Dataset Information

FUSTr: a tool to find gene families under selection in transcriptomes.

ABSTRACT: Background:The recent proliferation of large amounts of biodiversity transcriptomic data has resulted in an ever-expanding need for scalable and user-friendly tools capable of answering large scale molecular evolution questions. FUSTr identifies gene families involved in the process of adaptation. This is a tool that finds genes in transcriptomic datasets under strong positive selection that automatically detects isoform designation patterns in transcriptome assemblies to maximize phylogenetic independence in downstream analysis. Results:When applied to previously studied spider transcriptomic data as well as simulated data, FUSTr successfully grouped coding sequences into proper gene families as well as correctly identified those under strong positive selection in relatively little time. Conclusions:FUSTr provides a useful tool for novice bioinformaticians to characterize the molecular evolution of organisms throughout the tree of life using large transcriptomic biodiversity datasets and can utilize multi-processor high-performance computational facilities.

SUBMITTER: Cole TJ

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5775752 | biostudies-literature | 2018

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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FUSTr: a tool to find gene families under selection in transcriptomes.

Cole T Jeffrey TJ Brewer Michael S MS

PeerJ 20180117

<h4>Background</h4>The recent proliferation of large amounts of biodiversity transcriptomic data has resulted in an ever-expanding need for scalable and user-friendly tools capable of answering large scale molecular evolution questions. FUSTr identifies gene families involved in the process of adaptation. This is a tool that finds genes in transcriptomic datasets under strong positive selection that automatically detects isoform designation patterns in transcriptome assemblies to maximize phylog ...[more]

PMID: 29372116

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Project description:BackgroundGene duplication is a major factor contributing to evolutionary novelty, and the contraction or expansion of gene families has often been associated with morphological, physiological, and environmental adaptations. The study of homologous genes helps us to understand the evolution of gene families. It plays a vital role in finding ancestral gene duplication events as well as identifying genes that have diverged from a common ancestor under positive selection. There are various tools available, such as MSOAR, OrthoMCL, and HomoloGene, to identify gene families and visualize syntenic information between species, providing an overview of syntenic regions evolution at the family level. Unfortunately, none of them provide information about structural changes within genes, such as the conservation of ancestral exon boundaries among multiple genomes. The Ensembl GeneTrees computational pipeline generates gene trees based on coding sequences, provides details about exon conservation, and is used in the Ensembl Compara project to discover gene families.FindingsA certain amount of expertise is required to configure and run the Ensembl Compara GeneTrees pipeline via command line. Therefore, we converted this pipeline into a Galaxy workflow, called GeneSeqToFamily, and provided additional functionality. This workflow uses existing tools from the Galaxy ToolShed, as well as providing additional wrappers and tools that are required to run the workflow.ConclusionsGeneSeqToFamily represents the Ensembl GeneTrees pipeline as a set of interconnected Galaxy tools, so they can be run interactively within the Galaxy's user-friendly workflow environment while still providing the flexibility to tailor the analysis by changing configurations and tools if necessary. Additional tools allow users to subsequently visualize the gene families produced by the workflow, using the Aequatus.js interactive tool, which has been developed as part of the Aequatus software project.

Project description:BACKGROUND:Salmonid fishes are characterised by a very high level of variation in trophic, ecological, physiological, and life history adaptations. Some salmonid taxa show exceptional potential for fast, within-lake diversification into morphologically and ecologically distinct variants, often in parallel; these are the lake-resident charr and whitefish (several species in the genera Salvelinus and Coregonus). To identify selection on genes and gene categories associated with such predictable diversifications, we analysed 2702 orthogroups (4.82 Mbp total; average 4.77 genes/orthogroup; average 1783?bp/orthogroup). We did so in two charr and two whitefish species and compared to five other salmonid lineages, which do not evolve in such ecologically predictable ways, and one non-salmonid outgroup. RESULTS:All selection analyses are based on Coregonus and Salvelinus compared to non-diversifying taxa. We found more orthogroups were affected by relaxed selection than intensified selection. Of those, 122 were under significant relaxed selection, with trends of an overrepresentation of serine family amino acid metabolism and transcriptional regulation, and significant enrichment of behaviour-associated gene functions. Seventy-eight orthogroups were under significant intensified selection and were enriched for signalling process and transcriptional regulation gene ontology terms and actin filament and lipid metabolism gene sets. Ninety-two orthogroups were under diversifying/positive selection. These were enriched for signal transduction, transmembrane transport, and pyruvate metabolism gene ontology terms and often contained genes involved in transcriptional regulation and development. Several orthogroups showed signs of multiple types of selection. For example, orthogroups under relaxed and diversifying selection contained genes such as ap1m2, involved in immunity and development, and slc6a8, playing an important role in muscle and brain creatine uptake. Orthogroups under intensified and diversifying selection were also found, such as genes syn3, with a role in neural processes, and ctsk, involved in bone remodelling. CONCLUSIONS:Our approach pinpointed relevant genomic targets by distinguishing among different kinds of selection. We found that relaxed, intensified, and diversifying selection affect orthogroups and gene functions of ecological relevance in salmonids. Because they were found consistently and robustly across charr and whitefish and not other salmonid lineages, we propose these genes have a potential role in the replicated ecological diversifications.

Dataset Information

FUSTr: a tool to find gene families under selection in transcriptomes.

Publications

FUSTr: a tool to find gene families under selection in transcriptomes.

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