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Recent development of Ori-Finder system and DoriC database for microbial replication origins

Recent development of Ori-Finder system and DoriC database for microbial replication origins Abstract DNA replication begins at replication origins in all three domains of life. Identification and characterization of replication origins are important not only in providing insights into the structure and function of the replication origins but also in understanding the regulatory mechanisms of the initiation step in DNA replication. The Z-curve method has been used in the identification of replication origins in archaeal genomes successfully since 2002. Furthermore, the Web servers of Ori-Finder and Ori-Finder 2 have been developed to predict replication origins in both bacterial and archaeal genomes based on the Z-curve method, and the replication origins with manual curation have been collected into an online database, DoriC. Ori-Finder system and DoriC database are currently used in the research field of DNA replication origins in prokaryotes, including: (i) identification of oriC regions in bacterial and archaeal genomes; (ii) discovery and analysis of the conserved sequences within oriC regions; and (iii) strand-biased analysis of bacterial genomes. Up to now, more and more predicted results by Ori-Finder system were supported by subsequent experiments, and Ori-Finder system has been used to identify the replication origins in > 100 newly sequenced prokaryotes in their genome reports. In addition, the data in DoriC database have been widely used in the large-scale analyses of replication origins and strand bias in prokaryotic genomes. Here, we review the development of Ori-Finder system and DoriC database as well as their applications. Some future directions and aspects for extending the application of Ori-Finder and DoriC are also presented. replication origin, DNA replication, Z-curve, prokaryotic genome Introduction DNA replication is one of the basic processes in all three domains of cellular life. The duplication of the genetic information in a cell begins at specific sites on the chromosomes, termed DNA replication origins. The replication origin regions play significant roles in the DNA replication and serve as recognition sites for initiator proteins and assembly of replication forks [1]. The characteristics of replication origin regions are various among prokaryote and eukaryote, and their nucleotide sequences also present diversities in different organisms [2, 3]. In most bacteria, two replication forks assemble at the replication origin of chromosomes (oriCs) and move in opposite directions, and then leading to bidirectional growth of both daughter strands. The oriC regions contain several DnaA box motifs, which are 9 bp highly conserved consensus sequences. DnaA boxes are the recognition sites for the DnaA protein, which is essential for the initiation of chromosome replication. Moreover, the oriC regions are frequently located next to the replication-related genes [4, 5]. Detailed analyses have shown that the consensus sequences of DnaA boxes and distributed genes adjacent to oriCs are highly conserved in different phyla [6]. In addition, because of the asymmetric nucleotide composition of prokaryotic chromosomes, the replication origins have been identified around the boundaries of GC or AT skew [7]. In eukaryote, because of the huge size of genomes, the chromosomes use multiple dispersed replication origins to initiate the DNA replication, ranging from hundreds in yeast to tens of thousands in human [8–10]. Minichromosome maintenance (MCM) complexes are first loaded at replication origins in G1 phase of the cell cycle. Then, the origin-bound MCM complexes unwind the double-stranded DNA at the origins, recruit DNA polymerases and initiate DNA synthesis in S phase [11]. The replication origins in unicellular eukaryotes Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Schizosaccharomyces pombe have been well characterized by microarray and deep sequencing techniques [12, 13]. However, the selection and regulation of DNA replication origins in the higher eukaryotes are more complex and diverse [14–16]. As a separate domain in the three-domain system, archaea share some similar features with both bacteria and eukaryotes. The locations of oriC regions in archaea are also adjacent to the replication-related genes, and the origin recognition boxes (ORBs) are distributed within oriC sequences [17]. In some archaea, single chromosome could adopt more than one oriCs in initiation of DNA replication as eukaryotes. Furthermore, the origin binding proteins in archaea are homologous to the corresponding eukaryotic Orc1/Cdc6 proteins [18], and a homologous MCM hexameric ring serving as replicative helicase is loaded by origin-bound initiator proteins [19]. Since the first complete bacterial genome was sequenced in 1995 [20], the available microbial genomic data have been increasing exponentially with the rapid development of sequencing techniques. Recently, the White House launched the National Microbiome Initiative (NMI) in 2016, which aimed to deepen the understanding of the microbes that live in humans, animals, crops, soils, oceans, etc. [21], and some other microbial programs, such as MGP, MetaHIT and HMP, have also been carried out in the past decade [22–24]. These microbial projects have produced a large amount of sequence data, thereby creating an opportunity for exploration of the molecular mechanisms for initiating cellular DNA replication by in vivo experiments as well as in silico analysis at the genome level. Development of bioinformatics tools to mine useful biological information in microbial genomes will contribute to bridge the gap between genomic data and knowledge discovery. On the other hand, the accumulation of genomic data has created great challenges and opportunities for identification and characterization of the replication origins on a large scale. Identification of the oriC regions will not only provide insights into the structure and functions of replication origins but also facilitate the studies in regulatory mechanisms of DNA replication initiation [25]. Our laboratory has developed the Web service and database in this field based on the Z-curve method. The Z-curve is a unique three-dimensional curve used to transform the DNA sequence in a three-dimensional space, and the three components of the Z-curve could represent three independent distributions, including purine/pyrimidine (R/Y) bases, amino/keto (M/K) bases and strong-H bond/weak-H bond (S/W) along the sequence. The Z-curve method could be used in the detection of the asymmetric nucleotide distribution around replication origins [26]. With this method, the oriC regions in Methanocaldococcus jannaschii, Methanosarcina mazei, Halobacterium sp. strain NRC-1 and Sulfolobus solfataricus P2 have been identified successfully, and the predicted results are also consistent with the subsequent experiments [27, 28]. To facilitate the prediction of oriC regions, a Web-based system, Ori-Finder (http://tubic.tju.edu.cn/Ori-Finder/), was developed to find replication origins in bacterial genomes with high accuracy and reliability [29]. Up to now, more and more predicted results by Ori-Finder system were supported by subsequent experiments, and Ori-Finder system has been used to identify the replication origins in >100 newly sequenced prokaryotes in their genome reports [30–32]. Furthermore, we also designed Ori-Finder 2, a new Web-based tool to identify the oriC regions in the archaeal genomes [33]. Then, the oriC regions identified by in silico analyses, as well as in vivo and in vitro experiments have been organized into DoriC (http://tubic.tju.edu.cn/doric/), a database of oriC regions in bacterial and archaeal genomes [34, 35]. DoriC has provided insights into the regulatory mechanisms of the initiation step in DNA replication as well as the molecular mechanisms of strand bias in genomes. The application of the rules derived from the database will also be helpful to develop new prediction algorithms of replication origins and speed up the experimental confirmation and functional analysis of oriCs in bacterial or archaeal genomes. In this review, we briefly introduce the development of the Ori-Finder system and DoriC database and review some applications with those tools. Additionally, some future directions and aspects for extending the application of Ori-Finder and DoriC are also presented. The development of Ori-Finder and DoriC Ori-Finder: an online tool for oriC prediction in bacteria DNA replication is a precise and complex process in the cell life, during which the cell uses a great deal of enzymes and proteins to synthesize the nucleotides. So that the perfect prediction algorithms of oriC regions should take as many factors as possible into consideration, which are concerned with the DNA replication process. It is well known that the DNA replication asymmetry gives rise to compositional deviations between the leading and lagging strands [36]. As the pioneer work to identify bacterial oriC regions in silico, the GC skew analysis is mainly based on the asymmetric nucleotide composition [7]. Later, other skew methods, such as the cumulative GC skew without sliding windows method and oligomer-skew, were proposed to predict oriC regions in bacterial and archaeal genomes [37]. Nevertheless, with the analysis of asymmetric nucleotide composition, scientists could only predict the approximate location, but not the exact boundary of replication origins. Meanwhile, the bacterial replication origins are frequently located in the intergenic regions that are adjacent to the replication-related genes, such as dnaA, gidA and so on. Hence, a GC skew analysis together with the location of dnaA gene and distribution of DnaA boxes led to the more accurate predictions of oriC regions [38, 39]. However, it is inconvenient for the biologists who sequenced the bacterial genomes to take all the possible characteristics of oriC regions into account, such as the effects of ‘species-specific’ DnaA box motif, thereby leading to the wrong prediction results of oriC regions [40, 41], and the pipelines or Web servers that could predict and visualize the related data of oriC regions in complete bacterial genome automatically were in great need. Therefore, we developed Ori-Finder to predict oriC regions in the complete bacterial genomes, which integrated gene prediction, analysis of base composition asymmetry, distribution of DnaA boxes, occurrence of genes frequently close to oriC regions and phylogenetic relationships [29] (Figure 1A). In addition, Ori-Finder can also predict oriC regions in some draft genomes only with contigs or scaffolds. Owing to integration of Z-curve method, Ori-Finder is also used to separate the leading and lagging strands to perform the strand bias analysis of biological characteristics. Figure 1 Open in new tabDownload slide The architecture of Ori-Finder system and DoriC database. (A) Ori-Finder, Ori-Finder 2 and PubMed used as the data source of DoriC database. (B) The screenshot of DoriC main page. (C) A representative record in DoriC database. The left part shows the Z-curves for the genome sequences, and the right part presents some tools used by DoriC, including BLAST, NCBI genome viewer and REPuter. (D) Future perspectives of Ori-Finder and DoriC including the newfound characteristics as well as the extended oriC prediction and collection. Figure 1 Open in new tabDownload slide The architecture of Ori-Finder system and DoriC database. (A) Ori-Finder, Ori-Finder 2 and PubMed used as the data source of DoriC database. (B) The screenshot of DoriC main page. (C) A representative record in DoriC database. The left part shows the Z-curves for the genome sequences, and the right part presents some tools used by DoriC, including BLAST, NCBI genome viewer and REPuter. (D) Future perspectives of Ori-Finder and DoriC including the newfound characteristics as well as the extended oriC prediction and collection. DoriC: a database of oriCs DoriC is a database of manually curated oriC regions, which was initially publicly available in 2007 (Figure 1B). At that time, the complete bacterial genome data were accumulated rapidly because of the advance in high-throughput sequencing technology. However, the experimental method is impossible to identify all the replication origins in the sequenced genomes extensively. Furthermore, some large-scale analyses of the bacterial genomes, such as those of replication origins and strand bias in genomes, were restricted by the absence of oriC data. Before the construction of DoriC, the Z-curve method has been used in the prediction of oriCs in several archaeal genomes, and some of the results were confirmed by experimental data subsequently. To extensively identify oriCs with high accuracy and reliability, our laboratory developed an integrated in silico method to predict oriC regions of bacterial genomes, and the predicted oriCs as well as those identified by in vivo or in vitro experiments were manually curated and collected into the DoriC database. The first public release of the database only collected 478 predicted oriCs in 425 bacterial genomes, and 72.2% of the predicted oriCs have consistent features with each other, including typical base composition asymmetry, DnaA box distribution and indicator gene positions [34]. Furthermore, DoriC database presents the detailed information of oriC regions, including the experimental evidences of the replication origins, the number of DnaA boxes, disparity curves and replication-related genes, and enables the retrieve of DoriC entries and BLAST search for oriC regions. The putative dif (deletion-induced filamentation) sequences, which are associated with DNA replication terminus, are also added to the oriC records. The accumulation of oriC records in the database would provide the possibility to explore the characteristics in the oriC regions. With the increasing availability of completely sequenced prokaryotic genomes and experimental evidences, we presented an updated version of the database DoriC 5.0 in 2013. Compared with the initial release, the number of oriC regions in bacterial genomes has been increased from 425 to 1528 in DoriC 5.0, and the database provides more information of the oriC regions, including repeats by REPuter, URLs to NCBI or UCSC genome browsers, which are useful to explore the characteristics of the oriC regions [42–44]. In addition, the 86 oriC regions in 83 archaeal genomes identified by in vivo experiments, as well as in silico analyses, were also added to the database in this version. Currently, the DoriC database has collected 3423 oriC records in >2700 complete RefSeq bacterial genomes and 257 oriC regions in over 200 archaeal genomes with manual curation. Figure 1C displays a representative record in DoriC database. Ori-Finder 2: an online tool for oriC prediction in archaea Archaea are classified as a separate domain in the three-domain system, and some of them exist in various extreme environments on earth, such as hot spring and salt lake [45]. Their special habits make it difficult in strain collection and cell cultivation, leading to slow progress in the genome sequencing for a long time. The first oriC of archaea was predicted in Halobacterium sp. strain NRC-1 with GC skew method and then confirmed by cloning into a nonreplicating plasmid [46]. With the Z-curve method, the oriCs in M.jannaschii, M.mazei, Halobacterium sp. strain NRC-1 and S.solfataricus P2 were identified, and some predicted results were consistent with subsequent experiments. In 2014, Wu et al. [47] also predicted putative multiple orc1/cdc6-associated oriCs in all the available Haloarchaeal genomes. In recent years, the development of the high-throughput sequencing technology results in the rapid increase of the archaeal genome projects. Therefore, we further developed a Web-based tool Ori-Finder 2 to predict the oriC regions in archaeal genomes automatically, based on the frame of Ori-Finder. The oriCs in archaea have significant differences with those in bacteria. For example, in contrast to the DnaA boxes in bacteria, the ORB sequences present more diversities in different species. With the archaeal oriCs in DoriC database, the consensus sequences of ORB motifs were calculated for different taxonomies, including Methanobacteriaceae, Methanomicrobia, Methanococcaceae, Sulfolobaceae and Thermococcaceae, by Multiple EM for Motif Elicitation (MEME) program [48]. Based on Ori-Finder 2, the intergenic sequences with the putative ORB sequences and adjacent to the replication-related genes are predicted as oriC regions. Because this method may fail to identify the oriCs adjacent to the uncharacterized genes that might be involved in DNA replication, the intergenic sequences, which contain more than two putative ORB motifs, are also predicted as oriCs. Currently, Ori-Finder 2 has been used to identify the oriCs in Pyrococcus chitonophagus DSM 10152, Thermococcus sp. strain 2319x1, Haloarculahispanica pleomorphic virus 3, Natrinema sp. J7 and Methanobrevibacter ruminantium M1 [49–53]. However, Ori-Finder 2 could not find all the potential origins of replication for the genomes with multiple oriCs currently. With the increase of the experimentally confirmed oriCs in archaea, it will become more accurate and sensitive by the continuous improvement. Prediction of replication origins by Ori-Finder system Ori-Finder and Ori-Finder 2 have a friendly and intuitive input interface, and use an integrated method to predict replication origins in prokaryotic genomes, which are available at http://tubic.tju.edu.cn/Ori-Finder/ and http://tubic.tju.edu.cn/Ori-Finder2/, respectively. Figure 1A presents the submission Web pages of the Web servers. Both the Web servers integrate the gene predicting pipelines, ZCURVE1.02 or Glimmer3, to perform the gene prediction in the unannotated genomes [54, 55]. Users can submit the annotated genome sequence by uploading the sequence file in FASTA format together with its protein table (PTT) file to the Web servers, and the Ori-Finder 2 can also accept the annotated genome file in GenBank format. BLAST program has been installed for functional annotation of genes by search against indicator genes (such as dnaA, dnaN, hemE and gidA in bacteria, or cdc6, orc1 and Mc-pRIP in archaea) throughout the genome. Both the Web servers enable users to select or type the motif sequences of DnaA boxes or ORBs to predict replication origin. The DnaA boxes or ORBs are ‘species-specific’ conserved sequences within the oriC regions and recognition sites for the DnaA proteins or Cdc6/Orc1 proteins. Ori-Finder provides 16 different types of DnaA box, and also allows the users to define some unique DnaA boxes by themselves. Whereas, FIMO (Find Individual Motif Occurrences) is used to obtain ORB sequences with the PSPM of five taxonomic clusters in Ori-Finder 2, and Weblogos are provided to facilitate the selection of ORBs [56]. Finally, the intergenic regions with the required characteristics are predicted as oriC regions. Note that, as Ori-Finder 2 used text search in the annotated genome file, some replication-related genes with unclear annotation might be ignored. So that we recommend users to compare the result with that based on the unannotated sequence. Figure 2 displays the workflow of both Ori-Finder and Ori-Finder 2. Figure 2 Open in new tabDownload slide The workflow of Ori-Finder system for the bacterial and archaeal genomes. Figure 2 Open in new tabDownload slide The workflow of Ori-Finder system for the bacterial and archaeal genomes. In the result Web page, the information, including the genome size, GC content, the locations of the indicator genes and predicted oriC regions, as well as the Z-curve (AT, GC, RY and MK disparity curves) of the input sequence, is presented as an html table. In addition, the location of DnaA boxes or ORB sequences within the oriC regions and the distribution of them in the whole genomes are also available for download from the provided URL. For Ori-Finder 2, the repeats identified by REPuter and the homologs in DoriC are also displayed in the result table. By comparison, the two Web servers share a common procedure to predict oriC regions (Figure 2). However, Ori-Finder could identify oriC regions in most of the bacterial chromosomes. In contrast, the sensitivity and precision of the predictions by Ori-Finder 2 are only 66.7 and 62.1%, respectively [33]. There are three main reasons that result in the significantly different performances. First, it is well known that most of the oriC regions in prokaryotic genomes are adjacent to the replication-related genes. In bacteria, dnaA gene plays a key role in the initiation of DNA replication for most bacteria. In addition, some other replication-related genes, such as dnaN, hemE and gidA, are also considered as the indicators in the oriC prediction. Besides the orc1/cdc6 gene, there are still many unknown genes involved in DNA replication in archaea. It is the reason that the intergenic sequences with more than two putative ORBs are also predicted as oriCs by Ori-Finder 2. Second, the binding sites of replication proteins, such as DnaA box and ORB, are essential for initiation of chromosome replication. Although the DNA boxes in bacteria show some differences throughout the bacterial kingdom, the sequences of them are considerably more conserved in comparison with the ORB sequences in archaea. Most of DnaA boxes are 9 bp sequences and the derivatives are based on the Escherichiacoli perfect DnaA box ‘TTATCCACA’ with one or more mismatches. In archaea, the consensus sequences ‘TCCA—GAAAC’ were found by scanning DoriC database with MEME, and a ‘G-string’ (GGGGT) is observed obviously at the end of ORB motifs in Methanomicrobia and Sulfolobacea. Furthermore, some other conserved motifs are also found in Sulflobacea and Thermococcaceae. Nevertheless, these motifs are more degenerative compared with DnaA boxs. Finally, the majority of bacteria use one oriC to start the DNA replication, whereas some archaea could adopt multiple oriCs. Moreover, the location of typical oriC in bacteria is next to the extreme of GC disparity curve, and the curve is shaped like ‘V’ graph clearly. However, the GC disparity curves in archaea are more irregular, so that the oriCs in archaea are not always near the extremes of GC disparity curves. Despite of some difficulties in the prediction of archaeal oriCs, Ori-Finder 2 will be improved to be more accurate with the increase of the experimental oriCs data. In addition to Ori-Finder system, Oriloc is the alternative tool to predict the oriC regions in bacterial chromosomes, which is mainly based on the GC skew method [57]. The shift points of relative GC skew defined as (G−C)/(G + C) have been used in the identification of the replication origins and termini. To improve the accuracy of prediction, the cumulative GC skew calculated as (G−C) was used to eliminate the effect of the window size. However, the relative GC skew could predict the turning point in the skew graphs as the location of oriC region, which corresponds to the extreme value in the cumulative GC skew as well as GC disparity curve by Z-curve method. However, Oriloc mainly used the cumulative GC skew method to identify oriC regions and could not provide the exact boundaries of oriC regions. Therefore, we compared the location of oriC and minimum of GC disparity curve using the records in DoriC database and found that the most of oriCs are close to the minimum of GC disparity curve, but there are still about 7% (246) of total oriCs, which are of over the one-tenth of the distance to the whole chromosomes. This also confirmed that the oriC prediction in bacteria should take other biological characteristics into consideration, such as the distribution of indictor genes and DnaA boxes. Furthermore, the experimentally confirmed oriCs together with the corresponding predictions by Ori-Finder are summarized at http://tubic.tju.edu.cn/doric/supplementary.php. Exploration of replication origins with DoriC database Figure 1A presents the main source of DoriC database including the predicted results by Ori-Finder system and experimentally confirmed oriCs from literature in PubMed. The oriCs in DoriC are distributed across all the phyla of bacteria and four archaeal phyla, including Crenarchaeota, Euryarchaeota, Korarchaeota and Thaumarchaeota. Figure 3 presents the main distribution of oriC records in DoriC database by phyla in both bacteria and archaea. The oriCs from the phyla Proteobacteria and Firmicutes constitute the primary component in bacteria, while for the archaea, the oriCs from the phylum Euryachaeota are in the majority. DoriC database also included seven archaeal species from Thaumarchaeota and Korarchaeota, and one unclassified archaeal species, whose oriC regions were identified by Ori-Finder 2. The predicted results are consistent with the typical characteristics of archaeal oriCs. Different from the bacteria, a substantial proportion of oriCs in archaea could not be identified in vivo or in silico. Currently, DoriC database has covered all the RefSeq bacterial complete genomes, so that we will focus on the bacterial oriCs in this section. Figure 3 Open in new tabDownload slide The taxonomic distribution of oriC records in DoriC database. The phyla with the oriC records less than nine are classified into the ‘other’ subcategory in the pie chart. Figure 3 Open in new tabDownload slide The taxonomic distribution of oriC records in DoriC database. The phyla with the oriC records less than nine are classified into the ‘other’ subcategory in the pie chart. In the previous section, we have described several typical characteristics of bacterial oriCs, such as asymmetrical nucleotide distributions, the replication-related genes and DnaA boxes. Now, these conserved features of oriCs could be summarized based on DoriC database, which were calculated by python scripts. The DnaA boxes are essential for DNA replication and enriched in the oriC regions. We retrieved the DnaA boxes in all the oriCs with no more than two mismatches from E. coli perfect DnaA box (TTATCCACA), and calculated the GC contents of those DnaA boxes and the corresponding chromosomes. Consequently, the statistically significant correlation is observed in Figure 4A (R = 0.71), and the result is consistent with the previous reports [38]. It suggests that the GC content of the chromosome could affect that of DnaA boxes. In particular, the position of cytosine in TTATCCACA is more conserved in the high GC content genomes. Besides that, adenine or thymine in some other positions is also offset to guanine or cytosine in the bacteria with high GC content, and vice versa. A cluster of DnaA boxes could facilitate DnaA proteins to bind the oriC regions and participate in the regulation of chromosome replication. Figure 4B presents the percentage of oriC regions with different number of DnaA boxes and displays that most of oriCs contain more than four DnaA boxes. In addition, the distribution of DnaA boxes throughout the chromosomes is also presented in the Z-curve figures provided by DoriC, and the significant abundance in the oriC regions could be observed in most of the records. The replication-related gene is another important indicator of oriC region. Figure 4D displays the probabilities of the top 10 genes adjacent to the oriC regions. Nearly half of the oriCs are next to the dnaA genes. Moreover, dnaN, rpmH and gidA also appear on the sides of the oriC regions frequently. It should be noted that some oriCs were bipartite origins [58], which were split into two subregions by the dnaA gene and located in the intergenic regions of dnaA-dnaN and rpmH-dnaA (Nocardia farcinica IFM 10152 and Chlorobium chlorochromatii CaD3 in Table 1). For the phylum Cyanobacteria, most of oriC regions are adjacent to dnaN gene instead of dnaA gene in case of the separation of the two genes in the chromosomes, which is supported by a series of experiments [59–61]. The different mechanism of DNA replication between the leading and lagging strands leads to the asymmetric nucleotide distribution. As a result, the oriC regions are usually near the switch of GC skew or extreme of GC disparity. The distances between oriC and minimum GC disparity relative to the whole chromosome length were presented in Figure 4E. The majority of oriCs are close to the location of minimum GC disparity. In addition, the length of oriCs and the difference of AT content in oriC to that in chromosome are presented in Figure 4C and 4F. Most of the oriCs are about 500 bp long with >10% higher AT content, which facilitate the DNA melting. Table 1 The oriC information of some representative bacterial and archaeal chromosomes in DoriC Organism Refseq Phylum GC (%) Adjacent gene cluster DnaA box or ORB sequence Nocardia farcinica IFM 10152 NC_006361 Actinobacteria 70.83 rnpA_rpmH_oriC1_dnaA_oriC2_dnaN_recF_gyrB TTGTCCACA Bacteroides helcogenes P 36-108 NC_014933 Bacteroidetes 44.72 gidA_oriC TTATACACA Chlamydia trachomatis Sweden2 NC_017441 Chlamydiae 41.31 ispA_glmU_oriC_hemB_nqrA_greA_aspC TTATCAACA Chlorobium chlorochromatii CaD3 NC_007514 Chlorobi 44.28 rnpA_rpmH_oriC1_dnaA_oriC2_dnaN_ recF_ TTATCCACA Dehalococcoides mccartyi DCMB5 NC_020386 Chloroflexi 47.07 rpsT_lexA_fmt_dnaA_oriC_obgE_nadD_gyrB_relA_hisS TTATCCAAA Synechococcus sp. WH 7803 NC_009481 Cyanobacteria 60.24 uvrA_recN_thrC_oriC_dnaN_purL_purF_gyrA TTTTCCACA Deinococcus radiodurans R1 chr. I and II NC_001263 Deinococcus- Thermus 67.01 eno_dnaN_oriC_dnaA TT[AT]TCCACA NC_001264 66.69 oriC_parA_parB Bacillus subtilis subsp. subtilis str. 168 NC_000964 Firmicutes 43.52 jag_spoIIIJ_rnpA_rpmH_oriC1_dnaA_oriC2_dnaN_yaaA_recF_yaaB_gyrB TT[AT]TCCACA Brucella abortus biovar 1 str. 9-941 chr. I and II NC_006932 Proteobacteria 57.16 trmE_rho_hemE_oriC_maf_aroE_coaE_dnaQ TTATCCACA NC_006933 57.34 hemN-2_repA_repB_oriC_repC Escherichia fergusonii ATCC 35469 NC_011740 Proteobacteria 49.94 atpE_atpB_atpI_gidB_gidA_oriC_mioC_asnC_asnA_yieM_ravA TTATCCACA Burkholderia cenocepacia J2315 chr. I, II and III NC_011000 Proteobacteria 66.68 arsC_oriC_parA_parB_repC TTATCCACA NC_011001 67.28 oriC_repC_parB_repA TTATGCGCATAA NC_011002 66.92 oriC_repC Geobacter sulfurreducens PCA NC_002939 Proteobacteria 60.94 yidC_rnpA_rpmH_oriC1_dnaA_oriC2_dnaN_recF_gyrB_gyrA TTATCCACA Helicobacter pylori 26695 NC_000915 Proteobacteria 38.87 dnaA_oriC_ glmS_thyX TTATTCACA Vibrio cholerae O1 biovar eltor str. N16961 chr. I and II NC_002505 Proteobacteria 47.7 parA_parB_gidB_gidA_oriC_yidC_trmE TTATCCACA NC_002506 46.91 parB_parA_oriC ATGATCAAGAG Leptospira borgpetersenii serovar Hardjo-bovis JB197 chr. I and II NC_008510 Spirochaetes 40.23 gidA_ilvE_dnaX1_dnaA_oriC_dnaN_recF_gyrB_gyrA TTTTCCACA NC_008511 40.43 oriC_parA_parB Thermotoga sp. RQ2 NC_010483 Thermotogae 46.18 oriC_rpmF AAACCTACCACC Sulfolobus solfataricus P2 NC_002754 Crenarchaeota 35.79 cdc6_oriC-I, oriC-II,oriC-III_cdc6 TCCA[AG][AT][TG]GAA[CA][CT][GA]AAGGGGT Pyrococcus abyssi GE5 NC_000868 Euryarchaeota 44.71 cdc6_oriC TCCA[CG]T[TG]GAAA[TC][GA]AAGGGGT Methanococcus maripaludis X1 NC_015847 Euryarchaeota 32.94 oriC_Mc-pRIP TT[TA][GT] ATTCA[TC][GA]AT[AT]T[AT]T[AT] Organism Refseq Phylum GC (%) Adjacent gene cluster DnaA box or ORB sequence Nocardia farcinica IFM 10152 NC_006361 Actinobacteria 70.83 rnpA_rpmH_oriC1_dnaA_oriC2_dnaN_recF_gyrB TTGTCCACA Bacteroides helcogenes P 36-108 NC_014933 Bacteroidetes 44.72 gidA_oriC TTATACACA Chlamydia trachomatis Sweden2 NC_017441 Chlamydiae 41.31 ispA_glmU_oriC_hemB_nqrA_greA_aspC TTATCAACA Chlorobium chlorochromatii CaD3 NC_007514 Chlorobi 44.28 rnpA_rpmH_oriC1_dnaA_oriC2_dnaN_ recF_ TTATCCACA Dehalococcoides mccartyi DCMB5 NC_020386 Chloroflexi 47.07 rpsT_lexA_fmt_dnaA_oriC_obgE_nadD_gyrB_relA_hisS TTATCCAAA Synechococcus sp. WH 7803 NC_009481 Cyanobacteria 60.24 uvrA_recN_thrC_oriC_dnaN_purL_purF_gyrA TTTTCCACA Deinococcus radiodurans R1 chr. I and II NC_001263 Deinococcus- Thermus 67.01 eno_dnaN_oriC_dnaA TT[AT]TCCACA NC_001264 66.69 oriC_parA_parB Bacillus subtilis subsp. subtilis str. 168 NC_000964 Firmicutes 43.52 jag_spoIIIJ_rnpA_rpmH_oriC1_dnaA_oriC2_dnaN_yaaA_recF_yaaB_gyrB TT[AT]TCCACA Brucella abortus biovar 1 str. 9-941 chr. I and II NC_006932 Proteobacteria 57.16 trmE_rho_hemE_oriC_maf_aroE_coaE_dnaQ TTATCCACA NC_006933 57.34 hemN-2_repA_repB_oriC_repC Escherichia fergusonii ATCC 35469 NC_011740 Proteobacteria 49.94 atpE_atpB_atpI_gidB_gidA_oriC_mioC_asnC_asnA_yieM_ravA TTATCCACA Burkholderia cenocepacia J2315 chr. I, II and III NC_011000 Proteobacteria 66.68 arsC_oriC_parA_parB_repC TTATCCACA NC_011001 67.28 oriC_repC_parB_repA TTATGCGCATAA NC_011002 66.92 oriC_repC Geobacter sulfurreducens PCA NC_002939 Proteobacteria 60.94 yidC_rnpA_rpmH_oriC1_dnaA_oriC2_dnaN_recF_gyrB_gyrA TTATCCACA Helicobacter pylori 26695 NC_000915 Proteobacteria 38.87 dnaA_oriC_ glmS_thyX TTATTCACA Vibrio cholerae O1 biovar eltor str. N16961 chr. I and II NC_002505 Proteobacteria 47.7 parA_parB_gidB_gidA_oriC_yidC_trmE TTATCCACA NC_002506 46.91 parB_parA_oriC ATGATCAAGAG Leptospira borgpetersenii serovar Hardjo-bovis JB197 chr. I and II NC_008510 Spirochaetes 40.23 gidA_ilvE_dnaX1_dnaA_oriC_dnaN_recF_gyrB_gyrA TTTTCCACA NC_008511 40.43 oriC_parA_parB Thermotoga sp. RQ2 NC_010483 Thermotogae 46.18 oriC_rpmF AAACCTACCACC Sulfolobus solfataricus P2 NC_002754 Crenarchaeota 35.79 cdc6_oriC-I, oriC-II,oriC-III_cdc6 TCCA[AG][AT][TG]GAA[CA][CT][GA]AAGGGGT Pyrococcus abyssi GE5 NC_000868 Euryarchaeota 44.71 cdc6_oriC TCCA[CG]T[TG]GAAA[TC][GA]AAGGGGT Methanococcus maripaludis X1 NC_015847 Euryarchaeota 32.94 oriC_Mc-pRIP TT[TA][GT] ATTCA[TC][GA]AT[AT]T[AT]T[AT] Open in new tab Table 1 The oriC information of some representative bacterial and archaeal chromosomes in DoriC Organism Refseq Phylum GC (%) Adjacent gene cluster DnaA box or ORB sequence Nocardia farcinica IFM 10152 NC_006361 Actinobacteria 70.83 rnpA_rpmH_oriC1_dnaA_oriC2_dnaN_recF_gyrB TTGTCCACA Bacteroides helcogenes P 36-108 NC_014933 Bacteroidetes 44.72 gidA_oriC TTATACACA Chlamydia trachomatis Sweden2 NC_017441 Chlamydiae 41.31 ispA_glmU_oriC_hemB_nqrA_greA_aspC TTATCAACA Chlorobium chlorochromatii CaD3 NC_007514 Chlorobi 44.28 rnpA_rpmH_oriC1_dnaA_oriC2_dnaN_ recF_ TTATCCACA Dehalococcoides mccartyi DCMB5 NC_020386 Chloroflexi 47.07 rpsT_lexA_fmt_dnaA_oriC_obgE_nadD_gyrB_relA_hisS TTATCCAAA Synechococcus sp. WH 7803 NC_009481 Cyanobacteria 60.24 uvrA_recN_thrC_oriC_dnaN_purL_purF_gyrA TTTTCCACA Deinococcus radiodurans R1 chr. I and II NC_001263 Deinococcus- Thermus 67.01 eno_dnaN_oriC_dnaA TT[AT]TCCACA NC_001264 66.69 oriC_parA_parB Bacillus subtilis subsp. subtilis str. 168 NC_000964 Firmicutes 43.52 jag_spoIIIJ_rnpA_rpmH_oriC1_dnaA_oriC2_dnaN_yaaA_recF_yaaB_gyrB TT[AT]TCCACA Brucella abortus biovar 1 str. 9-941 chr. I and II NC_006932 Proteobacteria 57.16 trmE_rho_hemE_oriC_maf_aroE_coaE_dnaQ TTATCCACA NC_006933 57.34 hemN-2_repA_repB_oriC_repC Escherichia fergusonii ATCC 35469 NC_011740 Proteobacteria 49.94 atpE_atpB_atpI_gidB_gidA_oriC_mioC_asnC_asnA_yieM_ravA TTATCCACA Burkholderia cenocepacia J2315 chr. I, II and III NC_011000 Proteobacteria 66.68 arsC_oriC_parA_parB_repC TTATCCACA NC_011001 67.28 oriC_repC_parB_repA TTATGCGCATAA NC_011002 66.92 oriC_repC Geobacter sulfurreducens PCA NC_002939 Proteobacteria 60.94 yidC_rnpA_rpmH_oriC1_dnaA_oriC2_dnaN_recF_gyrB_gyrA TTATCCACA Helicobacter pylori 26695 NC_000915 Proteobacteria 38.87 dnaA_oriC_ glmS_thyX TTATTCACA Vibrio cholerae O1 biovar eltor str. N16961 chr. I and II NC_002505 Proteobacteria 47.7 parA_parB_gidB_gidA_oriC_yidC_trmE TTATCCACA NC_002506 46.91 parB_parA_oriC ATGATCAAGAG Leptospira borgpetersenii serovar Hardjo-bovis JB197 chr. I and II NC_008510 Spirochaetes 40.23 gidA_ilvE_dnaX1_dnaA_oriC_dnaN_recF_gyrB_gyrA TTTTCCACA NC_008511 40.43 oriC_parA_parB Thermotoga sp. RQ2 NC_010483 Thermotogae 46.18 oriC_rpmF AAACCTACCACC Sulfolobus solfataricus P2 NC_002754 Crenarchaeota 35.79 cdc6_oriC-I, oriC-II,oriC-III_cdc6 TCCA[AG][AT][TG]GAA[CA][CT][GA]AAGGGGT Pyrococcus abyssi GE5 NC_000868 Euryarchaeota 44.71 cdc6_oriC TCCA[CG]T[TG]GAAA[TC][GA]AAGGGGT Methanococcus maripaludis X1 NC_015847 Euryarchaeota 32.94 oriC_Mc-pRIP TT[TA][GT] ATTCA[TC][GA]AT[AT]T[AT]T[AT] Organism Refseq Phylum GC (%) Adjacent gene cluster DnaA box or ORB sequence Nocardia farcinica IFM 10152 NC_006361 Actinobacteria 70.83 rnpA_rpmH_oriC1_dnaA_oriC2_dnaN_recF_gyrB TTGTCCACA Bacteroides helcogenes P 36-108 NC_014933 Bacteroidetes 44.72 gidA_oriC TTATACACA Chlamydia trachomatis Sweden2 NC_017441 Chlamydiae 41.31 ispA_glmU_oriC_hemB_nqrA_greA_aspC TTATCAACA Chlorobium chlorochromatii CaD3 NC_007514 Chlorobi 44.28 rnpA_rpmH_oriC1_dnaA_oriC2_dnaN_ recF_ TTATCCACA Dehalococcoides mccartyi DCMB5 NC_020386 Chloroflexi 47.07 rpsT_lexA_fmt_dnaA_oriC_obgE_nadD_gyrB_relA_hisS TTATCCAAA Synechococcus sp. WH 7803 NC_009481 Cyanobacteria 60.24 uvrA_recN_thrC_oriC_dnaN_purL_purF_gyrA TTTTCCACA Deinococcus radiodurans R1 chr. I and II NC_001263 Deinococcus- Thermus 67.01 eno_dnaN_oriC_dnaA TT[AT]TCCACA NC_001264 66.69 oriC_parA_parB Bacillus subtilis subsp. subtilis str. 168 NC_000964 Firmicutes 43.52 jag_spoIIIJ_rnpA_rpmH_oriC1_dnaA_oriC2_dnaN_yaaA_recF_yaaB_gyrB TT[AT]TCCACA Brucella abortus biovar 1 str. 9-941 chr. I and II NC_006932 Proteobacteria 57.16 trmE_rho_hemE_oriC_maf_aroE_coaE_dnaQ TTATCCACA NC_006933 57.34 hemN-2_repA_repB_oriC_repC Escherichia fergusonii ATCC 35469 NC_011740 Proteobacteria 49.94 atpE_atpB_atpI_gidB_gidA_oriC_mioC_asnC_asnA_yieM_ravA TTATCCACA Burkholderia cenocepacia J2315 chr. I, II and III NC_011000 Proteobacteria 66.68 arsC_oriC_parA_parB_repC TTATCCACA NC_011001 67.28 oriC_repC_parB_repA TTATGCGCATAA NC_011002 66.92 oriC_repC Geobacter sulfurreducens PCA NC_002939 Proteobacteria 60.94 yidC_rnpA_rpmH_oriC1_dnaA_oriC2_dnaN_recF_gyrB_gyrA TTATCCACA Helicobacter pylori 26695 NC_000915 Proteobacteria 38.87 dnaA_oriC_ glmS_thyX TTATTCACA Vibrio cholerae O1 biovar eltor str. N16961 chr. I and II NC_002505 Proteobacteria 47.7 parA_parB_gidB_gidA_oriC_yidC_trmE TTATCCACA NC_002506 46.91 parB_parA_oriC ATGATCAAGAG Leptospira borgpetersenii serovar Hardjo-bovis JB197 chr. I and II NC_008510 Spirochaetes 40.23 gidA_ilvE_dnaX1_dnaA_oriC_dnaN_recF_gyrB_gyrA TTTTCCACA NC_008511 40.43 oriC_parA_parB Thermotoga sp. RQ2 NC_010483 Thermotogae 46.18 oriC_rpmF AAACCTACCACC Sulfolobus solfataricus P2 NC_002754 Crenarchaeota 35.79 cdc6_oriC-I, oriC-II,oriC-III_cdc6 TCCA[AG][AT][TG]GAA[CA][CT][GA]AAGGGGT Pyrococcus abyssi GE5 NC_000868 Euryarchaeota 44.71 cdc6_oriC TCCA[CG]T[TG]GAAA[TC][GA]AAGGGGT Methanococcus maripaludis X1 NC_015847 Euryarchaeota 32.94 oriC_Mc-pRIP TT[TA][GT] ATTCA[TC][GA]AT[AT]T[AT]T[AT] Open in new tab Figure 4 Open in new tabDownload slide Several characteristics of replication origins. (A) The relationship between the GC content of DnaA boxes and that of chromosome. (B) The percentages of bacterial oriCs with different number of DnaA boxes. (C) The percentages of bacterial oriCs with different length. (D) The probabilities of top 10 replication-related indicator genes adjacent to the oriCs. Note that some oriCs are next to two indicator genes, so that the sum of probabilities is not equal to 100%. (E) The distribution of relative distance between oriC and minimum GC disparity. It should be noted that the x axis indicates the proportion of the chromosome size. (F) The difference between the AT content of oriC region and that of chromosome. Figure 4 Open in new tabDownload slide Several characteristics of replication origins. (A) The relationship between the GC content of DnaA boxes and that of chromosome. (B) The percentages of bacterial oriCs with different number of DnaA boxes. (C) The percentages of bacterial oriCs with different length. (D) The probabilities of top 10 replication-related indicator genes adjacent to the oriCs. Note that some oriCs are next to two indicator genes, so that the sum of probabilities is not equal to 100%. (E) The distribution of relative distance between oriC and minimum GC disparity. It should be noted that the x axis indicates the proportion of the chromosome size. (F) The difference between the AT content of oriC region and that of chromosome. However, the statistical analyses could only reflect some common characteristics of bacterial oriCs, but exceptions always exist in individuals. Consequently, we analyzed the indicator genes and DnaA boxes by phyla based on the records in DoriC database and found the gene clusters frequently around oriCs and the ‘species-specific’ DnaA boxes within oriCs. Table 1 displays the oriC information of some bacterial and archaeal chromosomes in DoriC, which are used to illuminate the common features in their phyla. Besides the genes (dnaA, dnaN, gidA, hemE and rpmH) listed above, some other genes, such as rnpA, gyrB and recF, seem to be near the replication origins. As for the bacteria with multiple chromosomes, the replication initiation genes and plasmid partition genes, such as repA, repC, parA and parB, are often the indicators for the oriCs in the extra chromosomes, and those genes have also been verified to be relevant with plasmid replication [62]. This suggests that the microbial extra chromosomes may originate from megaplasmids. Moreover, the ‘species-specific’ DnaA boxes different from the E. coli perfect DnaA box ‘TTATCCACA’ are also outlined in this table. For example, the motif ‘TTTTCCACA’ was found in most species of the phylum Cyanobacteria. Owing to the high GC content of chromosome, a cluster of ‘TTGTCCACA’ was discovered in the oriC of N. farcinica IFM 10152. In the extra chromosomes, some other motifs entirely different from classic DnaA box are also listed in this table, and these motifs usually appear as repeats in oriC regions. Currently, the majority of archaeal oriCs in DoriC are the oric1/cdc6-associated oriCs, and a distant homolog of the cdc6 gene, named Mc-pRIP for the putative replication initiator protein, was found next to the oriC regions in the order Methanococcales during the update of DoriC database. Beyond that, some archaea with multiple oriCs are also summarized, such as Sulfolobus and Halobacteria. For more details, please refer to the article of Ori-Finder 2 [33]. Applications with DoriC database With the accumulation of the prokaryotic oriC records in DoriC database, it is possible to determine the conserved features of oriCs, analyze the strand bias and search the homologous oriCs. Figure 5 outlines the main applications, and several examples will be presented in this section. Figure 5 Open in new tabDownload slide Main applications based on DoriC database including data mining, strand-biased analysis and homology search. Figure 5 Open in new tabDownload slide Main applications based on DoriC database including data mining, strand-biased analysis and homology search. Data mining with DoriC database By exploring oriCs in DoriC database, some newfound features associated with oriC regions, such as motif sequences, and multiple replication origins in single bacterial chromosome have been discovered and supported by other studies. For example, Murray et al. identified a new indispensable bacterial replication origin element, repeating trinucleotide motif, named DnaA-trio, and demonstrated these elements play an important role in the stabilization of DNA filaments by experiments. Then, the new elements have been detected throughout the bacterial kingdom by bioinformatics analysis with DoriC database, indicating that DnaA-trio is another core oriC element [63]. DNA methylation is an epigenetic mechanism, which is involved in various biological processes in bacteria including DNA replication. Bendall et al. [64] performed the single-molecule real-time sequencing in Shewanella oneidensis MR-1 to reveal methylation of adenine (N6mA) throughout the genome, and the methylated GATC motifs are found enriched in the oriC region. The further comparative analysis of the Gammaproteobacteria genomes including those in DoriC database revealed that the oriCs are enriched for GATC motifs with the presence of dam and seqA. It is well known that bacteria typically have single replication origin in a chromosome. However, double replication origins could exist in some artificial biological systems. Several bacterial genomes were reformed by synthetic biology methodologies, and more than one WT origins have been extensively characterized in those chromosomes [65–67]. This discovery indicated that multiple origins could occur on a bacterial chromosome, and several bacterial chromosomes with putative double origins of replication, including Acidaminococcus fermentans DSM 20731, Dehalobacter sp. CF, Ralstonia pickettii 12 D chromosome 1 and Ochrobactrum anthropi ATCC 49188 chromosome I, were found indeed in DoriC [68]. Recent work reported that Achromatium oxaliferum and Synechocystis may harbor different replication origins, which also supported our hypothesis [69, 70]. The strand-biased analysis with DoriC database The strand-biased analyses of the biological features are important to understand the mechanisms of many biological processes. Consequently, the data of oriC regions in DoriC database have been widely used in a series of comparative genomics studies focused on the strand bias, such as nucleotide composition [71–73], codon usage [74, 75], substitution rate [76], gene expression [77] and genes distributions [78, 79]. Here, we introduce a few examples about strand-biased analyses. It is well known that majority of genes in bacterial chromosomes tend to locate at the leading strand. A number of studies have been carried out with DoriC database aiming to provide explanations for such observations. Mao et al. [80] performed a computational study on 725 bacterial genomes, and found the genes with different functional categories have a various performances of strand bias. The preference for genes on the leading strand in certain functional categories could enhance the survivability of the host and keep them moving to the more efficient leading strand. The expression level of genes was once considered as the main force to cause the strand bias. However, the analysis of the gene distributions in Bacillussubtilis and E. coli showed that essentiality, not expressiveness, is the basis of gene strand bias [81], and our laboratory also confirmed the previous findings that essential genes are more frequently situated at the leading strand with DoriC and DEG database [78]. Furthermore, only the essential genes with certain COG subcategories showed the preference. These results are helpful to understand the architecture of bacterial chromosomes. This property was also used in the prediction of gene essentiality in bacterial genomes [82, 83]. Conclusion and future perspectives In this article, we briefly reviewed the history of Ori-Finder system and DoriC database and then outlined the main methodology and applications associated with them. Ori-Finder system used an integrated method to identify oriCs in prokaryotic genome sequences, and the oriCs predicted by in silico methods as well as those identified by in vivo or in vitro experiments were collected to DoriC database after manual curation. Currently, Ori-Finder system becomes a popular software tool to predict prokaryotic replication origins, and some of the predictions were confirmed by experiments. DoriC database has stored about 3600 records of oriC regions in both bacterial and archaeal genomes, which would facilitate the research of the large-scale data mining and strand-biased analyses associated with the replication origins. Furthermore, we also explored the oriC records in DoriC database and displayed the statistical results as well as the representative organisms here. However, next-generation sequencing technologies have created a new challenge for the identification of replication origins in different types of genomic data. To address this challenge, Ori-Finder system will be extended to predict oriC regions in metagenomic sequences in future, and the new version of DoriC database will also include the information of the strand-biased analyses for nucleotide asymmetry, codon usage, gene distribution, etc. The oriC prediction in the RefSeq genomes has laid a firm foundation for the further development of Ori-Finder system and DoriC database, which will serve as the critical tools in the prokaryotic genomics. Key Points Ori-Finder system is designed for the oriC prediction in bacterial and archaeal genomes with high accuracy and reliability, which integrates gene prediction, analysis of base composition asymmetry, distribution of DnaA boxes or ORBs, occurrence of genes frequently close to oriC regions and phylogenetic relationships. DoriC database contains 3423 oriC records in > 2700 complete RefSeq bacterial chromosomes and 257 oriC regions in over 200 archaeal genomes with manual curation. Detailed information about oriC regions, such as DNA boxes or ORBs, repeat sequences, replication-related genes and URLs to genome browser, are provided in the database. Ori-Finder system and DoriC database have been widely used in the research field of DNA replication origins in prokaryotes, including the oriC retrieve, motif sequences discovery and strand-biased analysis. Acknowledgements The authors would like to thank Professor Chun-Ting Zhang for the invaluable assistance and inspiring discussions. Funding This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant numbers 31571358, 21621004 and 31171238) and the National High-Tech Research and Development Program (863) of China (grant number 2015AA020101). Hao Luo is an assistant professor in the Department of Physics, School of Science, Tianjin University, China. His research focuses on DNA replication, gene essentiality and bioinformatics. Chun-Lan Quan is a graduate student in the Department of Physics, School of Science, Tianjin University, China. Her research interests are bioinformatics and microbial genomics. Chong Peng is a PhD candidate in the Department of Physics, School of Science, Tianjin University, China. Her research interests are bioinformatics and gene essentiality. Feng Gao is a professor in the Department of Physics, School of Science, Key Laboratory of Systems Bioengineering (Ministry of Education) and SynBio Research Platform, Collaborative Innovation Center of Chemical Science and Engineering (Tianjin), Tianjin University, China. His research studies are performed in the fields of computational biology and bioinformatics with a special focus on microbial genomics and functional genomics. Reference 1 Costa A , Hood IV , Berger JM. Mechanisms for initiating cellular DNA replication . 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Sci Rep 2011 ; 1 ( 1 ): 53. http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/srep00053 Google Scholar Crossref Search ADS PubMed WorldCat © The Author(s) 2018. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com This article is published and distributed under the terms of the Oxford University Press, Standard Journals Publication Model (https://academic.oup.com/journals/pages/open_access/funder_policies/chorus/standard_publication_model) http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Briefings in Bioinformatics Oxford University Press

Recent development of Ori-Finder system and DoriC database for microbial replication origins

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Oxford University Press
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© The Author(s) 2018. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com
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Abstract

Abstract DNA replication begins at replication origins in all three domains of life. Identification and characterization of replication origins are important not only in providing insights into the structure and function of the replication origins but also in understanding the regulatory mechanisms of the initiation step in DNA replication. The Z-curve method has been used in the identification of replication origins in archaeal genomes successfully since 2002. Furthermore, the Web servers of Ori-Finder and Ori-Finder 2 have been developed to predict replication origins in both bacterial and archaeal genomes based on the Z-curve method, and the replication origins with manual curation have been collected into an online database, DoriC. Ori-Finder system and DoriC database are currently used in the research field of DNA replication origins in prokaryotes, including: (i) identification of oriC regions in bacterial and archaeal genomes; (ii) discovery and analysis of the conserved sequences within oriC regions; and (iii) strand-biased analysis of bacterial genomes. Up to now, more and more predicted results by Ori-Finder system were supported by subsequent experiments, and Ori-Finder system has been used to identify the replication origins in > 100 newly sequenced prokaryotes in their genome reports. In addition, the data in DoriC database have been widely used in the large-scale analyses of replication origins and strand bias in prokaryotic genomes. Here, we review the development of Ori-Finder system and DoriC database as well as their applications. Some future directions and aspects for extending the application of Ori-Finder and DoriC are also presented. replication origin, DNA replication, Z-curve, prokaryotic genome Introduction DNA replication is one of the basic processes in all three domains of cellular life. The duplication of the genetic information in a cell begins at specific sites on the chromosomes, termed DNA replication origins. The replication origin regions play significant roles in the DNA replication and serve as recognition sites for initiator proteins and assembly of replication forks [1]. The characteristics of replication origin regions are various among prokaryote and eukaryote, and their nucleotide sequences also present diversities in different organisms [2, 3]. In most bacteria, two replication forks assemble at the replication origin of chromosomes (oriCs) and move in opposite directions, and then leading to bidirectional growth of both daughter strands. The oriC regions contain several DnaA box motifs, which are 9 bp highly conserved consensus sequences. DnaA boxes are the recognition sites for the DnaA protein, which is essential for the initiation of chromosome replication. Moreover, the oriC regions are frequently located next to the replication-related genes [4, 5]. Detailed analyses have shown that the consensus sequences of DnaA boxes and distributed genes adjacent to oriCs are highly conserved in different phyla [6]. In addition, because of the asymmetric nucleotide composition of prokaryotic chromosomes, the replication origins have been identified around the boundaries of GC or AT skew [7]. In eukaryote, because of the huge size of genomes, the chromosomes use multiple dispersed replication origins to initiate the DNA replication, ranging from hundreds in yeast to tens of thousands in human [8–10]. Minichromosome maintenance (MCM) complexes are first loaded at replication origins in G1 phase of the cell cycle. Then, the origin-bound MCM complexes unwind the double-stranded DNA at the origins, recruit DNA polymerases and initiate DNA synthesis in S phase [11]. The replication origins in unicellular eukaryotes Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Schizosaccharomyces pombe have been well characterized by microarray and deep sequencing techniques [12, 13]. However, the selection and regulation of DNA replication origins in the higher eukaryotes are more complex and diverse [14–16]. As a separate domain in the three-domain system, archaea share some similar features with both bacteria and eukaryotes. The locations of oriC regions in archaea are also adjacent to the replication-related genes, and the origin recognition boxes (ORBs) are distributed within oriC sequences [17]. In some archaea, single chromosome could adopt more than one oriCs in initiation of DNA replication as eukaryotes. Furthermore, the origin binding proteins in archaea are homologous to the corresponding eukaryotic Orc1/Cdc6 proteins [18], and a homologous MCM hexameric ring serving as replicative helicase is loaded by origin-bound initiator proteins [19]. Since the first complete bacterial genome was sequenced in 1995 [20], the available microbial genomic data have been increasing exponentially with the rapid development of sequencing techniques. Recently, the White House launched the National Microbiome Initiative (NMI) in 2016, which aimed to deepen the understanding of the microbes that live in humans, animals, crops, soils, oceans, etc. [21], and some other microbial programs, such as MGP, MetaHIT and HMP, have also been carried out in the past decade [22–24]. These microbial projects have produced a large amount of sequence data, thereby creating an opportunity for exploration of the molecular mechanisms for initiating cellular DNA replication by in vivo experiments as well as in silico analysis at the genome level. Development of bioinformatics tools to mine useful biological information in microbial genomes will contribute to bridge the gap between genomic data and knowledge discovery. On the other hand, the accumulation of genomic data has created great challenges and opportunities for identification and characterization of the replication origins on a large scale. Identification of the oriC regions will not only provide insights into the structure and functions of replication origins but also facilitate the studies in regulatory mechanisms of DNA replication initiation [25]. Our laboratory has developed the Web service and database in this field based on the Z-curve method. The Z-curve is a unique three-dimensional curve used to transform the DNA sequence in a three-dimensional space, and the three components of the Z-curve could represent three independent distributions, including purine/pyrimidine (R/Y) bases, amino/keto (M/K) bases and strong-H bond/weak-H bond (S/W) along the sequence. The Z-curve method could be used in the detection of the asymmetric nucleotide distribution around replication origins [26]. With this method, the oriC regions in Methanocaldococcus jannaschii, Methanosarcina mazei, Halobacterium sp. strain NRC-1 and Sulfolobus solfataricus P2 have been identified successfully, and the predicted results are also consistent with the subsequent experiments [27, 28]. To facilitate the prediction of oriC regions, a Web-based system, Ori-Finder (http://tubic.tju.edu.cn/Ori-Finder/), was developed to find replication origins in bacterial genomes with high accuracy and reliability [29]. Up to now, more and more predicted results by Ori-Finder system were supported by subsequent experiments, and Ori-Finder system has been used to identify the replication origins in >100 newly sequenced prokaryotes in their genome reports [30–32]. Furthermore, we also designed Ori-Finder 2, a new Web-based tool to identify the oriC regions in the archaeal genomes [33]. Then, the oriC regions identified by in silico analyses, as well as in vivo and in vitro experiments have been organized into DoriC (http://tubic.tju.edu.cn/doric/), a database of oriC regions in bacterial and archaeal genomes [34, 35]. DoriC has provided insights into the regulatory mechanisms of the initiation step in DNA replication as well as the molecular mechanisms of strand bias in genomes. The application of the rules derived from the database will also be helpful to develop new prediction algorithms of replication origins and speed up the experimental confirmation and functional analysis of oriCs in bacterial or archaeal genomes. In this review, we briefly introduce the development of the Ori-Finder system and DoriC database and review some applications with those tools. Additionally, some future directions and aspects for extending the application of Ori-Finder and DoriC are also presented. The development of Ori-Finder and DoriC Ori-Finder: an online tool for oriC prediction in bacteria DNA replication is a precise and complex process in the cell life, during which the cell uses a great deal of enzymes and proteins to synthesize the nucleotides. So that the perfect prediction algorithms of oriC regions should take as many factors as possible into consideration, which are concerned with the DNA replication process. It is well known that the DNA replication asymmetry gives rise to compositional deviations between the leading and lagging strands [36]. As the pioneer work to identify bacterial oriC regions in silico, the GC skew analysis is mainly based on the asymmetric nucleotide composition [7]. Later, other skew methods, such as the cumulative GC skew without sliding windows method and oligomer-skew, were proposed to predict oriC regions in bacterial and archaeal genomes [37]. Nevertheless, with the analysis of asymmetric nucleotide composition, scientists could only predict the approximate location, but not the exact boundary of replication origins. Meanwhile, the bacterial replication origins are frequently located in the intergenic regions that are adjacent to the replication-related genes, such as dnaA, gidA and so on. Hence, a GC skew analysis together with the location of dnaA gene and distribution of DnaA boxes led to the more accurate predictions of oriC regions [38, 39]. However, it is inconvenient for the biologists who sequenced the bacterial genomes to take all the possible characteristics of oriC regions into account, such as the effects of ‘species-specific’ DnaA box motif, thereby leading to the wrong prediction results of oriC regions [40, 41], and the pipelines or Web servers that could predict and visualize the related data of oriC regions in complete bacterial genome automatically were in great need. Therefore, we developed Ori-Finder to predict oriC regions in the complete bacterial genomes, which integrated gene prediction, analysis of base composition asymmetry, distribution of DnaA boxes, occurrence of genes frequently close to oriC regions and phylogenetic relationships [29] (Figure 1A). In addition, Ori-Finder can also predict oriC regions in some draft genomes only with contigs or scaffolds. Owing to integration of Z-curve method, Ori-Finder is also used to separate the leading and lagging strands to perform the strand bias analysis of biological characteristics. Figure 1 Open in new tabDownload slide The architecture of Ori-Finder system and DoriC database. (A) Ori-Finder, Ori-Finder 2 and PubMed used as the data source of DoriC database. (B) The screenshot of DoriC main page. (C) A representative record in DoriC database. The left part shows the Z-curves for the genome sequences, and the right part presents some tools used by DoriC, including BLAST, NCBI genome viewer and REPuter. (D) Future perspectives of Ori-Finder and DoriC including the newfound characteristics as well as the extended oriC prediction and collection. Figure 1 Open in new tabDownload slide The architecture of Ori-Finder system and DoriC database. (A) Ori-Finder, Ori-Finder 2 and PubMed used as the data source of DoriC database. (B) The screenshot of DoriC main page. (C) A representative record in DoriC database. The left part shows the Z-curves for the genome sequences, and the right part presents some tools used by DoriC, including BLAST, NCBI genome viewer and REPuter. (D) Future perspectives of Ori-Finder and DoriC including the newfound characteristics as well as the extended oriC prediction and collection. DoriC: a database of oriCs DoriC is a database of manually curated oriC regions, which was initially publicly available in 2007 (Figure 1B). At that time, the complete bacterial genome data were accumulated rapidly because of the advance in high-throughput sequencing technology. However, the experimental method is impossible to identify all the replication origins in the sequenced genomes extensively. Furthermore, some large-scale analyses of the bacterial genomes, such as those of replication origins and strand bias in genomes, were restricted by the absence of oriC data. Before the construction of DoriC, the Z-curve method has been used in the prediction of oriCs in several archaeal genomes, and some of the results were confirmed by experimental data subsequently. To extensively identify oriCs with high accuracy and reliability, our laboratory developed an integrated in silico method to predict oriC regions of bacterial genomes, and the predicted oriCs as well as those identified by in vivo or in vitro experiments were manually curated and collected into the DoriC database. The first public release of the database only collected 478 predicted oriCs in 425 bacterial genomes, and 72.2% of the predicted oriCs have consistent features with each other, including typical base composition asymmetry, DnaA box distribution and indicator gene positions [34]. Furthermore, DoriC database presents the detailed information of oriC regions, including the experimental evidences of the replication origins, the number of DnaA boxes, disparity curves and replication-related genes, and enables the retrieve of DoriC entries and BLAST search for oriC regions. The putative dif (deletion-induced filamentation) sequences, which are associated with DNA replication terminus, are also added to the oriC records. The accumulation of oriC records in the database would provide the possibility to explore the characteristics in the oriC regions. With the increasing availability of completely sequenced prokaryotic genomes and experimental evidences, we presented an updated version of the database DoriC 5.0 in 2013. Compared with the initial release, the number of oriC regions in bacterial genomes has been increased from 425 to 1528 in DoriC 5.0, and the database provides more information of the oriC regions, including repeats by REPuter, URLs to NCBI or UCSC genome browsers, which are useful to explore the characteristics of the oriC regions [42–44]. In addition, the 86 oriC regions in 83 archaeal genomes identified by in vivo experiments, as well as in silico analyses, were also added to the database in this version. Currently, the DoriC database has collected 3423 oriC records in >2700 complete RefSeq bacterial genomes and 257 oriC regions in over 200 archaeal genomes with manual curation. Figure 1C displays a representative record in DoriC database. Ori-Finder 2: an online tool for oriC prediction in archaea Archaea are classified as a separate domain in the three-domain system, and some of them exist in various extreme environments on earth, such as hot spring and salt lake [45]. Their special habits make it difficult in strain collection and cell cultivation, leading to slow progress in the genome sequencing for a long time. The first oriC of archaea was predicted in Halobacterium sp. strain NRC-1 with GC skew method and then confirmed by cloning into a nonreplicating plasmid [46]. With the Z-curve method, the oriCs in M.jannaschii, M.mazei, Halobacterium sp. strain NRC-1 and S.solfataricus P2 were identified, and some predicted results were consistent with subsequent experiments. In 2014, Wu et al. [47] also predicted putative multiple orc1/cdc6-associated oriCs in all the available Haloarchaeal genomes. In recent years, the development of the high-throughput sequencing technology results in the rapid increase of the archaeal genome projects. Therefore, we further developed a Web-based tool Ori-Finder 2 to predict the oriC regions in archaeal genomes automatically, based on the frame of Ori-Finder. The oriCs in archaea have significant differences with those in bacteria. For example, in contrast to the DnaA boxes in bacteria, the ORB sequences present more diversities in different species. With the archaeal oriCs in DoriC database, the consensus sequences of ORB motifs were calculated for different taxonomies, including Methanobacteriaceae, Methanomicrobia, Methanococcaceae, Sulfolobaceae and Thermococcaceae, by Multiple EM for Motif Elicitation (MEME) program [48]. Based on Ori-Finder 2, the intergenic sequences with the putative ORB sequences and adjacent to the replication-related genes are predicted as oriC regions. Because this method may fail to identify the oriCs adjacent to the uncharacterized genes that might be involved in DNA replication, the intergenic sequences, which contain more than two putative ORB motifs, are also predicted as oriCs. Currently, Ori-Finder 2 has been used to identify the oriCs in Pyrococcus chitonophagus DSM 10152, Thermococcus sp. strain 2319x1, Haloarculahispanica pleomorphic virus 3, Natrinema sp. J7 and Methanobrevibacter ruminantium M1 [49–53]. However, Ori-Finder 2 could not find all the potential origins of replication for the genomes with multiple oriCs currently. With the increase of the experimentally confirmed oriCs in archaea, it will become more accurate and sensitive by the continuous improvement. Prediction of replication origins by Ori-Finder system Ori-Finder and Ori-Finder 2 have a friendly and intuitive input interface, and use an integrated method to predict replication origins in prokaryotic genomes, which are available at http://tubic.tju.edu.cn/Ori-Finder/ and http://tubic.tju.edu.cn/Ori-Finder2/, respectively. Figure 1A presents the submission Web pages of the Web servers. Both the Web servers integrate the gene predicting pipelines, ZCURVE1.02 or Glimmer3, to perform the gene prediction in the unannotated genomes [54, 55]. Users can submit the annotated genome sequence by uploading the sequence file in FASTA format together with its protein table (PTT) file to the Web servers, and the Ori-Finder 2 can also accept the annotated genome file in GenBank format. BLAST program has been installed for functional annotation of genes by search against indicator genes (such as dnaA, dnaN, hemE and gidA in bacteria, or cdc6, orc1 and Mc-pRIP in archaea) throughout the genome. Both the Web servers enable users to select or type the motif sequences of DnaA boxes or ORBs to predict replication origin. The DnaA boxes or ORBs are ‘species-specific’ conserved sequences within the oriC regions and recognition sites for the DnaA proteins or Cdc6/Orc1 proteins. Ori-Finder provides 16 different types of DnaA box, and also allows the users to define some unique DnaA boxes by themselves. Whereas, FIMO (Find Individual Motif Occurrences) is used to obtain ORB sequences with the PSPM of five taxonomic clusters in Ori-Finder 2, and Weblogos are provided to facilitate the selection of ORBs [56]. Finally, the intergenic regions with the required characteristics are predicted as oriC regions. Note that, as Ori-Finder 2 used text search in the annotated genome file, some replication-related genes with unclear annotation might be ignored. So that we recommend users to compare the result with that based on the unannotated sequence. Figure 2 displays the workflow of both Ori-Finder and Ori-Finder 2. Figure 2 Open in new tabDownload slide The workflow of Ori-Finder system for the bacterial and archaeal genomes. Figure 2 Open in new tabDownload slide The workflow of Ori-Finder system for the bacterial and archaeal genomes. In the result Web page, the information, including the genome size, GC content, the locations of the indicator genes and predicted oriC regions, as well as the Z-curve (AT, GC, RY and MK disparity curves) of the input sequence, is presented as an html table. In addition, the location of DnaA boxes or ORB sequences within the oriC regions and the distribution of them in the whole genomes are also available for download from the provided URL. For Ori-Finder 2, the repeats identified by REPuter and the homologs in DoriC are also displayed in the result table. By comparison, the two Web servers share a common procedure to predict oriC regions (Figure 2). However, Ori-Finder could identify oriC regions in most of the bacterial chromosomes. In contrast, the sensitivity and precision of the predictions by Ori-Finder 2 are only 66.7 and 62.1%, respectively [33]. There are three main reasons that result in the significantly different performances. First, it is well known that most of the oriC regions in prokaryotic genomes are adjacent to the replication-related genes. In bacteria, dnaA gene plays a key role in the initiation of DNA replication for most bacteria. In addition, some other replication-related genes, such as dnaN, hemE and gidA, are also considered as the indicators in the oriC prediction. Besides the orc1/cdc6 gene, there are still many unknown genes involved in DNA replication in archaea. It is the reason that the intergenic sequences with more than two putative ORBs are also predicted as oriCs by Ori-Finder 2. Second, the binding sites of replication proteins, such as DnaA box and ORB, are essential for initiation of chromosome replication. Although the DNA boxes in bacteria show some differences throughout the bacterial kingdom, the sequences of them are considerably more conserved in comparison with the ORB sequences in archaea. Most of DnaA boxes are 9 bp sequences and the derivatives are based on the Escherichiacoli perfect DnaA box ‘TTATCCACA’ with one or more mismatches. In archaea, the consensus sequences ‘TCCA—GAAAC’ were found by scanning DoriC database with MEME, and a ‘G-string’ (GGGGT) is observed obviously at the end of ORB motifs in Methanomicrobia and Sulfolobacea. Furthermore, some other conserved motifs are also found in Sulflobacea and Thermococcaceae. Nevertheless, these motifs are more degenerative compared with DnaA boxs. Finally, the majority of bacteria use one oriC to start the DNA replication, whereas some archaea could adopt multiple oriCs. Moreover, the location of typical oriC in bacteria is next to the extreme of GC disparity curve, and the curve is shaped like ‘V’ graph clearly. However, the GC disparity curves in archaea are more irregular, so that the oriCs in archaea are not always near the extremes of GC disparity curves. Despite of some difficulties in the prediction of archaeal oriCs, Ori-Finder 2 will be improved to be more accurate with the increase of the experimental oriCs data. In addition to Ori-Finder system, Oriloc is the alternative tool to predict the oriC regions in bacterial chromosomes, which is mainly based on the GC skew method [57]. The shift points of relative GC skew defined as (G−C)/(G + C) have been used in the identification of the replication origins and termini. To improve the accuracy of prediction, the cumulative GC skew calculated as (G−C) was used to eliminate the effect of the window size. However, the relative GC skew could predict the turning point in the skew graphs as the location of oriC region, which corresponds to the extreme value in the cumulative GC skew as well as GC disparity curve by Z-curve method. However, Oriloc mainly used the cumulative GC skew method to identify oriC regions and could not provide the exact boundaries of oriC regions. Therefore, we compared the location of oriC and minimum of GC disparity curve using the records in DoriC database and found that the most of oriCs are close to the minimum of GC disparity curve, but there are still about 7% (246) of total oriCs, which are of over the one-tenth of the distance to the whole chromosomes. This also confirmed that the oriC prediction in bacteria should take other biological characteristics into consideration, such as the distribution of indictor genes and DnaA boxes. Furthermore, the experimentally confirmed oriCs together with the corresponding predictions by Ori-Finder are summarized at http://tubic.tju.edu.cn/doric/supplementary.php. Exploration of replication origins with DoriC database Figure 1A presents the main source of DoriC database including the predicted results by Ori-Finder system and experimentally confirmed oriCs from literature in PubMed. The oriCs in DoriC are distributed across all the phyla of bacteria and four archaeal phyla, including Crenarchaeota, Euryarchaeota, Korarchaeota and Thaumarchaeota. Figure 3 presents the main distribution of oriC records in DoriC database by phyla in both bacteria and archaea. The oriCs from the phyla Proteobacteria and Firmicutes constitute the primary component in bacteria, while for the archaea, the oriCs from the phylum Euryachaeota are in the majority. DoriC database also included seven archaeal species from Thaumarchaeota and Korarchaeota, and one unclassified archaeal species, whose oriC regions were identified by Ori-Finder 2. The predicted results are consistent with the typical characteristics of archaeal oriCs. Different from the bacteria, a substantial proportion of oriCs in archaea could not be identified in vivo or in silico. Currently, DoriC database has covered all the RefSeq bacterial complete genomes, so that we will focus on the bacterial oriCs in this section. Figure 3 Open in new tabDownload slide The taxonomic distribution of oriC records in DoriC database. The phyla with the oriC records less than nine are classified into the ‘other’ subcategory in the pie chart. Figure 3 Open in new tabDownload slide The taxonomic distribution of oriC records in DoriC database. The phyla with the oriC records less than nine are classified into the ‘other’ subcategory in the pie chart. In the previous section, we have described several typical characteristics of bacterial oriCs, such as asymmetrical nucleotide distributions, the replication-related genes and DnaA boxes. Now, these conserved features of oriCs could be summarized based on DoriC database, which were calculated by python scripts. The DnaA boxes are essential for DNA replication and enriched in the oriC regions. We retrieved the DnaA boxes in all the oriCs with no more than two mismatches from E. coli perfect DnaA box (TTATCCACA), and calculated the GC contents of those DnaA boxes and the corresponding chromosomes. Consequently, the statistically significant correlation is observed in Figure 4A (R = 0.71), and the result is consistent with the previous reports [38]. It suggests that the GC content of the chromosome could affect that of DnaA boxes. In particular, the position of cytosine in TTATCCACA is more conserved in the high GC content genomes. Besides that, adenine or thymine in some other positions is also offset to guanine or cytosine in the bacteria with high GC content, and vice versa. A cluster of DnaA boxes could facilitate DnaA proteins to bind the oriC regions and participate in the regulation of chromosome replication. Figure 4B presents the percentage of oriC regions with different number of DnaA boxes and displays that most of oriCs contain more than four DnaA boxes. In addition, the distribution of DnaA boxes throughout the chromosomes is also presented in the Z-curve figures provided by DoriC, and the significant abundance in the oriC regions could be observed in most of the records. The replication-related gene is another important indicator of oriC region. Figure 4D displays the probabilities of the top 10 genes adjacent to the oriC regions. Nearly half of the oriCs are next to the dnaA genes. Moreover, dnaN, rpmH and gidA also appear on the sides of the oriC regions frequently. It should be noted that some oriCs were bipartite origins [58], which were split into two subregions by the dnaA gene and located in the intergenic regions of dnaA-dnaN and rpmH-dnaA (Nocardia farcinica IFM 10152 and Chlorobium chlorochromatii CaD3 in Table 1). For the phylum Cyanobacteria, most of oriC regions are adjacent to dnaN gene instead of dnaA gene in case of the separation of the two genes in the chromosomes, which is supported by a series of experiments [59–61]. The different mechanism of DNA replication between the leading and lagging strands leads to the asymmetric nucleotide distribution. As a result, the oriC regions are usually near the switch of GC skew or extreme of GC disparity. The distances between oriC and minimum GC disparity relative to the whole chromosome length were presented in Figure 4E. The majority of oriCs are close to the location of minimum GC disparity. In addition, the length of oriCs and the difference of AT content in oriC to that in chromosome are presented in Figure 4C and 4F. Most of the oriCs are about 500 bp long with >10% higher AT content, which facilitate the DNA melting. Table 1 The oriC information of some representative bacterial and archaeal chromosomes in DoriC Organism Refseq Phylum GC (%) Adjacent gene cluster DnaA box or ORB sequence Nocardia farcinica IFM 10152 NC_006361 Actinobacteria 70.83 rnpA_rpmH_oriC1_dnaA_oriC2_dnaN_recF_gyrB TTGTCCACA Bacteroides helcogenes P 36-108 NC_014933 Bacteroidetes 44.72 gidA_oriC TTATACACA Chlamydia trachomatis Sweden2 NC_017441 Chlamydiae 41.31 ispA_glmU_oriC_hemB_nqrA_greA_aspC TTATCAACA Chlorobium chlorochromatii CaD3 NC_007514 Chlorobi 44.28 rnpA_rpmH_oriC1_dnaA_oriC2_dnaN_ recF_ TTATCCACA Dehalococcoides mccartyi DCMB5 NC_020386 Chloroflexi 47.07 rpsT_lexA_fmt_dnaA_oriC_obgE_nadD_gyrB_relA_hisS TTATCCAAA Synechococcus sp. WH 7803 NC_009481 Cyanobacteria 60.24 uvrA_recN_thrC_oriC_dnaN_purL_purF_gyrA TTTTCCACA Deinococcus radiodurans R1 chr. I and II NC_001263 Deinococcus- Thermus 67.01 eno_dnaN_oriC_dnaA TT[AT]TCCACA NC_001264 66.69 oriC_parA_parB Bacillus subtilis subsp. subtilis str. 168 NC_000964 Firmicutes 43.52 jag_spoIIIJ_rnpA_rpmH_oriC1_dnaA_oriC2_dnaN_yaaA_recF_yaaB_gyrB TT[AT]TCCACA Brucella abortus biovar 1 str. 9-941 chr. I and II NC_006932 Proteobacteria 57.16 trmE_rho_hemE_oriC_maf_aroE_coaE_dnaQ TTATCCACA NC_006933 57.34 hemN-2_repA_repB_oriC_repC Escherichia fergusonii ATCC 35469 NC_011740 Proteobacteria 49.94 atpE_atpB_atpI_gidB_gidA_oriC_mioC_asnC_asnA_yieM_ravA TTATCCACA Burkholderia cenocepacia J2315 chr. I, II and III NC_011000 Proteobacteria 66.68 arsC_oriC_parA_parB_repC TTATCCACA NC_011001 67.28 oriC_repC_parB_repA TTATGCGCATAA NC_011002 66.92 oriC_repC Geobacter sulfurreducens PCA NC_002939 Proteobacteria 60.94 yidC_rnpA_rpmH_oriC1_dnaA_oriC2_dnaN_recF_gyrB_gyrA TTATCCACA Helicobacter pylori 26695 NC_000915 Proteobacteria 38.87 dnaA_oriC_ glmS_thyX TTATTCACA Vibrio cholerae O1 biovar eltor str. N16961 chr. I and II NC_002505 Proteobacteria 47.7 parA_parB_gidB_gidA_oriC_yidC_trmE TTATCCACA NC_002506 46.91 parB_parA_oriC ATGATCAAGAG Leptospira borgpetersenii serovar Hardjo-bovis JB197 chr. I and II NC_008510 Spirochaetes 40.23 gidA_ilvE_dnaX1_dnaA_oriC_dnaN_recF_gyrB_gyrA TTTTCCACA NC_008511 40.43 oriC_parA_parB Thermotoga sp. RQ2 NC_010483 Thermotogae 46.18 oriC_rpmF AAACCTACCACC Sulfolobus solfataricus P2 NC_002754 Crenarchaeota 35.79 cdc6_oriC-I, oriC-II,oriC-III_cdc6 TCCA[AG][AT][TG]GAA[CA][CT][GA]AAGGGGT Pyrococcus abyssi GE5 NC_000868 Euryarchaeota 44.71 cdc6_oriC TCCA[CG]T[TG]GAAA[TC][GA]AAGGGGT Methanococcus maripaludis X1 NC_015847 Euryarchaeota 32.94 oriC_Mc-pRIP TT[TA][GT] ATTCA[TC][GA]AT[AT]T[AT]T[AT] Organism Refseq Phylum GC (%) Adjacent gene cluster DnaA box or ORB sequence Nocardia farcinica IFM 10152 NC_006361 Actinobacteria 70.83 rnpA_rpmH_oriC1_dnaA_oriC2_dnaN_recF_gyrB TTGTCCACA Bacteroides helcogenes P 36-108 NC_014933 Bacteroidetes 44.72 gidA_oriC TTATACACA Chlamydia trachomatis Sweden2 NC_017441 Chlamydiae 41.31 ispA_glmU_oriC_hemB_nqrA_greA_aspC TTATCAACA Chlorobium chlorochromatii CaD3 NC_007514 Chlorobi 44.28 rnpA_rpmH_oriC1_dnaA_oriC2_dnaN_ recF_ TTATCCACA Dehalococcoides mccartyi DCMB5 NC_020386 Chloroflexi 47.07 rpsT_lexA_fmt_dnaA_oriC_obgE_nadD_gyrB_relA_hisS TTATCCAAA Synechococcus sp. WH 7803 NC_009481 Cyanobacteria 60.24 uvrA_recN_thrC_oriC_dnaN_purL_purF_gyrA TTTTCCACA Deinococcus radiodurans R1 chr. I and II NC_001263 Deinococcus- Thermus 67.01 eno_dnaN_oriC_dnaA TT[AT]TCCACA NC_001264 66.69 oriC_parA_parB Bacillus subtilis subsp. subtilis str. 168 NC_000964 Firmicutes 43.52 jag_spoIIIJ_rnpA_rpmH_oriC1_dnaA_oriC2_dnaN_yaaA_recF_yaaB_gyrB TT[AT]TCCACA Brucella abortus biovar 1 str. 9-941 chr. I and II NC_006932 Proteobacteria 57.16 trmE_rho_hemE_oriC_maf_aroE_coaE_dnaQ TTATCCACA NC_006933 57.34 hemN-2_repA_repB_oriC_repC Escherichia fergusonii ATCC 35469 NC_011740 Proteobacteria 49.94 atpE_atpB_atpI_gidB_gidA_oriC_mioC_asnC_asnA_yieM_ravA TTATCCACA Burkholderia cenocepacia J2315 chr. I, II and III NC_011000 Proteobacteria 66.68 arsC_oriC_parA_parB_repC TTATCCACA NC_011001 67.28 oriC_repC_parB_repA TTATGCGCATAA NC_011002 66.92 oriC_repC Geobacter sulfurreducens PCA NC_002939 Proteobacteria 60.94 yidC_rnpA_rpmH_oriC1_dnaA_oriC2_dnaN_recF_gyrB_gyrA TTATCCACA Helicobacter pylori 26695 NC_000915 Proteobacteria 38.87 dnaA_oriC_ glmS_thyX TTATTCACA Vibrio cholerae O1 biovar eltor str. N16961 chr. I and II NC_002505 Proteobacteria 47.7 parA_parB_gidB_gidA_oriC_yidC_trmE TTATCCACA NC_002506 46.91 parB_parA_oriC ATGATCAAGAG Leptospira borgpetersenii serovar Hardjo-bovis JB197 chr. I and II NC_008510 Spirochaetes 40.23 gidA_ilvE_dnaX1_dnaA_oriC_dnaN_recF_gyrB_gyrA TTTTCCACA NC_008511 40.43 oriC_parA_parB Thermotoga sp. RQ2 NC_010483 Thermotogae 46.18 oriC_rpmF AAACCTACCACC Sulfolobus solfataricus P2 NC_002754 Crenarchaeota 35.79 cdc6_oriC-I, oriC-II,oriC-III_cdc6 TCCA[AG][AT][TG]GAA[CA][CT][GA]AAGGGGT Pyrococcus abyssi GE5 NC_000868 Euryarchaeota 44.71 cdc6_oriC TCCA[CG]T[TG]GAAA[TC][GA]AAGGGGT Methanococcus maripaludis X1 NC_015847 Euryarchaeota 32.94 oriC_Mc-pRIP TT[TA][GT] ATTCA[TC][GA]AT[AT]T[AT]T[AT] Open in new tab Table 1 The oriC information of some representative bacterial and archaeal chromosomes in DoriC Organism Refseq Phylum GC (%) Adjacent gene cluster DnaA box or ORB sequence Nocardia farcinica IFM 10152 NC_006361 Actinobacteria 70.83 rnpA_rpmH_oriC1_dnaA_oriC2_dnaN_recF_gyrB TTGTCCACA Bacteroides helcogenes P 36-108 NC_014933 Bacteroidetes 44.72 gidA_oriC TTATACACA Chlamydia trachomatis Sweden2 NC_017441 Chlamydiae 41.31 ispA_glmU_oriC_hemB_nqrA_greA_aspC TTATCAACA Chlorobium chlorochromatii CaD3 NC_007514 Chlorobi 44.28 rnpA_rpmH_oriC1_dnaA_oriC2_dnaN_ recF_ TTATCCACA Dehalococcoides mccartyi DCMB5 NC_020386 Chloroflexi 47.07 rpsT_lexA_fmt_dnaA_oriC_obgE_nadD_gyrB_relA_hisS TTATCCAAA Synechococcus sp. WH 7803 NC_009481 Cyanobacteria 60.24 uvrA_recN_thrC_oriC_dnaN_purL_purF_gyrA TTTTCCACA Deinococcus radiodurans R1 chr. I and II NC_001263 Deinococcus- Thermus 67.01 eno_dnaN_oriC_dnaA TT[AT]TCCACA NC_001264 66.69 oriC_parA_parB Bacillus subtilis subsp. subtilis str. 168 NC_000964 Firmicutes 43.52 jag_spoIIIJ_rnpA_rpmH_oriC1_dnaA_oriC2_dnaN_yaaA_recF_yaaB_gyrB TT[AT]TCCACA Brucella abortus biovar 1 str. 9-941 chr. I and II NC_006932 Proteobacteria 57.16 trmE_rho_hemE_oriC_maf_aroE_coaE_dnaQ TTATCCACA NC_006933 57.34 hemN-2_repA_repB_oriC_repC Escherichia fergusonii ATCC 35469 NC_011740 Proteobacteria 49.94 atpE_atpB_atpI_gidB_gidA_oriC_mioC_asnC_asnA_yieM_ravA TTATCCACA Burkholderia cenocepacia J2315 chr. I, II and III NC_011000 Proteobacteria 66.68 arsC_oriC_parA_parB_repC TTATCCACA NC_011001 67.28 oriC_repC_parB_repA TTATGCGCATAA NC_011002 66.92 oriC_repC Geobacter sulfurreducens PCA NC_002939 Proteobacteria 60.94 yidC_rnpA_rpmH_oriC1_dnaA_oriC2_dnaN_recF_gyrB_gyrA TTATCCACA Helicobacter pylori 26695 NC_000915 Proteobacteria 38.87 dnaA_oriC_ glmS_thyX TTATTCACA Vibrio cholerae O1 biovar eltor str. N16961 chr. I and II NC_002505 Proteobacteria 47.7 parA_parB_gidB_gidA_oriC_yidC_trmE TTATCCACA NC_002506 46.91 parB_parA_oriC ATGATCAAGAG Leptospira borgpetersenii serovar Hardjo-bovis JB197 chr. I and II NC_008510 Spirochaetes 40.23 gidA_ilvE_dnaX1_dnaA_oriC_dnaN_recF_gyrB_gyrA TTTTCCACA NC_008511 40.43 oriC_parA_parB Thermotoga sp. RQ2 NC_010483 Thermotogae 46.18 oriC_rpmF AAACCTACCACC Sulfolobus solfataricus P2 NC_002754 Crenarchaeota 35.79 cdc6_oriC-I, oriC-II,oriC-III_cdc6 TCCA[AG][AT][TG]GAA[CA][CT][GA]AAGGGGT Pyrococcus abyssi GE5 NC_000868 Euryarchaeota 44.71 cdc6_oriC TCCA[CG]T[TG]GAAA[TC][GA]AAGGGGT Methanococcus maripaludis X1 NC_015847 Euryarchaeota 32.94 oriC_Mc-pRIP TT[TA][GT] ATTCA[TC][GA]AT[AT]T[AT]T[AT] Organism Refseq Phylum GC (%) Adjacent gene cluster DnaA box or ORB sequence Nocardia farcinica IFM 10152 NC_006361 Actinobacteria 70.83 rnpA_rpmH_oriC1_dnaA_oriC2_dnaN_recF_gyrB TTGTCCACA Bacteroides helcogenes P 36-108 NC_014933 Bacteroidetes 44.72 gidA_oriC TTATACACA Chlamydia trachomatis Sweden2 NC_017441 Chlamydiae 41.31 ispA_glmU_oriC_hemB_nqrA_greA_aspC TTATCAACA Chlorobium chlorochromatii CaD3 NC_007514 Chlorobi 44.28 rnpA_rpmH_oriC1_dnaA_oriC2_dnaN_ recF_ TTATCCACA Dehalococcoides mccartyi DCMB5 NC_020386 Chloroflexi 47.07 rpsT_lexA_fmt_dnaA_oriC_obgE_nadD_gyrB_relA_hisS TTATCCAAA Synechococcus sp. WH 7803 NC_009481 Cyanobacteria 60.24 uvrA_recN_thrC_oriC_dnaN_purL_purF_gyrA TTTTCCACA Deinococcus radiodurans R1 chr. I and II NC_001263 Deinococcus- Thermus 67.01 eno_dnaN_oriC_dnaA TT[AT]TCCACA NC_001264 66.69 oriC_parA_parB Bacillus subtilis subsp. subtilis str. 168 NC_000964 Firmicutes 43.52 jag_spoIIIJ_rnpA_rpmH_oriC1_dnaA_oriC2_dnaN_yaaA_recF_yaaB_gyrB TT[AT]TCCACA Brucella abortus biovar 1 str. 9-941 chr. I and II NC_006932 Proteobacteria 57.16 trmE_rho_hemE_oriC_maf_aroE_coaE_dnaQ TTATCCACA NC_006933 57.34 hemN-2_repA_repB_oriC_repC Escherichia fergusonii ATCC 35469 NC_011740 Proteobacteria 49.94 atpE_atpB_atpI_gidB_gidA_oriC_mioC_asnC_asnA_yieM_ravA TTATCCACA Burkholderia cenocepacia J2315 chr. I, II and III NC_011000 Proteobacteria 66.68 arsC_oriC_parA_parB_repC TTATCCACA NC_011001 67.28 oriC_repC_parB_repA TTATGCGCATAA NC_011002 66.92 oriC_repC Geobacter sulfurreducens PCA NC_002939 Proteobacteria 60.94 yidC_rnpA_rpmH_oriC1_dnaA_oriC2_dnaN_recF_gyrB_gyrA TTATCCACA Helicobacter pylori 26695 NC_000915 Proteobacteria 38.87 dnaA_oriC_ glmS_thyX TTATTCACA Vibrio cholerae O1 biovar eltor str. N16961 chr. I and II NC_002505 Proteobacteria 47.7 parA_parB_gidB_gidA_oriC_yidC_trmE TTATCCACA NC_002506 46.91 parB_parA_oriC ATGATCAAGAG Leptospira borgpetersenii serovar Hardjo-bovis JB197 chr. I and II NC_008510 Spirochaetes 40.23 gidA_ilvE_dnaX1_dnaA_oriC_dnaN_recF_gyrB_gyrA TTTTCCACA NC_008511 40.43 oriC_parA_parB Thermotoga sp. RQ2 NC_010483 Thermotogae 46.18 oriC_rpmF AAACCTACCACC Sulfolobus solfataricus P2 NC_002754 Crenarchaeota 35.79 cdc6_oriC-I, oriC-II,oriC-III_cdc6 TCCA[AG][AT][TG]GAA[CA][CT][GA]AAGGGGT Pyrococcus abyssi GE5 NC_000868 Euryarchaeota 44.71 cdc6_oriC TCCA[CG]T[TG]GAAA[TC][GA]AAGGGGT Methanococcus maripaludis X1 NC_015847 Euryarchaeota 32.94 oriC_Mc-pRIP TT[TA][GT] ATTCA[TC][GA]AT[AT]T[AT]T[AT] Open in new tab Figure 4 Open in new tabDownload slide Several characteristics of replication origins. (A) The relationship between the GC content of DnaA boxes and that of chromosome. (B) The percentages of bacterial oriCs with different number of DnaA boxes. (C) The percentages of bacterial oriCs with different length. (D) The probabilities of top 10 replication-related indicator genes adjacent to the oriCs. Note that some oriCs are next to two indicator genes, so that the sum of probabilities is not equal to 100%. (E) The distribution of relative distance between oriC and minimum GC disparity. It should be noted that the x axis indicates the proportion of the chromosome size. (F) The difference between the AT content of oriC region and that of chromosome. Figure 4 Open in new tabDownload slide Several characteristics of replication origins. (A) The relationship between the GC content of DnaA boxes and that of chromosome. (B) The percentages of bacterial oriCs with different number of DnaA boxes. (C) The percentages of bacterial oriCs with different length. (D) The probabilities of top 10 replication-related indicator genes adjacent to the oriCs. Note that some oriCs are next to two indicator genes, so that the sum of probabilities is not equal to 100%. (E) The distribution of relative distance between oriC and minimum GC disparity. It should be noted that the x axis indicates the proportion of the chromosome size. (F) The difference between the AT content of oriC region and that of chromosome. However, the statistical analyses could only reflect some common characteristics of bacterial oriCs, but exceptions always exist in individuals. Consequently, we analyzed the indicator genes and DnaA boxes by phyla based on the records in DoriC database and found the gene clusters frequently around oriCs and the ‘species-specific’ DnaA boxes within oriCs. Table 1 displays the oriC information of some bacterial and archaeal chromosomes in DoriC, which are used to illuminate the common features in their phyla. Besides the genes (dnaA, dnaN, gidA, hemE and rpmH) listed above, some other genes, such as rnpA, gyrB and recF, seem to be near the replication origins. As for the bacteria with multiple chromosomes, the replication initiation genes and plasmid partition genes, such as repA, repC, parA and parB, are often the indicators for the oriCs in the extra chromosomes, and those genes have also been verified to be relevant with plasmid replication [62]. This suggests that the microbial extra chromosomes may originate from megaplasmids. Moreover, the ‘species-specific’ DnaA boxes different from the E. coli perfect DnaA box ‘TTATCCACA’ are also outlined in this table. For example, the motif ‘TTTTCCACA’ was found in most species of the phylum Cyanobacteria. Owing to the high GC content of chromosome, a cluster of ‘TTGTCCACA’ was discovered in the oriC of N. farcinica IFM 10152. In the extra chromosomes, some other motifs entirely different from classic DnaA box are also listed in this table, and these motifs usually appear as repeats in oriC regions. Currently, the majority of archaeal oriCs in DoriC are the oric1/cdc6-associated oriCs, and a distant homolog of the cdc6 gene, named Mc-pRIP for the putative replication initiator protein, was found next to the oriC regions in the order Methanococcales during the update of DoriC database. Beyond that, some archaea with multiple oriCs are also summarized, such as Sulfolobus and Halobacteria. For more details, please refer to the article of Ori-Finder 2 [33]. Applications with DoriC database With the accumulation of the prokaryotic oriC records in DoriC database, it is possible to determine the conserved features of oriCs, analyze the strand bias and search the homologous oriCs. Figure 5 outlines the main applications, and several examples will be presented in this section. Figure 5 Open in new tabDownload slide Main applications based on DoriC database including data mining, strand-biased analysis and homology search. Figure 5 Open in new tabDownload slide Main applications based on DoriC database including data mining, strand-biased analysis and homology search. Data mining with DoriC database By exploring oriCs in DoriC database, some newfound features associated with oriC regions, such as motif sequences, and multiple replication origins in single bacterial chromosome have been discovered and supported by other studies. For example, Murray et al. identified a new indispensable bacterial replication origin element, repeating trinucleotide motif, named DnaA-trio, and demonstrated these elements play an important role in the stabilization of DNA filaments by experiments. Then, the new elements have been detected throughout the bacterial kingdom by bioinformatics analysis with DoriC database, indicating that DnaA-trio is another core oriC element [63]. DNA methylation is an epigenetic mechanism, which is involved in various biological processes in bacteria including DNA replication. Bendall et al. [64] performed the single-molecule real-time sequencing in Shewanella oneidensis MR-1 to reveal methylation of adenine (N6mA) throughout the genome, and the methylated GATC motifs are found enriched in the oriC region. The further comparative analysis of the Gammaproteobacteria genomes including those in DoriC database revealed that the oriCs are enriched for GATC motifs with the presence of dam and seqA. It is well known that bacteria typically have single replication origin in a chromosome. However, double replication origins could exist in some artificial biological systems. Several bacterial genomes were reformed by synthetic biology methodologies, and more than one WT origins have been extensively characterized in those chromosomes [65–67]. This discovery indicated that multiple origins could occur on a bacterial chromosome, and several bacterial chromosomes with putative double origins of replication, including Acidaminococcus fermentans DSM 20731, Dehalobacter sp. CF, Ralstonia pickettii 12 D chromosome 1 and Ochrobactrum anthropi ATCC 49188 chromosome I, were found indeed in DoriC [68]. Recent work reported that Achromatium oxaliferum and Synechocystis may harbor different replication origins, which also supported our hypothesis [69, 70]. The strand-biased analysis with DoriC database The strand-biased analyses of the biological features are important to understand the mechanisms of many biological processes. Consequently, the data of oriC regions in DoriC database have been widely used in a series of comparative genomics studies focused on the strand bias, such as nucleotide composition [71–73], codon usage [74, 75], substitution rate [76], gene expression [77] and genes distributions [78, 79]. Here, we introduce a few examples about strand-biased analyses. It is well known that majority of genes in bacterial chromosomes tend to locate at the leading strand. A number of studies have been carried out with DoriC database aiming to provide explanations for such observations. Mao et al. [80] performed a computational study on 725 bacterial genomes, and found the genes with different functional categories have a various performances of strand bias. The preference for genes on the leading strand in certain functional categories could enhance the survivability of the host and keep them moving to the more efficient leading strand. The expression level of genes was once considered as the main force to cause the strand bias. However, the analysis of the gene distributions in Bacillussubtilis and E. coli showed that essentiality, not expressiveness, is the basis of gene strand bias [81], and our laboratory also confirmed the previous findings that essential genes are more frequently situated at the leading strand with DoriC and DEG database [78]. Furthermore, only the essential genes with certain COG subcategories showed the preference. These results are helpful to understand the architecture of bacterial chromosomes. This property was also used in the prediction of gene essentiality in bacterial genomes [82, 83]. Conclusion and future perspectives In this article, we briefly reviewed the history of Ori-Finder system and DoriC database and then outlined the main methodology and applications associated with them. Ori-Finder system used an integrated method to identify oriCs in prokaryotic genome sequences, and the oriCs predicted by in silico methods as well as those identified by in vivo or in vitro experiments were collected to DoriC database after manual curation. Currently, Ori-Finder system becomes a popular software tool to predict prokaryotic replication origins, and some of the predictions were confirmed by experiments. DoriC database has stored about 3600 records of oriC regions in both bacterial and archaeal genomes, which would facilitate the research of the large-scale data mining and strand-biased analyses associated with the replication origins. Furthermore, we also explored the oriC records in DoriC database and displayed the statistical results as well as the representative organisms here. However, next-generation sequencing technologies have created a new challenge for the identification of replication origins in different types of genomic data. To address this challenge, Ori-Finder system will be extended to predict oriC regions in metagenomic sequences in future, and the new version of DoriC database will also include the information of the strand-biased analyses for nucleotide asymmetry, codon usage, gene distribution, etc. The oriC prediction in the RefSeq genomes has laid a firm foundation for the further development of Ori-Finder system and DoriC database, which will serve as the critical tools in the prokaryotic genomics. Key Points Ori-Finder system is designed for the oriC prediction in bacterial and archaeal genomes with high accuracy and reliability, which integrates gene prediction, analysis of base composition asymmetry, distribution of DnaA boxes or ORBs, occurrence of genes frequently close to oriC regions and phylogenetic relationships. DoriC database contains 3423 oriC records in > 2700 complete RefSeq bacterial chromosomes and 257 oriC regions in over 200 archaeal genomes with manual curation. Detailed information about oriC regions, such as DNA boxes or ORBs, repeat sequences, replication-related genes and URLs to genome browser, are provided in the database. Ori-Finder system and DoriC database have been widely used in the research field of DNA replication origins in prokaryotes, including the oriC retrieve, motif sequences discovery and strand-biased analysis. Acknowledgements The authors would like to thank Professor Chun-Ting Zhang for the invaluable assistance and inspiring discussions. Funding This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant numbers 31571358, 21621004 and 31171238) and the National High-Tech Research and Development Program (863) of China (grant number 2015AA020101). Hao Luo is an assistant professor in the Department of Physics, School of Science, Tianjin University, China. His research focuses on DNA replication, gene essentiality and bioinformatics. Chun-Lan Quan is a graduate student in the Department of Physics, School of Science, Tianjin University, China. Her research interests are bioinformatics and microbial genomics. Chong Peng is a PhD candidate in the Department of Physics, School of Science, Tianjin University, China. Her research interests are bioinformatics and gene essentiality. Feng Gao is a professor in the Department of Physics, School of Science, Key Laboratory of Systems Bioengineering (Ministry of Education) and SynBio Research Platform, Collaborative Innovation Center of Chemical Science and Engineering (Tianjin), Tianjin University, China. His research studies are performed in the fields of computational biology and bioinformatics with a special focus on microbial genomics and functional genomics. Reference 1 Costa A , Hood IV , Berger JM. Mechanisms for initiating cellular DNA replication . 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Sci Rep 2011 ; 1 ( 1 ): 53. http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/srep00053 Google Scholar Crossref Search ADS PubMed WorldCat © The Author(s) 2018. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com This article is published and distributed under the terms of the Oxford University Press, Standard Journals Publication Model (https://academic.oup.com/journals/pages/open_access/funder_policies/chorus/standard_publication_model)

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Briefings in Bioinformatics – Oxford University Press

Published: Jul 19, 2019

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