BackgroundNucleic acids containing guanine tracts can form quadruplex structures via non-Watson-Crick base pairing. Formation of G-quadruplexes is associated with the regulation of important biological functions such as transcription, genetic instability, DNA repair, DNA replication, epigenetic mechanisms, regulation of translation, and alternative splicing. G-quadruplexes play important roles in human diseases and are being considered as targets for a variety of therapies. Identification of functional G-quadruplexes and the study of their overall distribution in genomes and transcriptomes is an important pursuit. Traditional computational methods map sequence motifs capable of forming G-quadruplexes but have difficulty in distinguishing motifs that occur by chance from ones which fold into G-quadruplexes.ResultsWe present Quadruplex forming ‘G’-rich sequences (QGRS)-Conserve, a computational method for calculating motif conservation across exomes and supports filtering to provide researchers with more precise methods of studying G-quadruplex distribution patterns. Our method quantitatively evaluates conservation between quadruplexes found in homologous nucleotide sequences based on several motif structural characteristics. QGRS-Conserve also efficiently manages overlapping G-quadruplex sequences such that the resulting datasets can be analyzed effectively.ConclusionsWe have applied QGRS-Conserve to identify a large number of G-quadruplex motifs in the human exome conserved across several mammalian and non-mammalian species. We have successfully identified multiple homologs of many previously published G-quadruplexes that play post-transcriptional regulatory roles in human genes. Preliminary large-scale analysis identified many homologous G-quadruplexes in the 5′- and 3′-untranslated regions of mammalian species. An expectedly smaller set of G-quadruplex motifs was found to be conserved across larger phylogenetic distances. QGRS-Conserve provides means to build datasets that can be filtered and categorized in a variety of biological dimensions for more targeted studies in order to better understand the roles that G-quadruplexes play.

Naturally occurring G-quadruplex structural motifs, formed by guanine-rich nucleic acids, have been reported in telomeric, promoter and transcribed regions of mammalian genomes. G-quadruplex structures have received significant attention because of growing evidence for their role in important biological processes, human disease and as therapeutic targets. Lately, there has been much interest in the potential roles of RNA G-quadruplexes as cis-regulatory elements of post-transcriptional gene expression. Large-scale computational genomics studies on G-quadruplexes have difficulty validating their predictions without laborious testing in ‘wet’ labs. We have developed a bioinformatics tool, QGRS-H Predictor that can map and analyze conserved putative Quadruplex forming 'G'-Rich Sequences (QGRS) in mRNAs, ncRNAs and other nucleotide sequences, e.g. promoter, telomeric and gene flanking regions. Identifying conserved regulatory motifs helps validate computations and enhances accuracy of predictions. The QGRS-H Predictor is particularly useful for mapping homologous G-quadruplex forming sequences as cis-regulatory elements in the context of 5′- and 3′-untranslated regions, and CDS sections of aligned mRNA sequences. QGRS-H Predictor features highly interactive graphic representation of the data. It is a unique and user-friendly application that provides many options for defining and studying G-quadruplexes. The QGRS-H Predictor can be freely accessed at: http://quadruplex.ramapo.edu/qgrs/app/start.