BOL: Related items

ViralQC: Checking If a Viral Genome Tells the Whole Story

LEGE — Tue, 08 Sep 2026 10:35:04 -0500

Imagine finding a mysterious piece of a puzzle and being told it belongs to a virus. Before studying it, you would want to know two things: Is the piece really viral, and how much of the puzzle is missing?

That is the problem ViralQC (https://github.com/ChengPENG-wolf/ViralQC) aims to solve.

Viral sequences recovered from metagenomic data can be incomplete or contaminated with microbial DNA. ViralQC uses information from both DNA sequences and predicted proteins to detect contamination and estimate how complete a viral contig is.

The authors compared ViralQC with CheckV and found that ViralQC performed particularly well for longer viral contigs, improving contamination detection and completeness estimation in several test cases.

Why does this matter? Because discovering a viral sequence is only the first step. If the sequence is contaminated or incomplete, downstream analyses—such as identifying viral functions or studying evolution—can be misleading.

ViralQC provides a useful quality check before researchers trust the viral genome they have discovered.

In a world where metagenomics is uncovering enormous numbers of unknown viruses, tools like ViralQC help us separate the real viral story from an incomplete or mixed-up one.

More at https://academic.oup.com/bioinformatics/article/42/Supplement_2/btag463/8767288

Complete genome sequence of Wuhan seafood market pneumonia virus is out !

Jit — Fri, 31 Jan 2020 02:36:59 -0600

Wuhan-Hu-1 claimed at least 40 lives and infected at least 1300 others in China. Cases are now being reported from Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, South Korea, Japan, Vietnam, Nepal, France, Australia and even as far as the US. On Jan 10 2020, while news of the first fatality was barely trickling in, the 29,903 letters constituting the viral genome from an affected individual in Wuhan had already been elucidated (even though a few corrections were made subsequently). All the viral genome sequences from affected individuals are very very close to each other. Several are identical and none has more than 5 differences (99.983% similarity). This strongly suggests that transmission into humans came from a single pointed source and happened very recently, between Sep-Dec 2019.

Check out the detail at https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nuccore/MN908947

fastv - detect virus

Jit — Sat, 11 Dec 2021 08:04:10 -0600

fastv is an ultra-fast tool for identification of SARS-CoV-2 and other microbes from sequencing data. It detects microbial sequences from FASTQ data, generates JSON reports and visualizes the result in HTML reports. This tool can be used to detect viral infectious diseases, like COVID-19. This tool supports both short reads (Illumina, BGI, etc.) and long reads (ONT, PacBio, etc.)

Address of the bookmark: https://github.com/OpenGene/fastv

The new corona variant has 23 mutations in all, which is unusually huge !

Shruti Paniwala — Wed, 23 Dec 2020 03:50:50 -0600

The new SARS-CoV-2 version, B.1.1.7, which was first seen in the third week of September in Kent and Greater London, has since spread to other locations in the UK. According to the COVID-19 Genomics UK Consortium (COG-UK Consortium) that analysed the genome data of the virus and identified the variant, the new variant has been spreading "rapidly" over the last four weeks and has now been detected in other locations in the UK, suggesting further spread of the variant in the region.

According to a preliminary report posted on December 19 by the COG-UK Consortium scientists, as of December 15, 1,623 variant genomes have been sequenced. In a December 21 tweet, COG-UK Consortium said that it added 2,963 more genome sequences of SARS-CoV-2, of which 942 (32%) belong to the new variant. The Consortium intends to sequence 20,000 more SARS-CoV-2 genomes in the next two weeks to further ascertain the spread of the variant.

There is no clear proof, at least not yet, that it does cause severe pandemic. But there is a justification for seriously taking the possibility. Another coronavirus lineage in South Africa has acquired one specific mutation that is also present in B.1.1.7. This variant is increasingly spreading across South Africa's coastal regions. And doctors have observed in preliminary research that individuals infected with this variant bear a higher viral load-a higher concentration of the virus in their upper respiratory tract. In many viral diseases, this is associated with more severe symptoms.

Genetic Test in India

Rahul Agarwal — Sun, 11 Aug 2013 10:54:35 -0500

1.Xcode Life Sciences Pvt. Ltd.
6B, Eldorado,
112, Nungambakkam High Road,
Nungambakkam, Chennai 600034
Tamil Nadu, India

2.Mapmygenome™
Royal Demeure,HUDA Techno Enclave,
Plot No. 12/2, Sector-1 500 081
Madhapur,Hyderabad
AP, India

3. DNA Labs India

http://www.dnalabsindia.com/lab.php

4.MedGenome Labs Pvt Ltd
(Division of SciGenom Labs Pvt Ltd.)
Plot no: 43A,SDF, 3rd floor
A Block,CSEZ, Kakanad, Cochin
Kerala - 682037
Phone: 0484 - 2413399
Fax: 0484 - 2413398
Email: info@medgenome.com

5.Narayana Nethralaya

Narayana Hrudayalaya Campus
Narayana Health City
# 258/A, Bommasandra, Hosur Road,
Bangalore - 560 099 - INDIA.
TEL: +91-80-66660655-0658
FAX: +91-80-66660650
Mobile: 9902 821128 (Emergency Only)
e-mail: info@narayananethralaya.com

6.BioAxis DNA Research Centre Private Limited
13-51,Sri Lakshmi Nagar colony,
Besides Big Bazar, Near Kamineni Hospitals
GSI Post BandalGuda (L B Nagar) Hydeabad-500068
Andhra Pradesh (India).
Phone : +91-40-24034503/+91-9246338983

7.Gene Guiide

8th Floor, Embassy Towers, 7 Bungalows Rd, Versova, Andheri West, Mumbai-61
09167 117799
info@geneguiide.com

See more at: http://www.geneguiide.com

8.INDIAN BIOSCIENCES
Regd. Office:
G-2 (Ground Floor Rear), Kailash Colony, New Delhi - 110048, India.
Phone: +91 (0)11 29236088, Email: info@inbdna.com.

9.SRL Limited

GP-26, MARUTI INDUSTRIAL ESTATE,

UDYOG VIHAR,SECTOR-18,

GURGAON - 122015

Tel: 0124-3001243 / 0124-3001209

SRL Limited
VASANT VIHAR, 8, PALAM MARG,
NEW DELHI - 110057
Tel: 011 - 4229 5333

Website: http://www.srlworld.com
National Customer care number:
Call Toll Free : 1800-222-660/1800-102-8282
E-mail id: customercare@srl.in

10.Tata Memorial Centre,

Advanced Centre for Treatment, Research and Education in Cancer

Kharghar, Navi Mumbai - 410 210, INDIA.

Tel: +91-22-2740 5000

Fax: +91-22-2740 5085

E-mail: mail@actrec.gov.in

Stephen Friend: The hunt for "unexpected genetic heroes"

Sat, 31 May 2014 14:31:47 -0500

What can we learn from people with the genetics to get sick — who don't? With most inherited diseases, only some family members will develop the disease, while others who carry the same genetic risks dodge it. Stephen Friend suggests we start studying those family members who stay healthy. Hear about the Resilience Project, a massive effort to collect genetic materials that may help decode inherited disorders. TEDTalks is a daily video podcast of the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world's leading thinkers and doers give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes (or less). Look for talks on Technology, Entertainment and Design -- plus science, business, global issues, the arts and much more. Find closed captions and translated subtitles in many languages at http://www.ted.com/translate Follow TED news on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/tednews Like TED on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TED Subscribe to our channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/TEDtalksDirector

Online resources on must-read papers in evolutionary biology, for a literature club

Shruti Paniwala — Tue, 28 Jun 2022 07:29:08 -0500

1.       *Nick Barton:*

- The textbook "Evolution" by Nick Barton, with resources for
  exploring the literature: Barton, N. H., Briggs, D. E. G., Eisen, J.
  A., Goldstein, D. B., & Patel, N. H. (2007). Evolution. Cold Spring
  Harbor Laboratory Press.

- Papers from a course named "Classics in Evolutionary Biology":

Evolutionary Synthesis
1. Haldane, J. B. S. 1932. The causes of evolution. Longmans. New York.
   (esp. Ch. IV).
2. Fisher, R. A. 1930. The genetical theory of natural selection. Oxford
   University Press, Oxford. Selected Sections - Fundamental Theorem.

Genetic Variation
1a. Lewontin, R. C., and J. L. Hubby. 1966. A molecular approach to
the study of genic heterozygosity in natural populations. II. Amount
of variation and degree of heterozygosity in natural populations of
Drosophila pseudoobscura. Genetics. 54:595-609.

1b. Sachidandam et al. 2001. A map of human genome sequence variation
containing 1.42 million single nucleotide polymorphisms. 409: 928-33.

2. Wright S., Dobzhansky T., Hovanitz W. 1942 Genetics of natural
populations VII The allelism of lethals in the third chromosome of
Drosophila pseudoobscura. Genetics 27: 363-394.

Recombination and evolution
1. Hill, W. G., and A. Robertson. 1966. The effect of linkage on limits
to artificial selection. Genet. Res. 8:269-294.

2. Maynard Smith and Haigh. 1974. The hitch-hiking effect of a favourable
gene. Genet. Res. 23: 23-35.

Understanding sequence variation
1. Begun D. J., Aquadro C. F., 1992 Levels of naturally occurring DNA
polymorphism correlate with recombination rate in Drosophila melanogaster.
Nature 356: 519-520.

2. Green R. E., Reich D., Pääbo S., 2010 A draft sequence of the
Neandertal genome. Science 328: 710-722.

Quantitative Genetics:  variation in complex traits
1. Galton F., 1877 Typical laws of heredity. Nature 15: 492-495-
512-514- 532-533.

2. Turelli M., 1984 Heritable genetic variation via
mutation-selection balance: Lerch's Zeta meets the abdominal
bristle. Theor. Popul. Biol. 25: 138-193.

Quantitative Genetics:  finding the genes
1. Shrimpton A. E., Robertson A., 1988 The Isolation of polygenic factors
controlling bristle score in Drosophila melanogaster II Distribution of
third chromosome bristle effects within chromosome sections. Genetics
118: 445-459.

2. Boyle E. A., Li Y. I., Pritchard J. K., 2017 An expanded view of
complex traits: from polygenic to omnigenic. Cell 169: 1177-1186.

Neutral Evolution
1. Kimura, M. 1968. Evolutionary rate at the molecular level. Science.
217:624-626.

2a. Kern A. D., Hahn M. W., 2018 The Neutral Theory in Light of Natural
Selection. Molecular Biology and Evolution 110: 21077-6.

2b. Jensen J. D., Payseur B. A., Stephan W., Aquadro C. F., Lynch M.,
Charlesworth D., Charlesworth B., 2018 The importance of the Neutral Theory
in 1968 and 50 years on: a response to Kern and Hahn 2018. Evolution 112:
2109-4.

2c. Ellegren & Galtier. 2016. Determinants of genetic diversity. Nature
Reviews Genetics.

Mutation and Genetic Variability
1. Luria, S. E., and M. Delbrück. 1943. Mutations of Bacteria from Virus
Sensitivity to Virus Resistance. Genetics. 28(6):491-511.

2. Hill, W G. 1982. "Rates of Change in Quantitative Traits From Fixation
of New Mutations." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (U.S.A.)
79: 142-45.

Testing for selection
1. McDonald & Kreitman. 1991. Adaptive protein evolution at the Adh locus
in Drosophila. Nature.

2. Begun, et al. Mol. Biol. Evol. 16, 1816-1819 (1999).

3. Siddiq et al. 2016. Experimental test and refutation of a classic case
of molecular adaptation in Drosophila melanogaster.  Nature Ecology &
Evolution.

The shifting balance
1. Wright, S. 1932. The roles of mutation, inbreeding, crossbreeding and
selection in evolution. Proceedings of the VI International Congress of
Genetics: 1. pp 356-366.

2. Coyne, J.A., N.H. Barton, and M. Turelli. 1997. A critique of Wright's
shifting balance theory of evolution.  Evolution 51: 643-671.

3. Barton. 2016. Sewall Wright on Evolution in Mendelian Populations and
the "Shifting Balance". Genetics.

Evolution of Sex
1.  Muller, H.J. 1964. The relation of recombination to mutational advance.
Mutation Res. 1(1):2-9

2. McDonald et al. 2016. Sex speeds adaptation by altering the dynamics of
molecular evolution. Nature.

Kin Selection, Cooperation, and Conflict
1. Hamilton, W. D. 1964. The genetical evolution of social behaviour I.
Journal of Theoretical Biology. 7:1-52.

2. Trivers, R. L. 1974 Parent-offspring conflict. American Zoologist.
14(1):249-264.

Sexual Selection
1. Zahavi, A. 1975. Mate selection - a selection of a handicap. J. Theor.
Biol. 53:205-214.

2. Kirkpatrick, M., and Ryan, M.J. 1991. The evolution of mating
preferences and the paradox of the lek. Nature. 350:33-38.

Fitness Landscapes
1. Dean, A. 1995. A Molecular Investigation of Genotype by Environment
Interactions. Genetics. 139:19-33.

2. Costanzo et al. 2010. The Genetic Landscape of a Cell. Science.

Speciation
1. Coyne, J. A., and H. A. Orr. 1989. Patterns of speciation in Drosophila.
Evolution. 43:362-381.

2. Corbett-Detig et al. 2013. Genetic incompatibilities are widespread
within species. Nature.

2.       *Marcos Antezana:*

Valen, L. v. 1975. Energy and Evolution. University of Chicago, Department
of Biology.

3.       *Remco Folkertsma:*

1. The work by Hopi Hoekstra on local adaptation and oldfield mice

2. Poelstra, J. W., Vijay, N., Bossu, C. M., Lantz, H., Ryll, B., Müller,
I., ... & Wolf, J. B. (2014). The genomic landscape underlying phenotypic
integrity in the face of gene flow in crows. Science, 344(6190), 1410-1414.

4.       *Joshka Kaufmann and Leslie Turner*

They offer us a link to 'papers every evolutionary biologist should read',
the papers are collected by Leslie Turner.
https://static1.squarespace.com/static/53e8cb7ce4b02c4bc3aeeee4/t/5ab8fcb670a6ad55c67fcdf4/1522072758665/EvoBioClassicsRefList.pdf

5.       *Sarah Stockwell*

Matt Ridley collected classic papers in evolutionary biology and printed
part of these papers in his book Evolution (see Matt Ridley. Evolution
(Univ. of Oxford Press, 2nd edition, 2004))

Fourth Branch of Life

Jitendra Narayan — Mon, 09 Sep 2013 21:48:37 -0500

Scientist have found the biggest viruses known, pandoraviruses which opened up entirely /completely... new questions questions and raise objections to in science. It even suggesting a fourth domain of life.

The new visrus are about one micron—a thousandth of a millimeter—in length, the newfound genus Pandoravirus dwarfs other viruses, which range in size from about 50 nanometers up to 100 nanometers. A genus is a taxonomic ranking between species and family.

Find more at @ http://www.nature.com/scitable/blog/viruses101/newly_found_pandoraviruses_hint_at

http://news.nationalgeographic.co.uk/news/2013/07/130718-viruses-pandoraviruses-science-biology-evolution/

Submit your SARS-CoV-2 sequence data to GenBank

Neel — Thu, 09 Apr 2020 18:28:25 -0500

Submit your SARS-CoV-2 sequence data to GenBank and SRA with our new submission landing page. Submission is simple and streamlined *and* there’s a rapid turnaround. https://submit.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sarscov2/

Quickly and easily add your SARS-CoV-2 sequence data to the growing public archive with new, special features and support from NCBI. new SARS-CoV-2 sequence submission landing page will help you get started. GenBank submissions are accessioned and released in approximately 1-2 working days, and Sequence Read Archive (SRA) submissions typically processed and released within hours. Submission is simple!

More information is available on NCBI Insights. https://ncbiinsights.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/2020/04/09/sars-cov2-data-streamlined-submission-rapid-turnaround/

Mosquito species known for transmitting the Dengue virus

BioStar — Wed, 03 Apr 2024 00:05:51 -0500

Here is a list of mosquito species known for transmitting the Dengue virus along with essential and applied information about each species:

1. Aedes aegypti:
- Geographical Distribution: Found in tropical and subtropical regions worldwide.
- Biting Behavior: Daytime biter, prefers feeding indoors, often around human dwellings.
- Role in Dengue Transmission: Primary vector responsible for transmitting Dengue virus to humans.

2. Aedes albopictus (Asian tiger mosquito):
- Geographical Distribution: Found in tropical, subtropical, and temperate regions worldwide.
- Biting Behavior: Daytime biter, feeds both indoors and outdoors, aggressive feeder.
- Role in Dengue Transmission: Secondary vector, can transmit Dengue virus to humans.

3. Aedes polynesiensis:
- Geographical Distribution: Found in Pacific Islands and coastal regions.
- Biting Behavior: Daytime biter, prefers feeding outdoors, often near coastal areas.
- Role in Dengue Transmission: Vector of Dengue virus in specific geographic regions.

4. Aedes scutellaris:
- Geographical Distribution: Found in Southeast Asia, Pacific Islands, and coastal regions.
- Biting Behavior: Daytime feeder, active in shaded areas, prefers outdoor environments.
- Role in Dengue Transmission: Vector of Dengue virus, particularly in coastal areas.

5. Aedes africanus:
- Geographical Distribution: Found in parts of Africa, including forested areas.
- Biting Behavior: Daytime feeder, prefers shaded areas, bites humans and other animals.
- Role in Dengue Transmission: Vector of Dengue virus in African regions.

Understanding the geographical distribution and biting behavior of these mosquito species is crucial for implementing effective control and prevention strategies to reduce Dengue virus transmission.