The COVID-19 pandemic has emphasized the importance of accurate detection of known and emerging pathogens. However, robust characterization of pathogenic sequences remains an open challenge. To address this need we developed SeqScreen, which accurately characterizes short nucleotide sequences using taxonomic and functional labels and a customized set of curated Functions of Sequences of Concern (FunSoCs) specific to microbial pathogenesis. We show our ensemble machine learning model can label protein-coding sequences with FunSoCs with high recall and precision. SeqScreen is a step towards a novel paradigm of functionally informed synthetic DNA screening and pathogen characterization, available for download at www.gitlab.com/treangenlab/seqscreen .
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s13059-022-02695-x | DOI Listing |
Phytopathology
January 2025
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, School of Plant and Environmental Science, Blacksburg, Virginia, United States;
Diseases that affect the vascular system or the pith are of great economic impact since they can rapidly destroy the affected plants, leading to complete loss in production. Fast and precise identification is thus important to inform containment and management, but many identification methods are slow because they are culture-dependent and they do not reach strain resolution. Here we used culture-independent long-read metagenomic sequencing of DNA extracted directly from stems of two tomato samples that displayed wilt symptoms.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPLoS One
January 2025
Department of Biology, Faculty of Medicine, Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic.
Taylorella equigenitalis is the causative agent of sexually transmitted contagious equine metritis. Infections manifest as cervicitis, vaginitis and endometritis and cause temporary infertility and miscarriages of mares. While previous studies have analyzed this organism for various parameters, the evolutionary dynamics of this pathogen, including the emergence of antibiotic resistance, remains unresolved.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMicrob Genom
January 2025
Quadram Institute Bioscience, Norwich Research Park, Norwich, UK.
A diverse array of micro-organisms can be found on food, including those that are pathogenic or resistant to antimicrobial drugs. Metagenomics involves extracting and sequencing the DNA of all micro-organisms on a sample, and here, we used a combination of culture and culture-independent approaches to investigate the microbial ecology of food to assess the potential application of metagenomics for the microbial surveillance of food. We cultured common foodborne pathogens and other organisms including , spp.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEpilepsia
January 2025
Department of Clinical Neurosciences, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
Objective: Somatic variants causing epilepsy are challenging to detect, as they are only present in a subset of brain cells (e.g., mosaic), resulting in low variant allele frequencies.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAlzheimers Dement
December 2024
Laboratory of Neurobiology, Department of Neurology, Poznan, Poland.
Background: Alzheimer's disease (AD) is characterized by an acquired, progressive impairment of cognitive functions. The pathogenesis of this disease remains unknown. It is explained based on the following theories: amyloid cascade, inflammation, vascular, and infection hypothesis.
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