Project description:Neisseria meningitidis is a major cause of bacterial meningitis and septicemia worldwide. Seven new serogroup C meningococci were isolated from two provinces of China in January, 2006. Their PorA VR types were P1.20, 9. Multilocus sequence typing results indicated that they all belonged to ST-7. It is a new serogroup C N. meningitidis sequence type clone identified in China. Here we also present the results of a genomic comparison of these isolates with other 15 N. meningitidis serogroup A and B isolates, which belonged to ST-7, based on comparative genomic hybridization analysis. The data described here would be helpful to monitor the spread of this new serogroup C meningococci sequence type clone in China and worldwide. Keywords: comparative genomic hybridization
Project description:Genomic sequences co-evolve with chromatin-associated proteins to ensure that long DNA molecules are folded in the nucleus in an orderly and functional manner. In eukaryotes, this multiscale folding involves several molecular complexes and structures, ranging from nucleosomes to large cohesin-mediated DNA loops. To explore the causal relationships between the DNA sequence composition and the spontaneous loading and activity of these complexes, we circumvented the boundaries imposed by the evolved, fine-tuning of chromosome regulation by using yeast strains that carry artificial bacterial chromosomes that have diverged from eukaryotic sequences for over 1.5 billion years. By combining this chimeric? synthetic genomics approach with a deep learning-based in silico analysis, we show that sequence composition precisely dictates the whole spectrum of chromatin assembly, transcriptional activity, folding, and compartmentalization in a given cellular context. These results are a first step to understand the molecular events at stake during synthetic chromosome engineering as well as natural horizontal gene transfers.