Anarrhichtys ocellatus or wolf-eel is a species of wolfish whose genome was first sequenced last year. Due to the recent annotation of its genome, the selenoproteins of Anarrhichtys ocellatus have not been described. Selenoproteins are proteins that contain selenocysteine (Sec) residues in their sequence. Selenocysteine is a unique aminoacid encoded by the codon UGA, which is usually a termination codon. Due to this fact, Sec synthesis requires specific machinery. Because UGA has a dual function of both encoding for selenocysteine and cessating the translation process, there can sometimes be missanotation problems in protein databases.
In this study we analyzed the homology between selenoproteins already described in zebrafish and Anarrhichtys ocellatus’ proteome. In order to compare protein sequences of both species, we developed a program that, using the data provided by our professors, was able to predict selenoproteins in our species of interest. The program involved the use of TBLASTN, exonerate and T-coffee to find the alignment between sequences. The program Seblastian (using itself SECISearch3) predicted SECIS elements, structures located at the 3’UTR region of the proteins’ mRNA that are necessary for Sec biosynthesis. From Anarrhichtys ocellatus’ genome, we predicted 27 selenoproteins, 6 Cys-homologues and 6 proteins related to Sec synthesis.
