MuGeN: simultaneous exploration of multiple genomes and computer analysis results.
BACKGROUND
The availability of increasing amounts of sequence data about completely sequenced genomes spurs the development of new methods in the fields of automated annotation, and of comparative genomics. Tools allowing the visualization of results produced by analysis methods, superimposed on possibly annotated sequence data, and enabling synchronized navigation in multiple genomes, provide new means for interactive genome exploration. This kind of visual inspection can be used as a basis to assess the quality of new analysis algorithms, or to discover genome portions to be subjected to in-depth studies.


RESULTS
We propose a software package, MuGeN, built for navigating through multiple annotated genomes. It is capable of retrieving annotated sequences in several formats, stored in local files, or available in databases over the network. From these, it then generates an interactive display, or an image file, in most common formats suitable for printing, further editing or integrating in Web pages. Genome maps may be mixed with computer analysis results loaded from XML files, whose format is generic enough to be adapted to a majority of sequence oriented analysis methods.


BACKGROUND
MuGeN is available at http://www-mig.jouy.inra.fr/bdsi/MuGeN.
Hoebeke
Mark
M
Unité Mathématique, Informatique & Génome - INRA - Domaine de Vilvert - F 78352 Jouy en Josas CEDEX, France. mark.hoebeke@jouy.inra.fr
Nicolas
Pierre
P
Bessières
Philippe
P
D003196:Computer Graphics; D003628:Database Management Systems; D004282:Documentation; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling / Q000379:methods*; D016678:Genome; D016247:Information Storage and Retrieval / Q000379:methods*; D020407:Internet; D009862:Online Systems; D011381:Programming Languages; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA / Q000379:methods*; D012984:Software; D012985:Software Design; D014584:User-Computer Interface