Mutation@A Glance: an integrative web application for analysing mutations from human genetic diseases

DNA Res. 2010 Jun;17(3):197-208. doi: 10.1093/dnares/dsq010. Epub 2010 Apr 1.

Abstract

Although mutation analysis serves as a key part in making a definitive diagnosis about a genetic disease, it still remains a time-consuming step to interpret their biological implications through integration of various lines of archived information about genes in question. To expedite this evaluation step of disease-causing genetic variations, here we developed Mutation@A Glance (http://rapid.rcai.riken.jp/mutation/), a highly integrated web-based analysis tool for analysing human disease mutations; it implements a user-friendly graphical interface to visualize about 40,000 known disease-associated mutations and genetic polymorphisms from more than 2600 protein-coding human disease-causing genes. Mutation@A Glance locates already known genetic variation data individually on the nucleotide and the amino acid sequences and makes it possible to cross-reference them with tertiary and/or quaternary protein structures and various functional features associated with specific amino acid residues in the proteins. We showed that the disease-associated missense mutations had a stronger tendency to reside in positions relevant to the structure/function of proteins than neutral genetic variations. From a practical viewpoint, Mutation@A Glance could certainly function as a 'one-stop' analysis platform for newly determined DNA sequences, which enables us to readily identify and evaluate new genetic variations by integrating multiple lines of information about the disease-causing candidate genes.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Computational Biology
  • Genetic Diseases, Inborn / genetics*
  • Humans
  • Internet*
  • Mutation / genetics*
  • Proteins / genetics*

Substances

  • Proteins