Prioritizing orphan proteins for further study using phylogenomics and gene expression profiles in Streptomyces coelicolor

Alam, M., Takano, E. and Breitling, R. (2011) Prioritizing orphan proteins for further study using phylogenomics and gene expression profiles in Streptomyces coelicolor. BMC Research Notes, 4(1), p. 325. (doi: 10.1186/1756-0500-4-325)

Abstract

BACKGROUND:Streptomyces coelicolor, a model organism of antibiotic producing bacteria, has one of the largest genomes of the bacterial kingdom, including 7825 predicted protein coding genes. A large number of these genes, nearly 34%, are functionally orphan (hypothetical proteins with unknown function). However, in gene expression time course data, many of these functionally orphan genes show interesting expression patterns.RESULTS:In this paper, we analyzed all functionally orphan genes of Streptomyces coelicolor and identified a list of "high priority" orphans by combining gene expression analysis and additional phylogenetic information (i.e. the level of evolutionary conservation of each protein).CONCLUSIONS:The prioritized orphan genes are promising candidates to be examined experimentally in the lab for further characterization of their function

• Item Type: Articles
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Breitling, Professor Rainer
• Authors: Alam, M., Takano, E., and Breitling, R.
• College/School: College of Medical Veterinary and Life Sciences > School of Molecular Biosciences
• Journal Name: BMC Research Notes
• ISSN: 1756-0500