With the avalanche of biological sequences in public databases, one of the most challenging problems in computational biology is to predict their biological functions and cellular attributes. Most of the existing prediction algorithms can only handle fixed-length numerical vectors. Therefore, it is important to be able to represent biological sequences with various lengths using fixed-length numerical vectors. Although several algorithms, as well as software implementations, have been developed to address this problem, these existing programs can only provide a fixed number of representation modes. Every time a new sequence representation mode is developed, a new program will be needed. In this paper, we propose the UltraPse as a universal software platform for this problem. The function of the UltraPse is not only to generate various existing sequence representation modes, but also to simplify all future programming works in developing novel representation modes. The extensibility of UltraPse is particularly enhanced. It allows the users to define their own representation mode, their own physicochemical properties, or even their own types of biological sequences. Moreover, UltraPse is also the fastest software of its kind. The source code package, as well as the executables for both Linux and Windows platforms, can be downloaded from the GitHub repository.
Background: The endoplasmic reticulum (ER) is an important organelle in eukaryotic cells. It is involved in many important biological processes, such as cell metabolism, protein synthesis, and post-translational modification. The proteins that reside within the ER are called ER-resident proteins. These proteins are closely related to the biological functions of the ER. The difference between the ER-resident proteins and other nonresident proteins should be carefully studied. Methods: We developed a support vector machine (SVM)-based method. We developed a U-shaped weight-transfer function and used it, along with the positional-specific physiochemical properties (PSPCP), to integrate together sequence order information, signaling peptides information, and evolutionary information. Result: Our method achieved over 86% accuracy in a jackknife test. We also achieved roughly 86% sensitivity and 67% specificity in an independent dataset test. Our method is capable of identifying ER-resident proteins.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.