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Die Plant Science Student Conference (PSSC) wird seit 20 Jahren im jährlichen Wechsel von Studierenden der beiden Leibniz-Institute IPK und IPB organisiert. Im Interview erläutern Christina Wäsch…
Schymanski, E. L.; Kondić, T.; Neumann, S.; Thiessen, P. A.; Zhang, J.; Bolton, E. E.;Empowering large chemical knowledge bases for exposomics: PubChemLite meets MetFragJ. Cheminform.1319(2021)DOI: 10.1186/s13321-021-00489-0
Compound (or chemical) databases are an invaluable resource for many scientific disciplines. Exposomics researchers need to find and identify relevant chemicals that cover the entirety of potential (chemical and other) exposures over entire lifetimes. This daunting task, with over 100 million chemicals in the largest chemical databases, coupled with broadly acknowledged knowledge gaps in these resources, leaves researchers faced with too much—yet not enough—information at the same time to perform comprehensive exposomics research. Furthermore, the improvements in analytical technologies and computational mass spectrometry workflows coupled with the rapid growth in databases and increasing demand for high throughput “big data” services from the research community present significant challenges for both data hosts and workflow developers. This article explores how to reduce candidate search spaces in non-target small molecule identification workflows, while increasing content usability in the context of environmental and exposomics analyses, so as to profit from the increasing size and information content of large compound databases, while increasing efficiency at the same time. In this article, these methods are explored using PubChem, the NORMAN Network Suspect List Exchange and the in silico fragmentation approach MetFrag. A subset of the PubChem database relevant for exposomics, PubChemLite, is presented as a database resource that can be (and has been) integrated into current workflows for high resolution mass spectrometry. Benchmarking datasets from earlier publications are used to show how experimental knowledge and existing datasets can be used to detect and fill gaps in compound databases to progressively improve large resources such as PubChem, and topic-specific subsets such as PubChemLite. PubChemLite is a living collection, updating as annotation content in PubChem is updated, and exported to allow direct integration into existing workflows such as MetFrag. The source code and files necessary to recreate or adjust this are jointly hosted between the research parties (see data availability statement). This effort shows that enhancing the FAIRness (Findability, Accessibility, Interoperability and Reusability) of open resources can mutually enhance several resources for whole community benefit. The authors explicitly welcome additional community input on ideas for future developments.
Publikation
Ntie-Kang, F.; Telukunta, K. K.; Fobofou, S. A. T.; Chukwudi Osamor, V.; Egieyeh, S. A.; Valli, M.; Djoumbou-Feunang, Y.; Sorokina, M.; Stork, C.; Mathai, N.; Zierep, P.; Chávez-Hernández, A. L.; Duran-Frigola, M.; Babiaka, S. B.; Tematio Fouedjou, R.; Eni, D. B.; Akame, S.; Arreyetta-Bawak, A. B.; Ebob, O. T.; Metuge, J. A.; Bekono, B. D.; Isa, M. A.; Onuku, R.; Shadrack, D. M.; Musyoka, T. M.; Patil, V. M.; van der Hooft, J. J. J.; da Silva Bolzani, V.; Medina-Franco, J. L.; Kirchmair, J.; Weber, T.; Tastan Bishop, ?.; Medema, M. H.; Wessjohann, L. A.; Ludwig-Müller, J.;Computational Applications in Secondary Metabolite Discovery (CAiSMD): an online workshopJ. Cheminform.1364(2021)DOI: 10.1186/s13321-021-00546-8
AbstractWe report the major conclusions of the online open-access workshop “Computational Applications in Secondary Metabolite Discovery (CAiSMD)” that took place from 08 to 10 March 2021. Invited speakers from academia and industry and about 200 registered participants from five continents (Africa, Asia, Europe, South America, and North America) took part in the workshop. The workshop highlighted the potential applications of computational methodologies in the search for secondary metabolites (SMs) or natural products (NPs) as potential drugs and drug leads. During 3 days, the participants of this online workshop received an overview of modern computer-based approaches for exploring NP discovery in the “omics” age. The invited experts gave keynote lectures, trained participants in hands-on sessions, and held round table discussions. This was followed by oral presentations with much interaction between the speakers and the audience. Selected applicants (early-career scientists) were offered the opportunity to give oral presentations (15 min) and present posters in the form of flash presentations (5 min) upon submission of an abstract. The final program available on the workshop website (https://caismd.indiayouth.info/) comprised of 4 keynote lectures (KLs), 12 oral presentations (OPs), 2 round table discussions (RTDs), and 5 hands-on sessions (HSs). This meeting report also references internet resources for computational biology in the area of secondary metabolites that are of use outside of the workshop areas and will constitute a long-term valuable source for the community. The workshop concluded with an online survey form to be completed by speakers and participants for the goal of improving any subsequent editions.