Abstract
Corynebacteria are used for a wide variety of industrial purposes but some species are associated with human diseases. With increasing number of corynebacterial genomes having been sequenced, comparative analysis of these strains may provide better understanding of their biology, phylogeny, virulence and taxonomy that may lead to the discoveries of beneficial industrial strains or contribute to better management of diseases. To facilitate the ongoing research of corynebacteria, a specialized central repository and analysis platform for the corynebacterial research community is needed to host the fast-growing amount of genomic data and facilitate the analysis of these data. Here we present CoryneBase, a genomic database for Corynebacterium with diverse functionality for the analysis of genomes aimed to provide: (1) annotated genome sequences of Corynebacterium where 165,918 coding sequences and 4,180 RNAs can be found in 27 species; (2) access to comprehensive Corynebacterium data through the use of advanced web technologies for interactive web interfaces; and (3) advanced bioinformatic analysis tools consisting of standard BLAST for homology search, VFDB BLAST for sequence homology search against the Virulence Factor Database (VFDB), Pairwise Genome Comparison (PGC) tool for comparative genomic analysis, and a newly designed Pathogenomics Profiling Tool (PathoProT) for comparative pathogenomic analysis. CoryneBase offers the access of a range of Corynebacterium genomic resources as well as analysis tools for comparative genomics and pathogenomics. It is publicly available at http://corynebacterium.um.edu.my/.
Highlights
Corynebacteria, which are members of the phylum Actinobacteria, are generally innocuous
Visitors of CoryneBase can view the latest news & conferences, blogs & information, and the most recent papers all related to corynebacteria that we manually compiled from different sources in the home page
Since identifying virulence genes in corynebacterial species or strains is vital in therapeutic strategy, we have developed PathoProT, a unique comparative pathogenomic analysis tool, to predict virulence genes and cluster the gamut of user-selected genomes based on the predicted virulence gene profiles
Summary
Corynebacteria, which are members of the phylum Actinobacteria, are generally innocuous. Toxigenic bacteria are thought to be associated with pathogens that are capable of secreting virulence factors, often the cause of malady in the infected hosts [4]. The potentially fatal diphtheria disease is triggered by the secretion of diphtheria toxins—virulence factors expressed by C. diphtheriae and C. ulcerans [7,8]. It is imperative to have a deeper understanding of Corynebacterium, at the genomic level, by identifying and analyzing key genes that express virulence factors. It may help in developing new therapeutic strategies to cure corynebacteria-caused diseases because the virulence factors could be new targets for drug design [9]
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
