Tools Enabling Biology Lab-Driven Genome Annotation

The tremendous rate at which the cost of DNA sequencing has dropped over the last several years has precipitated a flurry of sequencing activity within the scientific community. Much of this is now driven by single investigator laboratories, for which high-throughput sequencing and its many applications is now independently feasible. Among the many tools freely available to the scientific community are genome annotation pipelines and genome browsers that facilitate automated genome annotation and subsequent visualization and distribution of gene annotations. Modest bioinformatics and/or IT support is sufficient to install and run these tools.

As the cost of genome sequencing continues to drop, we can expect even more independent scientists to boldly dive into the genome sequencing foray. The traditional model of outsourcing the work of annotation to a consortium or community of interest cannot continue to meet the demands of the community at large. Indeed, we are past the point at which there are more emerging genomes in need of annotation than there are annotation communities available to support such efforts. We are in need of gene prediction tools that instead embrace the new reality in which annotation will primarily be carried out by scientists with little or no bioinformatics or system administration experience.

Here I present the Brendel Group's latest efforts in designing tools to facilitate annotation of emerging genomes by small biology laboratories with no bioinformatics support.