title: eCOMPAGT integrates mtDNA: import, validation and export of mitochondrial DNA profiles for population genetics, tumour dynamics and genotype-phenotype association studies.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) is widely being used for population genetics, forensic DNA fingerprinting and clinical disease association studies. The recent past has uncovered severe problems with mtDNA genotyping, not only due to the genotyping method itself, but mainly to the post-lab transcription, storage and report of mtDNA genotypes.
  
  
  METHODS
  eCOMPAGT, a system to store, administer and connect phenotype data to all kinds of genotype data is now enhanced by the possibility of storing mtDNA profiles and allowing their validation, linking to phenotypes and export as numerous formats. mtDNA profiles can be imported from different sequence evaluation programs, compared between evaluations and their haplogroup affiliations stored. Furthermore, eCOMPAGT has been improved in its sophisticated transparency (support of MySQL and Oracle), security aspects (by using database technology) and the option to import, manage and store genotypes derived from various genotyping methods (SNPlex, TaqMan, and STRs). It is a software solution designed for project management, laboratory work and the evaluation process all-in-one.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The extended mtDNA version of eCOMPAGT was designed to enable error-free post-laboratory data handling of human mtDNA profiles. This software is suited for small to medium-sized human genetic, forensic and clinical genetic laboratories. The direct support of MySQL and the improved database security options render eCOMPAGT a powerful tool to build an automated workflow architecture for several genotyping methods. eCOMPAGT is freely available at http://dbis-informatik.uibk.ac.at/ecompagt.
authors.affiliation: Division of Genetic Epidemiology, Department of Medical Genetics, Molecular and Clinical Pharmacology, Innsbruck Medical University, Innsbruck, Austria.
authors.forename: Hansi
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Weissensteiner
authors.forename: Sebastian
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Schönherr
authors.forename: Günther
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Specht
authors.forename: Florian
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Kronenberg
authors.forename: Anita
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Brandstätter
mesh_terms: D019295:Computational Biology / Q000379:methods; D004272:DNA, Mitochondrial / Q000737:chemistry*; D030541:Databases, Genetic; D056726:Genetic Association Studies / Q000379:methods*; D005828:Genetics, Population; D005838:Genotype; D006801:Humans; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000235:genetics; D010641:Phenotype; D012984:Software
chemical_list: D004272:DNA, Mitochondrial