TY - JOUR A1 - Förster, Frank A1 - Liang, Chunguang A1 - Shkumatov, Alexander A1 - Beisser, Daniela A1 - Engelmann, Julia C. A1 - Schnölzer, Martina A1 - Frohme, Marcus A1 - Müller, Tobias A1 - Schill, Ralph O. A1 - Dandekar, Thomas T1 - Tardigrade workbench: comparing stress-related proteins, sequence-similar and functional protein clusters as well as RNA elements in tardigrades JF - BMC Genomics N2 - 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Different protein clusters and regulatory elements implicated in tardigrade stress adaptations are analysed including unpublished tardigrade sequences. Y1 - 2009 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:526-opus4-6461 SN - 1471-2164 VL - 10 IS - 469 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Beisser, Daniela A1 - Grohme, Markus A1 - Kopka, Joachim A1 - Frohme, Marcus A1 - Schill, Ralph O. A1 - Hengherr, Steffen A1 - Dandekar, Thomas A1 - Klau, Gunnar W. A1 - Dittrich, Marcus A1 - Müller, Tobias T1 - Integrated pathway modules using time-course metabolic profiles and EST data from Milnesium tardigradum JF - BMC Systems Biology N2 - Tardigrades are multicellular organisms, resistant to extreme environmental changes such as heat, drought, radiation and freezing. They outlast these conditions in an inactive form (tun) to escape damage to cellular structures and cell death. Tardigrades are apparently able to prevent or repair such damage and are therefore a crucial model organism for stress tolerance. Cultures of the tardigrade Milnesium tardigradum were dehydrated by removing the surrounding water to induce tun formation. During this process and the subsequent rehydration, metabolites were measured in a time series by GC-MS. Additionally expressed sequence tags are available, especially libraries generated from the active and inactive state. The aim of this integrated analysis is to trace changes in tardigrade metabolism and identify pathways responsible for their extreme resistance against physical stress. KW - integrated network analysis KW - functional module KW - metabolic profile KW - metabolic pathway KW - trend test Y1 - 2012 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:526-opus4-6146 SN - 1752-0509 VL - 6 IS - 72 ER -