Signature Identification based on Biological Sequence

• Main Authors: Yun-Han Shih, 施云涵
• Other Authors: Guang-Wu Chen
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2007
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/23875389680619684050

碩士 === 長庚大學 === 資訊工程研究所 === 95 === Influenza virus is an enveloped single-stranded RNA virus that belongs to the family of orthomyxovirus. Influenza virus is known to infect a wide variety of warm-blooded animals, including human, birds, swine, etc There were three influenza pandemics occurred during the twentieth century, namely, the 1918 Spanish flu (H1N1), the 1957 Asian flu (H2N2), and the 1968 Hong Kong flu (H3N2). Their mortality impact ranged from devastating to moderate or mild. Recently, an avian influenza virus H5N1 has caused a number of outbreaks in Asia countries and has caused at least 191 human deaths, which has raised concern about the development of a new pandemic. Due to the advancement of related technologies in molecular virology, it is found that the aforementioned pandemics were likely caused by certain influenza viruses that were once only residence of birds or other non-human mammals. These deadly viruses, however, had successfully acquired certain mutations in their viral genes, crossed the species barriers, and became capable of infecting and transmitting efficiently within human population. In this work, based on the sequence analysis, we analyzed the influenza protein sequences and found genomic signatures that are believed to be related to the species boundary between avian and human influenza viruses. We further expanded such analysis to other viruses or genetic groups. We can reveal amino acid residues capable of differentiating any two groups of sequences. With those found signatures as molecular targets, researchers would have something to start with, thus may potentiallyreduce the need to conduct time consuming and expensive wet-lab experiments. We also provide user-friendly GUIs that help users in visualizing and interpreting the results.