Biology subjects

Krishnasamy, K.

Publications and source records attributed to Krishnasamy, K..

4 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2021

Immunoinformatic Approach for the identification of T Cell and B Cell Epitopes in the Surface Glycoprotein and Designing a Potent Multiepitope Vaccine Construct Against SARS-CoV-2 including the new UK variant

The emergence of a novel coronavirus in China in late 2019 has turned into a SARS-CoV-2 pandemic affecting several millions of people worldwide in a short span of time with high fatality. The crisis is further aggravated by the emergence and evolution of new variant SARS-CoV-2 strains in UK during December, 2020 followed by their transmission to other countries. A major concern is that prophylaxis and therapeutics are not available yet to control and prevent the virus which is spreading at an alarming rate, though several vaccine trials are in the final stage. As vaccines are developed through various strategies, their immunogenic potential may drastically vary and thus pose several challenges in offering both arms of immunity such as humoral and cell-mediated immune responses against the virus. In this study, we adopted an immunoinformatics-aided identification of B cell and T cell epitopes in the Spike protein, which is a surface glycoprotein of SARS-CoV-2, for developing a new Multiepitope vaccine construct (MEVC). MEVC has 575 amino acids and comprises adjuvants and various cytotoxic T-lymphocyte (CTL), helper T-lymphocyte (HTL), and B-cell epitopes that possess the highest affinity for the respective HLA alleles, assembled and joined by linkers. The computational data suggest that the MEVC is non-toxic, non-allergenic and thermostable with the capability to elicit both humoral and cell-mediated immune responses. The population coverage of various countries affected by COVID-19 with respect to the selected B and T cell epitopes in MEVC was also investigated. Subsequently, the biological activity of MEVC was assessed by bioinformatic tools using the interaction between the vaccine candidate and the innate immune system receptors TLR3 and TLR4. The epitopes of the construct were analyzed with that of the strains belonging to various clades including the new variant UK strain having multiple unique mutations in S protein. Due to the advantageous features, the MEVC can be tested in vitro for more practical validation and the study offers immense scope for developing a potential vaccine candidate against SARS-CoV-2 in view of the public health emergency associated with COVID-19 disease caused by SARS-CoV-2.

bioinformatics↗

bioRxiv2021

Ancient migrations - The first complete genome assembly, annotation and variants of the Zoroastrian-Parsi community of India

With the advent of Next Generation Sequencing, many population specific whole genome sequences published thus far, predominantly represent individuals of European ancestry. While sequencing efforts of underrepresented communities in genomes datasets, like the Yoruba West-African, Han Chinese, Tibetan, South Korean, Egyptian and Japanese have recently added to the public genomic repositories, a comprehensive understanding of human genomic diversity and discovery of trait-associated variants necessitates the need for additional population specific analysis. In this context, the genomics of the population from the Indian sub-continent, given its genetic heterogeneity needs further elucidation. In this context, the endogamous Zoroastrian-Parsi community of India, offer an exceptional insight into a homogenous population that has culturally, socially, and genetically remained intact, for 13 centuries amidst the genomic, social and cultural Indian landscape, consequent to their migration from the ancient Persian plateau. Notwithstanding longevity as a trait, this endangered community is highly susceptible to cancers, rare genetic disorders, and display a documented high incidence of neurodegenerative and autoimmune conditions. The community as a matter of cultural practice abstains from smoking. Here, we describe the assembly and annotation of the genome of an adult female, Zoroastrian-Parsi individual sequenced at a high depth of 173X using a combination of short Illumina reads (160X) and long nanopore reads (13X). Using a combination of hybrid assemblers, we created a new, population-specific human reference genome, The Zoroastrian-Parsi Genome Reference Female, AGENOME-ZPGRF, contains 2,778,216,114 nucleotides as compared to 3,096,649,726 in GRCh38 constituting 93.235% of the total genomic fraction. Annotation identified 20833 genomic features, of which 14996 are almost identical to their counterparts on GRCh38 while 5837 genomic features were covered in partial. AGENOME-ZPGRF contained 5,426,310 variants of which the majority were SNPs (4,291,601) and 960,867 SNPs were AGENOME-ZPGRF specific personal variants not listed in dbSNP. We present, AGENOME-ZPGRF as a whole reference for any genetic studies involving Zoroastrian-Parsi individuals extending their application to identify disease relevant prognostic biomarkers and variants in global population genomics studies.

genomics↗

bioRxiv2020

Dynamic Methylome Modification associated with mutational signatures in ageing and etiology of disease

Reversible epigenetic changes within the loci of genes that regulate critical cell processes have recently emerged as important biomarkers of disease pathology. It is then natural to consider the consequences for population health risk of such epigenetic changes during the aging process. Specifically, the interplay between dynamic methylation changes that accompany aging and mutations that accrue in an individuals genome over time need further investigation. The current study investigated the role of dynamic methylation acting together with gene variants in an individual over time to gain insight into the evolving epigenome-genome interplay that affects biochemical pathways controlling physiological processes during aging. We completed a whole-genome methylation and variant analysis in a non-smoking Zoroastrian-Parsi individual, collecting two samples, 12 years apart (at 53 and 65 years respectively) (ZPMetG-Hv2a-1A (old, t0), ZPMetG-Hv2a-1B (recent, t0+12)) and analysing them using a GridION Nanopore sequencer at 13X genome coverage overall. We further identified the single nucleotide variants (SNVs) and indels in known CpG islands by employing the Genome Analysis Tool Kit (GATK) and MuTect2 variant-caller pipeline with the GRCh37 (patch 13) human genome as reference. We found 5258 disease-relevant genes that had been differentially methylated in this individual over 12 years. Employing the GATK pipeline, we found 24,948 genes, corresponding to 4,58,148 variants, specific to ZPMetG-Hv2a-1B, indicating the presence of variants that had accrued over time. A fraction of the gene variants (242/24948) occurred within the CpG regions that were differentially methylated, with 67/247 exactly coincident with a CpG site. Our analysis yielded a critical cluster of 10 genes that were each significantly methylated and had variants at the CpG site or the {+/-}4 bp CpG region window. Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) enrichment network analysis as well as Reactome and STRING analysis of gene-specific variants indicated an impact on biological processes regulating the immune system, disease networks implicated in cancer and neurodegenerative diseases, and transcriptional control of processes regulating cellular senescence and longevity. Additional analysis of mutational signatures indicated a majority of C>T transitions followed by T>C transitions in the more recent sample, ZPMetG-Hv2a-1B. Our current study provides additional insight into the aging methylome over time and the interplay between different methylation and gene variants in the etiology of disease.

genomics↗

bioRxiv2020

The First complete Zoroastrian-Parsi Mitochondria Reference Genome: Implications of mitochondrial signatures in an endogamous, non-smoking population

The present-day Zoroastrian-Parsis have roots in ancient pastoralist migrations from circumpolar regions leading to their settlement on the Eurasian Steppes and later, as Indo-Iranians in the Fertile Crescent. After migrating from the Persian province of Pars to India, the Zoroastrians from Pars ("Parsis") practiced endogamy, thereby preserving their genetic identity and social practices. The study was undertaken to gain an insight into the genetic consequences of migration on the community, the practice of endogamy, to decipher the phylogenetic relationships with other groups, and elucidate the disease linkages to their individual haplotypes We generated the de novo the Zoroastrian-Parsi Mitochondrial Reference Genome (AGENOME-ZPMS-HV2a-1), which is the first complete mitochondrial reference genome assembled for this group. Phylogenetic analysis of an additional 99 Parsi mitochondrial genome sequences showed the presence of HV, U, T, A and F (belonging to the macrohaplogroup N) and Z and other M descendents of the macrohaplogroup M (M5, M39, M33, M4452, M24, M3, M30, M2, M430, M2, M35 and M27) and a largely Persian origin for the Parsi community. We assembled individual reference genomes for each major haplogroup and the Zoroastrian-Parsi Mitochondrial Consensus Genome (AGENOME-ZPMCG V1.0), which is the first consensus genome assembled for this group. We report the existence of 420 mitochondrial genetic variants, including 12 unique variants, in the 100 Zoroastrian-Parsi mitochondrial genome sequences. Disease association mapping showed 217 unique variants linked to longevity and 41 longevity-associated disease phenotypes across the majority of haplogroups. Analysis of the coding genes, tRNA genes, and the D-loop region revealed haplogroup-specific disease associations for Parkinsons disease, Alzheimers disease, cancers, and rare diseases. No known mutations linked to lung cancer were found in our study. Mutational signatures linked to tobacco carcinogens, specifically, the C>A and G>T transitions, were observed at extremely low frequencies in the Parsi cohort, suggestive of an association between the cultural norm prohibiting smoking and its reflection in the genetic signatures. In sum, the Parsi mitochondrial genome provides an exceptional resource for determining details of their migration and uncovering novel genetic signatures for wellness and disease.

genomics↗