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                                             BIOINFORMATICS COLLOQUIUM
						College of Science
                                              George Mason University
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	     SMURF: a Web-Based Tool for Identification of Secondary Metabolite Biosynthesis Pathways
						 
                                                Natalie Fedorova


Abstract:
Fungi produce an impressive array of secondary metabolites including mycotoxins, pigments, 
antibiotics and other biologically active small molecules of great medical, industrial and 
agricultural importance. Genes responsible for their biosynthesis, export, and transcriptional 
regulation are often found in well-defined, contiguous regions or clusters. The first step in 
the biosynthesis is always controlled by one of the three enzymes: NRPS, PKS or DMAT, which 
can be found almost exclusively in clusters. Furthermore the clusters are enriched for certain 
domains such as cytochrome P450 and MSF transporters. The recent availability of over 200 
fungal genome sequencing projects in various stages of completion has provided an opportunity 
to identify new clusters and corresponding pathways. SMURF (Secondary Metabolite Unique Regions 
Finder) is a web-based software tool that was developed to facilitate this process. It takes 
protein sequences and gene coordinates and returns putative gene clusters with assigned 
probability scores.