Insights into origins and function of the unexplored majority of the reductive dehalogenase gene family as a result of genome assembly and ortholog group classification.

Organohalide respiring bacteria (OHRB) express reductive dehalogenases for energy conservation and growth. Some of these enzymes catalyze the reductive dehalogenation of chlorinated and brominated pollutants in anaerobic subsurface environments, providing a valuable ecosystem service. Dehalococcoides mccartyi strains have been most extensively studied owing to their ability to dechlorinate all chlorinated ethenes - most notably carcinogenic vinyl chloride - to ethene.

Assessing the performance of genome-wide association studies for predicting disease risk.

To date more than 3700 genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have been published that look at the genetic contributions of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) to human conditions or human phenotypes. Through these studies many highly significant SNPs have been identified for hundreds of diseases or medical conditions. However, the extent to which GWAS-identified SNPs or combinations of SNP biomarkers can predict disease risk is not well known.

PathBank: a comprehensive pathway database for model organisms.

PathBank (www.pathbank.org) is a new, comprehensive, visually rich pathway database containing more than 110 000 machine-readable pathways found in 10 model organisms (Homo sapiens, Bos taurus, Rattus norvegicus, Mus musculus, Drosophila melanogaster, Caenorhabditis elegans, Arabidopsis thaliana, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, Escherichia coli and Pseudomonas aeruginosa).