Dataset Information

PLAZA 4.0: an integrative resource for functional, evolutionary and comparative plant genomics.

ABSTRACT: PLAZA (https://bioinformatics.psb.ugent.be/plaza) is a plant-oriented online resource for comparative, evolutionary and functional genomics. The PLAZA platform consists of multiple independent instances focusing on different plant clades, while also providing access to a consistent set of reference species. Each PLAZA instance contains structural and functional gene annotations, gene family data and phylogenetic trees and detailed gene colinearity information. A user-friendly web interface makes the necessary tools and visualizations accessible, specific for each data type. Here we present PLAZA 4.0, the latest iteration of the PLAZA framework. This version consists of two new instances (Dicots 4.0 and Monocots 4.0) providing a large increase in newly available species, and offers access to updated and newly implemented tools and visualizations, helping users with the ever-increasing demands for complex and in-depth analyzes. The total number of species across both instances nearly doubles from 37 species in PLAZA 3.0 to 71 species in PLAZA 4.0, with a much broader coverage of crop species (e.g. wheat, palm oil) and species of evolutionary interest (e.g. spruce, Marchantia). The new PLAZA instances can also be accessed by a programming interface through a RESTful web service, thus allowing bioinformaticians to optimally leverage the power of the PLAZA platform.

SUBMITTER: Van Bel M

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5753339 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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PLAZA 4.0: an integrative resource for functional, evolutionary and comparative plant genomics.

Van Bel Michiel M Diels Tim T Vancaester Emmelien E Kreft Lukasz L Botzki Alexander A Van de Peer Yves Y Coppens Frederik F Vandepoele Klaas K

Nucleic acids research 20180101 D1

PLAZA (https://bioinformatics.psb.ugent.be/plaza) is a plant-oriented online resource for comparative, evolutionary and functional genomics. The PLAZA platform consists of multiple independent instances focusing on different plant clades, while also providing access to a consistent set of reference species. Each PLAZA instance contains structural and functional gene annotations, gene family data and phylogenetic trees and detailed gene colinearity information. A user-friendly web interface makes ...[more]

PMID: 29069403

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Project description:BackgroundIdentifying functions for all gene products in all sequenced organisms is a central challenge of the post-genomic era. However, at least 30-50% of the proteins encoded by any given genome are of unknown or vaguely known function, and a large number are wrongly annotated. Many of these 'unknown' proteins are common to prokaryotes and plants. We set out to predict and experimentally test the functions of such proteins. Our approach to functional prediction integrates comparative genomics based mainly on microbial genomes with functional genomic data from model microorganisms and post-genomic data from plants. This approach bridges the gap between automated homology-based annotations and the classical gene discovery efforts of experimentalists, and is more powerful than purely computational approaches to identifying gene-function associations.ResultsAmong Arabidopsis genes, we focused on those (2,325 in total) that (i) are unique or belong to families with no more than three members, (ii) occur in prokaryotes, and (iii) have unknown or poorly known functions. Computer-assisted selection of promising targets for deeper analysis was based on homology-independent characteristics associated in the SEED database with the prokaryotic members of each family. In-depth comparative genomic analysis was performed for 360 top candidate families. From this pool, 78 families were connected to general areas of metabolism and, of these families, specific functional predictions were made for 41. Twenty-one predicted functions have been experimentally tested or are currently under investigation by our group in at least one prokaryotic organism (nine of them have been validated, four invalidated, and eight are in progress). Ten additional predictions have been independently validated by other groups. Discovering the function of very widespread but hitherto enigmatic proteins such as the YrdC or YgfZ families illustrates the power of our approach.ConclusionsOur approach correctly predicted functions for 19 uncharacterized protein families from plants and prokaryotes; none of these functions had previously been correctly predicted by computational methods. The resulting annotations could be propagated with confidence to over six thousand homologous proteins encoded in over 900 bacterial, archaeal, and eukaryotic genomes currently available in public databases.

Dataset Information

PLAZA 4.0: an integrative resource for functional, evolutionary and comparative plant genomics.

Publications

PLAZA 4.0: an integrative resource for functional, evolutionary and comparative plant genomics.

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