EGenBio: A Data Management System for Evolutionary Genomics and Biodiversity

Date
2006-9-26
Authors
Nahum, Laila A.
Reynolds, Matthew T.
Wang, Zhengyuan O.
Faith, Jeremiah J.
Jonna, Rahul
Jiang, Zhi J.
Meyer, Thomas J.
Pollock, David D.
Version
OA Version
Citation
Nahum, Laila A, Matthew T Reynolds, Zhengyuan O Wang, Jeremiah J Faith, Rahul Jonna, Zhi J Jiang, Thomas J Meyer, David D Pollock. "EGenBio: A Data Management System for Evolutionary Genomics and Biodiversity" BMC Bioinformatics 7(Suppl 2):S7. (2006)
Abstract
BACKGROUND. Evolutionary genomics requires management and filtering of large numbers of diverse genomic sequences for accurate analysis and inference on evolutionary processes of genomic and functional change. We developed Evolutionary Genomics and Biodiversity (EGenBio; ) to begin to address this. DESCRIPTION. EGenBio is a system for manipulation and filtering of large numbers of sequences, integrating curated sequence alignments and phylogenetic trees, managing evolutionary analyses, and visualizing their output. EGenBio is organized into three conceptual divisions, Evolution, Genomics, and Biodiversity. The Genomics division includes tools for selecting pre-aligned sequences from different genes and species, and for modifying and filtering these alignments for further analysis. Species searches are handled through queries that can be modified based on a tree-based navigation system and saved. The Biodiversity division contains tools for analyzing individual sequences or sequence alignments, whereas the Evolution division contains tools involving phylogenetic trees. Alignments are annotated with analytical results and modification history using our PRAED format. A miscellaneous Tools section and Help framework are also available. EGenBio was developed around our comparative genomic research and a prototype database of mtDNA genomes. It utilizes MySQL-relational databases and dynamic page generation, and calls numerous custom programs. CONCLUSION. EGenBio was designed to serve as a platform for tools and resources to ease combined analysis in evolution, genomics, and biodiversity.
Description
License
Copyright 2006 Nahum et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.