Genetic Simulation Library

SUMMARY: The Genetic Simulation Library (GSL) is a set of C++ programs and classes that can be used in individual-based simulation models of plant and animal populations. The classes in this library build representations of genes for a wide variety of different types of organisms, from asexually reproducing single-cell organisms to chromosome-structured sexually reproducing species. AVAILABILITY: http://www.csi.uoregon.edu/projects/genetics/GSL . Free for non-commercial applications; others should contact the author.     

ALFRED: an allele frequency database for diverse populations and DNA polymorphisms--an update

ALFRED (the ALelle FREquency Database) is designed to store and disseminate frequencies of alleles at human polymorphic sites for multiple populations, primarily for the population genetics and molecular anthropology communities. Currently ALFRED has information on over 180 polymorphic sites for more than 70 populations. Since our initial release of the database we have focussed on increasing the quantity and quality of data, making reciprocal links between ALFRED and other related databases, and providing useful tools to make the data more comprehensible to the end user. ALFRED is accessible from the Kidd Lab home page (http://info.med.yale. edu/genetics/kkidd/) or from ALFRED directly (http://alfred.med.yale. edu/alfred/index.asp).     

QTLNetwork: mapping and visualizing genetic architecture of complex traits in experimental populations

SUMMARY: QTLNetwork is a software package for mapping and visualizing the genetic architecture underlying complex traits for experimental populations derived from a cross between two inbred lines. It can simultaneously map quantitative trait loci (QTL) with individual effects, epistasis and QTL-environment interaction. Currently, it is able to handle data from F(2), backcross, recombinant inbred lines and double-haploid populations, as well as populations from specific mating designs (immortalized F(2) and BC(n)F(n) populations). The Windows version of QTLNetwork was developed with a graphical user interface. Alternatively, the command-line versions have the facility to be run in other prevalent operating systems, such as Linux, Unix and MacOS. AVAILABILITY: http://ibi.zju.edu.cn/software/qtlnetwork.     

PConPy--a Python module for generating 2D protein maps

PConPy is an open-source Python module for generating protein contact maps, distance maps and hydrogen bond plots. These maps can be generated in a number of publication-quality vector and raster image formats. Contact maps can be annotated with secondary structure and hydrogen bond assignments. PConPy offers a more flexible choice of contact definition parameters than existing toolkits, most notably a greater choice of inter-residue distance metrics. PConPy can be used as a stand-alone application or imported into existing source code. A web-interface to PConPy is also available for use. AVAILABILITY: The PConPy web-interface and source code can be accessed from its website at http://www.csse.unimelb.edu.au/~hohkhkh1/pconpy/. CONTACT: hohkhkh1@csse.unimelb.edu.au     

Serial SimCoal: a population genetics model for data from multiple populations and points in time

SUMMARY: We present Serial SimCoal, a program that models population genetic data from multiple time points, as with ancient DNA data. An extension of SIMCOAL, it also allows simultaneous modeling of complex demographic histories, and migration between multiple populations. Further, we incorporate a statistical package to calculate relevant summary statistics, which, for the first time allows users to investigate the statistical power provided by, conduct hypothesis-testing with, and explore sample size limitations of ancient DNA data. AVAILABILITY: Source code and Windows/Mac executables at http://www.stanford.edu/group/hadlylab/ssc.html CONTACT: senka@stanford.edu.     

The Synergizer service for translating gene, protein and other biological identifiers

The Synergizer is a database and web service that provides translations of biological database identifiers. It is accessible both programmatically and interactively. AVAILABILITY: The Synergizer is freely available to all users inter-actively via a web application (http://llama.med.harvard.edu/synergizer/translate) and programmatically via a web service. Clients implementing the Synergizer application programming interface (API) are also freely available. Please visit http://llama.med.harvard.edu/synergizer/doc for details.     

MedKit: a helper toolkit for automatic mining of MEDLINE/PubMed citations

SUMMARY: MEDLINE/PubMed is one of the most important information sources for bioinformatics text mining. However, there remain limitations in working with MEDLINE/PubMed citations. For example, PubMed imposes an upper limit of 10,000 for downloading PMID list or citations; and MEDLINE files are too large for most off-the-shelf XML parsers. We developed a Java package, MedKit, to work-around the limitations, as well as provide other useful functionalities, e.g. random sampling. Its four modules (querier, sampler, fetcher and parser) can work independently, or be pipelined in various combinations. It can be used as a stand-alone GUI application, or integrated into other text-mining systems. Text mining researchers and others may download and use the toolkit free for non-commercial purposes. AVAILABILITY: http://metnetdb.gdcb.iastate.edu/medkit CONTACT: berleant@iastate.edu.     

Detection of DNA copy number alterations using penalized least squares regression

MOTIVATION: Genomic DNA copy number alterations are characteristic of many human diseases including cancer. Various techniques and platforms have been proposed to allow researchers to partition the whole genome into segments where copy numbers change between contiguous segments, and subsequently to quantify DNA copy number alterations. In this paper, we incorporate the spatial dependence of DNA copy number data into a regression model and formalize the detection of DNA copy number alterations as a penalized least squares regression problem. In addition, we use a stationary bootstrap approach to estimate the statistical significance and false discovery rate. RESULTS: The proposed method is studied by simulations and illustrated by an application to an extensively analyzed dataset in the literature. The results show that the proposed method can correctly detect the numbers and locations of the true breakpoints while appropriately controlling the false positives. AVAILABILITY: http://bioinformatics.med.yale.edu/DNACopyNumber CONTACT: hongyu.zhao@yale.edu SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: http://bioinformatics.med.yale.edu/DNACopyNumber.     

Applications of beta-mixture models in bioinformatics

SUMMARY: We propose a beta-mixture model approach to solve a variety of problems related to correlations of gene-expression levels. For example, in meta-analyses of microarray gene-expression datasets, a threshold value of correlation coefficients for gene-expression levels is used to decide whether gene-expression levels are strongly correlated across studies. Ad hoc threshold values such as 0.5 are often used. In this paper, we use a beta-mixture model approach to divide the correlation coefficients into several populations so that the large correlation coefficients can be identified. Another important application of the proposed method is in finding co-expressed genes. Two examples are provided to illustrate both applications. Through our analysis, we also discover that the popular model selection criteria BIC and AIC are not suitable for the beta-mixture model. To determine the number of components in the mixture model, we suggest an alternative criterion, ICL-BIC, which is shown to perform better in selecting the correct mixture model. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: http://odin.mdacc.tmc.edu/~yuanj/highcorgeneanno.html.     

distruct: a program for the graphical display of population structure

In analysis of multilocus genotypes from structured populations, individual coefficients of membership in subpopulations are often estimated using programs such as structure . distruct provides a general method for visualizing these estimated membership coefficients. Subpopulations are represented as colours, and individuals are depicted as bars partitioned into coloured segments that correspond to membership coefficients in the subgroups. distruct , available at http://www.cmb.usc.edu/~noahr/distruct.html , can also be used to display subpopulation assignment probabilities when individuals are assumed to have ancestry in only one group.     

FunMap: functional mapping of complex traits

SUMMARY: FunMap is a Web-based user interface designed to map quantitative trait loci (QTL) affecting function-valued traits or infinite-dimensional traits in well-structured pedigrees or natural populations. User input includes three files: longitudinal trait data, marker genotypes and/or a linkage map. This software allows for a systematic genome-wide scan and significance test of QTL throughout the map. The dynamic change of QTL effects during the time course of growth is automatically drawn, from which specific biological hypotheses regarding the genetic control mechanisms of growth and development can be tested. AVAILABILITY: http://web.biostat.ufl.edu/~cma/genetics/software.html     

CellAnimation: an open source MATLAB framework for microscopy assays

MOTIVATION: Advances in microscopy technology have led to the creation of high-throughput microscopes that are capable of generating several hundred gigabytes of images in a few days. Analyzing such wealth of data manually is nearly impossible and requires an automated approach. There are at present a number of open-source and commercial software packages that allow the user to apply algorithms of different degrees of sophistication to the images and extract desired metrics. However, the types of metrics that can be extracted are severely limited by the specific image processing algorithms that the application implements, and by the expertise of the user. In most commercial software, code unavailability prevents implementation by the end user of newly developed algorithms better suited for a particular type of imaging assay. While it is possible to implement new algorithms in open-source software, rewiring an image processing application requires a high degree of expertise. To obviate these limitations, we have developed an open-source high-throughput application that allows implementation of different biological assays such as cell tracking or ancestry recording, through the use of small, relatively simple image processing modules connected into sophisticated imaging pipelines. By connecting modules, non-expert users can apply the particular combination of well-established and novel algorithms developed by us and others that are best suited for each individual assay type. In addition, our data exploration and visualization modules make it easy to discover or select specific cell phenotypes from a heterogeneous population. AVAILABILITY: CellAnimation is distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/). CellAnimationsource code and documentation may be downloaded from www.vanderbilt.edu/viibre/software/documents/CellAnimation.zip. Sample data are available at www.vanderbilt.edu/viibre/software/documents/movies.zip. CONTACT: walter.georgescu@vanderbilt.edu SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Supplementary data available at Bioinformatics online.     

Joint Modeling and Registration of Cell Populations in Cohorts of High-Dimensional Flow Cytometric Data

In biomedical applications, an experimenter encounters different potential sources of variation in data such as individual samples, multiple experimental conditions, and multivariate responses of a panel of markers such as from a signaling network. In multiparametric cytometry, which is often used for analyzing patient samples, such issues are critical. While computational methods can identify cell populations in individual samples, without the ability to automatically match them across samples, it is difficult to compare and characterize the populations in typical experiments, such as those responding to various stimulations or distinctive of particular patients or time-points, especially when there are many samples. Joint Clustering and Matching (JCM) is a multi-level framework for simultaneous modeling and registration of populations across a cohort. JCM models every population with a robust multivariate probability distribution. Simultaneously, JCM fits a random-effects model to construct an overall batch template – used for registering populations across samples, and classifying new samples. By tackling systems-level variation, JCM supports practical biomedical applications involving large cohorts. Software for fitting the JCM models have been implemented in an R package EMMIX-JCM, available from http://www.maths.uq.edu.au/~gjm/mix_soft/EMMIX-JCM/.     

SitePainter: a tool for exploring biogeographical patterns

As microbial ecologists take advantage of high-throughput analytical techniques to describe microbial communities across ever-increasing numbers of samples, the need for new analysis tools that reveal the intrinsic spatial patterns and structures of these populations is crucial. Here we present SitePainter, an interactive graphical tool that allows investigators to create or upload pictures of their study site, load diversity analyses data and display both diversity and taxonomy results in a spatial context. Features of SitePainter include: visualizing α -diversity, using taxonomic summaries; visualizing β -diversity, using results from multidimensional scaling methods; and animating relationships among microbial taxa or pathways overtime. SitePainter thus increases the visual power and ability to explore spatially explicit studies. AVAILABILITY: https://sourceforge.net/projects/sitepainter SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online. CONTACT: antoniog@colorado.edu, Rob.Knight@colorado.edu.     

Protein intrinsic disorder toolbox for comparative analysis of viral proteins

Motivation

BLAST programs are very efficient in finding similarities for sequences. However for large datasets such as ESTs, manual extraction of the information from the batch BLAST output is needed. This can be time consuming, insufficient, and inaccurate. Therefore implementation of a parser application would be extremely useful in extracting information from BLAST outputs.

Results

We have developed a java application, Batch Blast Extractor, with a user friendly graphical interface to extract information from BLAST output. The application generates a tab delimited text file that can be easily imported into any statistical package such as Excel or SPSS for further analysis. For each BLAST hit, the program obtains and saves the essential features from the BLAST output file that would allow further analysis. The program was written in Java and therefore is OS independent. It works on both Windows and Linux OS with java 1.4 and higher. It is freely available from: http://mcbc.usm.edu/BatchBlastExtractor/

     

Wave-spec: a preprocessing package for mass spectrometry data

Wave-spec is a pre-processing package for mass spectrometry (MS) data. The package includes several novel algorithms that overcome conventional difficulties with the pre-processing of such data. In this application note, we demonstrate step-by-step use of this package on a real-world MALDI dataset. AVAILABILITY: The package can be downloaded at http://www.vicc.org/biostatistics/supp.php. A shared mailbox (wave-spec@vanderbilt.edu) also is available for questions regarding application of the package.     

Meta-DP: domain prediction meta-server

SUMMARY: Meta-DP, a domain prediction meta-server provides a simple interface to predict domains in a given protein sequence using a number of domain prediction methods. The Meta-DP is a convenient resource because through accessing a single site, users automatically obtain the results of the various domain prediction methods along with a consensus prediction. The Meta-DP is currently coupled to 10 domain prediction servers and can be extended to include any number of methods. Meta-DP can thus become a centralized repository of available methods. Meta-DP was also used to evaluate the performance of 13 domain prediction methods in the context of CAFASP-DP. AVAILABILITY: The Meta-DP server is freely available at http://meta-dp.bioinformatics.buffalo.edu and the CAFASP-DP evaluation results are available at http://cafasp4.bioinformatics.buffalo.edu/dp/update.html CONTACT: hkaur@bioinformatics.buffalo.edu SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Available at http://cafasp4.bioinformatics.buffalo.edu/dp/update.html.     

The portable dictionary of the mouse genome: a personal database for gene mapping and molecular biology

The Portable Dictionary of the Mouse Genome is a database for personal computers that contains information on approximately 10,000 loci in the mouse, along with data on homologs in several other mammalian species, including human, rat, cat, cow, and pig. Key features of the dictionary are its compact size, its network independence, and the ability to convert the entire dictionary to a wide variety of common application programs. Another significant feature is the integration of DNA sequence accession data. Loci in the dictionary can be rapidly resorted by chromosomal position, by type, by human homology, or by gene effect. The dictionary provides an accessible, easily manipulated set of data that has many uses—from a quick review of loci and gene nomenclature to the design of experiments and analysis of results. The Portable Dictionary is available in several formats suitable for conversion to different programs and computer systems. It can be obtained on disk or from Internet Gopher servers (mickey.utmem.edu or anat4.utmem.edu), an anonymous FTP site (nb.utmem.edu in the directory pub/genedict), and a World Wide Web server (http://mickey.utmem.edu/front.html).