Bioinformatics tools for small genomes, such as hepatitis B virus

Abstract

DNA sequence analysis is undertaken in many biological research laboratories. The workflow consists of several steps involving the bioinformatic processing of biological data. We have developed a suite of web-based online bioinformatic tools to assist with processing, analysis and curation of DNA sequence data. Most of these tools are genome-agnostic, with two tools specifically designed for hepatitis B virus sequence data. Tools in the suite are able to process sequence data from Sanger sequencing, ultra-deep amplicon resequencing (pyrosequencing) and chromatograph (trace files), as appropriate. The tools are available online at no cost and are aimed at researchers without specialist technical computer knowledge. The tools can be accessed at http://hvdr.bioinf.wits.ac.za/SmallGenomeTools, and the source code is available online at https://github.com/DrTrevorBell/SmallGenomeTools.