Mobyle SNAP Workbench: a web-based analysis portal for population genetics and evolutionary genomics.

Abstract

Previously we developed the stand-alone SNAP Workbench toolkit that integrated a wide array of bioinformatics tools for phylogenetic and population genetic analyses. We have now developed a web-based portal front-end, using the Mobyle portal framework, which executes all of the programs available in the stand-alone SNAP Workbench toolkit on a high-performance Linux cluster. Additionally, we have expanded the selection of programs to over 189 tools, including population genetic, genome assembly and analysis tools, as well as metagenomic and large-scale phylogenetic analyses. The Mobyle SNAP Workbench web portal allows end users to (i) execute and manage otherwise complex command-line programs, (ii) launch multiple exploratory analyses of parameter-rich and computationally intensive methods and (iii) track the sequence of steps and parameters that were used to perform a specific analysis. Analysis pipelines or workflows for population genetic, metagenomic and genome assembly provide automation of data conversion, analysis and graphical visualization for biological inference. The Mobyle SNAP Workbench portal is freely available online at http://snap.hpc.ncsu.edu/. The XMLs can be downloaded at http://carbonelab.org/system/files/snap_xmls.tgz. Each XML provides links to help files, online documentation and sample data. Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.