GapCoder automates the use of indel characters in phylogenetic analysis.
BACKGROUND
Several ways of incorporating indels into phylogenetic analysis have been suggested. Simple indel coding has two strengths: (1) biological realism and (2) efficiency of analysis. In the method, each indel with different start and/or end positions is considered to be a separate character. The presence/absence of these indel characters is then added to the data set.
We have written a program, GapCoder to automate this procedure. The program can input PIR format aligned datasets, find the indels and add the indel-based characters. The output is a NEXUS format file, which includes a table showing what region each indel characters is based on. If regions are excluded from analysis, this table makes it easy to identify the corresponding indel characters for exclusion.


CONCLUSIONS
Manual implementation of the simple indel coding method can be very time-consuming, especially in data sets where indels are numerous and/or overlapping. GapCoder automates this method and is therefore particularly useful during procedures where phylogenetic analyses need to be repeated many times, such as when different alignments are being explored or when various taxon or character sets are being explored. GapCoder is currently available for Windows from http://www.home.duq.edu/~youngnd/GapCoder.
Young
Nelson D
ND
Department of Biological Sciences, Duquesne University, Pittsburgh, PA 15219, USA. youngnd@duq.edu
Healy
John
J
D000465:Algorithms; D019295:Computational Biology / Q000379:methods; D030541:Databases, Genetic; D016254:Mutagenesis, Insertional; D009696:Nucleic Acids / Q000145:classification; D010802:Phylogeny; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA / Q000145:classification / Q000379:methods; D017384:Sequence Deletion / Q000235:genetics*; D012984:Software
D009696:Nucleic Acids