J-Circos: A Java Graphic User Interface for Circos Plot (#77)
Circos
plots are graphical outputs that have many useful applications such as
displaying three dimensional chromosomal interactions, and fusion transcripts. However,
the Circos tool is difficult for non-bioinformaticians to use as the Perl-implemented
Circos tool requires users to install related packages and processed data files
in a unix environment. This has resulted in the development of an R-based circos
tool (RCircos), although R-circos is equally inaccessible for non-bioinformaticians
to use. Thus, we have developed a circos plot tool (J-Circos) that is targeted
towards biologists with limited bioinformatics skills as it uses an intuitive Graphic
User Interface (GUI). J-Circosuses Java computer language to enable it to be
used on most operating systems (Windows, MacOS, Linux). User can input data
into J-Circos using flat data formats, as well as from the GUI. Additionally,
J-Circos has a mouse hover function that provides information for specific data
points. Collectively, J-Circos is an easy-to-use tool that is accessible for
biologists to use. This will enable biologists to further study more complex chromosomal
interactions and fusion transcripts that are otherwise difficult to visualise
from next-generation sequencing data