Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Résumé : International audience
ISSN: 1080-6040

hal-01447667
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01447667
DOI : 10.3201/eid2210.160052

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD BioMed Central
Résumé : International audience
Background: Microbial genetic diversity is often investigated via the comparison of relatively similar 16S molecules through multiple alignments between reference sequences and novel environmental samples using phylogenetic trees, direct BLAST matches, or phylotypes counts. However, are we missing novel lineages in the microbial dark universe by relying on standard phylogenetic and BLAST methods? If so, how can we probe that universe using alternative approaches? We performed a novel type of multi-marker analysis of genetic diversity exploiting the topology of inclusive sequence similarity networks. Results: Our protocol identified 86 ancient gene families, well distributed and rarely transferred across the 3 domains of life, and retrieved their environmental homologs among 10 million predicted ORFs from human gut samples and other metagenomic projects. Numerous highly divergent environmental homologs were observed in gut samples, although the most divergent genes were over-represented in non-gut environments. In our networks, most divergent environmental genes grouped exclusively with uncultured relatives, in maximal cliques. Sequences within these groups were under strong purifying selection and presented a range of genetic variation comparable to that of a prokaryotic domain. Conclusions: Many genes families included environmental homologs that were highly divergent from cultured homologs: in 79 gene families (including 18 ribosomal proteins), Bacteria and Archaea were less divergent than some groups of environmental sequences were to any cultured or viral homologs. Moreover, some groups of environmental homologs branched very deeply in phylogenetic trees of life, when they were not too divergent to be aligned. These results underline how limited our understanding of the most diverse elements of the microbial world remains, and encourage a deeper exploration of natural communities and their genetic resources, hinting at the possibility that still unknown yet major divisions of life have yet to be discovered.
ISSN: 1745-6150

Droits : http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/
hal-01257771
http://hal.upmc.fr/hal-01257771
http://hal.upmc.fr/hal-01257771/document
http://hal.upmc.fr/hal-01257771/file/s13062-015-0092-3.pdf
DOI : 10.1186/s13062-015-0092-3

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution
Résumé : International audience
Although heterokaryons have been reported in nature, multicellular organisms are generally assumed genetically homogeneous. Here, we investigate the case of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) that form symbiosis with plant roots. The growth advantages they confer to their hosts are of great potential benefit to sustainable agricultural practices. However, measuring genetic diversity for these coenocytes is a major challenge: Within the same cytoplasm, AMF contain thousands of nuclei and show extremely high levels of genetic variation for some loci. The extent and physical location of polymorphism within and between AMF genomes is unclear. We used two complementary strategies to estimate genetic diversity in AMF, investigating polymorphism both on a genome scale and in putative single copy loci. First, we used data from whole-genome pyrosequencing of four AMF isolates to describe genetic diversity, based on a conservative network-based clustering approach. AMF isolates showed marked differences in genome-wide diversity patterns in comparison to a panel of control fungal genomes. This clustering approach further allowed us to provide conservative estimates of Rhizophagus spp. genomes sizes. Second, we designed new putative single copy genomic markers, which we investigated by massive parallel amplicon sequencing for two Rhizophagus irregularis and one Rhizophagus sp. isolates. Most loci showed high polymorphism, with up to 103 alleles per marker. This polymorphism could be distributed within or between nuclei. However, we argue that the Rhizophagus isolates under study might be heterokaryotic, at least for the putative single copy markers we studied. Considering that genetic information is the main resource for identification of AMF, we suggest that special attention is warranted for the study of these ecologically important organisms.
ISSN: 1759-6653

Droits : http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/
hal-01224215
http://hal.upmc.fr/hal-01224215
http://hal.upmc.fr/hal-01224215/document
http://hal.upmc.fr/hal-01224215/file/Genome%20Biol%20Evol-2015-Boon-505-21.pdf
DOI : 10.1093/gbe/evv002

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD BioMed Central
Résumé : International audience
Background: Increasingly, similarity networks are being used for evolutionary analyses of molecular datasets. These networks are very useful, in particular for the analysis of gene sharing, lateral gene transfer and for the detection of distant homologs. Currently, such analyses require some computer programming skills due to the limited availability of user-friendly freely distributed software. Consequently, although appealing, the construction and analyses of these networks remain less familiar to biologists than do phylogenetic approaches. Results: In order to ease the use of similarity networks in the community of evolutionary biologists, we introduce a software program, EGN, that runs under Linux or MacOSX. EGN automates the reconstruction of gene and genome networks from nucleic and proteic sequences. EGN also implements statistics describing genetic diversity in these samples, for various user-defined thresholds of similarities. In the interest of studying the complexity of evolutionary processes affecting microbial evolution, we applied EGN to a dataset of 571,044 proteic sequences from the three domains of life and from mobile elements. We observed that, in Borrelia, plasmids play a different role than in most other eubacteria. Rather than being genetic couriers involved in lateral gene transfer, Borrelia's plasmids and their genes act as private genetic goods, that contribute to the creation of genetic diversity within their parasitic hosts. Conclusion: EGN can be used for constructing, analyzing, and mining molecular datasets in evolutionary studies. The program can help increase our knowledge of the processes through which genes from distinct sources and/or from multiple genomes co-evolve in lineages of cellular organisms.
ISSN: 1471-2148

hal-01544799
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01544799
DOI : 10.1186/1471-2148-13-146

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Oxford University Press (OUP)
Résumé : International audience
DNA sequencing technology is becoming more accessible to a variety of researchers as costs continue to decline. As researchers begin to sequence novel transcriptomes, most of these data sets lack a reference genome and will have to rely on de novo assemblers. Making comparisons across assemblies can be difficult: each program has its strengths and weaknesses, and no tool exists to comparatively evaluate these data sets. We developed software in R, called Sequence Comparative Analysis using Networks (SCAN), to perform statistical comparisons between distinct assemblies. SCAN uses a reference data set to identify the most accurate de novo assembly and the ``good'' transcripts in the user's data. We tested SCAN on three publicly available transcriptomes, each assembled using three assembly programs. Moreover, we sequenced the transcriptome of the oomycete Achlya hypogyna and compared de novo assemblies from Velvet, ABySS, and the CLC Genomics Workbench assembly algorithms. One thousand one hundred twenty-eight of the CLC transcripts were statistically similar to the reference, compared with 49 of the Velvet transcripts and 937 of the ABySS transcripts. SCAN's strength is providing statistical support for transcript assemblies in a biological context. However, SCAN is designed to compare distinct node sets in networks, therefore it can also easily be extended to perform statistical comparisons on any network graph regardless of what the nodes represent.
ISSN: 0737-4038

hal-01544800
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01544800
DOI : 10.1093/molbev/mst087

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Landes Bioscience
Résumé : International audience
In 2008 we published the first set of guidelines for standardizing research in autophagy. Since then, research on this topic has continued to accelerate, and many new scientists have entered the field. Our knowledge base and relevant new technologies have also been expanding. Accordingly, it is important to update these guidelines for monitoring autophagy in different organisms. Various reviews have described the range of assays that have been used for this purpose. Nevertheless, there continues to be confusion regarding acceptable methods to measure autophagy, especially in multicellular eukaryotes. A key point that needs to be emphasized is that there is a difference between measurements that monitor the numbers or volume of autophagic elements (e.g., autophagosomes or autolysosomes) at any stage of the autophagic process vs. those that measure flux through the autophagy pathway (i.e., the complete process); thus, a block in macroautophagy that results in autophagosome accumulation needs to be differentiated from stimuli that result in increased autophagic activity, defined as increased autophagy induction coupled with increased delivery to, and degradation within, lysosomes (in most higher eukaryotes and some protists such as Dictyostelium) or the vacuole (in plants and fungi). In other words, it is especially important that investigators new to the field understand that the appearance of more autophagosomes does not necessarily equate with more autophagy. In fact, in many cases, autophagosomes accumulate because of a block in trafficking to lysosomes without a concomitant change in autophagosome biogenesis, whereas an increase in autolysosomes may reflect a reduction in degradative activity. Here, we present a set of guidelines for the selection and interpretation of methods for use by investigators who aim to examine macroautophagy and related processes, as well as for reviewers who need to provide realistic and reasonable critiques of papers that are focused on these processes. These guidelines are not meant to be a formulaic set of rules, because the appropriate assays depend in part on the question being asked and the system being used. In addition, we emphasize that no individual assay is guaranteed to be the most appropriate one in every situation, and we strongly recommend the use of multiple assays to monitor autophagy. In these guidelines, we consider these various methods of assessing autophagy and what information can, or cannot, be obtained from them. Finally, by discussing the merits and limits of particular autophagy assays, we hope to encourage technical innovation in the field.
Autophagy

hal-00735751
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00735751
PUBMED : 22966490