Search bioRxiv⌕ Search

bioRxiv · 10.1101/2022.03.22.484725

Jupytope: Computational extraction of structural properties of viral epitopes

Abstract

Epitope residues located on viral surface proteins are of immense interest in immunology and related applications such as vaccine development, disease diagnosis and drug design. Most tools rely on sequence based statistical comparisons, such as information entropy of residue positions in aligned columns to infer location and properties of epitope sites. To facilitate cross-structural comparisons of epitopes on viral surface proteins, a python-based extraction tool implemented with Jupyter notebook is presented (Jupytope). Given a viral antigen structure of interest, a list of known epitope sites and a reference structure, the corresponding epitope structural properties can quickly be obtained. The tool integrates biopython modules for commonly used software such as NACCESS, DSSP as well as residue depth and outputs a list of structure derived properties such as dihedral angles, solvent accessibility, residue depth and secondary structure that can be saved in several convenient data formats. To ensure correct spatial alignment, Jupytope takes a list of given epitope sites and their corresponding reference structure and aligns them before extracting the desired properties. Examples are demonstrated for epitopes of Influenza and SARS-CoV2 viral strains. The extracted properties assist detection of two Influenza subtypes and show potential in distinguishing between four major clades of SARS-CoV2, as compared with randomized labels. The tool will facilitate analytical and predictive works on viral epitopes through the extracted structural information. Key MessagesO_LIJupytope combines existing 3D-structural software to extract the properties of viral epitopes into a convenient text or csv file format C_LIO_LIThe structural properties serve as parameters or features that quantitatively capture viral epitopes C_LIO_LIAssociation of structural properties to viral subtypes (for Influenza) or clades (SARS-CoV2) is demonstrated with a simple XGBoost model C_LIO_LIStructure datasets mapped to SARS-CoV2 WHO clades and Pango lineages, as well as chain annotations are available for download C_LI

Source connections

Explore related subjects

Keep this discovery

Explore connections, maps & timelines

BibTeXRIS

Rashid, S., Ng, T. A., Kwoh, C. K.. 2022-03-23. Jupytope: Computational extraction of structural properties of viral epitopes. https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.03.22.484725

Cite the original work for its findings. Save a collection to share your selection of sources.

KEEP EXPLORING

Related preprints

deepTools4: Faster, Scalable, and Modernized Genomic Data Analysis

The deepTools suite is widely used for quality control, summarization, and visualization of high-throughput sequencing data. However, as genomic datasets grow in scale and depth, existing tools often become computational bottlenecks. We present deepTools4, a modernized framework designed for high performance, scalability, and enhanced usability, while maintaining seamless integration with the Galaxy platform. Core functionality has been rewritten and thoroughly benchmarked, achieving substantial computational speed-ups. Visualization tools have been modernized to provide more intuitive, high-quality graphical outputs. In addition, our testing framework has been expanded to facilitate continuous development and ensure robustness. We demonstrate the utility of deepTools4 across diverse epigenomics and transcriptomics datasets, highlighting its ability to summarize genome-wide signals, apply a wide range of common normalization methods, and visualize enrichment patterns. The enhanced deepTools4 framework delivers a faster, more scalable solution for reproducible genome-wide analysis and interpretation across many sequencing modalities. Availability: https://github.com/deeptools/deepTools/

bioinformatics↗

Reproducibility and cross-dataset concordance of drug-induced transcriptional responses

Drug-perturbation transcriptomic resources are expanding, but the reproducibility and cross-source consistency of the responses they measure remain critical to their use. We compared six resources using independent replicates, matched-drug analyses, and response decomposition. High agreement in treated expression did not translate into equally repeatable drug-induced changes. Cross-source response concordance was generally limited, including under matched cell and treatment conditions, although some comparisons retained drug-specific information. In Tahoe, a control-expression-only baseline left substantial drug-specific variation unresolved. Measured drug main effects - the average responses across cell lines - provided information for predicting cell-specific interactions, with this relationship retained in a cross-plate validation. Exploratory analyses of structure, target, and external-response representations identified modest signals in selected pipelines. Together, these analyses characterize the reliability and transferability of current perturbation resources and identify prediction of drug main effects as a key bottleneck in the framework examined, motivating shared reference measurements and better recovery of drug-specific responses.

bioinformatics↗

Propensity-Adjusted AUC under Nuisance-Model Misspecification

Propensity adjustment compares medical-image detector scores within groups with similar measured properties, such as stain or focus. We examine its sensitivity to the nuisance model that forms those groups. Under Gaussian latent-index assumptions and exact linear-index strata, a closed-form correlation gives an exact boundary for adjusted AUC to fall below one half. Quadrature matches 36 simulation cells within 0.008. Inflation and attenuation relative to correct adjustment are empirical findings, not general ordering results. An overlap screen and a self-stratified control introduced for this study miss 140 of 141 simulated cells with absolute error above 0.05: checking the fitted propensity cannot certify completeness of the adjustment set. On real pathology corpora, logistic and boosted-tree models using the same 16 features disagree. Among splits where both pass both checks, mean adjusted-AUC gaps are 0.057 on acid-fast bacilli (AFB), 0.048 on Kaggle, and 0.049 on PCam, over three, five, and three splits respectively. These gaps measure model sensitivity; neither estimate is known to be correct. A controlled colour shift moves adjusted AUC relative to model-specific references in the predicted direction in 78 of 80 label-dependent cells. Broader balance and label-fit diagnostics favour trees without certifying their adjusted AUC. We recommend reporting sensitivity across nuisance models alongside these diagnostics. Reversal relative to known truth occurs in constructed stress tests; its frequency in practice remains unknown.

bioinformatics↗