| 1. |
- Ali, Raja Hashim, 1985-, et al.
(författare)
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Burnin estimation and convergence assessment in Bayesian phylogenetic inference
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Annan publikation (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Convergence assessment and burnin estimation are central concepts in Markov chain Monte Carlo algorithms. Studies on eects, statistical properties, and comparisons between dierent convergence assessment methods have been conducted during the past few decades. However, not much work has been done on the eect of convergence diagnostic on posterior distribution of tree parameters and which method should be used by researchers in Bayesian phylogenetics inference. In this study, we propose and evaluate two novel burnin estimation methods that estimate burnin using all parameters jointly. We also consider some other popular convergence diagnostics, evaluate them in light of parallel chains and quantify the eect of burnin estimates from various convergence diagnostics on the posterior distribution of trees. We motivate the use of convergence diagnostics to assess convergence and estimate burnin in Bayesian phylogenetics inference and found out that it is better to employ convergence diagnostics rather than remove a xed percentage as burnin. We concluded that the last burnin estimator using eective sample size appears to estimate burnin better than all other convergence diagnostics.
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| 2. |
- Ali, Raja Hashim, 1985-
(författare)
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From genomes to post-processing of Bayesian inference of phylogeny
- 2016
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Life is extremely complex and amazingly diverse; it has taken billions of years of evolution to attain the level of complexity we observe in nature now and ranges from single-celled prokaryotes to multi-cellular human beings. With availability of molecular sequence data, algorithms inferring homology and gene families have emerged and similarity in gene content between two genes has been the major signal utilized for homology inference. Recently there has been a significant rise in number of species with fully sequenced genome, which provides an opportunity to investigate and infer homologs with greater accuracy and in a more informed way. Phylogeny analysis explains the relationship between member genes of a gene family in a simple, graphical and plausible way using a tree representation. Bayesian phylogenetic inference is a probabilistic method used to infer gene phylogenies and posteriors of other evolutionary parameters. Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) algorithm, in particular using Metropolis-Hastings sampling scheme, is the most commonly employed algorithm to determine evolutionary history of genes. There are many softwares available that process results from each MCMC run, and explore the parameter posterior but there is a need for interactive software that can analyse both discrete and real-valued parameters, and which has convergence assessment and burnin estimation diagnostics specifically designed for Bayesian phylogenetic inference.In this thesis, a synteny-aware approach for gene homology inference, called GenFamClust (GFC), is proposed that uses gene content and gene order conservation to infer homology. The feature which distinguishes GFC from earlier homology inference methods is that local synteny has been combined with gene similarity to infer homologs, without inferring homologous regions. GFC was validated for accuracy on a simulated dataset. Gene families were computed by applying clustering algorithms on homologs inferred from GFC, and compared for accuracy, dependence and similarity with gene families inferred from other popular gene family inference methods on a eukaryotic dataset. Gene families in fungi obtained from GFC were evaluated against pillars from Yeast Gene Order Browser. Genome-wide gene families for some eukaryotic species are computed using this approach.Another topic focused in this thesis is the processing of MCMC traces for Bayesian phylogenetics inference. We introduce a new software VMCMC which simplifies post-processing of MCMC traces. VMCMC can be used both as a GUI-based application and as a convenient command-line tool. VMCMC supports interactive exploration, is suitable for automated pipelines and can handle both real-valued and discrete parameters observed in a MCMC trace. We propose and implement joint burnin estimators that are specifically applicable to Bayesian phylogenetics inference. These methods have been compared for similarity with some other popular convergence diagnostics. We show that Bayesian phylogenetic inference and VMCMC can be applied to infer valuable evolutionary information for a biological case – the evolutionary history of FERM domain.
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| 3. |
- Ali, Raja Hashim, 1985-, et al.
(författare)
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GenFamClust : an accurate, synteny-aware and reliable homology inference algorithm
- 2016
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Ingår i: BMC Evolutionary Biology. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1471-2148. ; 16
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Background: Homology inference is pivotal to evolutionary biology and is primarily based on significant sequence similarity, which, in general, is a good indicator of homology. Algorithms have also been designed to utilize conservation in gene order as an indication of homologous regions. We have developed GenFamClust, a method based on quantification of both gene order conservation and sequence similarity. Results: In this study, we validate GenFamClust by comparing it to well known homology inference algorithms on a synthetic dataset. We applied several popular clustering algorithms on homologs inferred by GenFamClust and other algorithms on a metazoan dataset and studied the outcomes. Accuracy, similarity, dependence, and other characteristics were investigated for gene families yielded by the clustering algorithms. GenFamClust was also applied to genes from a set of complete fungal genomes and gene families were inferred using clustering. The resulting gene families were compared with a manually curated gold standard of pillars from the Yeast Gene Order Browser. We found that the gene-order component of GenFamClust is simple, yet biologically realistic, and captures local synteny information for homologs. Conclusions: The study shows that GenFamClust is a more accurate, informed, and comprehensive pipeline to infer homologs and gene families than other commonly used homology and gene-family inference methods.
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| 4. |
- Ali, Raja Hashim, et al.
(författare)
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Quantitative synteny scoring improves homology inference and partitioning of gene families
- 2013
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Ingår i: BMC Bioinformatics. - : BioMed Central. - 1471-2105. ; 14, s. S12-
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Background: Clustering sequences into families has long been an important step in characterization of genes and proteins. There are many algorithms developed for this purpose, most of which are based on either direct similarity between gene pairs or some sort of network structure, where weights on edges of constructed graphs are based on similarity. However, conserved synteny is an important signal that can help distinguish homology and it has not been utilized to its fullest potential. Results: Here, we present GenFamClust, a pipeline that combines the network properties of sequence similarity and synteny to assess homology relationship and merge known homologs into groups of gene families. GenFamClust identifies homologs in a more informed and accurate manner as compared to similarity based approaches. We tested our method against the Neighborhood Correlation method on two diverse datasets consisting of fully sequenced genomes of eukaryotes and synthetic data. Conclusions: The results obtained from both datasets confirm that synteny helps determine homology and GenFamClust improves on Neighborhood Correlation method. The accuracy as well as the definition of synteny scores is the most valuable contribution of GenFamClust.
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| 5. |
- Ali, Raja Hashim, 1985-, et al.
(författare)
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VMCMC: a graphical and statistical analysis tool for Markov chain Monte Carlo traces
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Annan publikation (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Motivation: MCMC-based methods are important for Bayesian inference of phylogeny and related parameters. Although being computationally expensive, MCMC yields estimates of posterior distributions that are useful for estimating parameter values and are easy to use in subsequent analysis. There are, however, sometimes practical diculties with MCMC, relating to convergence assessment and determining burn-in, especially in large-scale analyses. Currently, multiple software are required to perform, e.g., convergence, mixing and interactive exploration of both continuous and tree parameters.Results: We have written a software called VMCMC to simplify post-processing of MCMC traces with, for example, automatic burn-in estimation. VMCMC can also be used both as a GUI-based application, supporting interactive exploration, and as a command-line tool suitable for automated pipelines. Availability: VMCMC is available for Java SE 6+ under the New BSD License. Executable jar les, tutorial manual and source code can be downloaded from https://bitbucket.org/rhali/visualmcmc/.
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| 6. |
- Ali, Raja Hashim, et al.
(författare)
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VMCMC: a graphical and statistical analysis tool for Markov chain Monte Carlo traces
- 2017
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Ingår i: Bmc Bioinformatics. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1471-2105. ; 18
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Background: MCMC-based methods are important for Bayesian inference of phylogeny and related parameters. Although being computationally expensive, MCMC yields estimates of posterior distributions that are useful for estimating parameter values and are easy to use in subsequent analysis. There are, however, sometimes practical difficulties with MCMC, relating to convergence assessment and determining burn-in, especially in large-scale analyses. Currently, multiple software are required to perform, e.g., convergence, mixing and interactive exploration of both continuous and tree parameters. Results: We have written a software called VMCMC to simplify post-processing of MCMC traces with, for example, automatic burn-in estimation. VMCMC can also be used both as a GUI-based application, supporting interactive exploration, and as a command-line tool suitable for automated pipelines. Conclusions: VMCMC is a free software available under the New BSD License. Executable jar files, tutorial manual and source code can be downloaded from https://bitbucket. org/rhali/visualmcmc/.
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| 7. |
- Alneberg, Johannes
(författare)
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Bioinformatic Methods in Metagenomics
- 2018
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Microbial organisms are a vital part of our global ecosystem. Yet, our knowledge of them is still lacking. Direct sequencing of microbial communities, i.e. metagenomics, have enabled detailed studies of these microscopic organisms by inspection of their DNA sequences without the need to culture them. Furthermore, the development of modern high- throughput sequencing technologies have made this approach more powerful and cost-effective. Taken together, this has shifted the field of microbiology from previously being centered around microscopy and culturing studies, to largely consist of computational analyses of DNA sequences. One such computational analysis which is the main focus of this thesis, aims at reconstruction of the complete DNA sequence of an organism, i.e. its genome, directly from short metagenomic sequences.This thesis consists of an introduction to the subject followed by five papers. Paper I describes a large metagenomic data resource spanning the Baltic Sea microbial communities. This dataset is complemented with a web-interface allowing researchers to easily extract and visualize detailed information. Paper II introduces a bioinformatic method which is able to reconstruct genomes from metagenomic data. This method, which is termed CONCOCT, is applied on Baltic Sea metagenomics data in Paper III and Paper V. This enabled the reconstruction of a large number of genomes. Analysis of these genomes in Paper III led to the proposal of, and evidence for, a global brackish microbiome. Paper IV presents a comparison between genomes reconstructed from metagenomes with single-cell sequenced genomes. This further validated the technique presented in Paper II as it was found to produce larger and more complete genomes than single-cell sequencing.
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| 8. |
- Angleby, Helen, et al.
(författare)
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Forensic Informativity of similar to 3000bp of Coding Sequence of Domestic Dog mtDNA
- 2014
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Ingår i: Journal of Forensic Sciences. - : Wiley. - 0022-1198 .- 1556-4029. ; 59:4, s. 898-908
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The discriminatory power of the noncoding control region (CR) of domestic dog mitochondrial DNA alone is relatively low. The extent to which the discriminatory power could be increased by analyzing additional highly variable coding regions of the mitochondrial genome (mtGenome) was therefore investigated. Genetic variability across the mtGenome was evaluated by phylogenetic analysis, and the three most variable similar to 1kb coding regions identified. We then sampled 100 Swedish dogs to represent breeds in accordance with their frequency in the Swedish population. A previously published dataset of 59 dog mtGenomes collected in the United States was also analyzed. Inclusion of the three coding regions increased the exclusion capacity considerably for the Swedish sample, from 0.920 for the CR alone to 0.964 for all four regions. The number of mtDNA types among all 159 dogs increased from 41 to 72, the four most frequent CR haplotypes being resolved into 22 different haplotypes.
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| 9. |
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| 10. |
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| 11. |
- Arvestad, Lars
(författare)
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Aligning coding DNA in the presence of frame-shift errors
- 1997
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Ingår i: Combinatorial Pattern Matching. ; , s. 180-190
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Konferensbidrag (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The problem of aligning two DNA sequences with respect to the fact that they are coding for proteins is discussed. Criteria for a good alignment of coding DNA, together with an algorithm that satisfies them, are presented. The algorithm is robust against frame-shifts and forgiving towards silent substitutions. The important choice of objective function is examined and several variants are proposed.
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| 12. |
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| 13. |
- Arvestad, Lars, et al.
(författare)
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Bayesian gene/species tree reconciliation and orthology analysis using MCMC
- 2003
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Ingår i: Bioinformatics. - : Oxford Journals. - 1367-4803 .- 1367-4811. ; 19, s. i7-i15
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Motivation: Comparative genomics in general and orthology analysis in particular are becoming increasingly important parts of gene function prediction. Previously, orthology analysis and reconciliation has been performed only with respect to the parsimony model. This discards many plausible solutions and sometimes precludes finding the correct one. In many other areas in bioinformatics probabilistic models have proven to be both more realistic and powerful than parsimony models. For instance, they allow for assessing solution reliability and consideration of alternative solutions in a uniform way. There is also an added benefit in making model assumptions explicit and therefore making model comparisons possible. For orthology analysis, uncertainty has recently been addressed using parsimonious reconciliation combined with bootstrap techniques. However, until now no probabilistic methods have been available. Results: We introduce a probabilistic gene evolution model based on a birth-death process in which a gene tree evolves ‘inside’ a species tree. Based on this model, we develop a tool with the capacity to perform practical orthology analysis, based on Fitch’s original definition, and more generally for reconciling pairs of gene and species trees. Our gene evolution model is biologically sound (Nei et al., 1997) and intuitively attractive. We develop a Bayesian analysis based on MCMC which facilitates approximation of an a posteriori distribution for reconciliations. That is, we can find the most probable reconciliations and estimate the probability of any reconciliation, given the observed gene tree. This also gives a way to estimate the probability that a pair of genes are orthologs. The main algorithmic contribution presented here consists of an algorithm for computing the likelihood of a given reconciliation. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first successful introduction of this type of probabilistic methods, which flourish in phylogeny analysis, into reconciliation and orthology analysis. The MCMC algorithm has been implemented and, although not yet being in its final form, tests show that it performs very well on synthetic as well as biological data. Using standard correspondences, our results carry over to allele trees as well as biogeography.
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| 14. |
- Arvestad, Lars
(författare)
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Efficient methods for estimating amino acid replacement rates
- 2006
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Ingår i: Journal of Molecular Evolution. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 0022-2844 .- 1432-1432. ; 62:6, s. 663-673
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Replacement rate matrices describe the process of evolution at one position in a protein and are used in many applications where proteins are studied with an evolutionary perspective. Several general matrices have been suggested and have proved to be good approximations of the real process. However, there are data for which general matrices are inappropriate, for example, special protein families, certain lineages in the tree of life, or particular parts of proteins. Analysis of such data could benefit from adaption of a data-specific rate matrix. This paper suggests two new methods for estimating replacement rate matrices from independent pairwise protein sequence alignments and also carefully studies Muller-Vingron's resolvent method. Comprehensive tests on synthetic datasets show that both new methods perform better than the resolvent method in a variety of settings. The best method is furthermore demonstrated to be robust on small datasets as well as practical on very large datasets of real data. Neither short nor divergent sequence pairs have to be discarded, making the method economical with data. A generalization to multialignment data is suggested and used in a test on protein-domain family phylogenies, where it is shown that the method offers family-specific rate matrices that often have a significantly better likelihood than a general matrix.
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| 15. |
- Arvestad, Lars, et al.
(författare)
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Estimation of Reversible Substitution Matrices from Multiple Pairs of Sequences
- 1997
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Ingår i: Journal of Molecular Evolution. - 0022-2844 .- 1432-1432. ; 45:6, s. 696-703
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- We present a method for estimating the most general reversible substitution matrix corresponding to a given collection of pairwise aligned DNA sequences. This matrix can then be used to calculate evolutionary distances between pairs of sequences in the collection. If only two sequences are considered, our method is equivalent to that of Lanave et al. (1984). The main novelty of our approach is in combining data from different sequence pairs. We describe a weighting method for pairs of taxa related by a known tree that results in uniform weights for all branches. Our method for estimating the rate matrix results in fast execution times, even on large data sets, and does not require knowledge of the phylogenetic relationships among sequences. In a test case on a primate pseudogene, the matrix we arrived at resembles one obtained using maximum likelihood, and the resulting distance measure is shown to have better linearity than is obtained in a less general model.
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| 16. |
- Arvestad, Lars, et al.
(författare)
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Expressed sequence tags from the midgut and an epithelial cell line of Chironomus tentans : annotation, bioinformatic classification of unknown transcripts and analysis of expression levels
- 2005
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Ingår i: Insect molecular biology (Print). - : Wiley. - 0962-1075 .- 1365-2583. ; 14:6, s. 689-695
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Expressed sequence tags (ESTs) were generated from two Chironomus tentans cDNA libraries, constructed from an embryo epithelial cell line and from larva midgut tissue. 8584 5'-end ESTs were generated and assembled into 3110 tentative unique transcripts, providing the largest contribution of C. tentans sequences to public databases to date. Annotation using BLAST gave 1975 (63.5%) transcripts with a significant match in the major gene/protein databases, 1170 with a best match to Anopheles gambiae and 480 to Drosophila melanogaster. 1091 transcripts (35.1%) had no match to any database. Studies of open reading frames suggest that at least 323 of these contain a coding sequence, indicating that a large proportion of the genes in C. tentans belong to previously unknown gene families.
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| 17. |
- Arvestad, Lars, et al.
(författare)
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Gene tree reconstruction and orthology analysis based on an integrated model for duplications and sequence evolution.
- 2004
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Ingår i: Proceedings of the Annual International Conference on Computational Molecular Biology, RECOM. - New York, New York, USA : ACM Press. ; , s. 326-335
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Gene tree and species tree reconstruction, orthology analysis and reconciliation, are problems important in multigenome-based comparative genomics and biology in general. In the present paper, we advance the frontier of these areas in several respects and provide important computational tools. First, exact algorithms are given for several probabilistic reconciliation problems with respect to the probabilistic gene evolutionmodel, previously developed by the authors. Until now, those problems were solved by MCMC estimation algorithms. Second, we extend the gene evolution model to the genesequence evolution model, by including sequence evolution. Third, we develop MCMC algorithms for the gene sequence evolution model that, given gene sequence data allows: (1) orthology analysis, reconciliation analysis, and gene tree reconstruction, w.r.t. a species tree, that balances a likely/unlikely reconciliation and a likely/unlikely genetree and (2) species tree reconstruction that balance a likely /unlikely reconciliation and a likely/unlikely gene trees. These MCMC algorithms take advantage of the exact algorithms for the gene evolution model. We have successfully tested our dynamical programming algorithms on real data for a biogeography problem. The MCMC algorithms perform very well both on synthetic and biological data.
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| 18. |
- Arvestad, Lars, et al.
(författare)
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The Gene Evolution Model and Computing Its Associated Probabilities
- 2009
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Ingår i: Journal of the ACM. - : Association for Computing Machinery (ACM). - 0004-5411 .- 1557-735X. ; 56:2
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Phylogeny is both a fundamental tool in biology and a rich source of fascinating modeling and algorithmic problems. Today's wealth of sequenced genomes makes it increasingly important to understand evolutionary events such as duplications, losses, transpositions, inversions, lateral transfers, and domain shuffling. We focus on the gene duplication event, that constitutes a major force in the creation of genes with new function [Ohno 1970; Lynch and Force 2000] and, thereby also, of biodiversity. We introduce the probabilistic gene evolution model, which describes how a gene tree evolves within a given species tree with respect to speciation, gene duplication, and gene loss. The actual relation between gene tree and species tree is captured by a reconciliation, a concept which we generalize for more expressiveness. The model is a canonical generalization of the classical linear birth-death process, obtained by replacing the interval where the process takes place by a tree. For the gene evolution model, we derive efficient algorithms for some associated probability distributions: the probability of a reconciled tree, the probability of a gene tree, the maximum probability reconciliation, the posterior probability of a reconciliation, and sampling reconciliations with respect to the posterior probability. These algorithms provides the basis for several applications, including species tree construction, reconciliation analysis, orthology analysis, biogeography, and host-parasite co-evolution.
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| 19. |
- Djerbi, Soraya, et al.
(författare)
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The genome sequence of black cottonwood (Populus trichocarpa) reveals 18 conserved cellulose synthase (CesA) genes
- 2005
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Ingår i: Planta. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 0032-0935 .- 1432-2048. ; 221:5, s. 739-746
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The genome sequence of Populus trichocarpa was screened for genes encoding cellulose synthases by using full-length cDNA sequences and ESTs previously identified in the tissue specific cDNA libraries of other poplars. The data obtained revealed 18 distinct CesA gene sequences in P. trichocarpa. The identified genes were grouped in seven gene pairs, one group of three sequences and one single gene. Evidence from gene expression studies of hybrid aspen suggests that both copies of at least one pair, CesA3-1 and CesA3-2, are actively transcribed. No sequences corresponding to the gene pair, CesA6-1 and CesA6-2, were found in Arabidopsis or hybrid aspen, while one homologous gene has been identified in the rice genome and an active transcript in Populus tremuloides. A phylogenetic analysis suggests that the CesA genes previously associated with secondary cell wall synthesis originate from a single ancestor gene and group in three distinct subgroups. The newly identified copies of CesA genes in P. trichocarpa give rise to a number of new questions concerning the mechanism of cellulose synthesis in trees.
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| 20. |
- Duchemin, Wandrille, et al.
(författare)
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RecPhyloXML : a format for reconciled gene trees
- 2018
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Ingår i: Bioinformatics. - : Oxford University Press (OUP). - 1367-4803 .- 1367-4811. ; 34:21, s. 3646-3652
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Motivation: A reconciliation is an annotation of the nodes of a gene tree with evolutionary events-for example, speciation, gene duplication, transfer, loss, etc. -along with a mapping onto a species tree. Many algorithms and software produce or use reconciliations but often using different reconciliation formats, regarding the type of events considered or whether the species tree is dated or not. This complicates the comparison and communication between different programs. Results: Here, we gather a consortium of software developers in gene tree species tree reconciliation to propose and endorse a format that aims to promote an integrative-albeit flexible-specification of phylogenetic reconciliations. This format, named recPhyloXML, is accompanied by several tools such as a reconciled tree visualizer and conversion utilities.
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| 21. |
- Eklöf, Jens, 1979-
(författare)
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A holistic approach to understanding CAZy families through reductionist methods
- 2009
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- In a time when the amount of biological data present in the public domain is becoming increasingly vast, the need for good classification systems has never been greater. In the field of glycoscience the necessity of a good classification for the enzymes involved in the biosynthesis, modification and degradation of polysaccharides is even more pronounced than in other fields. This is due to the complexity of the substrates, the polysaccharides, as the theoretical number of possible hexa-oligosaccharides from only hexoses exceeds 1012 isomers! An initiative to classify enzymes acting on carbohydrates began around 1990 by the French scientist Bernard Henrissat. The resulting database, the Carbohydrate Active enzymes database (CAZy), classifies enzymes by sequence similarity into families allowing the inference of structure and catalytic mechanism. What CAZy does not provide however, are means to understand how members of a family are related, and in what way they differ from each other. The top-down approach used in this thesis, combining phylogenetic analysis of whole CAZy families, or sub-families, with structural determinations and detailed kinetic analysis allows for exactly that. Finding determinants for transglycosylation versus hydrolysis within the xth gene product family of GH16 as well as restricting the hydrolytic enzymes to a well defined clade are integral parts of paper I. In paper II a new bacterial sub-clade within CE8 was discovered. The structural determination of theEscherichia coli outer membrane lipoprotein YbhC from from the new sub-clade explained the difference in specificity. The information provided in the two papers of this thesis gives a better understanding of the development of different specificities of diverse CAZY families as well as it aids in future gene product annotations. Furthermore this work has begun to fill the white spots uncovered in the phylogenetic trees.
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| 22. |
- Emanuelsson, Olof, et al.
(författare)
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Engagera och aktivera studenter med inspiration från konferenser : examination genom poster-presentation
- 2014
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Ingår i: Proceedings 2014, 8:e Pedagogiska inspirationskonferensen 17 december 2014. - Lund : Lund University.
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- I en forskningsnära kurs om 7.5 hp på master-nivå inom bioinformatikämnet vid KTH består drygt halva kursen av ett projekt som genomförs i grupper om tre studenter. Varje projekt har en egen projektuppgift med inget eller marginellt överlapp med andra gruppers uppgifter. Projekten är så gott som uteslutande baserade på aktuella frågeställningar i lärarteamets egna forskningsgrupper eller deras närhet. Projektet redovisas dels genom en posterpresentation, dels med individuell webbaserad projektdagbok. Vid posterredovisningen, som omfattar tre timmar i slutet av tentamensperioden, är alla kursdeltagare med. Vi försöker i möjligaste mån efterlikna situationen där ett autentiskt forskningsresultat presenteras på en riktig konferens. Varje deltagare (student) förväntas alltså ta del av varje annan grupps poster, på samma sätt som sker vid de flesta vetenskapliga konferenser. Vi genomför en enklare kamratbedömning på posternivå, där varje student ska avge en kort och konfidentiell kommentar om var och en av övriga postrar. Kursens lärare bedömer förstås också postrarna. En av svårigheterna är att sätta individuella betyg. Här använder vi oss av individuella projektdagböcker, som ger vägledning till de olika individernas insatser inom projektet. Vi har provat detta under fyra kursomgångar med som mest sju projekt. Examinationsformen är rolig och motiverande både för studenterna och lärarna.
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| 23. |
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| 24. |
- Frygelius, Jessica, et al.
(författare)
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Evolution and human tissue expression of the Cres/Testatin subgroup genes, a reproductive tissue specific subgroup of the type 2 cystatins
- 2010
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Ingår i: Evolution & Development. - 1520-541X .- 1525-142X. ; 12:3, s. 329-342
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- P>The cystatin family comprises a group of generally broadly expressed protease inhibitors. The Cres/Testatin subgroup (CTES) genes within the type 2 cystatins differs from the classical type 2 cystatins in having a strikingly reproductive tissue-specific expression, and putative functions in reproduction have therefore been discussed. We have performed evolutionary studies of the CTES genes based on gene searches in genomes from 11 species. Ancestors of the cystatin family can be traced back to plants. We have localized the evolutionary origin of the CTES genes to the split of marsupial and placental mammals. A model for the evolution of these genes illustrates that they constitute a dynamic group of genes, which has undergone several gene expansions and we find indications of a high degree of positive selection, in striking contrast to what is seen for the classical cystatin C. We show with phylogenetic relations that the CTES genes are clustered into three original groups, a testatin, a Cres, and a CstL1 group. We have further characterized the expression patterns of all human members of the subfamily. Of a total of nine identified human genes, four express putative functional transcripts with a predominant expression in the male reproductive system. Our results are compatible with a function of this gene family in reproduction.
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| 25. |
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