IDRs in Fungi

Oct 25, 2021 · 1 min read
projects

Intrinsically Disordered Regions (IDRs) are polypeptide segments characterized by their structural flexibility. These regions often lack hydrophobic residues, which is the primary drivers of protein folding, and are instead enriched with polar and charged residues, which enhance their solubility and interaction with the aqueous environment. This distinct amino acid composition is leveraged by computational tools, such as IUPred2, to predict IDRs directly from primary peptide sequences.

pipeline

In this project, we analyzed peptide sequences from 1,014 fungal species curated by Ensembl, identifying over 8 million predicted IDRs using IUPred2. Our analysis of the IDP/peptide ratio revealed significant variation across taxonomic groups. For example, Microsporidia exhibited the lowest prevalence, with only 12.5% of their peptides containing IDRs. In contrast, more than half of the proteome in Ustilaginomycotina was found to contain disordered regions.

barplot

To further explore these trends, we investigated the relationship between the IDP/peptide ratio and genome size. We have provided an interactive scatterplot to visualize these results, categorized by subphylum.

IDP Fungi
Cheng-Hung Tsai
Authors
Cheng-Hung Tsai (he/him)
I am a Bioinformatician with a PhD from UC Riverside (Dr. Jason Stajich Lab), specializing in the intersection of software development and large-scale genomics. My work focuses on building efficient UNIX/Python tools for genomics and metagenomics applications. I bring a unique perspective to the dry lab, having spent my early career at the bench mastering protein purification and molecular biology. I am passionate about creating user-friendly, scalable tools that empower researchers to turn raw sequencing data into biological discovery.