Biogeographic and Evolutionary Patterns of Trace Element Utilization in Marine Microbial World.

Trace elements are required by all organisms, which are key components of many enzymes catalyzing important biological reactions. Many trace element-dependent proteins have been characterized; however, little is known about their occurrence in microbial communities in diverse environments, especially the global marine ecosystem. Moreover, the relationships between trace element utilization and different types of environmental stressors are unclear.

Disease Ionomics: Understanding the Role of Ions in Complex Disease.

Ionomics is a novel multidisciplinary field that uses advanced techniques to investigate the composition and distribution of all minerals and trace elements in a living organism and their variations under diverse physiological and pathological conditions. It involves both high-throughput elemental profiling technologies and bioinformatic methods, providing opportunities to study the molecular mechanism underlying the metabolism, homeostasis, and cross-talk of these elements. While much effort has been made in exploring the ionomic traits relating to plant physiology and nutrition, the use of ionomics in the research of serious diseases is still in progress.

Comparative genomics and metagenomics of the metallomes.

Biological trace metals are needed by all living organisms in very small quantities. They play important roles in a variety of key cellular processes, resulting in a varying degree of dependence on metals for different organisms. While most effort has been placed on identifying metal metabolic pathways and characterizing metalloproteins and their functions, computational and systematical analyses of the metallomes (or metalloproteomes) have been limited.

Comparative genomics of molybdenum utilization in prokaryotes and eukaryotes.

Background: Molybdenum (Mo) is an essential micronutrient for almost all biological systems, which holds key positions in several enzymes involved in carbon, nitrogen and sulfur metabolism. In general, this transition metal needs to be coordinated to a unique pterin, thus forming a prosthetic group named molybdenum cofactor (Moco) at the catalytic sites of molybdoenzymes. The biochemical functions of many molybdoenzymes have been characterized; however, comprehensive analyses of the evolution of Mo metabolism and molybdoproteomes are quite limited.

Comparative genomics reveals new evolutionary and ecological patterns of selenium utilization in bacteria.

Selenium (Se) is an important micronutrient for many organisms, which is required for the biosynthesis of selenocysteine, selenouridine and Se-containing cofactor. Several key genes involved in different Se utilization traits have been characterized; however, systematic studies on the evolution and ecological niches of Se utilization are very limited. Here, we analyzed more than 5200 sequenced organisms to examine the occurrence patterns of all Se traits in bacteria.

Comparative selenoproteome analysis reveals a reduced utilization of selenium in parasitic platyhelminthes.

Background. The selenocysteine(Sec)-containing proteins, selenoproteins, are an important group of proteins present in all three kingdoms of life. Although the selenoproteomes of many organisms have been analyzed, systematic studies on selenoproteins in platyhelminthes are still lacking.