Plant & Animal Genomes XIII Conference

January 15-19, 2005
Town & Country Convention Center
San Diego, CA

Seq2GO: A Tool For Visualization And Interpretation Of Genomic Data

William G. Spollen¹ , Gordon K. Springer²

¹  Agonomy Department, 109 Life Sciences Center, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO 65211

²  Computer Science Department, 240e Life Sciences Center, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO 65211

Expressed sequence tag (EST) projects generate thousands of sequences corresponding to gene products. Organizing and interpreting the massive amounts of information obtained in these studies into readily understandable picture(s) is a challenge. We have developed Seq2GO (Sequence to Gene Ontology), a program that leverages the results of annotation of our sequences using identifiers provided by The Gene Ontology Consortium. These data and results from our clustering by sequence similarity are used to show patterns in expression of biochemical function and biological process, as defined by GO, across libraries. This can be done at any level of the hierarchies described by GO. This facilitates the rapid interpretation of biological experiments and is easily extended to proteomics and other high-throughput technologies. Results of this program are made available to researchers in a standardized nomenclature that helps to organize and display data, develop and test hypotheses, and may suggest directions for further investigation.