MOTIVATION: The accurate prediction of how mutations change biophysical properties of proteins or RNA is a major goal in computational biology with tremendous impacts on protein design and genetic variant interpretation. Evolutionary approaches such as coevolution can help solving this issue. RESULTS: We present pycofitness, a standalone Python-based software package for the in silico mutagenesis of protein and RNA sequences. It is based on coevolution and, more specifically, on a popular inverse statistical approach, namely direct coupling analysis by pseudo-likelihood maximization. Its efficient implementation and user-friendly command line interface make it an easy-to-use tool even for researchers with no bioinformatics background. To illustrate its strengths, we present three applications in which pycofitness efficiently predicts the deleteriousness of genetic variants and the effect of mutations on protein fitness and thermodynamic stability. AVAILABILITY AND IMPLEMENTATION: https://github.com/KIT-MBS/pycofitness.

Progress continues in the field of cancer biology, yet much remains to be unveiled regarding the mechanisms of cancer invasion. In particular, complex biophysical mechanisms enable a tumor to remodel the surrounding extracellular matrix (ECM), allowing cells to invade alone or collectively. Tumor spheroids cultured in collagen represent a simplified, reproducible 3D model system, which is sufficiently complex to recapitulate the evolving organization of cells and interaction with the ECM that occur during invasion. Recent experimental approaches enable high resolution imaging and quantification of the internal structure of invading tumor spheroids. Concurrently, computational modeling enables simulations of complex multicellular aggregates based on first principles. The comparison between real and simulated spheroids represents a way to fully exploit both data sources, but remains a challenge. We hypothesize that comparing any two spheroids requires first the extraction of basic features from the raw data, and second the definition of key metrics to match such features. Here, we present a novel method to compare spatial features of spheroids in 3D. To do so, we define and extract features from spheroid point cloud data, which we simulated using Cells in Silico (CiS), a high-performance framework for large-scale tissue modeling previously developed by us. We then define metrics to compare features between individual spheroids, and combine all metrics into an overall deviation score. Finally, we use our features to compare experimental data on invading spheroids in increasing collagen densities. We propose that our approach represents the basis for defining improved metrics to compare large 3D data sets. Moving forward, this approach will enable the detailed analysis of spheroids of any origin, one application of which is informing in silico spheroids based on their in vitro counterparts. This will enable both basic and applied researchers to close the loop between modeling and experiments in cancer research.

When training a classifier the choice of loss function heavily influences the characteristics of the resulting model. The most commonly used loss function for classification is cross entropy. In image segmentation problems where each pixel is assigned to a particular class, overlap-based losses have recently been shown to improve classifier performance especially for datasets with an imbalanced class distribution. This is particu-larly relevant to segmentation because class imbalance mitigation strategies used in regular classification are often not applicable. Overlap-based losses, however, have different drawbacks. We are aiming at combining the upsides of different losses with a simple scheduling scheme during training while minimizing their downsides. Gradually transitioning from an overlap-based dice loss to cross entropy allows to reliably select a distinct minimum in the optimization landscape as a valuable alternative to results obtained from traditional unscheduled loss functions. We demonstrate the efficacy of our approach on different combinations of loss functions, datasets, and models.

MOTIVATION: The ongoing advances in sequencing technologies have provided a massive increase in the availability of sequence data. This made it possible to study the patterns of correlated substitution between residues in families of homologous proteins or RNAs and to retrieve structural and stability information. Direct coupling analysis (DCA) infers coevolutionary couplings between pairs of residues indicating their spatial proximity, making such information a valuable input for subsequent structure prediction. RESULTS: Here, we present pydca, a standalone Python-based software package for the DCA of protein- and RNA-homologous families. It is based on two popular inverse statistical approaches, namely, the mean-field and the pseudo-likelihood maximization and is equipped with a series of functionalities that range from multiple sequence alignment trimming to contact map visualization. Thanks to its efficient implementation, features and user-friendly command line interface, pydca is a modular and easy-to-use tool that can be used by researchers with a wide range of backgrounds. AVAILABILITY AND IMPLEMENTATION: pydca can be obtained from https://github.com/KIT-MBS/pydca or from the Python Package Index under the MIT License. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.

Abstract Background Discoveries in cellular dynamics and tissue development constantly reshape our understanding of fundamental biological processes such as embryogenesis, wound-healing, and tumorigenesis. High-quality microscopy data and ever-improving understanding of single-cell effects rapidly accelerate new discoveries. Still, many computational models either describe few cells highly detailed or larger cell ensembles and tissues more coarsely. Here, we connect these two scales in a joint theoretical model. Results We developed a highly parallel version of the cellular Potts model that can be flexibly applied and provides an agent-based model driving cellular events. The model can be modular extended to a multi-model simulation on both scales. Based on the NAStJA framework, a scaling implementation running efficiently on high-performance computing systems was realized. We demonstrate independence of bias in our approach as well as excellent scaling behavior. Conclusions Our model scales approximately linear beyond 10,000 cores and thus enables the simulation of large-scale three-dimensional tissues only confined by available computational resources. The strict modular design allows arbitrary models to be configured flexibly and enables applications in a wide range of research questions. Cells in Silico (CiS) can be easily molded to different model assumptions and help push computational scientists to expand their simulations to a new area in tissue simulations. As an example we highlight a 10003 voxel-sized cancerous tissue simulation at sub-cellular resolution.

During embryogenesis, morphogens form a concentration gradient in responsive tissue, which is then translated into a spatial cellular pattern. The mechanisms by which morphogens spread through a tissue to establish such a morphogenetic field remain elusive. Here, we investigate by mutually complementary simulations and in vivo experiments how Wnt morphogen transport by cytonemes differs from typically assumed diffusion-based transport for patterning of highly dynamic tissue such as the neural plate in zebrafish. Stochasticity strongly influences fate acquisition at the single cell level and results in fluctuating boundaries between pattern regions. Stable patterning can be achieved by sorting through concentration dependent cell migration and apoptosis, independent of the morphogen transport mechanism. We show that Wnt transport by cytonemes achieves distinct Wnt thresholds for the brain primordia earlier compared with diffusion-based transport. We conclude that a cytoneme-mediated morphogen transport together with directed cell sorting is a potentially favored mechanism to establish morphogen gradients in rapidly expanding developmental systems.

SUMMARY: The distance geometry problem is often encountered in molecular biology and the life sciences at large, as a host of experimental methods produce ambiguous and noisy distance data. In this note, we present diSTruct; an adaptation of the generic MaxEnt-Stress graph drawing algorithm to the domain of biological macromolecules. diSTruct is fast, provides reliable structural models even from incomplete or noisy distance data and integrates access to graph analysis tools. AVAILABILITY AND IMPLEMENTATION: diSTruct is written in C++, Cython and Python 3. It is available from https://github.com/KIT-MBS/distruct.git or in the Python package index under the MIT license. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.

The fundamental aim of structural analyses in biophysics is to reveal a mutual relation between a molecule's dynamic structure and its physiological function. Small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) is an experimental technique for structural characterization of macromolecules in solution and enables time-resolved analysis of conformational changes under physiological conditions. As such experiments measure spatially averaged low-resolution scattering intensities only, the sparse information obtained is not sufficient to uniquely reconstruct a three-dimensional atomistic model. Here, we integrate the information from SAXS into molecular dynamics simulations using computationally efficient native structure-based models. Dynamically fitting an initial structure towards a scattering intensity, such simulations produce atomistic models in agreement with the target data. In this way, SAXS data can be rapidly interpreted while retaining physico-chemical knowledge and sampling power of the underlying force field. We demonstrate our method's performance using the example of three protein systems. Simulations are faster than full molecular dynamics approaches by more than two orders of magnitude and consistently achieve comparable accuracy. Computational demands are reduced sufficiently to run the simulations on commodity desktop computers instead of high-performance computing systems. These results underline that scattering-guided structure-based simulations provide a suitable framework for rapid early-stage refinement of structures towards SAXS data with particular focus on minimal computational resources and time.

Knowing a biomolecule's structure is inherently linked to and a prerequisite for any detailed understanding of its function. Significant effort has gone into developing technologies for structural characterization. These technologies do not directly provide 3D structures; instead they typically yield noisy and erroneous distance information between specific entities such as atoms or residues, which have to be translated into consistent 3D models. Here we present an approach for this translation process based on maxent-stress optimization. Our new approach extends the original graph drawing method for the new application's specifics by introducing additional constraints and confidence values as well as algorithmic components. Extensive experiments demonstrate that our approach infers structural models (i.e., sensible 3D coordinates for the molecule's atoms) that correspond well to the distance information, can handle noisy and error-prone data, and is considerably faster than established tools. Our results promise to allow domain scientists nearly-interactive structural modeling based on distance constraints.

BACKGROUND: Molecular dynamics (MD) simulations provide valuable insight into biomolecular systems at the atomic level. Notwithstanding the ever-increasing power of high performance computers current MD simulations face several challenges: the fastest atomic movements require time steps of a few femtoseconds which are small compared to biomolecular relevant timescales of milliseconds or even seconds for large conformational motions. At the same time, scalability to a large number of cores is limited mostly due to long-range interactions. An appealing alternative to atomic-level simulations is coarse-graining the resolution of the system or reducing the complexity of the Hamiltonian to improve sampling while decreasing computational costs. Native structure-based models, also called Gō-type models, are based on energy landscape theory and the principle of minimal frustration. They have been tremendously successful in explaining fundamental questions of, e.g., protein folding, RNA folding or protein function. At the same time, they are computationally sufficiently inexpensive to run complex simulations on smaller computing systems or even commodity hardware. Still, their setup and evaluation is quite complex even though sophisticated software packages support their realization. RESULTS: Here, we establish an efficient infrastructure for native structure-based models to support the community and enable high-throughput simulations on remote computing resources via GridBeans and UNICORE middleware. This infrastructure organizes the setup of such simulations resulting in increased comparability of simulation results. At the same time, complete workflows for advanced simulation protocols can be established and managed on remote resources by a graphical interface which increases reusability of protocols and additionally lowers the entry barrier into such simulations for, e.g., experimental scientists who want to compare their results against simulations. We demonstrate the power of this approach by illustrating it for protein folding simulations for a range of proteins. CONCLUSIONS: We present software enhancing the entire workflow for native structure-based simulations including exception-handling and evaluations. Extending the capability and improving the accessibility of existing simulation packages the software goes beyond the state of the art in the domain of biomolecular simulations. Thus we expect that it will stimulate more individuals from the community to employ more confidently modeling in their research.

MOTIVATION: Molecular dynamics simulations provide detailed insights into the structure and function of biomolecular systems. Thus, they complement experimental measurements by giving access to experimentally inaccessible regimes. Among the different molecular dynamics techniques, native structure-based models (SBMs) are based on energy landscape theory and the principle of minimal frustration. Typically used in protein and RNA folding simulations, they coarse-grain the biomolecular system and/or simplify the Hamiltonian resulting in modest computational requirements while achieving high agreement with experimental data. eSBMTools streamlines running and evaluating SBM in a comprehensive package and offers high flexibility in adding experimental- or bioinformatics-derived restraints. RESULTS: We present a software package that allows setting up, modifying and evaluating SBM for both RNA and proteins. The implemented workflows include predicting protein complexes based on bioinformatics-derived inter-protein contact information, a standardized setup of protein folding simulations based on the common PDB format, calculating reaction coordinates and evaluating the simulation by free-energy calculations with weighted histogram analysis method or by phi-values. The modules interface with the molecular dynamics simulation program GROMACS. The package is open source and written in architecture-independent Python2. AVAILABILITY: http://sourceforge.net/projects/esbmtools/. CONTACT: [email protected]. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.