title: GSIT: An integrated web-tool for identification of genomic signatures in highly similar DNA sequences.
abstract: Accurate identification and characterization of infectious agent and its subtype is essential for efficient treatment of infectious diseases on a target population of patients. Comparative biology of microbial populations in vitro and in vivo can identify signatures that may be used to develop and improve diagnostic procedures. Here we report Genomic Signature Identification Tool (GSIT) a web based tool for identification and validation of genomic signatures in a group of similar DNA sequences of microorganisms. GSIT uses multiple sequence alignment to identify the unique base sites and scores them for inclusion as genomic signature for the particular strain. GSIT is a web based tool where the front-end in designed using HTML/CSS and Javascript, while back-end is run using CGI-Perl.
  
  
  BACKGROUND
  The server is freely available at the http://genome-sign.net/gsit.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Molecular Medicine, New Delhi ; Amity Institute of Biotechnology, Amity University, Noida, India ; Authors contributed equally.
authors.forename: Amit
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Tuteja
authors.affiliation: Institute of Molecular Medicine, New Delhi ; Faculty of Technology and Engineering, The Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda, Vadodara ; Authors contributed equally.
authors.forename: Kandarp
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Joshi
authors.affiliation: Institute of Molecular Medicine, New Delhi ; Council of Scientific and Industrial Research-Open Source Drug Discovery Unit, New Delhi.
authors.forename: Swati
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Subodh
authors.affiliation: Amity Institute of Biotechnology, Amity University, Noida, India.
authors.forename: Navkiran
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Kaur
keywords: Comparative Genomics; Diagnostics; Genomic signatures; Infectious Diseases; Subtype Identification