BOL: Related items

NVIDIA and Arc Institute Unveil Evo 2: A Breakthrough AI for DNA Design

BioStar — Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:39:47 -0600

NVIDIA and the Arc Institute have introduced Evo 2, a groundbreaking AI model designed to understand, predict, and generate DNA sequences. This marks a major advancement in computational biology, offering scientists an unprecedented tool to decode the genetic blueprint of life and even design entirely new biological systems.

The Power of Evo 2: AI Meets DNA

Evo 2 is the largest AI model for biology ever created, trained on an astonishing 9.3 trillion DNA "letters" (nucleotides) carefully selected from genomes spanning the entire tree of life. This massive dataset ensures that Evo 2 can recognize patterns and relationships in genetic sequences at an unparalleled scale.

For the first time, scientists can design DNA with AI, moving beyond simple sequence analysis to active DNA generation. Evo 2 enables researchers to predict, modify, and even create entire genetic sequences, opening new possibilities in medicine, agriculture, and synthetic biology.

Decoding the Dark Genome

One of the biggest challenges in genetics is understanding the non-coding regions of DNA—vast stretches of the genome that do not code for proteins but play crucial roles in regulating gene expression. These regions control when and how genes are activated, influencing everything from development to disease.

Evo 2 is designed to decode these non-coding elements, helping researchers uncover their functions and use this knowledge to develop gene-based therapies, synthetic life forms, and precision agriculture solutions.

From Reading DNA to Writing It

To put Evo 2’s impact into perspective:

Previous AI models could "read" DNA like a book, analyzing genetic sequences and identifying patterns.
Evo 2 can "write" entirely new DNA, designing functional genes, chromosomes, and even full genomes from scratch.

This means scientists can now engineer biological systems with AI, designing new proteins, metabolic pathways, and genetic circuits to address real-world challenges.

A Step Toward Generative Biology

The Arc Institute describes Evo 2 as a major step toward "generative biology"—a revolutionary approach where AI is used to create novel biological structures rather than just analyzing existing ones. This could lead to breakthroughs such as:

New medicines: AI-generated enzymes and proteins tailored for targeted therapies.
Disease-resistant crops: Genetically optimized plants for higher yield and climate resilience.
Synthetic organisms: Custom-designed microbes for bioremediation, biofuel production, and industrial applications.

An Open-Source Revolution

Unlike many proprietary AI models, Evo 2 is open source, making its capabilities accessible to researchers worldwide. This democratization of AI-driven biology means that scientists from different disciplines can collaborate, experiment, and innovate, accelerating discoveries in genetic engineering and synthetic biology.

With Evo 2, the boundaries of what’s possible in DNA design, genetic engineering, and biological innovation are being redrawn. The future of life sciences is no longer just about understanding life’s code—it’s about writing it.

Bioinformatics tools to detect horizontal gene transfer (HGT) in genomes

Jit — Fri, 02 Mar 2018 04:56:23 -0600

Horizontal gene transfer (HGT), the “non-sexual movement of genetic material between two organisms” , is relatively common in prokaryotes and single-celled eukaryotes, but a number of factors combine to make it far rarer in multicellular eukaryotes. In order for a eukaryotic species to gain a gene by HGT, foreign DNA must enter the host nucleus, integrate into the genome, and in more complex organisms it must enter the sequestered germline in order to be transmitted to offspring. Once there, it must not experience strong negative selection, despite potential for genetic incompatibility with the host genome and mismatch between the niche of the donor and the host. Over the longer term, foreign DNA may become “domesticated” in the recipient genome and provide novel function.

Following are the popular tool to detect HGT in genomes:

T-REX / 3.22

HGT detection / download & compile

20525630

RANGER-DTL / 2.0

HGT detection / download binary

22689773

PhyloNet / 3.6.1

HGT detection / download binary

18662388

Jane / 4.01

HGT detection / download binary (!license!)

20181081

TREE-PUZZLE / 5.3.rc16

HGT detection / download & compile

11934758

CONSEL / 0.20

HGT detection / download

11751242

DarkHorse / 1.5 rev170

HGT detection / download & install

17274820

HGTector / 0.2.1

HGT detection / git clone

25159222

EGID / 1.0

HGT detection / download

22355228

GeneMarkS / 4.30

HGT detection / download binary (!license!)

9461475

genoPlotR - plot gene and genome maps project!

Abhimanyu Singh — Wed, 12 Dec 2018 08:33:41 -0600

genoPlotR is a R package to produce reproducible, publication-grade graphics of gene and genome maps. It allows the user to read from usual format such as protein table files and blast results, as well as home-made tabular files.

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/

HGTector: an automated method facilitating genome-wide discovery of putative horizontal gene transfers

Jit — Mon, 21 Jan 2019 06:50:05 -0600

A computational pipeline for genome-wide detection of putative horizontal gene transfer (HGT) events based on sequence homology search hit distribution statistics

Authors: Qiyun Zhu (qiyunzhu@gmail.com), Katharina Dittmar (katharinad@gmail.com)

Affiliation: Department of Biological Sciences, University at Buffalo, State University of New York, Buffalo, USA

Zhu Q, Kosoy M, Dittmar K. HGTector: an automated method facilitating genome-wide discovery of putative horizontal gene transfers. BMC Genomics. 2014. 15:717.

Usage: Simply execute perl HGTector.pl, or, open GUI.html in a web browser to see a step-by-step wizard.

Download HGTector 0.2.2.

Address of the bookmark: https://github.com/DittmarLab/HGTector

MAGIC: A tool for predicting transcription factors and cofactors driving gene sets using ENCODE data

BioStar — Thu, 26 Nov 2020 11:05:04 -0600

The algorithm presented herein, Mining Algorithm for GenetIc Controllers (MAGIC), uses ENCODE ChIP-seq data to look for statistical enrichment of TFs and cofactors in gene bodies and flanking regions in gene lists without an a priori binary classification of genes as targets or non-targets. When compared to other TF mining resources, MAGIC displayed favourable performance in predicting TFs and cofactors that drive gene changes in 4 settings:

1) A cell line expressing or lacking single TF,

2) Breast tumors divided along PAM50 designations

3) Whole brain samples from WT mice or mice lacking a single TF in a particular neuronal subtype

4) Single cell RNAseq analysis of neurons divided by Immediate Early Gene expression levels.

In summary, MAGIC is a standalone application that produces meaningful predictions of TFs and cofactors in transcriptomic experiments.

More at https://uwmadison.app.box.com/s/8j90e5h2rjrsz3bacaxnq8kor2o64vyg

Address of the bookmark: https://github.com/asroopra/MAGIC

OMArk: software for proteome (protein-coding gene repertoire) quality assessment

LEGE — Wed, 21 Feb 2024 15:01:20 -0600

OMArk is a software for proteome (protein-coding gene repertoire) quality assessment. It provides measures of proteome completeness, characterizes the consistency of all protein coding genes with regard to their homologs, and identifies the presence of contamination from other species. OMArk relies on the OMA orthology database, from which it exploits orthology relationships, and on the OMAmer software for fast placement of all proteins into gene families.

Address of the bookmark: https://github.com/DessimozLab/OMArk

DESCHRAMBLER

Jit — Thu, 29 Jun 2017 11:54:59 -0500

DESCHRAMBLER is shown to produce highly accurate reconstructions using data simulation and by benchmarking it against other reconstruction tools

You can find the detail of reconstructed data at http://bioinfo.konkuk.ac.kr/DESCHRAMBLER/

Address of the bookmark: https://github.com/jkimlab/DESCHRAMBLER

DeCoSTAR: Reconstructing the Ancestral Organization of Genes or Genomes Using Reconciled Phylogenies

Shruti Paniwala — Fri, 03 Jan 2020 13:28:19 -0600

DeCoSTAR computes adjacency evolutionary scenarios using a scoring scheme based on a weighted sum of adjacency gains and breakages. Solutions, both optimal and near-optimal, are sampled according to the Boltzmann–Gibbs distribution centered around parsimonious solutions, and statistical supports on ancestral and extant adjacencies are provided. DeCoSTAR supports the features of previously contributed tools that reconstruct ancestral adjacencies, namely DeCo, DeCoLT, ART-DeCo, and DeClone. In a few minutes, DeCoSTAR can reconstruct the evolutionary history of domains inside genes, of gene fusion and fission events, or of gene order along chromosomes, for large data sets including dozens of whole genomes from all kingdoms of life.

Address of the bookmark: https://github.com/YoannAnselmetti/DeCoSTAR_pipeline

InfoGenomeR: Integrative reconstruction of cancer genome karyotypes

Jit — Wed, 05 May 2021 01:02:18 -0500

InfoGenomeR is the Integrative Framework for Genome Reconstruction that uses a breakpoint graph to model the connectivity among genomic segments at the genome-wide scale. InfoGenomeR integrates cancer purity and ploidy, total CNAs, allele-specific CNAs, and haplotype information to identify the optimal breakpoint graph representing cancer genomes.

More at https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-021-22671-6

Address of the bookmark: https://github.com/dmcblab/InfoGenomeR

ASplice: a scalable and memory-efficient algorithm for de novo transcriptome assembly

Rahul Nayak — Tue, 03 Jul 2018 04:09:46 -0500

With increased availability of de novo assembly algorithms, it is feasible to study entire transcriptomes of non-model organisms. While algorithms are available that are specifically designed for performing transcriptome assembly from high-throughput sequencing data, they are very memory-intensive, limiting their applications to small data sets with few libraries. Texas A&M University researchers develop a transcriptome assembly algorithm that recovers alternatively spliced isoforms and expression levels while utilizing as many RNA-Seq libraries as possible that contain hundreds of gigabases of data. New techniques are developed so that computations can be performed on a computing cluster with moderate amount of physical memory. Availability – A software program that implements the algorithm is available at: http://faculty.cse.tamu.edu/shsze/asplice. Sze SH, Pimsler ML, Tomberlin JK, Jones CD, Tarone AM. (2017) A scalable and memory-efficient algorithm for de novo transcriptome assembly of non-model organisms. BMC Genomics 18(Suppl 4):387.

Address of the bookmark: http://faculty.cse.tamu.edu/shsze/asplice/