Work

Detecting Sequence Homology at the Gene Cluster Level with MultiGeneBlast

Year: 2013

Type: article

Abstract: The genes encoding many biomolecular systems and pathways are genomically organized in operons or gene clusters. With MultiGeneBlast, we provide a user-friendly and effective tool to perform homology searches with operons or gene clusters as basic units, instead of single genes. The contextualization offered by MultiGeneBlast allows users to get a better understanding of the function, evolutionary history, and practical applications of such genomic regions. The tool is fully equipped with applications to generate search databases from GenBank or from the user's own sequence data. Finally, an architecture search mode allows searching for gene clusters with novel configurations, by detecting genomic regions with any user-specified combination of genes. Sources, precompiled binaries, and a graphical tutorial of MultiGeneBlast are freely available from http://multigeneblast.sourceforge.net/.

Source: Molecular Biology and Evolution

DOI: 10.1093/molbev/mst025

Authors: Marnix H. Medema, Eriko Takano, Rainer Breitling

Institutions: University of Groningen, University of Manchester, University of Glasgow

Language: English

Topic: Genomics and Phylogenetic Studies

Subfield: Molecular Biology

Field: Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology

Domain: Life Sciences

Open Access status: hybrid

Estimated APC paid: $3,418

Funders: Rijksuniversiteit Groningen, Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek, Stichting voor de Technische Wetenschappen