BOL: Related items

DEG 5.0: a database of essential genes in both prokaryotes and eukaryotes

Rahul Nayak — Tue, 30 Mar 2021 11:47:28 -0500

Essential genes are those indispensable for the survival of an organism, and their functions are therefore considered a foundation of life. Determination of a minimal gene set needed to sustain a life form, a fundamental question in biology, plays a key role in the emerging field, synthetic biology.

DEG is freely available at the website http://tubic.tju.edu.cn/deg or http://www.essentialgene.org.

Address of the bookmark: http://www.essentialgene.org/

ChIPBase: open database for studying the transcription factor binding sites and motifs

Abhi — Wed, 29 Dec 2021 05:36:03 -0600

ChIPBase v2.0 is an open database for studying the transcription factor binding sites and motifs, and decoding the transcriptional regulatory networks of lncRNAs, miRNAs, other ncRNAs and protein-coding genes from ChIP-seq data. Our database currently contains ~10,200 curated peak datasets derived from ChIP-seq methods in 10 species.

Address of the bookmark: https://rna.sysu.edu.cn/chipbase/

Upgrade R 3.0.3

Rahul Nayak — Mon, 10 Mar 2014 11:23:51 -0500

R is a free software programming language and software environment for statistical computing and graphics. The R language is widely used among statisticians and data miners for developing statistical software and data analysis. Polls and surveys of data miners are showing R's popularity has increased substantially in recent years. Recently the new version of R codename “Warm Puppy" have been released.

You can download the latest version from here http://cran.rstudio.com/ . Or, if you are using Windows, you can upgrade to the latest version using the installr package http://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/installr/ . Simply run the following code:

# installing/loading the package:
if(!require(installr)) {
install.packages("installr"); require(installr)} #load / install+load installr

updateR()

I try to keep the installr package updated and useful. If you have any suggestions or remarks on the package, you’re invited to leave a comment below.

If you use the global library system http://www.r-statistics.com/2010/04/changing-your-r-upgrading-strategy-and-the-r-code-to-do-it-on-windows/ , you can run the following in the new version of R:

source("http://www.r-statistics.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/upgrading-R-on-windows.r.txt")
New.R.RunMe()

Reference:

http://www.r-statistics.com/2014/03/r-3-0-3-is-released/

Early Genome Screening: The New Health Horoscope!

LEGE — Thu, 02 Jan 2025 19:44:36 -0600

In an era where precision medicine is reshaping healthcare, genome screening is emerging as the modern equivalent of a health horoscope. It offers insights into our biological "stars," unraveling predispositions to various conditions and empowering individuals with knowledge to navigate their health journeys proactively. But how reliable is this "horoscope," and how does it impact our lives?

Understanding Genome Screening

Genome screening involves analyzing an individual's DNA to identify genetic variations that may influence health and disease susceptibility. This can range from simple single-gene tests to comprehensive whole-genome sequencing. By peering into our genetic blueprint, we can uncover risks for conditions like cancer, diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, and even rare genetic disorders.

The process is straightforward: a saliva or blood sample is collected, and advanced sequencing technologies decipher the genetic code. The results provide a personalized health map, guiding lifestyle modifications, preventive measures, or medical interventions.

A Shift from Reactive to Proactive Healthcare

Traditional healthcare often focuses on treating diseases after they manifest. Genome screening flips this model on its head, enabling a shift toward prevention and early intervention. For instance:

Cancer Risk Management: Individuals with BRCA1 or BRCA2 gene mutations can opt for enhanced screening programs or preventive surgeries to mitigate their risk of breast and ovarian cancers.
Cardiovascular Health: Genetic predispositions to conditions like familial hypercholesterolemia can prompt early cholesterol monitoring and lifestyle adjustments.
Rare Diseases: Identifying carriers of genetic disorders can aid in family planning and reduce the incidence of inherited conditions.

The Ethical and Practical Concerns

While genome screening offers incredible promise, it is not without challenges:

Accuracy and Interpretation: Genetic predisposition does not guarantee disease. Misinterpretation of results can lead to unnecessary anxiety or unwarranted medical interventions.
Privacy and Data Security: Genetic data is highly sensitive. Ensuring robust data protection measures is crucial to prevent misuse.
Accessibility and Equity: High costs and limited availability may restrict access to genome screening, exacerbating health disparities.

Balancing Science and Pseudoscience

The comparison of genome screening to horoscopes isn’t entirely unfounded. Both offer predictive insights, but the scientific foundation of genome screening distinguishes it from astrology. Unlike the alignment of celestial bodies, genetic predictions are based on rigorous data and evidence. However, the probabilistic nature of genetic predispositions underscores the importance of interpreting results in conjunction with clinical and lifestyle factors.

The Road Ahead

As genome screening becomes more affordable and integrated into routine healthcare, its potential to transform lives is immense. Policymakers, healthcare providers, and genetic counselors must collaborate to ensure ethical implementation, public awareness, and equitable access.

Imagine a future where your genetic "horoscope" is a trusted guide, not just a prediction. Early genome screening could help chart a healthier path for generations, making it a cornerstone of personalized medicine. After all, our genes might just hold the key to unlocking a future of better health and well-being.

FastANI: fast alignment-free computation of whole-genome Average Nucleotide Identity (ANI)

Jit — Fri, 13 Jul 2018 17:27:01 -0500

FastANI is developed for fast alignment-free computation of whole-genome Average Nucleotide Identity (ANI). ANI is defined as mean nucleotide identity of orthologous gene pairs shared between two microbial genomes. FastANI supports pairwise comparison of both complete and draft genome assemblies. Its underlying procedure follows a similar workflow as described by Goris et al. 2007. However, it avoids expensive sequence alignments and uses Mashmap as its MinHash based sequence mapping engine to compute the orthologous mappings and alignment identity estimates. Based on our experiments with complete and draft genomes, its accuracy is on par with BLAST-based ANI solver and it achieves two to three orders of magnitude speedup. Therefore, it is useful for pairwise ANI computation of large number of genome pairs. More details about its speed, accuracy and potential applications are described here: "High-throughput ANI Analysis of 90K Prokaryotic Genomes Reveals Clear Species Boundaries".

Address of the bookmark: https://github.com/ParBLiSS/FastANI

MetaPlotR: a Perl/R pipeline for plotting metagenes of nucleotide modifications and other transcriptomic sites

Neel — Mon, 05 Nov 2018 08:12:45 -0600

An increasing number of studies are mapping protein binding and nucleotide modifications sites throughout the transcriptome. Often, these sites cluster in certain regions of the transcript, giving clues to their function. Hence, it is informative to summarize where in the transcript these sites occur. A metagene is a simple and effective tool for visualizing the distribution of sites along a simplified transcript model. In this work, we introduce MetaPlotR, a Perl/R pipeline for creating metagene plots.

Address of the bookmark: https://github.com/olarerin/metaPlotR

NCBI PSI-BLAST Tutorial

Wed, 04 Sep 2013 11:46:06 -0500

http:--www.biotechnology.jhu.edu- Tutorial for PSI-BLAST, an extension of BLAST that uses matrix algebra. BLAST is a cornerstone bioinformatics tool at NCBI. BLAST is the Basic Local Alignment Search tool and will protein and DNA sequences that are related to a sequence that the user provides.

BLAST+ updated !!!

Jit — Tue, 16 Jun 2015 16:55:24 -0500

A new version (2.2.31) of the stand-alone BLAST executables (Linux, Windows and MacOSX on FTP) is now available. New features include support for BLAST-XML2 specification (information here) and JSON BLAST output format, as well as several bug fixes and improvements. The BLAST AMI at AWS will also be updated to 2.2.31 (see this BLAST Help page for more information). For a full list of improvements, see the release notes.

More at http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/news/06-16-2015-blast-plus-update/?

sequenceserver

Jit — Fri, 10 Mar 2017 08:51:55 -0600

SequenceServer lets you rapidly set up a BLAST+ server with an intuitive user interface for use locally or over the web.

More at http://sequenceserver.com.

Address of the bookmark: https://github.com/wurmlab/sequenceserver

NCBI Magic-BLAST

Jit — Tue, 14 Aug 2018 18:11:11 -0500

Magic-BLAST is a tool for mapping large next-generation RNA or DNA sequencing runs against a whole genome or transcriptome. Each alignment optimizes a composite score, taking into account simultaneously the two reads of a pair, and in case of RNA-seq, locating the candidate introns and adding up the score of all exons. This is very different from other versions of BLAST, where each exon is scored as a separate hit and read-pairing is ignored.

Magic-BLAST incorporates within the NCBI BLAST code framework ideas developed in the NCBI Magic pipeline, in particular hit extensions by local walk and jump (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26109056), and recursive clipping of mismatches near the edges of the reads, which avoids accumulating artefactual mismatches near splice sites and is needed to distinguish short indels from substitutions near the edges.

Address of the bookmark: https://ncbi.github.io/magicblast/