RISCI - Repeat Induced Sequence Changes Identifier: a comprehensive,comparative genomics-based, in silico subtractive hybridization pipeline to identify repeat induced sequence changes in closely related genomes

Background -  

The availability of multiple whole genome sequences has facilitated in silico identification of fixed and polymorphic transposable elements (TE). Whereas polymorphic loci serve as makers for phylogenetic and forensic analysis, fixed species-specific transposon insertions, when compared to orthologous loci in other closely related species, may give insights into their evolutionary significance. Besides, TE insertions are not isolated events and are frequently associated with subtle sequence changes concurrent with insertion or post insertion. These include duplication of target site, 3' and 5' flank transduction, deletion of the target locus, 5' truncation or partial deletion and inversion of the transposon, and post insertion changes like inter or intra element recombination, disruption etc. Although such changes have been studied independently, no automated platform to identify differential transposon insertions and the associated array of sequence changes in genomes of the same or closely related species is available till date. To this end, we have designed RISCI - 'Repeat Induced Sequence Changes Identifier' - a comprehensive, comparative genomics-based, in silico subtractive hybridization pipeline to identify differential transposon insertions and associated sequence changes using specific alignment signatures, which may then be examined for their downstream effects.