Generation, annotation, and analysis of an extensive Aspergillus niger EST collection

doi:10.1186/1471-2180-6-7

BMC Microbiology

Volume 6

Viewing options:

Abstract
Full text
PDF (661KB)
Additional files

Associated material:

Related literature:

Articles citing this article
on BioMed Central
on Google Scholar
on ISI Web of Science
on PubMed Central
Other articles by authors
on Google Scholar

Semova N
Storms R
John T
Gaudet P
Ulycznyj P
Min XJ
Sun J
Butler G
Tsang A

on PubMed

Semova N
Storms R
John T
Gaudet P
Ulycznyj P
Min XJ
Sun J
Butler G
Tsang A
Related articles/pages
on Google

on Google Scholar

on PubMed

Tools:

Post to:

Research article

Generation, annotation, and analysis of an extensive Aspergillus niger EST collection

Natalia Semova¹ , Reginald Storms¹^,2 , Tricia John¹ , Pascale Gaudet¹^,4 , Peter Ulycznyj¹ , Xiang Jia Min¹ , Jian Sun¹ , Greg Butler¹^,3 and Adrian Tsang¹^,2

¹Centre for Structural and Functional Genomics, Concordia University, Montreal, Canada

²Department of Biology, Concordia University, Montreal, Canada

³Department of Computer Science and Software Engineering, Concordia University, Montreal, Canada

⁴Northwestern University, 676 N. St. Clair Street, Chicago, IL 60611

author email corresponding author email

BMC Microbiology 2006, 6:7doi:10.1186/1471-2180-6-7


Published:	2 February 2006

Abstract

Background

Aspergillus niger, a saprophyte commonly found on decaying vegetation, is widely used and studied for industrial purposes. Despite its place as one of the most important organisms for commercial applications, the lack of available information about its genetic makeup limits research with this filamentous fungus.

Results

We present here the analysis of 12,820 expressed sequence tags (ESTs) generated from A. niger cultured under seven different growth conditions. These ESTs identify about 5,108 genes of which 44.5% code for proteins sharing similarity (E ≤ 1e ^-5) with GenBank entries of known function, 38% code for proteins that only share similarity with GenBank entries of unknown function and 17.5% encode proteins that do not have a GenBank homolog. Using the Gene Ontology hierarchy, we present a first classification of the A. niger proteins encoded by these genes and compare its protein repertoire with other well-studied fungal species. We have established a searchable web-based database that includes the EST and derived contig sequences and their annotation. Details about this project and access to the annotated A. niger database are available.

Conclusion

This EST collection and its annotation provide a significant resource for fundamental and applied research with A. niger. The gene set identified in this manuscript will be highly useful in the annotation of the genome sequence of A. niger, the genes described in the manuscript, especially those encoding hydrolytic enzymes will provide a valuable source for researchers interested in enzyme properties and applications.