Inference of essential genes in Brugia malayi and Onchocerca volvulus by machine learning and the implications for discovering new interventions.

Autor: Campos TL; Department of Biosciences, Melbourne Veterinary School, Faculty of Science, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria 3010, Australia.; Núcleo de Bioinformática, Instituto Aggeu Magalhães, Fiocruz., Av. Professor Moraes Rego, s/n, Cidade Universitária, Recife, PE CEP 50740-465, Brazil., Korhonen PK; Department of Biosciences, Melbourne Veterinary School, Faculty of Science, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria 3010, Australia., Young ND; Department of Biosciences, Melbourne Veterinary School, Faculty of Science, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria 3010, Australia., Chang BCH; Department of Biosciences, Melbourne Veterinary School, Faculty of Science, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria 3010, Australia., Gasser RB; Department of Biosciences, Melbourne Veterinary School, Faculty of Science, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria 3010, Australia.
Jazyk: angličtina
Zdroj: Computational and structural biotechnology journal [Comput Struct Biotechnol J] 2024 Aug 02; Vol. 23, pp. 3081-3089. Date of Electronic Publication: 2024 Aug 02 (Print Publication: 2024).
DOI: 10.1016/j.csbj.2024.07.025
Abstrakt: Detailed explorations of the model organisms Caenorhabditis elegans (elegant worm) and Drosophila melanogaster (vinegar fly) have substantially improved our knowledge and understanding of biological processes and pathways in metazoan organisms. Extensive functional genomic and multi-omic data sets have enabled the discovery and characterisation of 'essential' genes that are critical for the survival of these organisms. Recently, we showed that a machine learning (ML)-based pipeline could be utilised to predict essential genes in both C. elegans and D. melanogaster using features from DNA, RNA, protein and/or cellular data or associated information. As these distantly-related species are within the Ecdysozoa, we hypothesised that this approach could be suited for non-model organisms within the same group (phylum) of protostome animals. In the present investigation, we cross-predicted essential genes within the phylum Nematoda - between C. elegans and the parasitic filarial nematodes Brugia malayi and Onchocerca volvulus , and then ranked and prioritised these genes. Highly ranked genes were linked to key biological pathways or processes, such as ribosome biogenesis, translation and RNA processing, and were expressed at relatively high levels in the germline, gonad, hypodermis and/or nerves. The present in silico workflow is hoped to expedite the identification of drug targets in parasitic organisms for subsequent experimental validation in the laboratory.
Competing Interests: The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
(© 2024 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of Research Network of Computational and Structural Biotechnology.)
Databáze: MEDLINE