Klaas Vandepoele

Bio: Klaas Vandepoele is an academic researcher from Ghent University. The author has contributed to research in topics: Genome & Gene. The author has an hindex of 61, co-authored 176 publications receiving 16288 citations. Previous affiliations of Klaas Vandepoele include University of Calabria & Flanders Institute for Biotechnology.

The Phaeodactylum genome reveals the evolutionary history of diatom genomes

Abstract: Diatoms are photosynthetic secondary endosymbionts found throughout marine and freshwater environments, and are believed to be responsible for around one- fifth of the primary productivity on Earth(1,2). The genome sequence of the marine centric diatom Thalassiosira pseudonana was recently reported, revealing a wealth of information about diatom biology(3-5). Here we report the complete genome sequence of the pennate diatom Phaeodactylum tricornutum and compare it with that of T. pseudonana to clarify evolutionary origins, functional significance and ubiquity of these features throughout diatoms. In spite of the fact that the pennate and centric lineages have only been diverging for 90 million years, their genome structures are dramatically different and a substantial fraction of genes (similar to 40%) are not shared by these representatives of the two lineages. Analysis of molecular divergence compared with yeasts and metazoans reveals rapid rates of gene diversification in diatoms. Contributing factors include selective gene family expansions, differential losses and gains of genes and introns, and differential mobilization of transposable elements. Most significantly, we document the presence of hundreds of genes from bacteria. More than 300 of these gene transfers are found in both diatoms, attesting to their ancient origins, and many are likely to provide novel possibilities for metabolite management and for perception of environmental signals. These findings go a long way towards explaining the incredible diversity and success of the diatoms in contemporary oceans.

JASPAR 2018: update of the open-access database of transcription factor binding profiles and its web framework

Abstract: JASPAR (http://jaspar.genereg.net) is an open-access database of curated, non-redundant transcription factor (TF)-binding profiles stored as position frequency matrices (PFMs) and TF flexible models (TFFMs) for TFs across multiple species in six taxonomic groups. In the 2018 release of JASPAR, the CORE collection has been expanded with 322 new PFMs (60 for vertebrates and 262 for plants) and 33 PFMs were updated (24 for vertebrates, 8 for plants and 1 for insects). These new profiles represent a 30% expansion compared to the 2016 release. In addition, we have introduced 316 TFFMs (95 for vertebrates, 218 for plants and 3 for insects). This release incorporates clusters of similar PFMs in each taxon and each TF class per taxon. The JASPAR 2018 CORE vertebrate collection of PFMs was used to predict TF-binding sites in the human genome. The predictions are made available to the scientific community through a UCSC Genome Browser track data hub. Finally, this update comes with a new web framework with an interactive and responsive user-interface, along with new features. All the underlying data can be retrieved programmatically using a RESTful API and through the JASPAR 2018 R/Bioconductor package.

A High Quality Draft Consensus Sequence of the Genome of a Heterozygous Grapevine Variety

Abstract: Background. Worldwide, grapes and their derived products have a large market. The cultivated grape species Vitis vinifera has potential to become a model for fruit trees genetics. Like many plant species, it is highly heterozygous, which is an additional challenge to modern whole genome shotgun sequencing. In this paper a high quality draft genome sequence of a cultivated clone of V. vinifera Pinot Noir is presented. Principal Findings. We estimate the genome size of V. vinifera to be 504.6 Mb. Genomic sequences corresponding to 477.1 Mb were assembled in 2,093 metacontigs and 435.1 Mb were anchored to the 19 linkage groups (LGs). The number of predicted genes is 29,585, of which 96.1% were assigned to LGs. This assembly of the grape genome provides candidate genes implicated in traits relevant to grapevine cultivation, such as those influencing wine quality, via secondary metabolites, and those connected with the extreme susceptibility of grape to pathogens. Single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) distribution was consistent with a diffuse haplotype structure across the genome. Of around 2,000,000 SNPs, 1,751,176 were mapped to chromosomes and one or more of them were identified in 86.7% of anchored genes. The relative age of grape duplicated genes was estimated and this made possible to reveal a relatively recent Vitisspecific large scale duplication event concerning at least 10 chromosomes (duplication not reported before). Conclusions. Sanger shotgun sequencing and highly efficient sequencing by synthesis (SBS), together with dedicated assembly programs, resolved a complex heterozygous genome. A consensus sequence of the genome and a set of mapped marker loci were generated. Homologous chromosomes of Pinot Noir differ by 11.2% of their DNA (hemizygous DNA plus chromosomal gaps). SNP markers are offered as a tool with the potential of introducing a new era in the molecular breeding of grape.

Genome-Wide Analysis of Core Cell Cycle Genes in Arabidopsis

Abstract: Cyclin-dependent kinases and cyclins regulate with the help of different interacting proteins the progression through the eukaryotic cell cycle. A high-quality, homology-based annotation protocol was applied to determine the core cell cycle genes in the recently completed Arabidopsis genome sequence. In total, 61 genes were identified belonging to seven selected families of cell cycle regulators, for which 30 are new or corrections of the existing annotation. A new class of putative cell cycle regulators was found that probably are competitors of E2F/DP transcription factors, which mediate the G1-to-S progression. In addition, the existing nomenclature for cell cycle genes of Arabidopsis was updated, and the physical positions of all genes were compared with segmentally duplicated blocks in the genome, showing that 22 core cell cycle genes emerged through block duplications. This genome-wide analysis illustrates the complexity of the plant cell cycle machinery and provides a tool for elucidating the function of new family members in the future.

SPAdes, a new genome assembly algorithm and its applications to single-cell sequencing ( 7th Annual SFAF Meeting, 2012)

Abstract: The lion's share of bacteria in various environments cannot be cloned in the laboratory and thus cannot be sequenced using existing technologies. A major goal of single-cell genomics is to complement gene-centric metagenomic data with whole-genome assemblies of uncultivated organisms. Assembly of single-cell data is challenging because of highly non-uniform read coverage as well as elevated levels of sequencing errors and chimeric reads. We describe SPAdes, a new assembler for both single-cell and standard (multicell) assembly, and demonstrate that it improves on the recently released E+V-SC assembler (specialized for single-cell data) and on popular assemblers Velvet and SoapDeNovo (for multicell data). SPAdes generates single-cell assemblies, providing information about genomes of uncultivatable bacteria that vastly exceeds what may be obtained via traditional metagenomics studies. SPAdes is available online ( http://bioinf.spbau.ru/spades ). It is distributed as open source software.

“Bioinformatics” 특집을 내면서

Abstract: BIOE 402. Medical Technology Assessment. 2 or 3 hours. Bioentrepreneur course. Assessment of medical technology in the context of commercialization. Objectives, competition, market share, funding, pricing, manufacturing, growth, and intellectual property; many issues unique to biomedical products. Course Information: 2 undergraduate hours. 3 graduate hours. Prerequisite(s): Junior standing or above and consent of the instructor.

Phytozome: a comparative platform for green plant genomics

Abstract: The number of sequenced plant genomes and associated genomic resources is growing rapidly with the advent of both an increased focus on plant genomics from funding agencies, and the application of inexpensive next generation sequencing. To interact with this increasing body of data, we have developed Phytozome (http://www.phytozome.net), a comparative hub for plant genome and gene family data and analysis. Phytozome provides a view of the evolutionary history of every plant gene at the level of sequence, gene structure, gene family and genome organization, while at the same time providing access to the sequences and functional annotations of a growing number (currently 25) of complete plant genomes, including all the land plants and selected algae sequenced at the Joint Genome Institute, as well as selected species sequenced elsewhere. Through a comprehensive plant genome database and web portal, these data and analyses are available to the broader plant science research community, providing powerful comparative genomics tools that help to link model systems with other plants of economic and ecological importance.

The map-based sequence of the rice genome

Abstract: Rice, one of the world's most important food plants, has important syntenic relationships with the other cereal species and is a model plant for the grasses. Here we present a map-based, finished quality sequence that covers 95% of the 389 Mb genome, including virtually all of the euchromatin and two complete centromeres. A total of 37,544 non-transposable-element-related protein-coding genes were identified, of which 71% had a putative homologue in Arabidopsis. In a reciprocal analysis, 90% of the Arabidopsis proteins had a putative homologue in the predicted rice proteome. Twenty-nine per cent of the 37,544 predicted genes appear in clustered gene families. The number and classes of transposable elements found in the rice genome are consistent with the expansion of syntenic regions in the maize and sorghum genomes. We find evidence for widespread and recurrent gene transfer from the organelles to the nuclear chromosomes. The map-based sequence has proven useful for the identification of genes underlying agronomic traits. The additional single-nucleotide polymorphisms and simple sequence repeats identified in our study should accelerate improvements in rice production.

MCScanX: a toolkit for detection and evolutionary analysis of gene synteny and collinearity

Abstract: MCScan is an algorithm able to scan multiple genomes or subgenomes in order to identify putative homologous chromosomal regions, and align these regions using genes as anchors. The MCScanX toolkit implements an adjusted MCScan algorithm for detection of synteny and collinearity that extends the original software by incorporating 14 utility programs for visualization of results and additional downstream analyses. Applications of MCScanX to several sequenced plant genomes and gene families are shown as examples. MCScanX can be used to effectively analyze chromosome structural changes, and reveal the history of gene family expansions that might contribute to the adaptation of lineages and taxa. An integrated view of various modes of gene duplication can supplement the traditional gene tree analysis in specific families. The source code and documentation of MCScanX are freely available at http://chibba.pgml.uga.edu/mcscan2/.