A Simple GUI-based Sequencing Format Conversion Tool for the Three NGS Platforms

To allow for a quick conversion of the proprietary sequence data from various sequencing platforms, sequence format conversion toolkits are required that can be easily integrated into workflow systems. In this respect, a format conversion tool, as well as quality conversion tool would be the minimum requirements to integrate reads from different platforms. We have developed the Pyrus NGS Sequencing Format Converter, a simple software toolkit which allows to convert three kinds of Next Generation Sequencing reads, into commonly used fasta or fastq formats. The converter modules are all implemented, uniformly, in Java GUI modules that can be integrated in software applications for displaying the data content in the same format.

Java DOM Parsers to Convert KGML into SBML and BioPAX Common Exchange Formats

Integrating various pathway data collections to create new biological knowledge is a challenge, for which novel computational tools play a key role. For this purpose, we developed the Java-based conversion modules KGML2SBML and KGML2BioPAX to translate KGML (KEGG Markup Language) into a couple of common data exchange formats: SBML (Systems Biology Markup Language) and BioPAX (Biological Pathway Exchange). We hope that our work will be beneficial for other Java developers when they extend their bioinformatics system into SBML- or BioPAX-aware analysis tools. This is part of our ongoing effort to develop an ultimate KEGG-based pathway enrichment analysis system.

A Computer-aided Design Tool with Semiautomatic Image-Processing Features for Visualizing Biological Pathways

The explosion in biological data resulting from highthroughput experiments requires new software tools to manipulate and display pathways in a way that can integrate disparate sources of information. A visual Java-based CAD tool for drawing and annotating biological pathways with semiautomatic image-processing features is described in this paper. The result of the image-editing process is an XML file for the appropriate links. This tool integrates the pathway images and XML file sources. The system has facilities for linking graphical objects to external databases and is capable of reproducing existing visual representations of pathway maps.

J2.5dPathway: A 2.5D Visualization Tool to Display Selected Nodes in Biological Pathways, in Parallel Planes

The characteristics of metabolic pathways make them particularly amenable to layered graph drawing methods. This paper presents a visual Java-based tool for drawing and annotating biological pathways in twoand- a-half dimensions (2.5D) as an alternative to three dimensional (3D) visualizations. Such visualization allows user to display different groups of clustered nodes, in different parallel planes, and to see a detailed view of a group of objects in focus and its place in the context of the whole system. This tool is an extended version of J2dPathway.