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Lin D, Sutherland D, Aninta SI, Louie N, Nip KM, Li C, Yanai A, Coombe L, Warren RL, Helbing CC, Hoang LMN, Birol I. Mining Amphibian and Insect Transcriptomes for Antimicrobial Peptide Sequences with rAMPage. Antibiotics (Basel) 2022; 11:antibiotics11070952. [PMID: 35884206 PMCID: PMC9312091 DOI: 10.3390/antibiotics11070952] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/09/2022] [Revised: 07/12/2022] [Accepted: 07/13/2022] [Indexed: 02/01/2023] Open
Abstract
Antibiotic resistance is a global health crisis increasing in prevalence every day. To combat this crisis, alternative antimicrobial therapeutics are urgently needed. Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs), a family of short defense proteins, are produced naturally by all organisms and hold great potential as effective alternatives to small molecule antibiotics. Here, we present rAMPage, a scalable bioinformatics discovery platform for identifying AMP sequences from RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) datasets. In our study, we demonstrate the utility and scalability of rAMPage, running it on 84 publicly available RNA-seq datasets from 75 amphibian and insect species—species known to have rich AMP repertoires. Across these datasets, we identified 1137 putative AMPs, 1024 of which were deemed novel by a homology search in cataloged AMPs in public databases. We selected 21 peptide sequences from this set for antimicrobial susceptibility testing against Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus and observed that seven of them have high antimicrobial activity. Our study illustrates how in silico methods such as rAMPage can enable the fast and efficient discovery of novel antimicrobial peptides as an effective first step in the strenuous process of antimicrobial drug development.
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Affiliation(s)
- Diana Lin
- Canada’s Michael Smith Genome Sciences Centre at BC Cancer, Vancouver, BC V5Z 4S6, Canada; (D.L.); (D.S.); (S.I.A.); (N.L.); (K.M.N.); (C.L.); (A.Y.); (L.C.); (R.L.W.)
| | - Darcy Sutherland
- Canada’s Michael Smith Genome Sciences Centre at BC Cancer, Vancouver, BC V5Z 4S6, Canada; (D.L.); (D.S.); (S.I.A.); (N.L.); (K.M.N.); (C.L.); (A.Y.); (L.C.); (R.L.W.)
- British Columbia Centre for Disease Control, Public Health Laboratory, Vancouver, BC V6Z R4R, Canada;
- Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z4, Canada
| | - Sambina Islam Aninta
- Canada’s Michael Smith Genome Sciences Centre at BC Cancer, Vancouver, BC V5Z 4S6, Canada; (D.L.); (D.S.); (S.I.A.); (N.L.); (K.M.N.); (C.L.); (A.Y.); (L.C.); (R.L.W.)
| | - Nathan Louie
- Canada’s Michael Smith Genome Sciences Centre at BC Cancer, Vancouver, BC V5Z 4S6, Canada; (D.L.); (D.S.); (S.I.A.); (N.L.); (K.M.N.); (C.L.); (A.Y.); (L.C.); (R.L.W.)
| | - Ka Ming Nip
- Canada’s Michael Smith Genome Sciences Centre at BC Cancer, Vancouver, BC V5Z 4S6, Canada; (D.L.); (D.S.); (S.I.A.); (N.L.); (K.M.N.); (C.L.); (A.Y.); (L.C.); (R.L.W.)
- Bioinformatics Graduate Program, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z4, Canada
| | - Chenkai Li
- Canada’s Michael Smith Genome Sciences Centre at BC Cancer, Vancouver, BC V5Z 4S6, Canada; (D.L.); (D.S.); (S.I.A.); (N.L.); (K.M.N.); (C.L.); (A.Y.); (L.C.); (R.L.W.)
- Bioinformatics Graduate Program, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z4, Canada
| | - Anat Yanai
- Canada’s Michael Smith Genome Sciences Centre at BC Cancer, Vancouver, BC V5Z 4S6, Canada; (D.L.); (D.S.); (S.I.A.); (N.L.); (K.M.N.); (C.L.); (A.Y.); (L.C.); (R.L.W.)
| | - Lauren Coombe
- Canada’s Michael Smith Genome Sciences Centre at BC Cancer, Vancouver, BC V5Z 4S6, Canada; (D.L.); (D.S.); (S.I.A.); (N.L.); (K.M.N.); (C.L.); (A.Y.); (L.C.); (R.L.W.)
| | - René L. Warren
- Canada’s Michael Smith Genome Sciences Centre at BC Cancer, Vancouver, BC V5Z 4S6, Canada; (D.L.); (D.S.); (S.I.A.); (N.L.); (K.M.N.); (C.L.); (A.Y.); (L.C.); (R.L.W.)
| | - Caren C. Helbing
- Department of Biochemistry and Microbiology, University of Victoria, Victoria, BC V8P 5C2, Canada;
| | - Linda M. N. Hoang
- British Columbia Centre for Disease Control, Public Health Laboratory, Vancouver, BC V6Z R4R, Canada;
- Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z4, Canada
| | - Inanc Birol
- Canada’s Michael Smith Genome Sciences Centre at BC Cancer, Vancouver, BC V5Z 4S6, Canada; (D.L.); (D.S.); (S.I.A.); (N.L.); (K.M.N.); (C.L.); (A.Y.); (L.C.); (R.L.W.)
- British Columbia Centre for Disease Control, Public Health Laboratory, Vancouver, BC V6Z R4R, Canada;
- Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z4, Canada
- Correspondence:
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Pannebakker BA, Cook N, van den Heuvel J, van de Zande L, Shuker DM. Genomics of sex allocation in the parasitoid wasp Nasonia vitripennis. BMC Genomics 2020; 21:499. [PMID: 32689940 PMCID: PMC7372847 DOI: 10.1186/s12864-020-06904-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/31/2020] [Accepted: 07/10/2020] [Indexed: 12/25/2022] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Whilst adaptive facultative sex allocation has been widely studied at the phenotypic level across a broad range of organisms, we still know remarkably little about its genetic architecture. Here, we explore the genome-wide basis of sex ratio variation in the parasitoid wasp Nasonia vitripennis, perhaps the best studied organism in terms of sex allocation, and well known for its response to local mate competition. RESULTS We performed a genome-wide association study (GWAS) for single foundress sex ratios using iso-female lines derived from the recently developed outbred N. vitripennis laboratory strain HVRx. The iso-female lines capture a sample of the genetic variation in HVRx and we present them as the first iteration of the Nasonia vitripennis Genome Reference Panel (NVGRP 1.0). This panel provides an assessment of the standing genetic variation for sex ratio in the study population. Using the NVGRP, we discovered a cluster of 18 linked SNPs, encompassing 9 annotated loci associated with sex ratio variation. Furthermore, we found evidence that sex ratio has a shared genetic basis with clutch size on three different chromosomes. CONCLUSIONS Our approach provides a thorough description of the quantitative genetic basis of sex ratio variation in Nasonia at the genome level and reveals a number of inter-related candidate loci underlying sex allocation regulation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Bart A Pannebakker
- Laboratory of Genetics, Wageningen University & Research, Wageningen, The Netherlands.
| | - Nicola Cook
- School of Biology, University of St Andrews, Fife, UK
| | - Joost van den Heuvel
- Laboratory of Genetics, Wageningen University & Research, Wageningen, The Netherlands
| | - Louis van de Zande
- Evolutionary Genetics, Development and Behaviour, Groningen Institute for Evolutionary Life Sciences, University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands
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Jones ARC, Mallon EB. Evidence of capacitation in the parasitoid wasp, Nasonia vitripennis, and its potential role in sex allocation. Ecol Evol 2020; 10:7212-7220. [PMID: 32760522 PMCID: PMC7391552 DOI: 10.1002/ece3.6422] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/02/2020] [Revised: 04/29/2020] [Accepted: 05/03/2020] [Indexed: 12/02/2022] Open
Abstract
The allocation of resources to the production of one sex or another has been observed in a large variety of animals. Its theoretical basis allows accurate predictions of offspring sex ratios in many species, but the mechanisms by which sex allocation is controlled are poorly understood. Using previously published data, we investigated whether alternative splicing, combined with differential gene expression, was involved with sex allocation in the parasitoid wasp, Nasonia vitripennis. We found that sex allocation is not controlled by alternative splicing but changes in gene and transcript-specific expression, which were identified to be involved with oviposition, were shown to be similar to those involved in sperm motility and capacitation. Genes involved in cholesterol efflux, a key component of capacitation, along with calcium transport, neurotransmission, trypsin, and MAPKinase activity were regulated in ovipositing wasps. The results show evidence for regulation of sperm motility and of capacitation in an insect which, in the context of the physiology of the N. vitripennis spermatheca, could be important for sex allocation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alun R. C. Jones
- Department of Genetics and Genome BiologyUniversity of LeicesterLeicesterUK
| | - Eamonn B. Mallon
- Department of Genetics and Genome BiologyUniversity of LeicesterLeicesterUK
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