AspAlt: A tool for inter-database, inter-genomic and user-specific comparative analysis of alternative transcription and alternative splicing in 46 eukaryotes

We have developed AspAlt—a web-based comparative analytical platform for exploring the variations in alternative transcription (AT) events and alternative splicing (AS) events in eukaryotes. AspAlt provides integrated access to 2.1 million AT–AS annotations from 1,58,876 multi-isoform genes and has the following user-friendly analytical features: (1) advanced graphical display to visualize and analyze AT–AS events in 46 eukaryotic genomes; (2) compare and identify the differences in AT–AS patterns among a group of genes specified by the user or among homologous gene groups; (3) inter-database comparative viewer to analyze the differences in the AT–AS annotations for the same gene among Ensembl, RefSeq and AceView databases; (4) dynamically classify and generate graphical plots of AT–AS events from mRNA annotations submitted by the user; and (5) download genomic AT–AS annotations of 46 eukaryotes in XML and tab-delimited formats. The AspAlt resource is available at http://66.170.16.154/AspAlt.