1. Center for Research Computing Data
  2. Prospective Users
  3. Supported Research
  4. Orphan Gene Project

Orphan Gene Project

Principal Investigator: Yanbin Yan Ph.D., Department of Biology.

Orphan genes (also known as ORFans) are new protein-coding genes that are restricted to taxonomically closely related genomes. In bacteria orphan genes are associated with pathogenic islands and prophages, making a comparative study of ORFans between pathogenic and non-pathogenic bacterial genomes highly valuable for the understanding of bacterial pathogenesis. This project focuses on studying ORFans that occur in pathogenic bacteria infecting humans, which will benefit further studies leading to potential diagnostic markers, drug targets and vaccines for the treatment/prevention of pathogenic diseases. This project is recently funded by a NIH R15 grant, where we propose to develop an ORFanFinder computer program and an ORFan database. We are using Gaea to generate data for the ORFan database. Project website.

Prospective user?

Request an account.

Diagram representation of horizontally transferred gene clusters (HTGCs) and secondary metabolite gene clusters (SMGCs) in a fungal species Aspergillus nidulans. Many ORFans are horizontally transferred. The top graph is a Circos plot of the chromosomal distribution of HTGCs and SMGCs in Aspni. The outmost numbers are the IDs of SMGCs. The bottom linear graph, as an example of overlapping between HTGCs and SMGCs, shows the detailed genomic neighborhood of SMGC 5 and 6 (cyan frames) as well as the overlapping HTGC 11 (red frame). Figure is from Nguyen M et al. (2015) Toxins, accepted.
Back to top