@article{FoersterLiangShkumatovetal.2009, author = {F{\"o}rster, Frank and Liang, Chunguang and Shkumatov, Alexander and Beisser, Daniela and Engelmann, Julia C. and Schn{\"o}lzer, Martina and Frohme, Marcus and M{\"u}ller, Tobias and Schill, Ralph O. and Dandekar, Thomas}, title = {Tardigrade workbench: comparing stress-related proteins, sequence-similar and functional protein clusters as well as RNA elements in tardigrades}, series = {BMC Genomics}, volume = {10}, journal = {BMC Genomics}, number = {469}, issn = {1471-2164}, doi = {10.1186/1471-2164-10-469}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:526-opus4-6461}, pages = {10}, year = {2009}, abstract = {Background Tardigrades represent an animal phylum with extraordinary resistance to environmental stress. Results To gain insights into their stress-specific adaptation potential, major clusters of related and similar proteins are identified, as well as specific functional clusters delineated comparing all tardigrades and individual species (Milnesium tardigradum, Hypsibius dujardini, Echiniscus testudo, Tulinus stephaniae, Richtersius coronifer) and functional elements in tardigrade mRNAs are analysed. We find that 39.3\% of the total sequences clustered in 58 clusters of more than 20 proteins. Among these are ten tardigrade specific as well as a number of stress-specific protein clusters. Tardigrade-specific functional adaptations include strong protein, DNA- and redox protection, maintenance and protein recycling. Specific regulatory elements regulate tardigrade mRNA stability such as lox P DICE elements whereas 14 other RNA elements of higher eukaryotes are not found. Further features of tardigrade specific adaption are rapidly identified by sequence and/or pattern search on the web-tool tardigrade analyzer http://waterbear.bioapps.biozentrum.uni-wuerzburg.de. The work-bench offers nucleotide pattern analysis for promotor and regulatory element detection (tardigrade specific; nrdb) as well as rapid COG search for function assignments including species-specific repositories of all analysed data. Conclusion Different protein clusters and regulatory elements implicated in tardigrade stress adaptations are analysed including unpublished tardigrade sequences.}, language = {en} } @article{FoersterBeisserGrohmeetal.2012, author = {F{\"o}rster, Frank and Beisser, Daniela and Grohme, Markus and Liang, Chunguang and Mali, Brahim and Siegl, Alexander Matthias and Engelmann, Julia C. and Shkumatov, Alexander and Schokraie, Elham and M{\"u}ller, Tobias and Schn{\"o}lzer, Martina and Schill, Ralph O. and Frohme, Marcus and Dandekar, Thomas}, title = {Transcriptome Analysis in Tardigrade Species Reveals Specific Molecular Pathways for Stress Adaptations}, series = {Bioinformatics and Biology Insights}, volume = {2012}, journal = {Bioinformatics and Biology Insights}, number = {6}, issn = {1177-9322}, doi = {10.4137/BBI.S9150}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:526-opus4-6153}, pages = {69 -- 96}, year = {2012}, abstract = {Tardigrades have unique stress-adaptations that allow them to survive extremes of cold, heat, radiation and vacuum. To study this, encoded protein clusters and pathways from an ongoing transcriptome study on the tardigrade Milnesium tardigradum were analyzed using bioinformatics tools and compared to expressed sequence tags (ESTs) from Hypsibius dujardini, revealing major pathways involved in resistance against extreme environmental conditions. ESTs are available on the Tardigrade Workbench along with software and databank updates. Our analysis reveals that RNA stability motifs for M. tardigradum are different from typical motifs known from higher animals. M. tardigradum and H. dujardini protein clusters and conserved domains imply metabolic storage pathways for glycogen, glycolipids and specific secondary metabolism as well as stress response pathways (including heat shock proteins, bmh2, and specific repair pathways). Redox-, DNA-, stress- and protein protection pathways complement specific repair capabilities to achieve the strong robustness of M. tardigradum. These pathways are partly conserved in other animals and their manipulation could boost stress adaptation even in human cells. However, the unique combination of resistance and repair pathways make tardigrades and M. tardigradum in particular so highly stress resistant.}, language = {en} }