VISA - Vector Integration Site Analysis server: A web-based server to rapidly identify retroviral integration sites from next-generation sequencing

Abstract

Background: Analyzing the integration profile of retroviral vectors is a vital step in determining their potential genotoxic effects and developing safer vectors for therapeutic use. Identifying retroviral vector integration sites is also important for retroviral mutagenesis screens. Results: We developed VISA, a vector integration site analysis server, to analyze next-generation sequencing data for retroviral vector integration sites. Sequence reads that contain a provirus are mapped to the human genome, sequence reads that cannot be localized to a unique location in the genome are filtered out, and then unique retroviral vector integration sites are determined based on the alignment scores of the remaining sequence reads. Conclusions: VISA offers a simple web interface to upload sequence files and results are returned in a concise tabular format to allow rapid analysis of retroviral vector integration sites.