@article{MergetKoetschanHackletal.2012,
  author    = {Merget, Benjamin and Koetschan, Christian and Hackl, Thomas and F{\"o}rster, Frank and Dandekar, Thomas and M{\"u}ller, Tobias and Schultz, J{\"o}rg and Wolf, Matthias},
  title     = {The ITS2 Database},
  series = {Journal of Visual Expression},
  volume    = {61},
  journal   = {Journal of Visual Expression},
  number    = {e3806},
  doi       = {10.3791/3806},
  url       = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-124600},
  year      = {2012},
  abstract  = {The internal transcribed spacer 2 (ITS2) has been used as a phylogenetic marker for more than two decades. As ITS2 research mainly focused on the very variable ITS2 sequence, it confined this marker to low-level phylogenetics only. However, the combination of the ITS2 sequence and its highly conserved secondary structure improves the phylogenetic resolution1 and allows phylogenetic inference at multiple taxonomic ranks, including species delimitation. The ITS2 Database presents an exhaustive dataset of internal transcribed spacer 2 sequences from NCBI GenBank accurately reannotated. Following an annotation by profile Hidden Markov Models (HMMs), the secondary structure of each sequence is predicted. First, it is tested whether a minimum energy based fold (direct fold) results in a correct, four helix conformation. If this is not the case, the structure is predicted by homology modeling. In homology modeling, an already known secondary structure is transferred to another ITS2 sequence, whose secondary structure was not able to fold correctly in a direct fold. The ITS2 Database is not only a database for storage and retrieval of ITS2 sequence-structures. It also provides several tools to process your own ITS2 sequences, including annotation, structural prediction, motif detection and BLAST search on the combined sequence-structure information. Moreover, it integrates trimmed versions of 4SALE and ProfDistS for multiple sequence-structure alignment calculation and Neighbor Joining tree reconstruction. Together they form a coherent analysis pipeline from an initial set of sequences to a phylogeny based on sequence and secondary structure. In a nutshell, this workbench simplifies first phylogenetic analyses to only a few mouse-clicks, while additionally providing tools and data for comprehensive large-scale analyses.},
  language  = {en}
}
@article{KoetschanKittelmannLuetal.2014,
  author    = {Koetschan, Christian and Kittelmann, Sandra and Lu, Jingli and Al-Halbouni, Djamila and Jarvis, Graeme N. and M{\"u}ller, Tobias and Wolf, Matthias and Janssen, Peter H.},
  title     = {Internal Transcribed Spacer 1 Secondary Structure Analysis Reveals a Common Core throughout the Anaerobic Fungi (Neocallimastigomycota)},
  series = {PLOS ONE},
  volume    = {9},
  journal   = {PLOS ONE},
  number    = {3},
  doi       = {10.1371/journal.pone.0091928},
  url       = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-117058},
  pages     = {e91928},
  year      = {2014},
  abstract  = {The internal transcribed spacer (ITS) is a popular barcode marker for fungi and in particular the ITS1 has been widely used for the anaerobic fungi (phylum Neocallimastigomycota). A good number of validated reference sequences of isolates as well as a large number of environmental sequences are available in public databases. Its highly variable nature predisposes the ITS1 for low level phylogenetics; however, it complicates the establishment of reproducible alignments and the reconstruction of stable phylogenetic trees at higher taxonomic levels (genus and above). Here, we overcame these problems by proposing a common core secondary structure of the ITS1 of the anaerobic fungi employing a Hidden Markov Model-based ITS1 sequence annotation and a helix-wise folding approach. We integrated the additional structural information into phylogenetic analyses and present for the first time an automated sequence-structure-based taxonomy of the ITS1 of the anaerobic fungi. The methodology developed is transferable to the ITS1 of other fungal groups, and the robust taxonomy will facilitate and improve high-throughput anaerobic fungal community structure analysis of samples from various environments.},
  language  = {en}
}
@article{WolfChenSongetal.2013,
  author    = {Wolf, Matthias and Chen, Shilin and Song, Jingyuan and Ankenbrand, Markus and M{\"u}ller, Tobias},
  title     = {Compensatory Base Changes in ITS2 Secondary Structures Correlate with the Biological Species Concept Despite Intragenomic Variability in ITS2 Sequences - A Proof of Concept},
  series = {PLoS ONE},
  journal   = {PLoS ONE},
  doi       = {10.1371/journal.pone.0066726},
  url       = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-96450},
  year      = {2013},
  abstract  = {Compensatory base changes (CBCs) in internal transcribed spacer 2 (ITS2) rDNA secondary structures correlate with Ernst Mayr's biological species concept. This hypothesis also referred to as the CBC species concept recently was subjected to large-scale testing, indicating two distinct probabilities. (1) If there is a CBC then there are two different species with a probability of ~0.93. (2) If there is no CBC then there is the same species with a probability of ~0.76. In ITS2 research, however, the main problem is the multicopy nature of ITS2 sequences. Most recently, 454 pyrosequencing data have been used to characterize more than 5000 intragenomic variations of ITS2 regions from 178 plant species, demonstrating that mutation of ITS2 is frequent, with a mean of 35 variants per species, respectively per individual organism. In this study, using those 454 data, the CBC criterion is reconsidered in the light of intragenomic variability, a proof of concept, a necessary criterion, expecting no intragenomic CBCs in variant ITS2 copies. In accordance with the CBC species concept, we could demonstrate that the probability that there is no intragenomic CBC is ~0.99.},
  language  = {en}
}