Shengcheng Zhang, Hejun Du, Xingtan Zhang, Binzhong Wang
{"title":"CATG: Software for Collinearity-Based Genome Assembly Correction.","authors":"Shengcheng Zhang, Hejun Du, Xingtan Zhang, Binzhong Wang","doi":"10.1093/g3journal/jkae277","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/g3journal/jkae277","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Genome assembly errors can have a profound effect on downstream analyses. Collinearity-based Assembly Correction Tool (CATG) is designed to rectify these errors by leveraging collinearity information between the assembled genome and a reference genome. CATG provides a user-friendly interface for visualizing and manually correcting assembly errors. It supports various operations such as insertion, deletion, inversion, and swapping of contigs and chromosomes. The software automatically re-clusters, re-labels, and re-draws the assembly after each modification, ensuring that users can easily track changes. CATG is a robust tool designed to efficiently correct large-scale assembly errors in polyploid genomes, featuring advanced collinearity detection capabilities.</p>","PeriodicalId":12468,"journal":{"name":"G3: Genes|Genomes|Genetics","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2024-11-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142686515","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Ben Ewen-Campen, Neha Joshi, Ashley Suraj Hermon, Tanuj Thakkar, Jonathan Zirin, Norbert Perrimon
{"title":"A collection of split-Gal4 drivers targeting conserved signaling ligands in Drosophila.","authors":"Ben Ewen-Campen, Neha Joshi, Ashley Suraj Hermon, Tanuj Thakkar, Jonathan Zirin, Norbert Perrimon","doi":"10.1093/g3journal/jkae276","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/g3journal/jkae276","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Communication between cells in metazoan organisms is mediated by a remarkably small number of highly conserved signaling pathways. Given this small number of signaling pathways, the existence of multiple related ligands for many of these pathways represents a key evolutionary innovation for encoding complexity into cell-cell signaling. Relatedly, crosstalk between pathways is another critical feature which allows a modest number pathways to ultimately generate an enormously diverse range of outcomes. It would thus be useful to have genetic tools to identify and manipulate not only those cells which express a given signaling ligand, but also those cells that specifically co-express pairs of signaling ligands. We present a collection of split-Gal4 knock-in lines targeting many of the ligands for highly conserved signaling pathways in Drosophila (Notch, Hedgehog, FGF, EGF, TGFβ, JAK/STAT, JNK, and PVR). We demonstrate that these lines faithfully recapitulate the endogenous expression pattern of their targets, and that they can be used to identify cells and tissues that co-express pairs of ligands. As a proof of principle, we demonstrate that the 4th chromosome TGFβ ligands myoglianin and maverick are broadly co-expressed in muscles and other tissues of both larva and adults, and that the JAK/STAT ligands upd2 and upd3 are partially co-expressed from cells of the midgut following gut damage. Together with our previously collection of split-Gal4 lines targeting the seven Wnt ligands, this resource allows Drosophila researchers to identify and genetically manipulate cells that specifically express pairs of conserved ligands from nearly all the major intercellular signaling pathways.</p>","PeriodicalId":12468,"journal":{"name":"G3: Genes|Genomes|Genetics","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2024-11-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142681375","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Randi Yeager, Lydia R Heasley, Nolan Baker, Vatsal Shrivastava, Julie Woodman, Michael A McMurray
{"title":"Wild yeast isolation by middle school students reveals features of populations residing on North American oaks.","authors":"Randi Yeager, Lydia R Heasley, Nolan Baker, Vatsal Shrivastava, Julie Woodman, Michael A McMurray","doi":"10.1093/g3journal/jkae270","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/g3journal/jkae270","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Features of the natural life cycle of the budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae were crucial to its domestication as a laboratory experimental model, especially the ability to maintain stable haploid clones and cross them at will to combine alleles via meiosis. Stable haploidy results from mutations in HO, which encodes an endonuclease required for haploid-specific mating-type switching. Previous studies found an unexpected diversity of HO alleles among natural isolates within a small geographic area. We developed a hands-on field and laboratory activity for middle school students in Denver, Colorado, USA to isolate wild yeast from oak bark, identify species via DNA sequencing, and sequence HO from S. cerevisiae isolates. We find limited HO diversity in North American oak isolates, pointing to efficient, continuous dispersal across the continent. By contrast, we isolated the \"dairy yeast\", Kluyveromyces lactis, from a tree <10 m away and found that it represents a new population distinct from an oak population in an adjacent state. The outreach activity partnered middle school, high school, and university students in making scientific discoveries and can be adapted to other locations and natural yeast habitats. Indeed, a pilot sampling activity in southeast Texas yielded S. cerevisiae oak isolates with a new allele of HO and, from a nearby prickly pear cactus, a heat-tolerant isolate of Saccharomyces paradoxus.</p>","PeriodicalId":12468,"journal":{"name":"G3: Genes|Genomes|Genetics","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2024-11-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142686521","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Erika L Ellison, Peng Zhou, Yi-Hsuan Chu, Peter Hermanson, Lina Gomez-Cano, Zachary A Myers, Ankita Abnave, John Gray, Candice N Hirsch, Erich Grotewold, Nathan M Springer
{"title":"Transcriptome profiling of maize transcription factor mutants to probe gene regulatory network predictions.","authors":"Erika L Ellison, Peng Zhou, Yi-Hsuan Chu, Peter Hermanson, Lina Gomez-Cano, Zachary A Myers, Ankita Abnave, John Gray, Candice N Hirsch, Erich Grotewold, Nathan M Springer","doi":"10.1093/g3journal/jkae274","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/g3journal/jkae274","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Transcription factors (TFs) play important roles in regulation of gene expression and phenotype. A variety of approaches have been utilized to develop gene-regulatory networks (GRNs) to predict the regulatory targets for each TF, such as yeast-one-hybrid (Y1H) screens and gene co-expression network (GCN) analysis. Here we identified potential TF targets and used a reverse genetics approach to test the predictions of several GRNs in maize. Loss-of-function mutant alleles were isolated for 22 maize TFs. These mutants did not exhibit obvious morphological phenotypes. However, transcriptomic profiling identified differentially expressed genes in each of the mutant genotypes, and targeted metabolic profiling indicated variable phenolic accumulation in some mutants. An analysis of expression levels for predicted target genes based on Y1H screens identified a small subset of predicted targets that exhibit altered expression levels. The analysis of predicted targets from GCN-based methods found significant enrichments for prediction sets of some TFs, but most predicted targets did not exhibit altered expression. This could result from false-positive GCN predictions, a TF with a secondary regulatory role resulting in minor effects on gene regulation, or redundant gene regulation by other TFs. Collectively, these findings suggest that loss-of-function for single uncharacterized TFs might have limited phenotypic impacts but can reveal subsets of GRN predicted targets with altered expression.</p>","PeriodicalId":12468,"journal":{"name":"G3: Genes|Genomes|Genetics","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2024-11-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142681386","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Dan Vitale, Mathew J Koretsky, Nicole Kuznetsov, Samantha Hong, Jessica Martin, Mikayla James, Mary B Makarious, Hampton Leonard, Hirotaka Iwaki, Faraz Faghri, Cornelis Blauwendraat, Andrew B Singleton, Yeajin Song, Kristin Levine, Ashwin Ashok Kumar Sreelatha, Zih-Hua Fang, Mike Nalls
{"title":"GenoTools: An Open-Source Python Package for Efficient Genotype Data Quality Control and Analysis.","authors":"Dan Vitale, Mathew J Koretsky, Nicole Kuznetsov, Samantha Hong, Jessica Martin, Mikayla James, Mary B Makarious, Hampton Leonard, Hirotaka Iwaki, Faraz Faghri, Cornelis Blauwendraat, Andrew B Singleton, Yeajin Song, Kristin Levine, Ashwin Ashok Kumar Sreelatha, Zih-Hua Fang, Mike Nalls","doi":"10.1093/g3journal/jkae268","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/g3journal/jkae268","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>GenoTools, a Python package, streamlines population genetics research by integrating ancestry estimation, quality control (QC), and genome-wide association studies (GWAS) capabilities into efficient pipelines. By tracking samples, variants, and quality-specific measures throughout fully customizable pipelines, users can easily manage genetics data for large and small studies. GenoTools' \"Ancestry\" module renders highly accurate predictions, allowing for high-quality ancestry-specific studies, and enables custom ancestry model training and serialization specified to the user's genotyping or sequencing platform. As the genotype processing engine that powers several large initiatives, including the NIH's Center for Alzheimer's and Related Dementias (CARD) and the Global Parkinson's Genetics Program (GP2), GenoTools was used to process and analyze the UK Biobank and major Alzheimer's Disease (AD) and Parkinson's Disease (PD) datasets with over 400,000 genotypes from arrays and 5,000 whole genome sequencing (WGS) samples and has led to novel discoveries in diverse populations. It has provided replicable ancestry predictions, implemented rigorous QC, and conducted genetic ancestry-specific GWAS to identify systematic errors or biases through a single command. GenoTools is a customizable tool that enables users to efficiently analyze and scale genotyping and sequencing (WGS and exome) data with reproducible and scalable ancestry, QC, and GWAS pipelines.</p>","PeriodicalId":12468,"journal":{"name":"G3: Genes|Genomes|Genetics","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2024-11-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142681382","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Paola Najera, Olivia A Dratler, Alexander B Mai, Miguel Elizarraras, Rahul Vanchinathan, Christopher A Gonzales, Richard P Meisel
{"title":"Testis- and ovary-expressed polo-like kinase transcripts and gene duplications affect male fertility when expressed in the Drosophila melanogaster germline.","authors":"Paola Najera, Olivia A Dratler, Alexander B Mai, Miguel Elizarraras, Rahul Vanchinathan, Christopher A Gonzales, Richard P Meisel","doi":"10.1093/g3journal/jkae273","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/g3journal/jkae273","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Polo-like kinases (Plks) are essential for spindle attachment to the kinetochore during prophase and the subsequent dissociation after anaphase in both mitosis and meiosis. There are structural differences in the spindle apparatus between mitosis, male meiosis, and female meiosis. It is therefore possible that alleles of Plk genes could improve kinetochore attachment or dissociation in spermatogenesis or oogenesis, but not both. These opposing effects could result in sexually antagonistic selection at Plk loci. In addition, Plk genes have been independently duplicated in many different evolutionary lineages within animals. This raises the possibility that Plk gene duplication may resolve sexual conflicts over mitotic and meiotic functions. We investigated this hypothesis by comparing the evolution, gene expression, and functional effects of the single Plk gene in Drosophila melanogaster (polo) and the duplicated Plks in Drosophila pseudoobscura (Dpse-polo and Dpse-polo-dup1). Dpse-polo-dup1 is expressed primarily in testis, while other Drosophila Plk genes have broader expression profiles. We found that the protein-coding sequence of Dpse-polo-dup1 is evolving significantly faster than a canonical polo gene across all functional domains, yet the essential structure of the encoded protein has been retained. We present additional evidence that the faster evolution of Dpse-polo-dup1 is driven by the adaptive fixation of amino acid substitutions. We also found that over or ectopic expression of polo or Dpse-polo in the D. melanogaster male germline resulted in greater male infertility than expression of Dpse-polo-dup1. Lastly, expression of Dpse-polo or an ovary-derived transcript of polo in the male germline caused males to sire female-biased broods, suggesting that some Plk transcripts can affect the meiotic transmission of the sex chromosomes in the male germline. However, there was no sex-bias in the progeny when Dpse-polo-dup1 was ectopically expressed or a testis-derived transcript of polo was overexpressed in the D. melanogaster male germline. Our results therefore suggest that Dpse-polo-dup1 may have experienced positive selection to improve its regulation of the male meiotic spindle, resolving sexual conflict over meiotic Plk functions. Alternatively, Dpse-polo-dup1 may encode a hypomorphic Plk that has reduced deleterious effects when overexpressed in the male germline. Similarly, testis transcripts of D. melanogaster polo may be optimized for regulating the male meiotic spindle, and we provide evidence that the untranslated regions of the polo transcript may be involved in sex-specific germline functions.</p>","PeriodicalId":12468,"journal":{"name":"G3: Genes|Genomes|Genetics","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2024-11-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142681384","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Overview of the Saccharomyces cerevisiae population structure through the lens of 3,034 genomes.","authors":"Victor Loegler, Anne Friedrich, Joseph Schacherer","doi":"10.1093/g3journal/jkae245","DOIUrl":"10.1093/g3journal/jkae245","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>With the rise of high-throughput sequencing technologies, a holistic view of genetic variation within populations-through population genomics studies-appears feasible, although it remains an ongoing effort. Genetic variation arises from a diverse range of evolutionary forces, with mutation and recombination being key drivers in shaping genomes. Studying genetic variation within a population represents a crucial first step in understanding the relationship between genotype and phenotype and the evolutionary history of species. In this context, the budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae has been at the forefront of population genomic studies. In addition, it has a complex history that involves adaptation to a wide range of wild and human-related ecological niches. Although to date more than 3,000 diverse isolates have been sequenced, there is currently a lack of a resource bringing together sequencing data and associated metadata for all sequenced isolates. To perform a comprehensive analysis of the population structure of S. cerevisiae, we collected genome sequencing data from 3,034 natural isolates and processed the data uniformly. We determined ploidy levels, identified single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), small insertion-deletions (InDels), copy number variations (CNVs), and aneuploidies across the population, creating a publicly accessible resource for the yeast research community. Interestingly, we showed that this population captures ∼93% of the species diversity. Using neighbor-joining and Bayesian methods, we redefined the populations, revealing clustering patterns primarily based on ecological origin. This work represents a valuable resource for the community and efforts have been made to make it evolvable and integrable to future yeast population studies.</p>","PeriodicalId":12468,"journal":{"name":"G3: Genes|Genomes|Genetics","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2024-11-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142667713","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Samuel C Talbot, Iovanna Pandelova, Bernd Markus Lange, Kelly J Vining
{"title":"A first look at the genome structure of hexaploid \"Mitcham\" peppermint (Mentha × piperita L.).","authors":"Samuel C Talbot, Iovanna Pandelova, Bernd Markus Lange, Kelly J Vining","doi":"10.1093/g3journal/jkae195","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/g3journal/jkae195","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Peppermint, Mentha × piperita L., is a hexaploid (2n = 6x = 72) and the predominant cultivar of commercial mint oil production in the US. This cultivar is threatened because of high susceptibility to the fungal disease verticillium wilt, caused by Verticillium dahliae. This report details the first draft polyploid chromosome-level genome assembly for this mint species. The \"Mitcham\" genome resource will broaden comparative studies of disease resistance, essential oil biosynthesis, and hybridization events within the genus Mentha. It will also be a valuable contribution to the body of phylogenetic studies involving Mentha and other genera that contain species with varying ploidy levels.</p>","PeriodicalId":12468,"journal":{"name":"G3: Genes|Genomes|Genetics","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2024-11-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142675025","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Lorenz Rhuel P Ragasa, Christina A Cuomo, Ricardo C H Del Rosario, Michael C Velarde
{"title":"Comparative genomics reveals putative copper tolerance genes in a Fusarium oxysporum strain.","authors":"Lorenz Rhuel P Ragasa, Christina A Cuomo, Ricardo C H Del Rosario, Michael C Velarde","doi":"10.1093/g3journal/jkae272","DOIUrl":"10.1093/g3journal/jkae272","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Copper has been widely used as a main component in fungicides due to its versatility and effectivity. However, copper contamination from the environment creates selective pressure for the emergence of copper-tolerant pathogenic fungal strains that may proliferate and further cause damage to important agricultural crops. Although some studies focused on specific cellular mechanisms of copper tolerance, comprehensive genomic data is lacking. Here, we examined the genes potentially involved in copper tolerance by conducting a comparative analysis of newly sequenced genomes of two Fusarium oxysporum strains, IB-SN1W (copper-tolerant) and Foc-3429 (copper-sensitive), with other Fusarium species. Whole genome assembly and annotation identified ten core chromosomes shared between the two strains. Protein prediction revealed 16,894 and 15,420 protein coding genes for IB-SN1W and Foc-3429, respectively. There are 388 unique genes in IB-SN1W not found in Foc-3429, potentially contributing to copper tolerance. Furthermore, the identification of synteny between the two strains, including the analysis of orthologous genes within the Fusarium genus, confirmed the presence of accessory chromosomes that are specific to IB-SN1W, accounting for 13% of the genome. These accessory chromosomes consist of genes associated with cation transporter activity, vacuole, copper oxidases, and copper transporters which shed light on the potential mechanism of copper tolerance in this strain. Additionally, a region within an accessory chromosome contains a high density of copper-related genes, raising the possibility that horizontal transfer of these chromosomes may contribute to copper tolerance.</p>","PeriodicalId":12468,"journal":{"name":"G3: Genes|Genomes|Genetics","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2024-11-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142667711","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}