RefSeq: Curation and annotation of Antizyme and Antizyme Inhibitor genes

Authors

• B Rajput
• TD Murphy
• KD Pruitt

Abstract

The Reference Sequence (RefSeq) database at NCBI represents a non-redundant, richly-annotated set of genomic, transcript and protein sequence records for genomes across a wide taxonomic spectrum. The RefSeq dataset is invaluable for other resources at NCBI and an important reagent for NCBI’s eukaryotic genome annotation pipeline. It is also extensively used for biomedical research. Targeted curation of genes, such as those with exceptional biology or genes for functionally related protein families, such as those involved in polyamine regulation, is also one of the goals of the RefSeq project. Polyamines are ubiquitous cations that are involved in many fundamental processes and high polyamine levels are associated with neoplastic transformation and tumorigenesis; hence, their intracellular concentration is tightly regulated. Antizyme and antizyme inhibitor have a central role in maintaining polyamine homeostasis within the cell. Antizyme exhibits exceptional biology in that it is expressed via a novel programmed +1 ribosomal frameshifting mechanism. Conventional computational tools are unable to predict a programmed frameshift; thus, manual curation is required for accurate representation of antizyme gene products. Antizyme inhibitor, which is expressed via standard translation is regulated at multiple levels with impact on polyamine level and disease state. Manual review of genes for three members of the antizyme family and two members of the antizyme inhibitor family in 91 vertebrate organisms resulted in a total of 461 curated RefSeq records. This presentation will focus on the curation and annotation of antizyme 1 and antizyme inhibitor 1 genes in vertebrates to represent their interconnectedness in polyamine regulation.

Scientific Focus Area: Computational Biology

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