Circos: an information aesthetic for comparative genomics.
We created a visualization tool called Circos to facilitate the identification and analysis of similarities and differences arising from comparisons of genomes. Our tool is effective in displaying variation in genome structure and, generally, any other kind of positional relationships between genomic intervals. Such data are routinely produced by sequence alignments, hybridization arrays, genome mapping, and genotyping studies. Circos uses a circular ideogram layout to facilitate the display of relationships between pairs of positions by the use of ribbons, which encode the position, size, and orientation of related genomic elements. Circos is capable of displaying data as scatter, line, and histogram plots, heat maps, tiles, connectors, and text. Bitmap or vector images can be created from GFF-style data inputs and hierarchical configuration files, which can be easily generated by automated tools, making Circos suitable for rapid deployment in data analysis and reporting pipelines.
Krzywinski
Martin
M
Canada's Michael Smith Genome Sciences Center, Vancouver, British Columbia V5Z 4S6, Canada. martink@bcgsc.ca
Schein
Jacqueline
J
Birol
Inanç
I
Connors
Joseph
J
Gascoyne
Randy
R
Horsman
Doug
D
Jones
Steven J
SJ
Marra
Marco A
MA
D000818:Animals; D002874:Chromosome Mapping; D022202:Chromosomes, Artificial, Bacterial; D002886:Chromosomes, Human, Pair 17 / Q000235:genetics; D002896:Chromosomes, Human, Pair 6 / Q000235:genetics; D020451:Contig Mapping; D004285:Dogs; D018628:Gene Dosage / Q000235:genetics*; D016678:Genome / Q000235:genetics*; D023281:Genomics; D006801:Humans; D008224:Lymphoma, Follicular / Q000235:genetics*; D012984:Software