GSP: a web-based platform for designing genome-specific primers in polyploids

Bioinformatics. 2016 Aug 1;32(15):2382-3. doi: 10.1093/bioinformatics/btw134. Epub 2016 Mar 9.

Abstract

Motivation: The sequences among subgenomes in a polyploid species have high similarity, making it difficult to design genome-specific primers for sequence analysis.

Results: We present GSP, a web-based platform to design genome-specific primers that distinguish subgenome sequences in a polyploid genome. GSP uses BLAST to extract homeologous sequences of the subgenomes in existing databases, performs a multiple sequence alignment, and design primers based on sequence variants in the alignment. An interactive primers diagram, a sequence alignment viewer and a virtual electrophoresis are displayed as parts of the primer design result. GSP also designs specific primers from multiple sequences uploaded by users.

Availability and implementation: GSP is a user-friendly and efficient web platform freely accessible at http://probes.pw.usda.gov/GSP Source code and command-line application are available at https://github.com/bioinfogenome/GSP CONTACTS: yong.gu@ars.usda.gov or devin.coleman-derr@ars.usda.gov

Supplementary information: Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.

MeSH terms

  • DNA Primers*
  • Internet*
  • Polyploidy
  • Sequence Alignment*
  • Software*

Substances

  • DNA Primers