title: PrimerProspector: de novo design and taxonomic analysis of barcoded polymerase chain reaction primers.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  PCR amplification of DNA is a key preliminary step in many applications of high-throughput sequencing technologies, yet design of novel barcoded primers and taxonomic analysis of novel or existing primers remains a challenging task.
  
  
  RESULTS
  PrimerProspector is an open-source software package that allows researchers to develop new primers from collections of sequences and to evaluate existing primers in the context of taxonomic data.
  
  
  BACKGROUND
  PrimerProspector is open-source software available at http://pprospector.sourceforge.net
  
  
  BACKGROUND
  rob.knight@colorado.edu
  
  
  BACKGROUND
  Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology, Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences, University of Colorado at Boulder, Boulder, CO 80309, USA.
authors.forename: William A
authors.initials: WA
authors.lastname: Walters
authors.forename: J Gregory
authors.initials: JG
authors.lastname: Caporaso
authors.forename: Christian L
authors.initials: CL
authors.lastname: Lauber
authors.forename: Donna
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Berg-Lyons
authors.forename: Noah
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Fierer
authors.forename: Rob
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Knight
mesh_terms: D001483:Base Sequence; D017931:DNA Primers / Q000737:chemistry*; D006801:Humans; D010802:Phylogeny; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D016415:Sequence Alignment; D012984:Software
chemical_list: D017931:DNA Primers