webFOG: A web tool to map genomic features onto genes

A large number of new genomic features are being discovered using high throughput techniques. The next challenge is to automatically map them to the reference genome for further analysis and functional annotation. We have developed a tool that can be used to map important genomic features to the latest version of the human genome and also to annotate new features. These genomic features could be of many different source types, including miRNAs, microarray primers or probes, Chip-on-Chip data, CpG islands and SNPs to name a few. A standalone version and web interface for the tool can be accessed through: http://populationhealth.qimr.edu.au/cgi-bin/webFOG/index.cgi. The project details and source code is also available at http://www.bioinformatics.org/webfog.

Research highlights
► FOG (features on to genes) is an open source software and also has a web based version of it called webFOG.
► It’s an automated tool to annotate newly discovered genomic features to the gene structures and assign it a specific location on the gene.
► FOG is a versatile, robust tool and can be run in batch on the large genomic files.
► FOG and webFOG can be used to map various kinds of genomic features such as miRNA, SNP, CHIP data and microarray primers and probes.