BOL: Related items

CISA: Contig Integrator for Sequence Assembly

Neel — Thu, 15 Dec 2016 05:42:21 -0600

A plethora of algorithmic assemblers have been proposed for the de novo assembly of genomes, however, no individual assembler guarantees the optimal assembly for diverse species. Optimizing various parameters in an assembler is often performed in order to generate the most optimal assembly. However, few efforts have been pursued to take advantage of multiple assemblies to yield an assembly of high accuracy. In this study, we employ various state-of-the-art assemblers to generate different sets of contigs for bacterial genomes. A tool, named CISA, has been developed to integrate the assemblies into a hybrid set of contigs, resulting in assemblies of superior contiguity and accuracy, compared with the assemblies generated by the state-of-the-art assemblers and the hybrid assemblies merged by existing tools. This tool is implemented in Python and requires MUMmer and BLAST+ to be installed on the local machine. The source code of CISA and examples of its use are available at http://sb.nhri.org.tw/CISA/.

Address of the bookmark: http://sb.nhri.org.tw/CISA/en/CISA

When Chromosomes Shift: Understanding Chromosome Rearrangement and Human Disease

BioStar — Fri, 11 Apr 2025 01:07:17 -0500

In the vast and complex world of genetics, our chromosomes are like carefully arranged bookshelves — each holding critical information that defines who we are. But what happens when those books are shuffled, inverted, or swapped? The answer lies in a phenomenon known as chromosome rearrangement, a powerful force behind many human diseases, from developmental disorders to cancer.

What Are Chromosome Rearrangements?

Chromosome rearrangements are structural changes that alter the normal configuration of chromosomes. These changes can involve large segments of DNA — from thousands to millions of base pairs — and can occur spontaneously, be inherited, or result from exposure to mutagens (like radiation or chemicals).

Common Types of Rearrangements:

Deletions – Loss of a chromosome segment
Duplications – Repetition of a segment
Inversions – A segment breaks off, flips, and reattaches
Translocations – Segments exchange places between non-homologous chromosomes
Insertions – A segment is inserted into another part of the genome

These changes can disrupt genes directly or affect gene regulation, leading to disease.

How Do Chromosome Rearrangements Cause Disease?

The impact of a rearrangement depends on which genes are involved, how much DNA is affected, and when the rearrangement occurs (in development vs. adulthood). Here are some key mechanisms:

Gene disruption: Breaking a gene can lead to loss of function or the creation of a non-functional protein.
Gene fusion: Joining parts of two genes may form a novel hybrid gene with new functions (common in cancer).
Dosage effects: Extra or missing gene copies can disturb the balance of gene expression.
Position effects: Moving a gene to a new regulatory environment may silence or over-activate it.

Chromosome Rearrangements in Human Disease

1. Developmental Disorders

Cri-du-chat syndrome: Caused by a deletion on chromosome 5p. Affected infants often have a high-pitched cry and intellectual disability.
Williams syndrome: Results from a microdeletion on chromosome 7q, affecting genes related to cardiovascular and cognitive function.

2. Cancer

Cancer is perhaps the most striking example of disease caused by chromosome rearrangements.

Chronic Myeloid Leukemia (CML): Caused by a translocation between chromosomes 9 and 22, forming the Philadelphia chromosome. This creates the BCR-ABL fusion gene, which drives uncontrolled cell growth.
Burkitt lymphoma: Involves translocation of the MYC gene, leading to excessive cell division.
Ewing sarcoma: A fusion of EWSR1 and FLI1 genes through translocation promotes tumor development.

3. Infertility and Miscarriages

Balanced rearrangements (like inversions or translocations) in carriers may not cause disease directly but can result in:

Recurrent miscarriages
Infertility
Birth defects in offspring

Detecting Rearrangements

Thanks to modern genomics, chromosome rearrangements can now be detected with high precision using:

Karyotyping – Classic method for detecting large rearrangements
FISH (Fluorescence In Situ Hybridization) – Uses fluorescent probes to target specific DNA sequences
Array CGH (Comparative Genomic Hybridization) – Detects copy number changes across the genome
Whole Genome Sequencing (WGS) – Identifies even small or complex rearrangements at base-pair resolution

Looking Forward: The Future of Chromosome Medicine

Understanding chromosome rearrangements is now central to:

Personalized medicine
Genetic counseling
Targeted therapies, especially in cancer (e.g., tyrosine kinase inhibitors for BCR-ABL fusion)

With the rise of long-read sequencing and single-cell genomics, even previously “invisible” rearrangements are being uncovered, offering new insights into both rare diseases and common conditions.

Final Thoughts

Chromosome rearrangements remind us that genetics isn't just about which genes we have — but where they are, how they're arranged, and when they're active. As our tools grow sharper, so does our ability to diagnose, understand, and treat diseases rooted in genomic architecture.

In a way, the genome is like a book not just defined by its words, but also by how the chapters are ordered. Rearranging them can create a new story — sometimes harmful, sometimes insightful — and understanding these changes is key to writing a healthier future.

ShRec3D

Jitendra Narayan — Thu, 25 Dec 2014 23:14:52 -0600

ShRec3D is a program that aims at reconstructing a genome 3D structure (b) from the sole knowledge of the contacts between different genomic regions (a) as determined by Hi-C (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19815776).

There are two options to run ShRec3D (on linuX only so far): the first one uses the Matlab complier runtime environment (MCR), the second one doesn't need any other library to be installed but only works with the latest versions of Linux (equivalent to Fedora 19 and above).

Address of the bookmark: https://sites.google.com/site/julienmozziconacci/#TOC-Downloads

methylKit

Jit — Fri, 03 Jun 2016 10:09:29 -0500

methylKit is an R package for DNA methylation analysis and annotation from high-throughput bisulfite sequencing. The package is designed to deal with sequencing data from RRBS and its variants, but also target-capture methods such as Agilent SureSelect methyl-seq. In addition, methylKit can deal with base-pair resolution data for 5hmC obtained from Tab-seq or oxBS-seq. It can also handle whole-genome bisulfite sequencing data if proper input format is provided.

Address of the bookmark: https://github.com/al2na/methylKit

Genome STRiP

Neel — Tue, 06 Sep 2016 03:58:19 -0500

Genome STRiP (Genome STRucture In Populations) is a suite of tools for discovering and genotyping structural variations using sequencing data. The methods are designed to detect shared variation using data from multiple individuals.

Genome STRiP looks both across and within a set of sequenced genomes to detect variation. The methods are adaptive and support heterogeneous data sets, including variations in sequencing depth, read lengths and mixtures of paired and single-end reads. A minimum of 20 to 30 genomes are required to get acceptable results, but the method gains power across genomes and processing more genomes provide better results.

To run discovery or genotyping on a single sequenced genome or a small set of genomes, you need to call your data against a background population, such as a set of genomes from the 1000 Genomes Project. The background population does not need to be matched to the target individuals.

Address of the bookmark: http://software.broadinstitute.org/software/genomestrip/

OrganellarGenomeDRAW

Jit — Tue, 16 Aug 2016 08:13:13 -0500

OrganellarGenomeDRAW is dedicated to convert genetic information stored in GenBank entries to graphical maps. The input text file has to be in GenBank flat file format, whereas the output format can be chosen among several formats. The application is especially optimized and adapted for the creation of high-quality, detailed circular maps of organellar genomes like the plastid genome (plastome) or the mitochondrial genome (chondriome). Nevertheless, you can upload any GenBank entry. The workflow is devided into three steps.

More at http://ogdraw.mpimp-golm.mpg.de/cgi-bin/ogdraw.pl

Address of the bookmark: http://ogdraw.mpimp-golm.mpg.de/index.shtml

GeneMANIA

Jit — Mon, 22 Aug 2016 09:55:16 -0500

Faster, more accurate algorithms function prediction "GeneMANIA (Multiple Association Network Integration Algorithm)" have however been developed in recent years and are publicly available on the web, indicating the future direction of function prediction.

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

Gene Finding and Predictions

Poonam Mahapatra — Fri, 26 Aug 2016 07:26:27 -0500

In this exercise, a previously annotated gene will be used to measure the accuracy of different gene finding approaches. GRAIL, GENSCAN, geneid, FGENESH, GenomeScan, GrailEXP and GENEWISE will be used to annotate the sequence. Both search by signal, content and homology (protein and cDNA sequences) methods will be employed in order to improve the ab initio results. Weak conservation of Start codons will lead to wrong prediction of initial exons in most cases.

http://genome.crg.es/courses/Bioinformatics2003_genefinding/

Address of the bookmark: http://genome.crg.es/courses/Bioinformatics2003_genefinding/

Artemis Comparison Tool (ACT)

Shruti Paniwala — Wed, 07 Sep 2016 03:54:41 -0500

ACT is a Java application for displaying pairwise comparisons between two or more DNA sequences. It can be used to identify and analyse regions of similarity and difference between genomes and to explore conservation of synteny, in the context of the entire sequences and their annotation. It can read complete EMBL, GENBANK and GFF entries or sequences in FASTA or raw format.

Address of the bookmark: http://www.sanger.ac.uk/science/tools/artemis-comparison-tool-act

CIRCOS Visualize !!

Jit — Fri, 02 Sep 2016 08:29:26 -0500

Before uploading a data file, check the samples gallery to make sure that your data format is compatible.

Your file must be plain text.
Your data values must be non-negative integers.
Data must be space-separated (one or more tab or space, which will be collapsed).
No two rows or columns may have the same name.
Column and row names must begin with a letter (e.g. 'A', 'A0', 'A-0') and can only contain letters, numbers and _. No punctuation!
Maximum row + column total is 150 — if exceeded, rows and columns are limited to 75.
If you are using order, size and color rows/columns in combination they must appear in that order.

Need help? Post questions to the Circos Google Group.

http://mkweb.bcgsc.ca/tableviewer/visualize/

Address of the bookmark: http://mkweb.bcgsc.ca/tableviewer/visualize/