Evidence map›Paper›PMID 34525942›Full record

ArticleBMC bioinformatics2021

Finding functional associations between prokaryotic virus orthologous groups: a proof of concept.

Nikolaos Pappas, Bas E Dutilh

Open access · goldAbstract read
In one paragraph

Article in BMC bioinformatics, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 5 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
5citing papers in PubMed
0.8field-weighted citation impact, top 25% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

5 citing papers in PubMed, 7 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Computational function prediction of bacteria and phage proteins.Microbiology and molecular biology reviews : MMBR · 2025
    Review
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4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

2 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.

Nikolaos PappasTheoretical Biology and Bioinformatics, Department of Biology, Science for Life, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands.
Bas E DutilhTheoretical Biology and Bioinformatics, Department of Biology, Science for Life, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands. bedutilh@gmail.com.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0003-2329-7890
Utrecht University · NL

Funding

European Research Council ERC-2019-COG-865694-DiversiPHINederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek Vidi-864.14.004
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

backgroundThe field of viromics has greatly benefited from recent developments in metagenomics, with significant efforts focusing on viral discovery. However, functional annotation of the increasing number of viral genomes is lagging behind. This is highlighted by the degree of annotation of the protein clusters in the prokaryotic Virus Orthologous Groups (pVOGs) database, with 83% of its current 9518 pVOGs having an unknown function.

resultsIn this study we describe a machine learning approach to explore potential functional associations between pVOGs. We measure seven genomic features and use them as input to a Random Forest classifier to predict protein-protein interactions between pairs of pVOGs. After systematic evaluation of the model's performance on 10 different datasets, we obtained a predictor with a mean accuracy of 0.77 and Area Under Receiving Operation Characteristic (AUROC) score of 0.83. Its application to a set of 2,133,027 pVOG-pVOG interactions allowed us to predict 267,265 putative interactions with a reported probability greater than 0.65. At an expected false discovery rate of 0.27, we placed 95.6% of the previously unannotated pVOGs in a functional context, by predicting their interaction with a pVOG that is functionally annotated.

conclusionsWe believe that this proof-of-concept methodology, wrapped in a reproducible and automated workflow, can represent a significant step towards obtaining a more complete picture of bacteriophage biology.

Indexed as

VirusesGenome, ViralGenomicsMetagenomicsProkaryotic CellsBacteriophagesFunction predictionMachine learning

Identifiers

PMID34525942
PMCPMC8442406
OpenAlexW3200723321

What OpenQuestion holds

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LicenceCC BY
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Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.