Developing a web-based tool for the annotation of the Streptococcus sanguis genome

Researchers at the Philips Institute and the Nucleic Acids Core Facility at the Virginia Commonwealth University are sequencing the genome of Streptococcus sanguis, a microorganism that colonizes the mouth and can lead to periodontal disease and bacterial endocarditis [VCU, 2004]. One of the major goals of genome sequencing is annotation, the identification of genes and their functions. Researchers at VCU have developed a program that uses comparative genomics, particularly BLAST searches, to perform annotation. The program runs using a command line interface, limiting its usability. This paper describes the design of a web-based graphical user interface for performing the annotation analysis. The interface supports tailoring the analysis algorithm and parameters to customize the comparative genomics process and displays a table summarizing the results.