Authors: Kim C, Kwon S, Lee G, Lee H, Choi J, Kim Y, Hahn J
The AllergenPro database has developed a web-based system that will provide information about allergen in microbes, animals and plants. The database has three major parts and functions:(i) database list; (ii) allergen search; and (iii) allergenicity prediction. The database contains 2,434 allergens related information readily available in the database such as on allergens in rice microbes (712 records), animals (617 records) and plants (1,105 records). Furthermore, this database provides bioinformatics tools for allergenicity prediction. Users can search for specific allergens by various methods and can run tools for allergenicity prediction using three different methods. AVAILABILITY: The database is available for free at htt…

Neuroinformatics for NeuropsychologyVinoth JagarooEmerson College and Boston University School of Medicine, Boston, MA, USABioinformatics involves specialized application of computer technology to investigative and conceptual problems in biology and medicine; neuroinformatics (NI) is the practice of bioinformatics in the neurosciences. Over the past two decades the biomedical sciences have … (Source: Springer Psychology titles)

The UK has made its first substantial commitment to a major emerging pan-European science project with a £10M investment (25 August) by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC).BBSRC has awarded funding to the European Molecular Biology Laboratory’s European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI), based at Hinxton near Cambridge, to permit a dramatic increase in the institute’s data storage and handling capacity. The funding is the first step in developing the existing data resources and IT infrastructure of EMBL-EBI towards its planned role as the central hub of the emerging European Life-Science Infrastructure for Biological Information (ELIXIR), placing the UK at the forefront of this multinational initiative. The estimated total cost of establishing ELIXIR is …

The UK has made its first substantial commitment to a major emerging pan-European science project with a £10M investment by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC). BBSRC has awarded funding to the European Molecular Biology Laboratory’s European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI), based at Hinxton near Cambridge, to permit a dramatic increase in the institute’s data storage and handling capacity. (Source: eHealth News EU)

(Source: PLoS Computational Biology)

Conclusions:
Our method allows a reliable and sophisticated analysis of microarray data even under severe constraints. The utilization of systems biology improves the biologists ability to elucidate the mechanisms underlying celular processes and to formulate new hypotheses. (Source: BMC Bioinformatics – Latest articles)

We describe statistical inference algorithms, software implementations, and a simulation-based comparison of three-taxon maximum likelihood alignment to several other methods for aligning three sibling RNAs. In the Discussion we consider how the three-taxon RNA alignment-reconstruction-folding algorithm, which is currently very computationally-expensive, might be made more efficient so that larger phylogenies could be considered. (Source: PLoS Computational Biology)

Conclusions:
This strategy and resulting model support the conjecture that DNA biophysical properties, along with RNA polymerase sigma-factor/DNA binding collaboratively, contribute to a sequence’s ability to promote transcription. This work provides a baseline model that can evolve as new Chlamydia trachomatis sigma66 promoters are identified with assistance from the provided genome-wide predictions. The proposed methodology is ideal for organisms with few identified promoters and relatively small genomes. (Source: BMC Bioinformatics – Latest articles)

The objective of this study is to describe the present organisational structure of Boran cattle breeding and develop a model
breeding programme using a deterministic approach under the current structure of the Boran Cattle Breeders Society. A breeding
unit of 13,000 cows supplying bulls to a commercial population of 39,000 cows was assumed. Selection criteria used were growth
and reproduction traits while breeding objective traits targeted were growth, carcass, reproduction, survival, milk yield
and feed intake traits. Higher selection intensity was possible for breeding sires resulting in higher genetic gains compared
to dams even though selection accuracies were generally low. Annual genetic gains were positive except for dressing percentage,
cow survival rate, and age at first cal…