IslandPath: aiding detection of genomic islands in prokaryotes

Genomic islands (clusters of genes of potential horizontal origin in a prokaryotic genome) are frequently associated with a particular adaptation of a microbe that is of medical, agricultural or environmental importance, such as antibiotic resistance, pathogen virulence, or metal resistance. While many sequence features associated with such islands have been adopted separately in applications for analysis of genomic islands, including pathogenicity islands, there is no single application that integrates multiple features for island detection. IslandPath is a network service which incorporates multiple DNA signals and genome annotation features into a graphical display of a bacterial or archaeal genome, to aid the detection of genomic islands. AVAILABILITY: This application is available at http://www.pathogenomics.sfu.ca/islandpath and the source code is freely available, under GNU public licence, from the authors. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: An online help file, which includes analyses of the utility of IslandPath, can be found at http://www.pathogenomics.sfu.ca/islandpath/current/islandhelp.html