FeatureScan: Revealing property-dependent similarity of nucleotide sequences

Abstract

FeatureScan is a software package aiming to reveal novel types of DNA sequence similarity by comparing physico-chemical properties. Thirty-eight different parameters of DNA double strands such as charge, melting enthalpy, conformational parameters and the like are provided. As input FeatureScan requires two sequences, a pattern sequence and a target sequence, search conditions are set by selecting a specific DNA parameter and a threshold value. Search results are displayed in FASTA format and directly linked to external genome databases/browsers (ENSEMBL, NCBI, UCSC). An Internet version of FeatureScan is accessible at http://genome.gbf.de/featurescan/. As part of the HOBIT initiative (http://hobit.sourceforge.net/) FeatureScan is also accessible as a web service at its above home page. Currently, several preloaded genomes are provided at this Internet website (Homo sapiens, Mus musculus, Rattus norvegicus and four strains of Escherichia coli) as target sequences. Standalone executables of FeatureScan are available on request. © The Author 2006. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved.