Integrated Genome Browser QuickLoad Site

Welcome to the Integrated Genome Browser QuickLoad site, hosted at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.

The data available via this site are configured for visualization in the Integrated Genome Browser.

Please contact Ann Loraine (aloraine -- at --- uncc.edu) if you have suggestions, questions, or corrections.

Icon  Name                           Last modified      Size  Description
[DIR] Parent Directory - [DIR] A_lyrata_Apr_2011/ 17-May-2012 12:31 - Arabidopsis lyrata [DIR] A_thaliana_Apr_2008/ 17-May-2012 12:31 - Arabidopsis thaliana [DIR] A_thaliana_Jan_2004/ 17-May-2012 12:34 - Arabidopsis thaliana [DIR] A_thaliana_Jun_2009/ 17-May-2012 09:58 - Arabidopsis thaliana TAIR9, TAIR10 genome assembly [DIR] B_distachyon_Aug_2010/ 17-May-2012 12:32 - Brachypodium (a model grass) [DIR] C_albicans_SC5314_Nov_2008/ 17-May-2012 12:33 - [DIR] C_albicans_WO-1_Jul_2010/ 17-May-2012 12:31 - [DIR] C_papaya_Aug_2010/ 17-May-2012 12:33 - Papaya [DIR] C_reinhardtii_Nov_2010/ 17-May-2012 12:37 - Chlamy (an algal genome) [DIR] D_discoideum_Ax4_May_2009/ 17-May-2012 12:36 - Slime mold [DIR] G_max_Aug_2010/ 17-May-2012 12:38 - Soybean [DIR] H_sapiens_Feb_2009/ 17-May-2012 12:31 - [DIR] M_truncatula_Mar_2009/ 17-May-2012 12:38 - Medicago truncatula [DIR] O_sativa_japonica_Jun_2009/ 17-May-2012 12:38 - Rice, japonic variety [DIR] P_patens_Jan_2008/ 17-May-2012 12:32 - Physcomitrella patens (moss) [DIR] P_persica_Apr_2010/ 17-May-2012 12:39 - Peach v1 genome assembly [DIR] P_trichocarpa_Jan_2010/ 17-May-2012 12:32 - Black cottonwood (poplar) [DIR] R_communis_May_2008/ 17-May-2012 11:32 - Castor bean [DIR] S_bicolor_Jan_2009/ 17-May-2012 10:01 - Sorghum [DIR] S_cerevisiae_Apr_2011/ 17-May-2012 12:38 - Budding yeast [DIR] S_pombe_Aug_2007/ 17-May-2012 11:31 - Fission yeast [DIR] T_kodakaraensis_KOD1_May_2004/ 17-May-2012 11:32 - [DIR] V_carteri_Jul_2010/ 17-May-2012 11:31 - Volvox [DIR] V_vinifera_Mar_2010/ 17-May-2012 11:31 - [DIR] X_tropicalis_Nov_2009/ 17-May-2012 11:51 - [DIR] Z_mays_B73_Mar_2009/ 17-May-2012 11:40 - Zea mays B73 AGPv1 assembly [DIR] Z_mays_B73_Mar_2010/ 17-May-2012 21:41 - Zea mays B73 RefGen_v2 assembly [TXT] contents.txt 17-May-2012 20:38 1.4K Available genome assemblies and their titles [   ] favicon.ico 17-May-2012 12:06 7.1K Icon IGB displays for this data source in the Data Access tab

About QuickLoad

A QuickLoad site can be located on the Web or on your local file system. It just needs to contain some basic files describing your genome and follow a simple structure, as follows. Other documentation is located on the IGB wiki: About QuickLoad.

contents.txt: This file lists the genome versions your Quickload will contain. Put this file at the top level of your Quickload directory - the Quickload data root. The first column gives the folder (directory) name for each genome version, and the second column specifies the genome's title that will appear above the data display in IGB. Here is an example. To ensure that IGB will display the latest release first, use the naming convention G_species_mon_yyyy, for example, B_distachyon_Aug_2010, where G is the first letter of the genus, species is the species, month is a three letter abbreviation of the month (English) and yyyy is the year of the release.

genome.txt: This simple file should contain a list of all the chromosomes (or contigs) your finished or partially assembled genome contains. It should have two columns of data, separated by tabs. The first column lists the names of the chromosomes (or contigs), and the second column lists their sizes, in base pairs. For each genome, create a genome.txt file and place it in that genome's subdirectory in your Quickload data root. Here is an example from grape.

favicon.ico: This is a small image file IGB will display next to your data source in the Data Access panel. It is optional. To find out more about favicon.ico (short for favorites icon) read this wikipedia entry.

Genome data directories: Put your annotation and sequence files into subdirectories for each genome version you want to support. The name of the genome data directory should match the first column from your contents.txt file.

annots.xml: Each genome data directory should contain an annots.xml file that lists all the annotation files you want to make available via Quickload. For an example, see the annots.xml file for Zea Mays genome annotations. List each data set using the "file" tag, which should have these attributes:

  1. name - name of the file (e.g., TAIR9_mrna.bed.gz)
  2. title - the data set title, this appears in the Data Access Panel
  3. description - the text for the tooltips IGB will display about the data set [optional]
  4. url - link to a Web page that has more information about the data set [optional]

Annotation data files. Put annotation files for each genome in that genome's data directory. IGB supports many formats. For gene models, use bed, developed by the UCSC Genome Bioinformatics group. Here is an example from maize: Z_mays_B73_Oct_2009.bed.gz. For EST or mRNA alignments, use psl which is the output from Jim Kent's blat alignment tool. For alignments of short read (e.g., Illumina) sequences onto a genome, use sorted, indexed BAM files. Be sure to include a BAI (BAM index) file in the same directory as your BAM file. Note: make sure you set the maximum intron size parameter wisely if you are using blat: plant introns are typically much smaller and the maximum intron size should be set accordingly. Contact Ann Loraine if you have questions about this.

Sequence data files. For sequence, use bnib or 2bit, binary formats that speed up loading sequence data into the viewer. We highly recommend using the 2bit format! You can create a 2bit file very easily using Jim Kent's faToTwoBit program, available from the UCSC Genome Bioinformatics site. To find it, google faToTwoBit.

If you decide to use the recommended 2bit format for distributing sequence data, you must name the 2bit after the genome version directory it resides in. For example, genome version V_vinifera_Mar_2010 2bit file should be named V_vinifera_Mar_2010.2bit.

If you make a 2bit file for your sequence data, you can also use it to create the corresponding genome.txt file. Just get a copy of Jim Kent's twoBitInfo program to create the genome.txt file. And, of course, you can use your genome 2bit file as a target seqeunce for running the Kent spliced alignment tool blat for a quick-and-dirty first pass annotation.

If you choose to use a bnib file instead, you should create a bnib file for each sequence. These should match the names of chromosomes listed in the genome.txt file. For example, if the genome.txt file contains a sequence named contig123, then the corresponding sequence file should be named contig123.bnib.

To create a bnib file, you can use code from the Genoviz project and convert a fasta format file to the binary bnib format. Read the documentation How to create binary sequence files in BNIB format.