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How to TILL

 

     Listed below is information on how to initiate a TILLING request, resources for obtaining sequence data and a description of the programs that analyze your gene target. All TILLING requests are submitted by CODDLe, a web-based program that will store information about your target in our database and also links to the various analyses for your gene target that evaluates the quality of the TILLING mutations we find.

A. Information Required for CODDLe:

     You will need to have the genomic DNA and either the cDNA (sequence or join statement) and/or protein sequence for your target. These sequences need to correspond directly to each other; if there are discrepancies between them you will get an error message when you try to CODDLe the gene.

     Many times a discrepancy type error arises from SNPs when the gDNA and cDNA are from two different inbreds and can be corrected by changing the base(s) in one of the sequences. If there are many discrepancies between the sequences, we suggest that you make sure that you are not working with sequences for two related genes. Maize sequence data can be obtained from many sources (see below) that are updated on a regular basis.

B. User Profile and Billing Information:

     Each user will need a "User Profile" so that we will have the contact information for each TILLING request. If the contact person for the TILLING request changes, please update this form or send an email to maizetilling@purdue.edu. Invoices for your TILLING request will be sent out around the 21st of each month. Payment is due upon receipt and should be directed to Purdue's Centralized Accounts Receiveables System (CARS) according to the instructions on the invoice. CARS will accept purchase orders, wire transfers and credit cards. If you have questions regarding the invoice or payments please email tilling-orders@lists.purdue.edu.

C. Maize Sequence Data Resources:

     The list below contains to links to various public databases in case you need more gDNA and/or cDNA for the target that you wish to TILL. If you do not find enough maize sequence for your gene, you should BLAST against Rice sequences and then work out to other grasses and plants as needed. With respect to building a gene model, in most cases the location (position) of introns within a gene is conserved between maize and rice, however the size of the intron may vary.

1. PlantGDB

2. TIGR's Assembled Zea mays release 4.0

3. NCBI's trace archives and select "Zea mays-WGS" or "Zea mays-other" as the search database

4. GeneSeqer if you need help building a gene model based on your sequence information.

D. Programs to Analyze Your Gene Target

     These programs were developed by the Proweb bioinformatics group at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and are used by the Maize TILLING Project to analyze the gene target and any TILLING mutations we find.

1. BLOCKS

     CODDLe uses BLOCKS to compare your protein sequence to the InterPro 12.0 protein database and find homologous proteins. The BLOCKS output highlights which regions in your protein are conserved and also evaluates (along with SIFT) the TILLING mutations with respect to the predicting if the mutation will damage the protein.

     If the protein is classified as "unknown" or "hypothetical", you can submit your own protein alignment for the BLOCKS output. We suggest that you do this when you submit your order so that SIFT can accurately assess the whether the mutation(s) we find would be tolerated at that position.

2. Submitting an Alignment for BLOCKS

     If you have a CLUSTAL protein alignment that you have assembled for your gene target, save it as either a .msf file or in FASTA format. After CODDLE displays the PSI-BLAST results, leave the results unchecked and click on "proceed with CODDLE". On the next screen, there will be a field for "User defined BLOCKS" that allows you to upload your own alignment.
1) Click on "User defined BLOCKS" to get to the block maker.
2) If your alignment is saved as .msf (one of the save as options in CLUSTAL), go to multiple alignment processor. Your sequence of interest should be the top one in the alignment.
3) If your alignment is in FASTA, click on the FASTA format link to double check how your sequence should be formatted if you are using an alignment in FASTA.
4) Scroll down to the window and cut/paste or upload your file and click on the "submit" button.
5) After the BLOCKS have been made, click on "BLOCKS formatted". You should get a text file with the information arranged in blocks of text according to regions of similarity.
6) Save as "myfilename.sh.html". This .html file will be accepted by CODDLE.

3. SIFT (Sorting Intolerant From Tolerant)

     Based on the BLOCKs output, SIFT evaluates what amino acids are predicted to be tolerated at each position within the protein. Amino acid changes with a SIFT score of <0.05 are considered "Intolerant". If the change has both a SIFT score of <0.05 and an IC (confidence) score of < 3.25 the mutationis predicted to be damaging and likely will affect protein activity.

     If your gene target does not have a BLOCKS output associated with it, SIFT scores cannot be determined when the mutation data is assembled. However, you can enter a protein alignment of the protein and related proteins into SIFT and determine if the amino acid change would be tolerated. This option is also useful if you have a better alignment than the one initially submitted with your TILLING request.

4. PARSESNPs (Project Aligned Related Sequences and Evaluate SNPs)

     All TILLING mutations will be analyzed by PARSESNPs to determine if the mutation creates or destroys a restriction site. The PARSESNPs data will be included in the mutation summary that is emailed to you. You also have the option of entering other sequence variants for your gene target.

     We will begin Eco-TILLING gene targets this fall. Although we will identify SNPs based on the approximately location in the gene target, we will not be sequencing the different variants. However, users can sequence the SNPs of interest to them and input those changes into both SIFT and PARSESNPs and get that information for their Eco-TILLING alleles.




 

 

 

 

   

 

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