| 1. |
- Eriksson, Olivia, 1971-
(författare)
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Simplicity within Complexity : Understanding dynamics of cellular networks by model reduction
- 2008
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Cellular networks composed of interactions between genes, proteins and metabolites, determines the behavioural repertoire of the cell. Recent developments in high-throughput experimental techniques and computational methods allow static descriptions of these networks on a genome scale. There are also several dynamical mathematical models characterizing small subnetworks of the cell such as a signaling cascade or cell division. These networks exhibit a considerable complexity, and mathematical analysis are therefore essential in order to uncover the underlying dynamical core driving the systems. A core description can reveal the relative functional contributions of the various molecular interactions and goes to the heart of what kind of computations biological circuits perform. Partially successful methodologies toward this end includes bifurcation analysis, which only considers a small number of dimensions, and large-scale computer simulations. In this thesis we explore a third route utilizing the inherent biological structure and dynamics of the network as a tool for model simplification. Using the well studied cell cycle, as a model system, we observe that the this network can be divided into dynamical modules displaying a switch-like behaviour. This allows a transformation into a piecewise linear system with delay, the subsequent use of tools from linear systems theory and finally a core dynamical description. Analytical expressions capturing important cell cycle features such as cell mass, as well as necessary constraints for cell cycle oscillations, are thereby retrieved. Finally we use the dynamical core together with large-scale simulations in order to study the balance between robustness and sensitivity. It appears that biological features such as switches, modularity and robustness provide a means to reformulate intractable mathematical problems into solvable ones, as biology appears to suggest a path of simplicity within the realm of mathematical complexity.
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| 2. |
- Granseth, Erik, 1978-
(författare)
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Structure, prediction, evolution and genome wide studies of membrane proteins
- 2007
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- α-helical membrane proteins constitute 20-30% of all proteins in a cell and are involved in many essential cellular functions. The structure is only known for a few hundred of them, which makes structural models important. The most common structural model of a membrane protein is the topology which is a two-dimensional representation of the structure. This thesis is focused on three different aspects of membrane protein structure: improving structural predictions of membrane proteins, improving the level of detail of structural models and the concept of dual topology. It is possible to improve topology models of membrane proteins by including experimental information in computer predictions. This was first performed in Escherichia coli and, by using homology, it was possible to extend the results to 225 prokaryotic organisms. The improved models covered ~80% of the membrane proteins in E. coli and ~30% of other prokaryotic organisms. However, the traditional topology concept is sometimes too simple for complex membrane protein structures, which create a need for more detailed structural models. We created two new machine learning methods, one that predicts more structural features of membrane proteins and one that predicts the distance to the membrane centre for the amino acids. These methods improve the level of detail of the structural models. The final topic of this thesis is dual topology and membrane protein evolution. We have studied a class of membrane proteins that are suggested to insert either way into the membrane, i.e. have a dual topology. These protein families might explain the frequent occurrence of internal symmetry in membrane protein structures.
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| 3. |
- Attwood, Misty M.
(författare)
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Membrane-bound proteins : Characterization, evolution, and functional analysis
- 2020
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Alpha-helical transmembrane proteins are important components of many essential cell processes including signal transduction, transport of molecules across membranes, protein and membrane trafficking, and structural and adhesion activities, amongst others. Their involvement in critical networks makes them the focus of interest in investigating disease pathways, as candidate drug targets, and in evolutionary analyses to identify homologous protein families and possible functional activities. Transmembrane (TM) proteins can be categorized into major groups based the same gross structure, i.e., the number of transmembrane helices, which are often correlated with specific functional activities, for example as receptors or transporters. The focus of this thesis was to analyze the evolution of the membrane proteome from the last holozoan common ancestor (LHCA) through metazoans to garner insight into the fundamental functional clusters that underlie metazoan diversity and innovation. Twenty-four eukaryotic proteomes were analyzed, with results showing more than 70% of metazoan transmembrane protein families have a pre-metazoan origin. In concert with that, we characterized the previously unstudied groups of human proteins with three, four, and five membrane-spanning regions (3TM, 4TM, and 5TM) and analyzed their functional activities, involvement in disease pathways, and unique characteristics. Combined, we manually curated and classified nearly 11% of the human transmembrane proteome with these three studies. The 3TM data set included 152 proteins, with nearly 45% that localize specifically to the endoplasmic reticulum (ER), and are involved in membrane biosynthesis and lipid biogenesis, proteins trafficking, catabolic processes, and signal transduction due to the large ionotropic glutamate receptor family. The 373 proteins identified in the 4TM data set are predominantly involved in transport activities, as well as cell communication and adhesion, and function as structural elements. The compact 5TM data set includes 58 proteins that engage in localization and transport activities, such as protein targeting, membrane trafficking, and vesicle transport. Notably, ~60% are identified as cancer prognostic markers that are associated with clinical outcomes of different tumour types. This thesis investigates the evolutionary origins of the human transmembrane proteome, characterizes formerly dark areas of the membrane proteome, and extends the fundamental knowledge of transmembrane proteins.
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| 4. |
- Basile, Walter, 1980-
(författare)
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Orphan Genes Bioinformatics : Identification and properties of de novo created genes
- 2017
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Even today, many genes are without any known homolog. These "orphans" are found in all species, from Viruses to Prokaryotes and Eukaryotes. For a portion of these genes, we might simply not have enough data to find homologs yet. Some of them are imported from taxonomically distant organisms via lateral transfer; others have homologs, but mutated beyond the point of recognition.However, a sizeable fraction of orphan genes is unambiguously created via "de novo" mechanisms. The study of such novel genes can contribute to our understanding of the emergence of functional novelty and the adaptation of species to new ecological niches.In this work, we first survey the field of orphan studies, and illustrate some of the common issues. Next, we analyze some of the intrinsic properties of orphans proteins, including secondary structure elements and Intrinsic Structural Disorder; specifically, we observe that in young proteins the relationship between these properties and the G+C content of their coding sequence is stronger than in older proteins.We then tackle some of the methodological problems often found in orphan studies. We find that using evolutionarily close species, and sensitive, state-of-the art homology recognition methods is instrumental to the identification of a set of orphans enriched in de novo created ones.Finally, we compare how intrinsic disorder is distributed in bacteria versus eukaryota. Eukaryotic proteins are longer and more disordered; the difference is to be attributed primarily to eukaryotic-specific domains and linker regions. In these sections of the proteins, a higher frequency of the disorder-promoting amino acid Serine can be observed in Eukaryotes.
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| 5. |
- Bryant, Patrick, 1993-
(författare)
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Learning Protein Evolution and Structure
- 2022
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- By analysing the structure of a protein it is possible to draw conclusions about its function. Obtaining the structure of a protein experimentally is however a time consuming and expensive process. By using evolution it is possible to infer the structure of a protein. AlphaFold2 (AF), the latest AI technology for protein structure prediction, uses evolutionary information to obtain protein structures in minutes instead of years at a fraction of the experimental cost. Here, we develop this technology further to predict the structure of interacting proteins. We create a confidence score, pDockQ, and show that this score rivals high-throughput experiments in distinguishing true and false protein-protein interactions (PPIs). Applying AF and the pDockQ score to a set of 65484 human PPIs we identify 1371 new high-confidence models. These models expand the structural knowledge of human protein complexes and can be used to e.g. develop new drugs or evaluate biological pathways. One limitation of AF is that the accuracy decreases with the number of proteins being predicted together and that the biggest protein complexes do not fit in the memory of the latest GPUs. To circumvent these issues, we predict subcomponents of protein complexes and assemble these together with Monte Carlo Tree search (MCTS). MCTS enables assembling some of the largest protein complexes using only sequence information and stoichiometry. Out of 175 protein complexes with 10-30 chains, 91 can be completely assembled with a median TM-score of 0.51. A third of these (30 complexes) are highly accurate (TM-score ≥0.8). The use of highly accurate protein structure prediction is revolutionising many fiends of biological research only one year after its realisation. Likely, this is only the beginning of a new era; the era of AI.
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| 6. |
- de Marothy, Tuuli Minttu Virkki, 1984-
(författare)
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Marginally hydrophobic transmembrane α-helices shaping membrane protein folding
- 2014
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Most membrane proteins are inserted into the membrane co-translationally utilizing the translocon, which allows a sufficiently long and hydrophobic stretch of amino acids to partition into the membrane. However, X-ray structures of membrane proteins have revealed that some transmembrane helices (TMHs) are surprisingly hydrophilic. These marginally hydrophobic transmembrane helices (mTMH) are not recognized as TMHs by the translocon in the absence of local sequence context.We have studied three native mTMHs, which were previously shown to depend on a subsequent TMH for membrane insertion. Their recognition was not due to specific interactions. Instead, the presence of basic amino acids in their cytoplasmic loop allowed membrane insertion of one of them. In the other two, basic residues are not sufficient unless followed by another, hydrophobic TMH. Post-insertional repositioning are another way to bring hydrophilic residues into the membrane. We show how four long TMHs with hydrophilic residues seen in X-ray structures, are initially inserted as much shorter membrane-embedded segments. Tilting is thus induced after membrane-insertion, probably through tertiary packing interactions within the protein.Aquaporin 1 illustrates how a mTMH can shape membrane protein folding and how repositioning can be important in post-insertional folding. It initially adopts a four-helical intermediate, where mTMH2 and TMH4 are not inserted into the membrane. Consequently, TMH3 is inserted in an inverted orientation. The final conformation with six TMHs is formed by TMH2 and 4 entering the membrane and TMH3 rotating 180°. Based on experimental and computational results, we propose a mechanism for the initial step in the folding of AQP1: A shift of TMH3 out from membrane core allows the preceding regions to enter the membrane, which provides flexibility for TMH3 to re-insert in its correct orientation.
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| 7. |
- Ekman, Diana, 1977-
(författare)
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Domain rearrangement and creation in protein evolution
- 2008
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Proteins are composed of domains, recurrent protein fragments with distinct structure, function and evolutionary history. Some domains exist only as single domain proteins, however, a majority of them are also combined with other domains. Domain rearrangements are important in the evolution of new proteins as new functionalities can arise in a single evolutionary event. In addition, the domain repertoire can be expanded through mutations of existing domains and de novo creation. The processes of domain rearrangement and creation have been the focus of this thesis.According to our estimates about 65% of the eukaryotic and 40% of the prokaryotic proteins are of multidomain type. We found that insertion of a single domain at the N- or C-terminus was the most common event in the creation of novel multidomain architectures. However, domain repeats deviate from this pattern and are often expanded through duplications of several domains. Next, by mapping domain combinations onto an evolutionary tree we estimated that roughly one domain architecture has been created per million years, with the highest rates in metazoa. Much of this so called explosion of new architectures in metazoa seems to be explained by a set of domains amenable to exon shuffling. In contrast to domain architectures, most known domain families evolved early. However, many proteins have incomplete domain coverage, and could hence contain de novo created domains. In Saccharomyces cerevisiae, however, species specific sequences constitute only a minor fraction of the proteome, and are often short, disordered sequences located at the protein termini.
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| 8. |
- Hedin, Linnea E, 1981-
(författare)
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Intra- and intermolecular interactions in proteins : Studies of marginally hydrophobic transmembrane alpha-helices and protein-protein interactions.
- 2010
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Most of the processes in a living cell are carried out by proteins. Depending on the needs of the cell, different proteins will interact and form the molecular machines demanded for the moment. A subset of proteins called integral membrane proteins are responsible for the interchange of matter and information across the biological membrane, the lipid bilayer enveloping and defining the cell. Most of these proteins are co-translationally integrated into the membrane by the Sec translocation machinery. This thesis addresses two questions that have emerged during the last decade. The first concerns membrane proteins: a number of α-helices have been observed to span the membrane in the obtained three-dimensional structures even though these helices are predicted not to be hydrophobic enough to be recognized by the translocon for integration. We show for a number of these marginally hydrophobic protein segments that they indeed do not insert well outside of their native context, but that their local sequence context can improve the level of integration mediated by the translocon. We also find that many of these helices are overlapped by more hydrophobic segments. We propose, supported by experimental results, that the latter are initially integrated into the membrane, followed by post-translational structural rearrangements. Finally, we investigate whether the integration of the marginally hydrophobic TMHs of the lactose permease of Escherichia coli is facilitated by the formation of hairpin structures. However our combined efforts of computational simulations and experimental investigations find no evidence for this. The second question addressed in this thesis is that of the interpretation of the large datasets on which proteins that interact with each other in a cell. We have analyzed the results from several large-scale investigations concerning protein interactions in yeast and draw conclusions regarding the biases, strengths and weaknesses of these datasets and the methods used to obtain them.
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| 9. |
- Hennerdal, Aron, 1981-
(författare)
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Application of membrane protein topology prediction
- 2011
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Membrane proteins often have essential functions in the cell and many are important drug targets, yet only a small fraction of available protein structures are of membrane proteins. Experimental techniques for elucidating membrane protein structures have proven laborious and expensive, opening the field for comparatively inexpensive computational modeling. Topology prediction addresses a sub-problem of structure prediction for α-helical membrane proteins by modeling which parts of the peptide chain are in, and which parts are on either side, of the membrane. This work describes an algorithm for combining the results of several topology prediction methods to increase prediction accuracy and to quantify prediction reliability, and a faster implementation of the algorithm applicable to large-scale genome data. Further, topology prediction is applied, together with other sequence-based methods, to detect duplications in membrane proteins in whole genomes. We find more duplications in the genomes of yeast and E. coli than in human, possibly due to the abundance of nonduplicated GPCRs in human. A gene duplication and subsequent fusion event constitute a likely origin for duplicated proteins, yet only for one superfamily, the AcrB Multidrug Efflux Pump, do we find the duplicated unit in its nonduplicated form. This apparent scarcity of nonduplicated forms is confirmed when extending the study to the whole human genome. Finally, a benchmark study of topology prediction on several comparably large datasets is described. We confirm previous results showing that methods utilizing homology information top the ranking of topology prediction methods. We also see that the separation of membrane proteins from non-membrane proteins has a partially different set of requirements than topology prediction of membrane proteins, and we suggest a pipeline using different methods for these two tasks.
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| 10. |
- Hosseini Ashtiani, Saman, 1981-
(författare)
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Omics Data Analysis of Complex Diseases and Traits
- 2022
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Following the advent of the high-throughput techniques for producing massive omics data, new possibilities and challenges have also emerged in different fields of biology and medicine. Dealing with such data on different scales with different scopes such as genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics and metabolomics, demands appropriate data collection, preprocessing, statistical analysis, interpretation and visualization. The overall goal of this thesis was to conceive omics-related questions in the context of four research titles and to apply a rational choice of the mentioned methods to conduct the study plans to answer them. Paper I asks whether we could propose potentially implicated genes in psoriasis; and tries to answer it using microarray transcriptomics data of psoriasis. Initially, quality control was performed on the microarray dataset and then the Differentially Expressed Genes (DEGs) were chosen for mapping to a protein-protein interaction (PPI) database to create a subnetwork of the respective PPI. Using network analysis, genes with higher scores were proposed as potentially relevant to psoriasis and finally, we evaluated the results concerning a gene-disease association database. Paper II asks whether the knockout of two genes followed by a transformation in E. coli could lead to an increase in bacterial growth in two different media; and deals with it through in vitro experiments followed by an in silico analysis of E. coli RNA-seq data. Here, we calculated the pairwise correlations between each target (knockout) gene and the rest of the genes in the RNA-seq dataset. Then, the significantly anti-correlated genes were shown to mainly belong to protein biosynthesis pathways compared to all other background pathways, which might indicate an increase in protein biosynthesis-related genes' transcription levels when there is an absolute decrease (knockout) in each of the target genes. Paper III asks if an anti-bone-resorption drug called Denosumab significantly affects the abundance of the metabolites extracted from blood samples during a two-year longitudinal placebo-controlled clinical trial study; and tries to address this through running statistical hypothesis testing for each metabolite in the quantification data from Liquid Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (LC-MS). Afterwards, the patterns of metabolites' variations concerning Denosumab administration and visit times were studied using Principal Component Analysis (PCA), association studies and Hierarchical clustering. The results of this study proposed some identified metabolites for further clinical investigations. Based on our analyses, the patterns of abundance variations in some of the identified metabolites could be considered for improving the corresponding clinical studies and treatment with Denosumab. Paper IV proposes potentially relevant genes in lung adenocarcinoma by constructing a genome-scale co-expression network followed by clustering. The genes in each cluster were studied using the literature knowledge. One of the most frequently reported genes in lung adenocarcinoma was EGFR. We reported all the first-neighborhood genes connected to EFGR in its corresponding module as potentially relevant to lung adenocarcinoma. The repertoire of the above choices, workflows and evaluations could be applicable for further follow-up studies at different levels including omics data integration, personalized omics data analysis, studies on different scales such as cellular or tissue, using other methodologies for the same questions and running benchmarks. Although four different omics-related questions were posed in this thesis, they all involved the selection or preparation of the respective omics data, choosing preprocessing strategies, choosing statistical analyses and hypothesis testing methods and finally, performing the evaluation of the results and interpretations.
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