title: SimFlu: a simulation tool for predicting the variation pattern of influenza A virus.
abstract: Since the first pandemic outbreak of avian influenza A virus (H5N1 subtype) in 1997, the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) has provided a large number of influenza virus sequences with well-organized annotations. Using the time-series sequences of influenza A viruses, we developed a simulation tool for influenza virus, named SimFlu, to predict possible future variants of influenza viruses. SimFlu can create variants from a seed nucleotide sequence of influenza A virus using the codon variation parameters included in the SimFlu package. The SimFlu library provides pre-calculated codon variation parameters for the H1N1, H3N2, and H5N1 subtypes of influenza A virus isolated from 2000 to 2011, allowing the users to simulate their own nucleotide sequences by selecting their preferred parameter options. SimFlu supports three operating systems - Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X. SimFlu is publicly available at http://lcbb.snu.ac.kr/simflu.
authors.affiliation: National Institute of Supercomputing and Networking, Korea Institute of Science and Technology Information, 245 Daehangno, Yuseong-Gu, Daejeon 305-806, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Insung
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Ahn
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Computational Biology & Bioinformatics, Institute of Health and Environment, Graduate School of Public Health, Seoul National University, 1 Gwanak-ro, Gwanak-gu, Seoul 151-742, Republic of Korea; National Institute of Biological Resources, Hwangyeong-ro 42, Seo-gu, Incheon 404-708, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Ha-Yeon
authors.initials: HY
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Computational Biology & Bioinformatics, Institute of Health and Environment, Graduate School of Public Health, Seoul National University, 1 Gwanak-ro, Gwanak-gu, Seoul 151-742, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Sunghoon
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Jung
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Computational Biology & Bioinformatics, Institute of Health and Environment, Graduate School of Public Health, Seoul National University, 1 Gwanak-ro, Gwanak-gu, Seoul 151-742, Republic of Korea; Graduate Program in Bioinformatics, College of Natural Science, Seoul National University, 1 Gwanak-ro, Gwanak-gu, Seoul 151-742, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Ji-Hae
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Computational Biology & Bioinformatics, Institute of Health and Environment, Graduate School of Public Health, Seoul National University, 1 Gwanak-ro, Gwanak-gu, Seoul 151-742, Republic of Korea; Graduate Program in Bioinformatics, College of Natural Science, Seoul National University, 1 Gwanak-ro, Gwanak-gu, Seoul 151-742, Republic of Korea. Electronic address: hss2003@snu.ac.kr.
authors.forename: Hyeon Seok
authors.initials: HS
authors.lastname: Son
mesh_terms: D000465:Algorithms; D003198:Computer Simulation; D009980:Influenza A virus / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics*; D013045:Species Specificity
keywords: Bioinformatics; Codon variation; Influenza A virus; Pattern prediction; Simulation