DOCSLIB.ORG

Xenbase: a Xenopus Biology and Genomics Resource Jeff B

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Xenbase: a Xenopus Biology and Genomics Resource Jeff B Published online 4 November 2007 Nucleic Acids Research, 2008, Vol. 36, Database issue D761–D767 doi:10.1093/nar/gkm826 Xenbase: a Xenopus biology and genomics resource Jeff B. Bowes1, Kevin A. Snyder1, Erik Segerdell2, Ross Gibb1, Chris Jarabek1, Etienne Noumen1, Nicolas Pollet3 and Peter D. Vize1,2,* 1Department of Computer Science, 2Department of Biological Sciences, University of Calgary, 2500 University Drive NW, Calgary, Alberta, Canada and 3Laboratoire Developpement et Evolution, CNRS UMR 8080, Universite Paris-Sud, Orsay 91405, France Received August 13, 2007; Revised September 18, 2007; Accepted September 20, 2007 ABSTRACT information, e.g. the genome, gene function, gene expres- sion and the literature, and externally to resources such as Xenbase (www.xenbase.org) is a model organism human congenital disease data from OMIM and mutant database integrating a diverse array of biological data from the mouse and the zebrafish. and genomic data on the frogs, Xenopus laevis Xenopus has a number of unique experimental advan- and Xenopus (Silurana) tropicalis. Data is collected tages as a vertebrate model system (2). Paramount from other databases, high-throughput screens and among these is the robustness of early embryos and their the scientific literature and integrated into a number amenability to microinjection and microsurgery. This of database modules covering subjects such as makes them a particularly attractive system for testing community, literature, gene and genomic analysis. the ectopic activity of gene products and loss-of-function Gene pages are automatically assembled from experiments using antagonizing reagents such as morpho- data piped from the Entrez Gene, Gurdon Institute, linos (3), dominant-negatives and neomorphic proteins JGI, Metazome, MGI, OMIM, PubMed, Unigene, (4). Morpholinos are synthetic oligonucleotides (3) that can be used to inhibit hnRNA splicing or mRNA Zfin, commercial suppliers and others. These data translation and are the common gene inhibition reagent are then supplemented with in-house annotation. in Xenopus as neither siRNA or miRNA have yet been Xenbase has implemented the Gbrowse genome shown to function in frog embryos. Xenopus embryos browser and also provides a BLAST service that develop very quickly and form a full set of differentiated allows users to specifically search either laevis tissues within days of fertilization, allowing rapid analysis or tropicalis DNA or protein targets. A table of of the effects of manipulating embryonic gene expression. Xenopus gene synonyms has been implemented There have also been a number of high-throughput and allows the genome, genes, publications and screens of gene expression patterns by wholemount in high-throughput gene expression data to be seam- situ hybridization in Xenopus (5). Not only are these lessly integrated with other Xenopus data and to data critical to ongoing research efforts in Xenopus, they external database resources, making the wealth of also serve researchers working in other systems by providing gene expression and function data not available developmental and functional data from the frog in their own model. available to the broader research community. Building a Xenopus database offered a variety of data handling challenges. In particular, seamlessly combining data from two species, Xenopus laevis—a tetraploid, INTRODUCTION and Xenopus tropicalis—a diploid (2), in an integrated Over the past decade the Xenopus experimental system has environment is complex. There is a wealth of data in the been supported by static community web sites such as the literature on gene function, full-length cDNA sequences Xenopus Molecular Marker Resource and by specialized and in situ databases on laevis, but no genome sequence databases such as Axeldb (1) and XDB3 (N. Ueno, or genetics. Xenopus tropicalis on the other hand has Personal communication). The latter databases contain a sequenced genome, genetics and strong EST support massive amounts of in situ gene expression data but there but little literature or gene expression data. Integrating is often little or no annotation and there is limited data from both organisms in a common environment integration with other data types or external resources. will allow these different strengths to complement each Xenbase (http://www.xenbase.org) was designed to greatly other. As laevis has larger embryos that are better broaden the range of data stored and to integrate this suited to microsurgery and tropicalis has the advantages information both internally between different types of of a diploid in mutant and experimental gene *To whom correspondence should be addressed. Tel: +403 220 8502; Fax: +403 289 9311; Email: [email protected] ß 2007 The Author(s) This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/ by-nc/2.0/uk/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. D762 Nucleic Acids Research, 2008, Vol. 36, Database issue knockdown experiments, both systems will continue to be records is transferred into Xenbase. Predicted protein and used in parallel and need ongoing support. A challenge mRNA sequences from JGI gene models are then used to that is common to all model organism databases is finding identify laevis orthologs locally via BLAST while gene a balance between automation and the manual curation of names and symbols are used to identify orthologs from data, yet another is to use tools and lessons from other mammals and fish. model organism databases without inheriting flaws and As a quality control step, a Xenbase staff annotator limitations. The public release of Xenbase version 2.0 is manually checks community annotations, ensuring that a solid step towards achieving these various goals. sufficient criteria were applied to select a specific gene We utilize elements of the generic model organism name and that the approved HGNC name and symbol database (GMOD) schema CHADO (6), the GMOD were applied. This is performed by Xenbase staff using the genome browser Gbrowse (7), and elements of zfin (8) and JGI gene annotation toolset on the JGI web site. As new MGI (9) database design in a customized manner to records are added, or old records modified, they are provide a comprehensive online resource of Xenopus flagged by a Xenbase weekly script, and then manually developmental and genomics data. processed by a Xenbase annotator. The Xenbase annota- tions from the JGI database are promoted to gene pages, while machine annotated pages are used to build clearly GENE PAGES identified temporary gene records. At the heart of Xenbase are the gene pages—a catalog of As HGNC names constantly evolve and change (11), over 11 000 genes derived from annotations of Joint Xenbase runs scripts that ensure the Xenopus data remains Genome Institute (JGI) Xenopus tropicalis gene models synchronized with the values associated with the predicted (http://genome.jgi-psf.org/Xentr4/). At the moment, human ortholog. When conflicts are identified these Xenopus tropicalis sequence assembly 4.1 has 27 934 records are flagged and a curator reannotates the gene associated models, generated by a variety of gene predic- record at the JGI and this will then be processed as an tion algorithms. Annotation from both a community- updated record in the next download cycle at Xenbase driven jamboree and ongoing distributed annotation has keeping both Xenopus databases in synchrony with resulted in approximately 2700 manually curated HGNC names. gene models. A total of 11 230 gene model annotations In addition to gene names, gene symbols, mRNA and have also been generated by the metazome automated protein sequence, a variety of additional data is collected pipeline which uses synteny to assign orthology. Of the from the JGI web portal. This includes genomic scaffold 2700 manually curated Xenbase gene pages, most also mapping data, appropriate ontology terms from GO, contain a large variety of other data including sequence KOG and EC, plus metazome and Unigene IDs. When data on X. laevis and human, mouse and zebrafish information for a manually curated gene is not present orthologs gathered from Entrez Gene (10) or from local in the JGI database, for example when a mouse gene BLAST. name/symbol does not match the HGNC name/symbol, Data from the two contributing Xenopus species are a custom curation tool allows an annotator to add this arranged in columns, with information in the left column information manually. This tool also allows the two representing tropicalis data and that in the right, laevis duplicated paralogs present in the zebrafish genome to be data (Figure 1). There are exceptions to this layout, for added to a single Xenbase gene page. A screenshot of example data regarding orthologs from mammalian and a representative gene page is illustrated by Figure 1. non-mammalian species and GO terms common to the gene products of both species. At the moment only one of the two paralogs from the tetraploid species, laevis, GENE NAMING AND SYNONYM MATCHING is displayed and paired with data from the orthologous tropicalis gene. In the future, data on the laevis paralog Applying HGNC names to Xenopus genes has discon- will also be made available through a tab system. When nected genome-generated gene models from the scientific laevis genomic data becomes available it will also be literature, as the names used in these two environments arranged on the right side of the page, although there has rarely match. The previous gene naming custom in the been no firm agreement on when this project will begin. Xenopus community was quite ad hoc—most genes were The Xenopus community voted to adopt HUGO gene only given a symbol, the symbol usually began with an nomenclature committee (HGNC) names and symbols ‘X’, and the symbol could refer to orthology, homology, (11) in surveys posted shortly before genome annotation function, a fictional character, etc. Once new gene names was initiated.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • The Mouse Gene Expression Database (GXD): 2021 Update
    The Jackson Laboratory The Mouseion at the JAXlibrary Faculty Research 2021 Faculty Research 1-8-2021 The mouse Gene Expression Database (GXD): 2021 update. Richard M. Baldarelli Constance M. Smith Jacqueline H. Finger Terry F. Hayamizu Ingeborg J. McCright See next page for additional authors Follow this and additional works at: https://mouseion.jax.org/stfb2021 Part of the Life Sciences Commons, and the Medicine and Health Sciences Commons Authors Richard M. Baldarelli, Constance M. Smith, Jacqueline H. Finger, Terry F. Hayamizu, Ingeborg J. McCright, Jingxia Xu, David R. Shaw, Jonathan S Beal, Olin Blodgett, Jeff Campbell, Lori E. Corbani, Pete J. Frost, Sharon C Giannatto, Dave Miers, James A. Kadin, Joel E Richardson, and Martin Ringwald D924–D931 Nucleic Acids Research, 2021, Vol. 49, Database issue Published online 26 October 2020 doi: 10.1093/nar/gkaa914 The mouse Gene Expression Database (GXD): 2021 update Richard M. Baldarelli, Constance M. Smith, Jacqueline H. Finger, Terry F. Hayamizu, Ingeborg J. McCright, Jingxia Xu, David R. Shaw, Jonathan S. Beal, Olin Blodgett, Jeffrey Campbell, Lori E. Corbani, Pete J. Frost, Sharon C. Giannatto, Dave B. Miers, Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/nar/article/49/D1/D924/5940496 by Jackson Laboratory user on 27 January 2021 James A. Kadin, Joel E. Richardson and Martin Ringwald * The Jackson Laboratory, 600 Main Street, Bar Harbor, ME 04609, USA Received September 14, 2020; Revised October 01, 2020; Editorial Decision October 02, 2020; Accepted October 02, 2020 ABSTRACT INTRODUCTION The Gene Expression Database (GXD; www. The longstanding objective of GXD has been to capture informatics.jax.org/expression.shtml) is an exten- and integrate different types of mouse developmental ex- sive and well-curated community resource of mouse pression information, with a focus on endogenous gene ex- developmental gene expression information.
    [Show full text]
  • Xenbase: a Genomic, Epigenomic and Transcriptomic Model Organism Database Kamran Karimi1,*, Joshua D
    Published online 20 October 2017 Nucleic Acids Research, 2018, Vol. 46, Database issue D861–D868 doi: 10.1093/nar/gkx936 Xenbase: a genomic, epigenomic and transcriptomic model organism database Kamran Karimi1,*, Joshua D. Fortriede2, Vaneet S. Lotay1, Kevin A. Burns2, Dong Zhou Wang1, Malcom E. Fisher2, Troy J. Pells1, Christina James-Zorn2, Ying Wang1, V.G. Ponferrada2, Stanley Chu1, Praneet Chaturvedi2, Aaron M. Zorn2 and Peter D. Vize1 1Departments of Biological Sciences and Computer Science, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta T2N1N4, Canada and 2Cincinnati Children’s Hospital, Division of Developmental Biology, 3333 Burnet Avenue, Cincinnati, OH 45229, USA Received September 13, 2017; Revised September 29, 2017; Editorial Decision October 02, 2017; Accepted October 02, 2017 ABSTRACT unique data generated through the many advantages of this system available to the larger biomedical research commu- Xenbase (www.xenbase.org) is an online resource nity. for researchers utilizing Xenopus laevis and Xeno- In the pre-genome era, Xenbase began with simple pus tropicalis, and for biomedical scientists seeking database modules supporting the Xenopus user commu- access to data generated with these model systems. nity and papers describing research using Xenopus (1). As Content is aggregated from a variety of external re- more powerful resources became available, new expressed sources and also generated by in-house curation of sequence tags and draft genomes were added to build gene- scientific literature and bioinformatic analyses. Over centric features such as ‘Gene Pages’ and these data were the past two years many new types of content have linked to the literature via our Xenopus Anatomical Ontol- been added along with new tools and functionalities ogy, or XAO (2).
    [Show full text]
  • WHITE PAPER in SUPPORT of RESEARCH on GENE REGULATORY NETWORKS (Draft Date: 9/18/2016)
    WHITE PAPER IN SUPPORT OF RESEARCH ON GENE REGULATORY NETWORKS (draft date: 9/18/2016) TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. Executive Summary 2. Introduction: Goals of this GRN White Paper 3. The GRN paradigm 4. Impact of GRN science on various research fields 5. What is needed for GRN science 6. Mechanisms to achieve goals 7. Conclusion statement 8. Appendices 1 1. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Gene regulatory networks (GRNs) constitute the genomic control systems for a broad range of biological processes, including the definition of spatial organization during development, morphogenesis, the differentiation of cell types, and the physiological response to internal and external changes in animals, plants, and prokaryotes. In recent years, the successful solution of several GRNs demonstrated the feasibility of addressing experimentally and computationally the causal control system of a variety of biological processes, opening the gate to a new area of biological sciences. However, despite these important advancements, only a few biological processes have so far been addressed at the GRN level. With this White Paper, we aim to bridge this current gap by illuminating the exciting possibilities of this novel research field, and by providing information and guidelines to facilitate the experimental and computational application of the GRN framework to a variety of biological contexts. The focus of GRN studies is to understand biological function as a consequence of genomic programs. GRN science addresses the mechanism and causality of development and other biological processes in terms of genomic information processing. Even in the simplest of animals, a layer of intricate regulatory commands is needed for development of the body plan and to control spatial and temporal gene expression.
    [Show full text]
  • Mouse Genome Informatics (MGI) Resource: Genetic, Genomic, and Biological Knowledgebase for the Laboratory Mouse Janan T
    ILAR Journal, 2017, Vol. 58, No. 1, 17–41 doi: 10.1093/ilar/ilx013 Article Mouse Genome Informatics (MGI) Resource: Genetic, Genomic, and Biological Knowledgebase for the Laboratory Mouse Janan T. Eppig Janan T. Eppig, PhD, is Professor Emeritus at The Jackson Laboratory in Bar Harbor, Maine. Address correspondence to Dr. Janan T. Eppig, The Jackson Laboratory, 600 Main Street, Bar Harbor, ME 04609 or email [email protected] Abstract The Mouse Genome Informatics (MGI) Resource supports basic, translational, and computational research by providing high-quality, integrated data on the genetics, genomics, and biology of the laboratory mouse. MGI serves a strategic role for the scientific community in facilitating biomedical, experimental, and computational studies investigating the genetics and processes of diseases and enabling the development and testing of new disease models and therapeutic interventions. This review describes the nexus of the body of growing genetic and biological data and the advances in computer technology in the late 1980s, including the World Wide Web, that together launched the beginnings of MGI. MGI develops and maintains a gold-standard resource that reflects the current state of knowledge, provides semantic and contextual data integration that fosters hypothesis testing, continually develops new and improved tools for searching and analysis, and partners with the scientific community to assure research data needs are met. Here we describe one slice of MGI relating to the development of community-wide large-scale mutagenesis and phenotyping projects and introduce ways to access and use these MGI data. References and links to additional MGI aspects are provided. Key words: database; genetics; genomics; human disease model; informatics; model organism; mouse; phenotypes Introduction strains and special purpose strains that have been developed The laboratory mouse is an essential model for understanding provide fertile ground for population studies and the potential human biology, health, and disease.
    [Show full text]
  • Response to Request for Information
    6120 Executive Boulevard, Suite 550 Rockville, MD 20852 Phone: (240) 880-2000 [email protected] genetics-gsa.org Response to Request for Information: FY 2021-2025 Strategic Plan for the Office of Research Infrastructure Programs: Division of Comparative Medicine and Division of Construction and Instruments Programs Submitted February 14, 2020 The Genetics Society of America (GSA) represents more than 5,500 researchers who use genetics to understand fundamental biological processes. The research progress of a large majority of our members depends on resources supported by the Office of Research Infrastructure Programs (ORIP). Given the critical nature of these tools, we wish to emphasize the particular importance of maintaining this support for existing model organism resources and making new investments that accelerate the pace at which insights from model organisms can impact human health and medicine. Model organism research has contributed major advances to our understanding of human biology, health, and disease NIH has historically made strategic investments in model organisms that provide significant advantages for discovery in biomedicine. These include yeast, Tetrahymena, Caenorhabditis elegans, fruit flies, Xenopus, zebrafish, and mouse, among others. These investments have paid off in major advances in our fundamental understanding of living systems, health, and disease, as well as technological tools to further advance biomedical research. One measure of that success is that an overwhelming majority of Nobel Prizes in Physiology or Medicine in the past 30 years have been awarded for discoveries that relied substantially on work carried out in model organisms. Among many examples of such Nobel-winning contributions are the discovery of telomeres and telomerase in Tetrahymena, the demonstration of nuclear reprogramming in Xenopus, the discovery of RNAi in C.
    [Show full text]
  • Web Resources for Model Organism Studies
    Genomics Proteomics Bioinformatics 13 (2015) 64–68 HOSTED BY Genomics Proteomics Bioinformatics www.elsevier.com/locate/gpb www.sciencedirect.com RESOURCE REVIEW Web Resources for Model Organism Studies Bixia Tang 1,2,a, Yanqing Wang 1,b, Junwei Zhu 1,c, Wenming Zhao 1,*,d 1 Core Genomic Facility, Beijing Institute of Genomics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China 2 University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China Received 9 January 2015; revised 22 January 2015; accepted 31 January 2015 Available online 20 February 2015 Handled by Zhang Zhang KEYWORDS Abstract An ever-growing number of resources on model organisms have emerged with the Model organism; continued development of sequencing technologies. In this paper, we review 13 databases of model Database; organisms, most of which are reported by the National Institutes of Health of the United States Genome; (NIH; http://www.nih.gov/science/models/). We provide a brief description for each database, as Bioinformatics; well as detail its data source and types, functions, tools, and availability of access. In addition, Biology we also provide a quality assessment about these databases. Significantly, the organism databases instituted in the early 1990s––such as the Mouse Genome Database (MGD), Saccharomyces Genome Database (SGD), and FlyBase––have developed into what are now comprehensive, core authority resources. Furthermore, all of the databases mentioned here update continually according to user feedback and with advancing technologies. Introduction research is to examine fundamental mechanisms that may be shared by many or all living entities. Some model organisms––such as Drosophila, mouse, and Model organisms were placed at the forefront of biomedical maize––have long histories of use, whereas others have been research by the end of the 20th century [1].
    [Show full text]
  • Tagging and Identification of Animal Resources Workshop Report September 6, 2017
    Tagging and Identification of Animal Resources Workshop Division of Comparative Medicine Office of Research Infrastructure Programs Division of Program Coordination, Planning, and Strategic Initiatives Office of the Director National Institutes of Health Wednesday, September 6, 2017 Bethesda, MD Workshop Report Tagging and Identification of Animal Resources Workshop Report September 6, 2017 Table of Contents A. Overview ..............................................................................................................1 B. Introduction and Welcome ................................................................................1 C. Summary of Presentations and Discussions ..................................................... 2 Rigor and Reproducibility in Biomedical Research: Current NIH Guidelines ....................... 2 Session 1: Identification of Animal Resources in Scientific Literature and Grant Reports .... 3 Session 2: Animal Repositories and Their Role in Supporting High-Standard Research ....... 5 Session 3: Common Publications Guidelines for Citing Animal Resources ........................... 7 Session 4: Future Development of Animal Resource Identifiers ............................................ 8 Panel Discussion: Animal Resources and the Challenges of Unique Identifiers .................. 10 Session 5: Hands-on Session with RRIDs ............................................................................. 11 D. Closing Remarks and Recommendations ....................................................... 12 Appendix
    [Show full text]
  • Xenopus Community White Paper 2009
    2011 Xenopus White Paper 1 Xenopus Community White Paper 2011 Contents: Executive Summary: Page 2 Introduction: Page 5 Immediate Needs of the Xenopus Community: Generation of the Xenopus ORFeome Page 6 Improvement of the Xenopus genome sequence Page 8 Essential Resources for Xenopus research: Improvement of long-range contiguity in the Xenopus laevis genome Page 10 Improvement of Xenopus antibody resources Page 12 Loss of function: Zinc Finger Nucleases/TILLING Page 14 Loss of function: Small inhibitory hairpin RNAs Page 16 Novel loss of function/knockdown/knockout technologies Page 18 Intergenic annotation of the Xenopus genome Page 18 Improvement of X. tropicalis genome – long range contiguity Page 20 Additions and improvements to Xenbase: The Xenopus Model Organism Database Page 21 Frogbook: A comprehensive resource for methods in Xenopus biology Page 21 Summaries of contributions by Xenopus research to the missions of the National Institutes of Health: Institute: Authors Page: NIGMS Wallingford, De Robertis, Gautier, and Zheng 23 NCI LaBonne and Gautier 28 NEI Vetter and Moore 31 NHLBI Krieg 34 NHGRI Loots 36 NIAID Robert 39 NIAAA Harris 43 NIBIB Davidson 44 NICHD Wylie and Harland 46 NIDCD Collazo 50 NIDCR Liu and Sive 52 NIDDK Wessely 55 NLM Vize 58 NIEHS Cimprich 59 NIMH Levin and Klein 61 NINDS Kelley 65 Appendix 1 – Contributors to the Xenopus Community White Paper 2011 Page 69 Appendix 2 – Signatories to the Xenopus Community White Paper 2011 Page 70 2011 Xenopus White Paper 2 Executive Summary Xenopus: An essential vertebrate model system for biomedical research: Model animals are crucial to advancing biomedical research.
    [Show full text]
  • Sequential Turnovers of Sex Chromosomes in African Clawed Frogs (Xenopus) Suggest Some Genomic Regions Are Good at Sex Determination
    G3: Genes|Genomes|Genetics Early Online, published on September 7, 2016 as doi:10.1534/g3.116.033423 Sequential turnovers of sex chromosomes in African clawed frogs (Xenopus) suggest some genomic regions are good at sex determination ,1 Benjamin L. S. Furman⇤ and Ben J. Evans⇤ ⇤Biology Department, Life Sciences Building Room 328, McMaster University, 1280 Main Street West, Hamilton, ON L8S4K1 ABSTRACT Sexual differentiation is fundamentally important for reproduction, yet the genetic triggers of this KEYWORDS developmental process can vary, even between closely related species. Recent studies have uncovered, sex chromo- for example, variation in the genetic triggers for sexual differentiation within and between species of African somes clawed frogs (genus Xenopus). Here, we extend these discoveries by demonstrating that yet another sex Xenopus determination system exists in Xenopus, specifically in the species X. borealis. This system evolved recently rapid evolution in an ancestor of X. borealis that had the same sex determination system as X. laevis, a system which itself is sex chromosome newly evolved. Strikingly, the genomic region carrying the sex determination factor in X. borealis is homologous turnover to that of therian mammals, including humans. Our results offer insights into how the genetic underpinnings SOX3 of conserved phenotypes evolve, and suggest an important role for co-option of genetic building blocks with conserved developmental roles. sex linked in a lizard (Gekko hokouensis) and birds (Kawai et al. INTRODUCTION 2009), and another separately became sex linked in a frog (Rana ru- gosa) and therian mammals (Wallis et al. 2007; Uno et al. 2008, 2013). For essentially all vertebrates, two sexes are needed to secure the As well, individual genes with sex-related function have repeat- benefits of genetic recombination associated with sexual reproduc- edly evolved into the trigger for sexual differentiation.
    [Show full text]
  • Use of Bioinformatics Tools in Different Spheres of Life Sciences
    g in Geno nin m i ic M s ta & a P Mehmood et al., J Data Mining Genomics Proteomics 2014, 5:2 D r f o Journal of o t e l DOI: 10.4172/2153-0602.1000158 o a m n r i c u s o J ISSN: 2153-0602 Data Mining in Genomics & Proteomics Review Article Open Access Use of Bioinformatics Tools in Different Spheres of Life Sciences Muhammad Aamer Mehmood1, Ujala Sehar1 and Niaz Ahmad2* 1Bioenergy Research Centre, Department of Bioinformatics and Biotechnology, Government College University Faisalabad, Faisalabad-38000, Pakistan 2Agricultural Biotechnology Division, National Institute for Biotechnology and Genetic Engineering (NIBGE), Jhang Road, Faisalabad-38000, Pakistan Abstract The pace, by which scientific knowledge is being produced and shared today, was never been so fast in the past. Different areas of science are getting closer to each other to give rise new disciplines. Bioinformatics is one of such newly emerging fields, which makes use of computer, mathematics and statistics in molecular biology to archive, retrieve, and analyse biological data. Although yet at infancy, it has become one of the fastest growing fields, and quickly established itself as an integral component of any biological research activity. It is getting popular due to its ability to analyse huge amount of biological data quickly and cost-effectively. Bioinformatics can assist a biologist to extract valuable information from biological data providing various web- and/or computer-based tools, the majority of which are freely available. The present review gives a comprehensive summary of some of these tools available to a life scientist to analyse biological data.
    [Show full text]
  • Detecting and Visualising Proteins in Xenopus Embryos
    DETECTING AND VISUALISING PROTEINS IN XENOPUS EMBRYOS Maya Zita Piccinni This thesis is submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the award of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy of the University of Portsmouth. September 2018 Declaration Whilst registered as a candidate for the above degree; I have not been registered for any other research award. The results and conclusions embodied in this thesis are the work of the named candidate and have not been submitted for any other academic award. WORD COUNT 62974 Acknowledgements Is my pleasure to give my special thanks to Peter Coxhead, Darren Gowers and Matt Guille for their support through my degree at Portsmouth, and for believing in me all these years. To Matt Guille and Colin Sharpe, for supporting me through the doctorate years; Colyn Crane-Robinson and Jerome Swinny for their valuable input and patience during our six annual meetings; to Sergei Sokol for allowing me to work in his lab and Keiji Itoh, Jonathan Chamberlain, Martin Devonshire, Simon Streeter, Samantha Griffiths and Liliya Nazlamova for their help in the practical aspects of research, to Anna Philpott for her intellectual input and Victoria Allan for helping us define the kash5 sequence. Very special thanks to my family, Hari, Bali, Mamá, Papá, Alex and children Eirwen, Skye and Edryd, who have been incredibly supportive and patient with me all this time. III Confidentiality and ethical consideration Ethics Statement All experiments and procedures in Xenopus are conducted under the British Home Office PPL 70/6450 held by Professor Matthew Guille in the “European Xenopus Resource Centre” following the Animal (Scientific Procedures) Act of 1986.
    [Show full text]
  • 2020 Xenopus Community White Paper
    2020 Xenopus Community White Paper Table of Contents: I. Executive summary………………………………………………………………………………………... 2 A. Xenopus is an essential vertebrate model system for biomedical research B. The NIH has made a substantial recent investment in biomedical research using Xenopus C. The NIH investment in Xenopus has been well justified by discoveries in basic biology D. NIH investment in Xenopus has led to significant advances in understanding human disease E. There is a broad consensus among the Xenopus community regarding our most pressing infrastructure needs F. The Xenopus community has identified two Immediate Needs and one Essential Resource II: Consensus building process for the 2020 Xenopus White Paper………………………………... 5 III: The Immediate Needs identified by the Xenopus Community A. Renewal of Xenbase …………………………………………………………….……….…………6 B. Enhancement of efficient gene editing approaches and mutant lines………………………….8 IV: An Essential Resource needed by the Xenopus Community………………….……….…. 10 XenCAt: A single cell atlas of Xenopus development V: General Conclusion…………………………………………………………………….……….………..12 VI: Appendices……………….………………………………………………………………………………13 A. Authors of the 2020 Xenopus White Paper B. The Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Course on “Cell and Developmental Biology of Xenopus.” C. The International Xenopus Conference D. The Xenopus Resources and Emerging Technologies (XRET) Meeting 2020 Xenopus Community White Paper Section I. Executive Summary A. Xenopus is an essential vertebrate model system for biomedical research: Model animals are crucial to advancing biomedical research. Basic studies in vertebrate animals rapidly accelerate our understanding of human health and disease. Among the commonly used model animals, the frog, Xenopus, has great impact because of its close evolutionary relationship with mammals. Moreover, the remarkable experimental repertoire of the Xenopus system has made it a cornerstone of neurobiology, physiology, molecular biology, cell biology, and developmental biology.
    [Show full text]