Dataset Information

PSimScan: algorithm and utility for fast protein similarity search.

ABSTRACT: In the era of metagenomics and diagnostics sequencing, the importance of protein comparison methods of boosted performance cannot be overstated. Here we present PSimScan (Protein Similarity Scanner), a flexible open source protein similarity search tool which provides a significant gain in speed compared to BLASTP at the price of controlled sensitivity loss. The PSimScan algorithm introduces a number of novel performance optimization methods that can be further used by the community to improve the speed and lower hardware requirements of bioinformatics software. The optimization starts at the lookup table construction, then the initial lookup table-based hits are passed through a pipeline of filtering and aggregation routines of increasing computational complexity. The first step in this pipeline is a novel algorithm that builds and selects 'similarity zones' aggregated from neighboring matches on small arrays of adjacent diagonals. PSimScan performs 5 to 100 times faster than the standard NCBI BLASTP, depending on chosen parameters, and runs on commodity hardware. Its sensitivity and selectivity at the slowest settings are comparable to the NCBI BLASTP's and decrease with the increase of speed, yet stay at the levels reasonable for many tasks. PSimScan is most advantageous when used on large collections of query sequences. Comparing the entire proteome of Streptocuccus pneumoniae (2,042 proteins) to the NCBI's non-redundant protein database of 16,971,855 records takes 6.5 hours on a moderately powerful PC, while the same task with the NCBI BLASTP takes over 66 hours. We describe innovations in the PSimScan algorithm in considerable detail to encourage bioinformaticians to improve on the tool and to use the innovations in their own software development.

SUBMITTER: Kaznadzey A

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3591303 | biostudies-literature | 2013

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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PSimScan: algorithm and utility for fast protein similarity search.

Kaznadzey Anna A Alexandrova Natalia N Novichkov Vladimir V Kaznadzey Denis D

PloS one 20130307 3

In the era of metagenomics and diagnostics sequencing, the importance of protein comparison methods of boosted performance cannot be overstated. Here we present PSimScan (Protein Similarity Scanner), a flexible open source protein similarity search tool which provides a significant gain in speed compared to BLASTP at the price of controlled sensitivity loss. The PSimScan algorithm introduces a number of novel performance optimization methods that can be further used by the community to improve t ...[more]

PMID: 23505522

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Project description:BackgroundThe need to compare protein profiles frequently arises in various protein research areas: comparison of protein families, domain searches, resolution of orthology and paralogy. The existing fast algorithms can only compare a protein sequence with a protein sequence and a profile with a sequence. Algorithms to compare profiles use dynamic programming and complex scoring functions.ResultsWe developed a new algorithm called PHOG-BLAST for fast similarity search of profiles. This algorithm uses profile discretization to convert a profile to a finite alphabet and utilizes hashing for fast search. To determine the optimal alphabet, we analyzed columns in reliable multiple alignments and obtained column clusters in the 20-dimensional profile space by applying a special clustering procedure. We show that the clustering procedure works best if its parameters are chosen so that 20 profile clusters are obtained which can be interpreted as ancestral amino acid residues. With these clusters, only less than 2% of columns in multiple alignments are out of clusters. We tested the performance of PHOG-BLAST vs. PSI-BLAST on three well-known databases of multiple alignments: COG, PFAM and BALIBASE. On the COG database both algorithms showed the same performance, on PFAM and BALIBASE PHOG-BLAST was much superior to PSI-BLAST. PHOG-BLAST required 10-20 times less computer memory and computation time than PSI-BLAST.ConclusionSince PHOG-BLAST can compare multiple alignments of protein families, it can be used in different areas of comparative proteomics and protein evolution. For example, PHOG-BLAST helped to build the PHOG database of phylogenetic orthologous groups. An essential step in building this database was comparing protein complements of different species and orthologous groups of different taxons on a personal computer in reasonable time. When it is applied to detect weak similarity between protein families, PHOG-BLAST is less precise than rigorous profile-profile comparison method, though it runs much faster and can be used as a hit pre-selecting tool.

Dataset Information

PSimScan: algorithm and utility for fast protein similarity search.

Publications

PSimScan: algorithm and utility for fast protein similarity search.

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