Structural and functional annotation of eukaryotic genomes with GenSAS

Abstract

The Genome Sequence Annotation Server (GenSAS, https://www.gensas.org ) is a secure, web-based genome annotation platform for structural and functional annotation, as well as manual curation. Requiring no installation by users, GenSAS integrates popular command line-based, annotation tools under a single, easy-to-use, online interface. GenSAS integrates JBrowse and Apollo, so users can view annotation data and manually curate gene models. Users are guided step by step through the annotation process by embedded instructions and a more in-depth GenSAS User’s Guide. In addition to a genome assembly file, users can also upload organism-specific transcript, protein, and RNA-seq read evidence for use in the annotation process. The latest versions of the NCBI RefSeq transcript and protein databases and the SwissProt and TrEMBL protein databases are provided for all users. GenSAS projects can be shared with other GenSAS users enabling collaborative annotation. Once annotation is complete, GenSAS generates the final files of the annotated gene models in common file formats for use with other annotation tools, submission to a repository, and use in publications.