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At least 91 records · Page 5

SARS-CoV-2 wastewater variant surveillance: pandemic response leveraging FDA’s GenomeTrakr network

ABSTRACT Wastewater surveillance has emerged as a crucial public health tool for population-level pathogen surveillance. Supported by funding from the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, the FDA‘s genomic epidemiology program, GenomeTrakr, was leveraged to sequence SARS-CoV-2 from wastewater sites across the United States. This initiative required the evaluation, optimization, development, and publication of new methods and analytical tools spanning sample collection through variant analyses. Version-controlled protocols for each step of the process were developed and published on protocols.io. A custom data analysis tool and a publicly accessible dashboard were built to facilitate real-time visualization of the collected data, focusing on the relative abundance of SARS-CoV-2 variants and sub-lineages across different samples and sites throughout the project. From September 2021 through June 2023, a total of 3,389 wastewater samples were collected, with 2,517 undergoing sequencing and submission to NCBI under the umbrella BioProject,PRJNA757291. Sequence data were released with explicit quality control (QC) tags on all sequence records, communicating our confidence in the quality of data. Variant analysis revealed wide circulation of Delta in the fall of 2021 and captured the sweep of Omicron and subsequent diversification of this lineage through the end of the sampling period. This project successfully achieved two important goals for the FDA’s GenomeTrakr program: first, contributing timely genomic data for the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic response, and second, establishing both capacity and best practices for culture-independent, population-level environmental surveillance for other pathogens of interest to the FDA. IMPORTANCE This paper serves two primary objectives. First, it summarizes the genomic and contextual data collected during a Covid-19 pandemic response project, which utilized the FDA’s laboratory network, traditionally employed for sequencing foodborne pathogens, for sequencing SARS-CoV-2 from wastewater samples. Second, it outlines best practices for gathering and organizing population-level next generation sequencing (NGS) data collected for culture-free, surveillance of pathogens sourced from environmental samples.

Microbiology

Data Mining of Groundwater to Identify MAGs with Methane, Propane and Toluene Monooxygenases

Whole genome sequencing datasets, involving more than 600 groundwater samples, from nine countries, were analyzed to identify metagenome assembled genomes (MAGs) containing full operons for propane monooxygenase, soluble methane monooxygease, toluene monooxygenase and particulate ammonia/methane monooxygenase. The enzymes encoded by these genes are a focus of interest because of their ability to degrade common groundwater contaminants. Due to the large amount of data, sequence analyses involved more than 80 individual KBase narratives. The approach followed the KBase tutorial called "Metagenome-Assembled Genome Extraction from a Compost Microbiome Enrichment" The generated MAGs were exported from each individual narrative into separate summary KBase narratives for each monooxygenase. Three KBase narratives were generated for particulate ammonia/methane monooxygenase, due to the large number of MAGs identified.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES

Intra- and inter-subtype HIV diversity between 1994 and 2018 in southern Uganda: a longitudinal population-based study

There is limited data on human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) evolutionary trends in African populations. We evaluated changes in HIV viral diversity and genetic divergence in southern Uganda over a 24-year period spanning the introduction and scale-up of HIV prevention and treatment programs using HIV sequence and survey data from the Rakai Community Cohort Study, an open longitudinal population-based HIV surveillance cohort. Gag (p24) and env (gp41) HIV data were generated from people living with HIV (PLHIV) in 31 inland semi-urban trading and agrarian communities (1994–2018) and four hyperendemic Lake Victoria fishing communities (2011–2018) under continuous surveillance. HIV subtype was assigned using the Recombination Identification Program with phylogenetic confirmation. Inter-subtype diversity was evaluated using the Shannon diversity index, and intra-subtype diversity with the nucleotide diversity and pairwise TN93 genetic distance. Genetic divergence was measured using root-to-tip distance and pairwise TN93 genetic distance analyses. Demographic history of HIV was inferred using a coalescent-based Bayesian Skygrid model. Evolutionary dynamics were assessed among demographic and behavioral population subgroups, including by migration status. 9931 HIV sequences were available from 4999 PLHIV, including 3060 and 1939 persons residing in inland and fishing communities, respectively. In inland communities, subtype A1 viruses proportionately increased from 14.3% in 1995 to 25.9% in 2017 (P < .001), while those of subtype D declined from 73.2% in 1995 to 28.2% in 2017 (P < .001). The proportion of viruses classified as recombinants significantly increased by nearly four-fold from 12.2% in 1995 to 44.8% in 2017. Inter-subtype HIV diversity has generally increased. While intra-subtype p24 genetic diversity and divergence leveled off after 2014, intra-subtype gp41 diversity, effective population size, and divergence increased through 2017. Intra- and inter-subtype viral diversity increased across all demographic and behavioral population subgroups, including among individuals with no recent migration history or extra-community sexual partners. This study provides insights into population-level HIV evolutionary dynamics following the scale-up of HIV prevention and treatment programs. Continued molecular surveillance may provide a better understanding of the dynamics driving population HIV evolution and yield important insights for epidemic control and vaccine development.

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES

GenomeDepot v1.0

GenomeDepot is a web-based platform for annotation, management, and comparative analysis of microbial genomic sequences and associated data including ortholog families, protein domains, operons, regulatory interactions, strain taxonomy, and sample metadata. GenomeDepot supports rapid creation of web-sites for user-defined genome collections that include bioinformatic tools for interactive genome browsing, BLAST search, annotation search, comparative genomic neighborhood visualization, and sequence download. Gene function annotations are generated by a customizable annotation pipeline. The pipeline runs annotation tools in Conda environments and can be easily extended with additional user-specified tools.

Kazakov, Alexey [Lawrence Berkeley National Labora

Optimizing inference of segmentation on high-resolution images in MLExchange

MLExchange is a machine learning (ML) operations platform providing web user-interfaces (UIs) for data visualization and analysis pipelines at synchrotron facilities. Among these UIs is the segmentation app which helps synchrotron users utilize ML algorithms to automatically segment high-resolution scientific images with minimal manual annotation effort. In this work, we share code optimizations that significantly speed up the segmentation inference workflow of large data in short time. By optimizing the sequence of CPU-GPU data transfers and introducing CPU parallelization to key operations, we improve the per-device, per-image frame computational efficiency and observe close to 3×$$\times$$ speedup over the original segmentation inference workflow run time when utilizing a single GPU. Further adaptations enabling multi-GPU inference yield more than 40×$$\times$$ speedup with 100 GPUs compared to the optimized single GPU inference workflow. This acceleration of the segmentation inference workflow will provide MLExchange users with easy access to segmentation results with little wait time.

Lu, Shizhao

Binding profiles for 961 Drosophila and C. elegans transcription factors reveal tissue-specific regulatory relationships

A catalog of transcription factor (TF) binding sites in the genome is critical for deciphering regulatory relationships. Here, we present the culmination of the efforts of the modENCODE (model organism Encyclopedia of DNA Elements) and modERN (model organism Encyclopedia of Regulatory Networks) consortia to systematically assay TF binding events in vivo in two major model organisms,Drosophila melanogaster(fly) andCaenorhabditis elegans(worm). These data sets comprise 605 TFs identifying 3.6 M sites in the fly and 356 TFs identifying 0.9 M sites in the worm, and represent the majority of the regulatory space in each genome. We demonstrate that TFs associate with chromatin in clusters termed “metapeaks,” that larger metapeaks have characteristics of high-occupancy target (HOT) regions, and that the importance of consensus sequence motifs bound by TFs depends on metapeak size and complexity. Combining ChIP-seq data with single-cell RNA-seq data in a machine-learning model identifies TFs with a prominent role in promoting target gene expression in specific cell types, even differentiating between parent–daughter cells during embryogenesis. These data are a rich resource for the community that should fuel and guide future investigations into TF function. To facilitate data accessibility and utility, all strains expressing green fluorescent protein (GFP)-tagged TFs are available at the stock centers for each organism. The chromatin immunoprecipitation sequencing data are available through the ENCODE Data Coordinating Center, GEO, and through a direct interface that provides rapid access to processed data sets and summary analyses, as well as widgets to probe the cell-type-specific TF–target relationships.

Biochemistry & Molecular Biology

Decoding substrate specificity determining factors in glycosyltransferase-B enzymes – insights from machine learning models

Substrate specificity is an essential characteristic of any enzyme's function and an understanding of the factors that determine this specificity is crucial for enzyme engineering. Unlike the structure of an enzyme which is directly impacted by its sequence, substrate specificity as an enzyme attribute involves a rather indirect relationship with sequence as it also depends on structural aspects that dictate substrate accessibility and active site dynamics. In this study, we explore the performance of classifier-based machine learning models trained on curated sequence and structural data for a class of glycosyltransferases (GTs), namely GT-Bs, to understand their substrate specificity determining factors. GTs enable the transfer of sugar moieties to other biomolecules such as oligosaccharides or proteins and are found in all kingdoms of life. In plants, GTs participate in the biosynthesis of plant cell wall biopolymers (e.g.: hemicelluloses and pectins) and are an integral part of the enzymatic machinery that enables the storage of carbon and energy as plant biomass. To elucidate the substrate specificity of uncharacterized GT-Bs, we constructed multi-label machine learning models (Support Vector Classifier, K-Nearest Neighbors, Gaussian Naïve-Bayes, Random Forest) that incorporate both sequence and structural features. These models achieve good predictive accuracies on test datasets. However, despite our use of structural information, we highlight that there is further scope for improvement in training these models to draw interpretable relationships between sequence, structure and substrate specificity determining motifs in GT-Bs.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING

Taxogenomic Analysis of a Novel Yeast Species, Lachancea rosae Sp. Nov. F.A., Isolated From the Wild Rose Rosa californica

A novel Saccharomycotina yeast strain, yHQL494, was isolated from the rose hip of the wild rose Rosa californica from Castle Crags State Park, California, USA. Phylogenetic analyses of both whole genome data and the sequences from the D1/D2 region of the large ribosomal subunit (LSU) rRNA gene placed strain yHQL494 within the genus Lachancea and grouped it into a clade with Lachancea lanzarotensis and Lachancea meyersii. Taxogenomic analyses were conducted on publicly available genome sequences to gain a deeper insight into the carbon and nitrogen gene-trait associations across the Lachancea clade. The results of these analyses were found to be consistent across Lachancea species. Growth assays and microscopic analyses were conducted to determine the physiological characteristics of strain yHQL494, including the presence of hyphae or pseudohyphae, ascospore formation, fermentation abilities, and assimilation of carbon and nitrogen compounds. Based on the phenotypic and genomic characteristics of the strain yHQL494 T (=NRRL Y-64858 T , =CBS 18,574 T ), we propose a new species, Lachancea rosae sp. nov. f.a.

Bajgain, Yakendra [Villanova Univ., PA (United Sta

Microbiome dynamics in the congregate environment of U.S. Army Infantry training

Within military training and operational environments, individuals from diverse backgrounds share common spaces, follow structured routines and diets, and engage in physically demanding tasks. While there has been interest in leveraging microbiome features to predict and improve military health and performance, the longitudinal convergence of microbiomes in such constrained environments has not been established. To assess the degree of microbiome convergence, we performed shotgun metagenomic sequencing on swab samples from a military trainee cohort. Samples were taken across four different body sites, three timepoints, and two spatially distinct platoons. We observed evidence of convergence in one platoon, whereby similarity in microbiome composition increased over time, with numerous differentially abundant species. We found no indication of strain transfer between individuals, suggesting that convergence was influenced by external environmental factors, diet, and lifestyle. Microbial shifts observed in the convergence process included a decrease in fungal species, such as Malassezia restricta in nasal cavities, and a decrease in Prevotella species at inguinal regions across time. Shifts in multiple Corynebacterium species were also observed with varying magnitudes depending on the body site. Overall, we provide preliminary evidence of convergence of host microbial communities in military-associated environments that were distinguishable using shotgun metagenomic sequencing approaches. The data presented here on microbiome convergence, dynamics, and stability may inform risk-based mitigation in congregate military settings facilitating development of targeted microbial, dietary, or other interventions to optimize health and performance of military populations.

Biological and medical sciences

ProtNHF: Neural Hamiltonian Flows for Controllable Protein Sequence Generation

This dataset accompanies the publication "ProtNHF: Neural Hamiltonian Flows for Controllable Protein Sequence Generation". This paper introduces a new AI model for protein sequence generation. This dataset contains data related to experiments discussed in the publication. This includes generated sequences and evaluation metrics supporting all unconditional and bias-controlled experiments in the ProtNHF paper.

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES

Establishing Data Analysis Pipeline for Bulk ATAC-Seq Datasets

We developed an analysis pipeline for transposase-accessible chromatin sequencing (ATAC-Seq) data derived from bulk samples, which brings together publicly available R packages in addition to command-line tools designed for analysis of bulk ATAC-Seq data and can be run on any computer running a Linux-like operating system such as Ubuntu or Apple OSX.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING

High-quality Acinetobacter genomes recovered from combat wounds via metagenomic sequencing resemble cultured isolate genomes

The ability to accurately characterize wound pathogens is critical to informing clinical decisions for wound infections with complex treatment requirements. Acinetobacter baumannii is an impactful nosocomial pathogen in combat wounds and civilian hospital-acquired infections. An informed understanding of the phylogenetics and epidemiology of A. baumannii infections in military and civilian environments could guide approaches that improve antibiotic treatment regimens for both military and civilian patients. Whole-genome data for bacterial strains can be difficult to obtain due to challenges in culturing isolates from preserved military specimens. Metagenomic sequencing and assembly create opportunities for genomic analysis of pathogens directly from clinical specimens. The ability to perform comparative analyses between metagenome-derived genomes and culture-derived genomes would support a range of comparative bacterial genomic studies. Wound tissue biopsy and effluent samples from combat injuries were subjected to metagenomic sequencing and assembly. In total, 42 microbial metagenome-assembled genomes (MAGs) were obtained directly from metagenomic sequence data, 36 of which were designated “high” quality. Thirty of these genomes corresponded to Acinetobacter, with 29 mapping specifically to A. baumannii. Other observed genera included Bordetella, Citrobacter, Escherichia, and Pseudomonas. Single-copy and multi-copy orthologs were identified across Acinetobacter MAGs and publicly available isolate genomes derived from military and civilian sources. Both MAG and military isolate genomes were annotated with antimicrobial resistance data, and MAG genomes were statistically comparable to genomes obtained from isolates. Our results highlight the potential of de novo metagenome assembly for enabling high-resolution characterization directly from clinical specimens, thereby improving diagnostic precision, guiding antimicrobial stewardship, and enhancing understanding of pathogen evolution across diverse healthcare and battlefield environments.

Acinetobacter baumannii

Tetranucleotide frequencies differentiate genomic boundaries and metabolic strategies across environmental microbiomes

Microbiomes are constrained by physicochemical conditions, nutrient regimes, and community interactions across diverse environments, yet genomic signatures of this adaptation remain unclear. Metagenome sequencing is a powerful technique to analyze genomic content in the context of natural environments, establishing concepts of microbial ecological trends. Here, we developed a data discovery tool-a tetranucleotide-informed metagenome stability diagram-that is publicly available in the integrated microbial genomes and microbiomes (IMG/M) platform for metagenome ecosystem analyses. We analyzed the tetranucleotide frequencies from quality-filtered and unassembled sequence data of over 12,000 metagenomes to assess ecosystem-specific microbial community composition and function. We found that tetranucleotide frequencies can differentiate communities across various natural environments and that specific functional and metabolic trends can be observed in this structuring. Our tool places metagenomes sampled from diverse environments into clusters and along gradients of tetranucleotide frequency similarity, suggesting microbiome community compositions specific to gradient conditions. Within the resulting metagenome clusters, we identify protein-coding gene identifiers that are most differentiated between ecosystem classifications. We plan for annual updates to the metagenome stability diagram in IMG/M with new data, allowing for refinement of the ecosystem classifications delineated here. This framework has the potential to inform future studies on microbiome engineering, bioremediation, and the prediction of microbial community responses to environmental change. IMPORTANCE: Microbes adapt to diverse environments influenced by factors like temperature, acidity, and nutrient availability. We developed a new tool to analyze and visualize the genetic makeup of over 12,000 microbial communities, revealing patterns linked to specific functions and metabolic processes. This tool groups similar microbial communities and identifies characteristic genes within environments. By continually updating this tool, we aim to advance our understanding of microbial ecology, enabling applications like microbial engineering, bioremediation, and predicting responses to environmental change.

Kellom, Matthew

Data for "Design of Diverse, Functional Mitochondrial Targeting Sequences Across Eukaryotic Organisms Using Variational Autoencoder"

Mitochondria play a key role in energy production and metabolism, making them a promising target for metabolic engineering and disease treatment. However, despite the known influence of passenger proteins on localization efficiency, only a few protein-localization tags have been characterized for mitochondrial targeting. To address this limitation, we leverage a Variational Autoencoder to design novel mitochondrial targeting sequences. In silico analysis reveals that a high fraction of the generated peptides (90.14%) are functional and possess features important for mitochondrial targeting. We characterize artificial peptides in four eukaryotic organisms and, as a proof-of-concept, demonstrate their utility in increasing 3-hydroxypropionic acid titers through pathway compartmentalization and improving 5-aminolevulinate synthase delivery by 1.62-fold and 4.76-fold, respectively. Moreover, we employ latent space interpolation to shed light on the evolutionary origins of dual-targeting sequences. Overall, our work demonstrates the potential of generative artificial intelligence for both fundamental research and practical applications in mitochondrial biology.

AI/ML

VirJenDB: a FAIR (meta)data and bioinformatics platform for all viruses

High-throughput sequencing has generated an unprecedented volume of data. However, researcher-submitted data in repositories requires extensive curation and quality control for reuse. These tasks are hindered by the multiplicity of repositories, the sheer volume of the data, and the complexity of virus (meta)data curation. To address these challenges, VirJenDB offers a user-friendly platform to facilitate versioned, community-driven curation, and ontology development. Virus sequences were ingested from 16 sources, including ~200 fields of metadata or standards, covering taxonomy, sample, and host information. Up to 85 metadata fields have undergone at least one round of curation, and are linked to 15.4 million virus sequences, with 88 % from those infecting eukaryotes and the remaining infecting prokaryotes. Subsets were created, including a novel collection of 0.91 million viral operational taxonomic unit (vOTU) sequences across all viruses, while keeping the original sequences from each vOTU to facilitate downstream analyses, e.g. sequence variation. The VirJenDB web portal (https://www.virjendb.org) provides HTTPS and Application Programming Interface (API) access to the sequence datasets and metadata, offering a search engine, filtering, download, visualizations, and documentation. VirJenDB aims to connect the phage and eukaryotic virus research communities by supporting webtool integration, meta-analyses, and metadata schema extensions.

Saghaei, Shahram

A high-throughput workflow to analyze sequence-conformation relationships and explore hydrophobic patterning in disordered peptoids

Understanding how a macromolecule’s primary sequence governs its conformational landscape is crucial for elucidating its function, yet these design principles are still emerging for macromolecules with intrinsic disorder. Herein, we introduce a high-throughput workflow that implements a practical colorimetric conformational assay, introduces a semi-automated sequencing protocol using matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization and tandem mass spectrometry (MALDI-MS/MS), and develops a generalizable sequence-structure algorithm. Using a model system of 20mer peptidomimetics containing polar glycine and hydrophobic N-butylglycine residues, we identified nine classifications of conformational disorder and isolated 122 unique sequences across varied compositions and conformations. Conformational distributions of three compositionally identical library sequences were corroborated through atomistic simulations and ion mobility spectrometry coupled with liquid chromatography. A data-driven strategy was developed using existing sequence variables and data-derived “motifs” to inform a machine-learning algorithm toward conformation prediction. Here, this multifaceted approach enhances our understanding of sequence-conformation relationships and offers a powerful tool for accelerating the discovery of materials with conformational control.

data-driven analysis

Cleaned 5-Minute Resolution Air Quality and Meteorological Data from Nine TCEQ CAMS Sites in Houston, Texas (Nov 2021 – Oct 2022)

These data encompass 5-minute air monitoring and meteorological observations collected in the greater Houston, Texas metropolitan region, at nine (9) Continuous Ambient Monitoring Stations (CAMS) operated by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) between November 1, 2021 and October 31, 2022. The CAMS sites (CAMS 1, 8, 35, 45, 148, 403, 405, 410, and 1052) were chosen because their instrumentation includes measurements of PM2.5. These sites also provide continuous multi-parameter air-quality and meteorological measurements. Particulate matter (PM2.5, PM10) was sampled along with several trace gases, including ozone (O3), nitrogen oxides (NO, NO2, NOx), sulfur dioxide (SO2), and carbon monoxide (CO). The data set also contains standard surface meteorological parameters (temperature, humidity, pressure, wind speed, and wind direction). Several sites also include AutoGC-based measurements of volatile organic compounds (VOCs). Air monitoring instruments deployed at the selected sites comprise the following systems: BAM-1020 or TEOM (PM2.5), Thermo Scientific TEI 49i (O3), TEI 42i (NOx), and AutoGCs (VOCs). This data set is similar to the data included within the houairq5mX1.00 datastream, except for a few additional quality control steps. A systematic data cleaning and verification process was performed on the data set to ensure its quality and preparation for analysis. Removal of non-numeric status flags (e.g., [LIM], [QAS], [SPZ], [CAL], [PMA], [AQI], [SPN], [MAL]) was accomplished by employing rule-based string parsing to extract valid numerical values. Missing entries were set to -9999; however, invalid or anomalous values (e.g., 99999) were retained as originally reported by the TCEQ to preserve data provenance. The time sequence was verified for completeness, removal of duplicates, and uniformity at 5-minute intervals. Column labeling was standardized, and corresponding values were assessed for physical plausibility. All timestamps in the data set were reported in Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) as provided by the TCEQ. Further, the latitude and longitude coordinates were added for each CAMS site. A subset of the data (June 1–September 30, 2022) has been used in the following publication: Subba et al. 2025. “Implications of sea breeze circulations on boundary layer aerosols in the southern coastal Texas region.” EGUsphere 2025: 1–49, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-2659.

latitude

Ocelot: An Interactive, Efficient Distributed Compression-As-a-Service Platform With Optimized Data Compression Techniques

Large volumes of data generated by scientific simulations, genome sequencing, and other applications need to be moved among clusters for data collection/analysis. Data compression techniques have effectively reduced data storage and transfer costs. However, users' requirements on interactively controlling both data quality and compression ratios are non-trivial to fulfill. Here, we propose a novel Compression-as-a-Service (CaaS) platform called Ocelot with four important contributions: (1) It offers real-time visualization, interactive compression, and transfer of scientific datasets. (2) It incorporates new strategies for compressing diverse types of datasets more effectively than traditional methods. (3) It provides an effective method for estimating the compression ratio and execution time of compression tasks. (4) Experiments on multiple real-world datasets on geographically distributed computers show that Ocelot can significantly improve data transfer efficiency with a performance gain of more than 10x in computing clusters with relatively slow networks.

compression as a service (CaaS)