Related papers: Genome landscapes and bacteriophage codon usage
To regulate a particular gene, a transcription factor (TF) needs to bind a specific genome location. How is this genome address specified amid the presence of ~10^6-10^9 decoy sites? Our analysis of 319 known TF binding motifs clearly…
Although the role of lateral gene transfer is well recognized in the evolution of bacteria, it is generally assumed that it has had less influence among eukaryotes. To explore this hypothesis we compare the dynamics of genome evolution in…
Bacteria commonly inhabit porous environments such as host tissues, soil, and marine sediments, where complex geometries constrain and redirect their motion. Although bacterial motility has been studied in porous media, the roles of cell…
When estimating a phylogeny from a multiple sequence alignment, researchers often assume the absence of recombination. However, if recombination is present, then tree estimation and all downstream analyses will be impacted, because…
The amplification cycle of many replicators (natural or artificial) involves the usage of a host compartment, inside of which the replicator express phenotypic compounds necessary to carry out its genetic replication. For example, viruses…
The evolution in coding DNA sequences brings new flexibility and freedom to the codon words, even as the underlying nucleotides get significantly ordered. These curious contra-rules of gene organisation are observed from the distribution of…
A self-organizing approach is proposed for gene finding based on the model of codon usage for coding regions and positional preference for noncoding regions. The symmetry between the direct and reverse coding regions is adopted for reducing…
Cotranslational folding depends on the folding speed and stability of the nascent protein. It remains difficult, however, to predict which proteins cotranslationally fold. Here, we simulate evolution of model proteins to investigate how…
The set of regulatory interactions between genes, mediated by transcription factors, forms a species' transcriptional regulatory network (TRN). By comparing this network with measured gene expression data one can identify functional…
A major goal of molecular evolutionary biology is to identify loci or regions of the genome under selection versus those evolving in a neutral manner. Correct identification allows accurate inference of the evolutionary process and thus…
The accumulation of adaptive mutations is essential for survival in novel environments. However, in clonal populations with a high mutational supply, the power of natural selection is expected to be limited. This is due to clonal…
Sex chromosomes have evolved repeatedly across the Tree of Life, yet their evolutionary fates differ strikingly. In sharp contrast to mammals and birds with degenerated, stable Y/W chromosomes, in most amphibians, teleosts, non avian…
Vector-borne diseases often infect multiple host species, increasing the likelihood of disease persistence due to the presence of multiple reservoirs. Vector biting patterns and feeding preferences can shift in response to selective…
By analyzing the spacing of genes on chromosomes, we find that transcriptional and RNA-processing regulatory sequences outside coding regions leave footprints on the distribution of intergenic distances. Using analogies between genes on…
The application of deep learning methods, particularly foundation models, in biological research has surged in recent years. These models can be text-based or trained on underlying biological data, especially omics data of various types.…
Models of protein energetics which neglect interactions between amino acids that are not adjacent in the native state, such as the Go model, encode or underlie many influential ideas on protein folding. Implicit in this simplification is a…
Filamentous phage, such as fd used in this study, are thread-shaped bacterial viruses. Their outer coat is a tube formed by thousands equal copies of the major coat protein pVIII. We constructed libraries of random peptides fused to all…
Darwinian evolution is driven by random mutations, genetic recombination (gene shuffling) and selection that favors genotypes with high fitness. For systems where each genotype can be represented as a bitstring of length $L$, an overview of…
We have performed a statistical analysis of the spatial distribution of operons in the transcriptional regulation network of Escherichia coli. The analysis reveals that operons that regulate each other and operons that are coregulated tend…
Structural changes in a network representation of a system (e.g.,different experimental conditions, time evolution), can provide insight on its organization, function and on how it responds to external perturbations. The deeper…