the picture. Introduced in a 2024 study published in BMC Bioinformatics, KiNext is a computational workflow designed to identify and classify protein kinases from predicted protein sequences. Instead of relying on a single search method, it brings together several approaches, including Hidden Markov Models, sequence alignment, phylogenetic analysis, and structural comparison.

The search begins with a simple question: does a protein contain the characteristics of a kinase? Protein kinases can change considerably during evolution, but important regions of their sequences often retain recognizable patterns. KiNext uses Hidden Markov Models, or HMMs, to detect these patterns. An HMM does not require a protein to be an exact match to a known kinase. Instead, it looks for a statistical sequence signature associated with kinase proteins, making it possible to detect more distant candidates.

Once potential kinases are identified, KiNext takes the analysis further. It distinguishes conventional eukaryotic protein kinases from atypical protein kinases and then attempts to classify them into different kinase groups and families. This distinction is important because simply identifying a protein as a kinase does not tell the complete story. Different kinase families can have very different evolutionary histories and biological functions.

The next stage brings evolution into the picture. KiNext can align kinase sequences and construct phylogenetic trees, allowing researchers to examine how newly identified proteins are related to previously characterized kinases. When sequence evidence alone is difficult to interpret, structural information can provide another clue. The workflow can incorporate AlphaFold-predicted structures and Foldseek-based structural comparisons to investigate whether an unusual protein resembles known kinase structures.

The researchers tested KiNext using two very different organisms: the Pacific oyster, Crassostrea gigas, and the green alga Ostreococcus tauri. In C. gigas, KiNext recovered previously reported kinases while identifying additional candidates. Structural analysis provided further evidence for many of the newly detected proteins. In O. tauri, the workflow similarly recovered most previously reported kinases and identified additional candidates while refining some of their classifications.

What makes KiNext particularly interesting is not just its ability to find kinases, but how the entire analysis is organized. The workflow uses Nextflow, allowing the different computational steps to be connected into a reproducible pipeline. Containers can also help manage software dependencies, making it easier to run the workflow across different computing environments.

This reproducibility becomes increasingly important as the number of available genomes continues to grow. A researcher studying one organism may be able to perform an analysis manually, but repeating the same process across hundreds or thousands of genomes quickly becomes impractical. A standardized workflow provides a way to perform the analysis consistently while keeping track of how the results were generated.

At its core, KiNext demonstrates a broader change taking place in modern genomics. Sequencing a genome provides an enormous amount of information, but the real scientific challenge begins afterward: understanding what all those sequences mean. Protein kinases are only one part of this larger puzzle, yet they are particularly important because they act as molecular switches throughout the cell.

By combining sequence profiles, evolutionary analysis, and structural evidence within a reproducible computational framework, KiNext provides researchers with a systematic way to uncover these molecular switches. Its real value lies not only in finding more kinases, but in making the process scalable, repeatable, and easier to apply to new genomes.

As genome sequencing continues to expand across the tree of life, tools such as KiNext can help turn enormous collections of protein sequences into meaningful biological stories—one kinase at a time.

Read more about it @

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s12859-024-05953-w

Center for Integrative Genomics, University of Lausanne, Switzerland

Two postdoctoral positions (2 years with possible extensions up to 5 years) are available immediately in the evolutionary genomics group of Henrik Kaessmann.

We are seeking highly qualified and enthusiastic applicants with strong skills in computational biology/bioinformatics, preferably also with experience in data mining and comparative or evolutionary genome analysis.

We have been interested in a range of topics related to the functional evolution of genomes from primates (e.g., the emergence of new genes and their functions) and other mammals (e.g., the origin and evolution of mammalian sex chromosomes). In the framework of a recently launched series of projects, a large amount of transcriptome and genome (e.g., epigenome) data are being produced by the wet lab unit of the group using next generation sequencing technologies for a unique collection of tissues from representative mammals and outgroup species (e.g., birds). Topics of current projects based on these data include the origins and/or evolution of protein-coding genes, alternative splicing, microRNAs, long noncoding RNAs, and dosage compensation.

The postdoctoral fellow will perform integrated evolutionary/bioinformatics analyses based on data produced in the lab and available genomic data. The specific project will be developed together with the candidate.

The language of the institute is English, and its members form an international group that is rapidly expanding. The institute is located in Lausanne, a beautiful city at Lake Geneva.

For more information on the group and our institute more generally, please refer to our website: http://www.unil.ch/cig/page7858_en.html

Please submit a CV, statement of research interest, and names of three references to: Henrik Kaessmann (Henrik.Kaessmann@unil.ch).

Webpage : http://www.unil.ch/cig/page7858.html

The project is on bacterial gene gain and loss and emerging pathogenicity, and is described in full here: https://www.ebi.ac.uk/research/postdocs/ebpods/projects/goldman-welch-2015 . The EMBL-EBI / Cambridge Computational Biomedical Postdoctoral (“EBPOD”)

The closing date for applications is 3 September 2015. Nick Goldman EMBL-European Bioinformatics Institute Nick Goldman

More at https://www.ebi.ac.uk/research/postdocs/ebpods/projects/goldman-welch-2015

An IVOM approach exploits compositional biases using variable order motif distributions and captures more reliably the local composition of a sequence compared to fixed-order methods. Optionally the predictions can be parsed into a 2-state 2nd order Hidden Markov Model (HMM), in a change-point detection framework, to optimize the localization of the boundaries of the predicted regions. The predictions (embl format) can be automatically loaded into the freely available Artemis genome viewer.

Address of the bookmark: http://www.sanger.ac.uk/science/tools/alien-hunter

Address of the bookmark: http://genomethreader.org/

Address of the bookmark: http://wego.genomics.org.cn/

Instead of asking only whether two genes occur together across genomes, CORGIAS asks a deeper question: did these genes actually evolve together, repeatedly gaining or losing their presence in concert, or are they merely travelling together because of their inherited history? The framework introduces two complementary approaches, Ancestral State Adjustment (ASA) and the Simultaneous EVolution test (SEV), which incorporate evolutionary information into the search for gene associations. This distinction becomes increasingly important as genome sequencing continues to uncover enormous numbers of microbial genomes, many from organisms that have never been cultured and whose genes remain functionally mysterious. In this growing genomic landscape, simply finding a gene is no longer enough—we need clues about what that gene might be doing. CORGIAS approaches this problem almost like a genomic detective: rather than treating every association as evidence, it reconstructs the evolutionary story behind the association and asks whether the evidence survives that history. By doing so, it offers a way to separate coincidence from biological connection and potentially uncover functional relationships hidden within the vast microbial genomic landscape. The broader message is beautifully simple: genes do not evolve in isolation, and understanding what they do may require us to look beyond where they are today and reconstruct how they arrived there. Sometimes, the most important clue in a genome is not the gene itself, but the evolutionary journey it has taken.

More at https://academic.oup.com/nargab/article/7/4/lqaf182/8377910?

Features

• Linear representation of several segments of DNA
• Comparisons represented by areas between the segments (like Artemis, for example)
• Reads from common formats: Genbank, EMBL, blast, Mauve, and from user-generated tab files
• Plot several subsegments of the same segment on the same line, separated by a //
• Automatic or manual placement of the segments on the plot
• Add annotations to all the lines
• Create smart, automatic annotations for genomes, based on gene names
• Add a user-generated tree
• Add a global scale or a scale to each line
• Use user-defined graphical functions to represent genes

Address of the bookmark: http://genoplotr.r-forge.r-project.org/

Lab Page http://gabi.cidbio.org/index/

Genome Workbench can display sequence data in many ways, including graphical sequence views, various alignment views, phylogenetic tree views, and tabular views of data. It can also align your private data to data in public databases, display your data in the context of public data, and retrieve BLAST results.

Genome Workbench is built on the NCBI C++ ToolKit and uses cross-platform APIs for graphics. It runs on your local machine, and is available for Windows 2000/XP, Linux, MacOS X, and various flavors of Unix.

NCBI Genome Workbench is an integrated application for viewing and analyzing sequence data. Genome Workbench was developed entirely in-house at NCBI and makes use of the NCBI C++ ToolKit. The C++ ToolKit provides a convenient and flexible cross-platform API for managing system internals, database connections, network sockets, and the NCBI data model. In addition, the C++ ToolKit provides the Object Manager, which abstracts handling of sequences and sequence-related objects.

 New Features in Genome Workbench 2.7.15

• Multiple Alignment View: implemented adaptive feature display when zooming in
• Active Objects Inspector replaces Selection Inspector. New View should offer an improved selection context examination. See Using Active Objects Inspector tutorial for more details.
• Binary packages for Linux OpenSUSE 13.1 are now available

Bug Fixes and Improvements in Genome Workbench 2.7.15

• Fixed major issue with OpenGL overlay/scrolling. Could cause crashes or view scrolling irregularities
• Multiple Pane View: fixed crash on loading BLAST results
• Graphical Sequence View: fixed crash on zooming in and out, related to SNP track
• Graphical Sequence View: fixed Go To Position dialog to give better diagnostics in case of a user error
• Graphical Sequence View: PDF export fixed rendering of Markers with commas in the name
• Text View / Flat File: fixed Mac OS rendering issues
• Text View / Flat File: performance optimization, extended capabilities of real-time rendering of molecules to tens of thousands
• File Import: optimization improvement to speed up load of files containing multiple project items
• File Import: remapping stage now shows accession.version and description of molecules, instead of plain GI numbers
• Mac OS: improved tooltips for toolbar buttons
• Phylogenetic Tree Builder Tool: improved diagnostics of errors
• Multiple Alignment View: optimizations to avoid main GUI freezes
• Open Dialog: removed duplicate elements in table of genomes (load Genome)
• PDF export: fixed issue with XREF table errors
• Tree View: fixed issues with showing Force Layout progress on Mac OS
• Tree View: PDF export fixed issues for showing labels of collapsed nodes
• Tree View: added an option to stop layout
• Tree View: broadcasting mechanism fixed not to accumulate selected nodes

Reference:

NCBI news

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/tools/gbench/