Zbrowse: An interactive GWAS results browser

Abstract

The growing number of genotyped populations, the advent of high-throughput phenotyping techniques and the development ofGWAS analysis software has rapidly accelerated the number of GWAS experimental results. Candidate gene discovery from these results files is often tedious, involving many manual steps searching for genes in windows around a significant SNP. This problem rapidly becomes more complex when an analyst wishes to compare multiple GWAS studies for pleiotropic or environment specific effects. To this end, we have developed a fast and intuitive interactive browser for the viewing of GWAS results with a focus on an ability to compare results across multiple traits or experiments. The software can easily be run on a desktop computer with software that bioinformaticians are likely already familiar with. Additionally, the software can be hosted or embedded on a server for easy access by anyone with a modern web browser.