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Bioinformatics Services

Overview

Within the MIGenAS project of the MPG, joined by several Max-Planck-Institutes, the RZG has established an infrastructure for computational biology applications, comprising dedicated hardware, software and data sources.  RZG hosts various bioinformatics services for MPG-internal and public use, offers application support for bioinformatics projects of the Max-Planck-Society, contributes original software development and participates in various research projects.

In particular, a comprehensive pool of relevant software has been installed, customized and documented. Corresponding databases, e.g. all completely sequenced and publicly available microbial genomes (as of Jan 2010 this amounts to more than 600 different strains) and other relevant sequence databases are mirrored locally from the original providers like, e.g. NCBI, EMBL, RCSB. Software and databases are regularly updated (e.g. weekly updates of all mirrored databases).

 

Technical Documentation

 

Scientific Applications

Genome annotation projects

With the help of the MIGenAS infrastructure, a number of microbial genomes, among them some highly relevant model organisms, were “finished” and published (see below for references), several other projects are currently in progress. Key components which are employed here comprise the Phred/Phrap assembler package (ported by RZG to 64-bit Linux and parallelized for running on large shared-memory systems), GenDB (RZG installation of GenDB 2.0, 2.2), the MIGenAS web toolkit, HaloLex, and relevant sequence and annotation databases.

Metagenomics

One of the highlights in this area was the analysis of ancient DNA from a Siberian Mammoth fossil, for which considerable parts of the
computational analysis were conducted with the MIGenAS infrastructure.

Other applications

Many projects and working groups are taking advantage of dedicated support in the form of general and bioinformatics-specific
user support and application consulting, hardware resources, etc.
 


Hosting, housing and consulting
 

RZG houses and hosts hardware and various web applications and provides consulting to several bioinformatics-related projects.

 

Selected Publications

 

  • Pfeiffer, F., A. Broicher, Th. Gillich, K. Klee, J. Mejia, M. Rampp, D. Oesterhelt
    Genome information management and integrated data analysis with HaloLex. Archives of Microbiology 190(3), 281-299 (2008)
  • Rampp, M., T. Soddemann, H. Lederer:
    The MIGenAS integrated bioinformatics toolkit for web-based sequence analysis. Nucleic Acids Research 34 (Web Server issue), W15-W19 (2006).
  • Bolhuis H, Palm P, Wende A, Falb M, Rampp M, Rodriguez-Valera F, Pfeiffer F, Oesterhelt D.:
    The genome of the square archaeon Haloquadratum walsbyi: life at the limits of water activity. BMC Genomics, 7 169 (2006)
  • Poinar,H., C. Schwarz, J. Qi, B. Shapiro, R. MacPhee, B. Buigues, A. Tikhonov, D. Huson, L. Tomosho, A. Auch, M. Rampp, W. Miller and S. Schuster:
    Metagenomics to paleogenomics: Large scale sequencing of Mammoth DNA. Science 311, 5759, 392-394 (2006).
  • Rampp,M., T. Soddemann:
    A Work Flow Engine for Microbial Genome Research. In "Forschung und wissenschaftliches Rechnen 2004", K.Kremer, V.Macho (eds.), GWDG Report 68, 23-46 (2005).
  • Baar,C., M. Eppinger, G. Raddatz, J. Simon, C. Lanz, O. Klimmek, R. Nandakumar, R. Gross, A. Rosinus, H. Keller, P. Jagtap, B. Linke, F. Meyer, H. Lederer and S. Schuster:
    Complete genome sequence and analysis of Wolinella succinogenes. PNAS 100, 20, 11690-11695 (2003).
  • Falb,M., Pfeiffer,F., Palm,P., Rodewald,K., Hickmann,V.,Tittor,J. and Oesterhelt,D.: Living with two extremes: Conclusions from the genome sequence of Natronomonas pharaonis. Genome Res. (2005) 15(10):1336-43
  • Bolhuis H, Palm P, Wende A, Falb M, Rampp M, Rodriguez-Valera F, Pfeiffer F, Oesterhelt D.: The genome of the square archaeon Haloquadratum walsbyi: life at the limits of water activity. BMC Genomics, 7 169 (2006)
  • Pfeiffer F, Schuster SC, Broicher A, Falb M, Palm P, Rodewald K, Ruepp A, Soppa J, Tittor J, Oesterhelt D.: Evolution in the laboratory: the genome of Halobacterium salinarum strain R1 compared to that of strain NRC-1. Genomics. 2008 Jun;91(6):548-52
  • Eppinger, M., Baar C, Linz B, Raddatz G, Lanz C, Keller H, Morelli G, Gressmann H, Achtman M, Schuster SC: Who ate whom? Adaptive Helicobacter genomic changes that accompanied a host jump from early humans to large felines. PLOS Genetics, 2(7), e120 (2006)
  • Saenz, H.L., P. Engel, M.C. Stoeckli, C. Lanz, G. Raddatz, M. Vayssier-Taussat, R. Birtles, S.C. Schuster, C. Dehio: Genomic analysis of Bartonella identifies type IV secretion systems as host adaptability factors, Nature Genetics, 39(12):1469-76 (2007)
  • Zimmerer, H.: Evaluation of sequence comparison methods for metagenomics. Diplomarbeit, Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen, (2007)
  • Meyer F, Goesmann A, McHardy AC, Bartels D, Bekel T, Clausen J, Kalinowski J, Linke B, Rupp O, Giegerich R, Pühler A.: GenDB--an open source Genome annotation system for prokaryote genomes. Nucleic Acids Res. 2003 Apr 15;31(8):2187-95
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