Analyzing HT-SELEX data with the Galaxy Project tools – A web based bioinformatics platform for biomedical research

• Analyzing aptamer high-throughput sequencing (HTS) data using the Galaxy platform.
• Pre-process aptamer HTS data to isolate the variable region sequence information.
• Compile multiple rounds of aptamer selection data into a single database.
• Use the aptamer database for additional bioinformatics analyses.
• Histogram analyses, sorting and filtering to identify key aptamer sequences.

The development of DNA and RNA aptamers for research as well as diagnostic and therapeutic applications is a rapidly growing field. In the past decade, the process of identifying aptamers has been revolutionized with the advent of high-throughput sequencing (HTS). However, bioinformatics tools that enable the average molecular biologist to analyze these large datasets and expedite the identification of candidate aptamer sequences have been lagging behind the HTS revolution. The Galaxy Project was developed in order to efficiently analyze genome, exome, and transcriptome HTS data, and we have now applied these tools to aptamer HTS data. The Galaxy Project’s public webserver is an open source collection of bioinformatics tools that are powerful, flexible, dynamic, and user friendly. The online nature of the Galaxy webserver and its graphical interface allow users to analyze HTS data without compiling code or installing multiple programs. Herein we describe how tools within the Galaxy webserver can be adapted to pre-process, compile, filter and analyze aptamer HTS data from multiple rounds of selection.

Figure optionsDownload as PowerPoint slide