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MSABrowser Logo

🧬 MSABrowser

Table of Contents

What is MSABrowser and the aim of this library?

MSABrowser is developed as a new JavaScript tool with an ultimate goal of dynamic and fast visualization of sequence alignments, variations, and annotations. Also, it does not require any installation at any platform such as Linux, Mac OS X, and Windows.

MSABrowser is able to import pairwise sequence alignment (PSA) and multiple sequence alignment (MSA) data in FASTA format, and variations and sequence annotations in the format of JSON (JavaScript Object Notation).

For the nucleotides or amino acids that are annotated, one can hover them for triggering a pop-up that shows the details of variations and modifications or any other provided notes for the position.

Screenshot


1. MSABrowser Overview

MSABrowser Screenshots

➤ An overview of the MSABrowser tool. (Click here to see the full description for the image) MSA for homologous proteins of the human TUBA1A is depicted in this figure, along with genetic variations on the corresponding positions on sequences and associated intervals such as protein domains. (A)

(I) The annotation part represents the specified intervals for the sequence and in this example, it is used for illustrating the positions of the protein domains with cross-link features that enable users to locate the website or page of the original database or article.

(II) The notification part shows any type of defined modifications as a red asterisk above the sequence per position and displays the searched position in a species above the alignments.

(III) The sequence alignment part contains the imported alignment data with the previously selected colour scheme. Also, rounded (circle) positions indicate that at least one genetic variation or modification exists in this position. A rectangular white background pop-up box appears when the mouse hovers the specific position in the sequence and the genetic variations and modifications are listed in this pop-up box. On the bottom, an auto-generated ‘Consensus’ sequence is displayed. On the left side, species names contain cross-reference links for referring to the dedicated page of the sequence according to its protein identifier such as a UniProt number and the near-white ‘x’ button enables users to hide the sequence from the alignment together with its identifier.

(IV) A position in the sequence of any species listed in the alignment can be searched and the sequence alignment data in FASTA format can be downloaded with the blue button and visualization of alignment data can be exported as PNG format. Also, with the green ‘Reset’ button, it is available to reload the viewer.

(B) Visualization of MSAs of six virus spike proteins with the MSABrowser tool. The positions with the annotations are marked in a circle, while the positions without annotations are displayed in a square. The full MSA comparisons with annotations can be found at our dedicated GitHub site https://thekaplanlab.github.io/

(C) Shown is the display of orthologous variants (OrthoVars), the positions of amino acid position or nucleotide, or PTMs with the programmable notification part of MSABrowser


  1. MSABrowser

MSABrowser Comparison

➤ Comparison of MSA visualizers. (Click here to see the full description for the image) Comparison of MSA visualizers. The MSA of different genomes of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 isolates (SARS-CoV-2: MT123293, MT152824, MT252708, MN988713 and MT039888) was created, followed by visualization with separate MSA viewers.

(A) Shown is the MSA visualization with MSABrowser, which enables the addition of annotations (e.g. domains and notes) on top of the MSA. MSABrowser allows users to incorporate variant-specific annotations (missense variation, disease associations, variant ID, allele frequency, etc.). A pop-up will show up when users click on the circled amino acid or nucleotide position to display the annotations. Shown is a missense variation (G6537T) in SARS-CoV, an example of a particular annotation of a nucleotide position, MSABrowser enables users to remove the desired sequence by clicking the X button which appears in the far left of each line. Users can look up positions, download the FASTA and save the MSA as PNG.

(B) Shown is MSAViewer tool on the same alignment as in A. Users can scroll to the left and right to see the rest of MSA. When the user clicks on a position, the amino acid is highlighted with a red square as in the position 88.

(C) Shown is JSAV. It is possible to sort and delete sequences, add new sequences, change the colour schema and export FASTA with the buttons listed below the MSA.

(D) Shown is Wasabi in which zoom in and zoom out options are enabled and scrolling is necessary to see the rest of the sequence.

(E) Shows Proviz where users are able to search for a motif, switch to full screen, export the MSA and share it as a URL using the buttons located in the top right corner.

(F) Shown is AlignmentViewer. For each sequence in the alignment, gaps ratio and identification ratio to the reference sequence is provided. Gaps and conservation per position are also shown above the MSA

Citing the MSABrowser

Furkan M Torun, Halil I Bilgin, Oktay I Kaplan, MSABrowser: dynamic and fast visualization of sequence alignments, variations and annotations, Bioinformatics Advances, Volume 1, Issue 1, 2021, vbab009, https://doi.org/10.1093/bioadv/vbab009

Feature Comparison Table

Features / Tools MSABrowser Plotly Needle Plot AlignmentViewer MSAViewer ProViz Wasabi JavaScript Sequence Alignment Viewer (JSAV) JalView Version 2
OVERALL
Publication Date April 2021 2019 22 February 2018 13 July 2016 16 April 2016 03 December 2015 23 October 2014 16 January 2009
Technology JavaScript JavaScript, Python JavaScript JavaScript JavaScript JavaScript, Python JavaScript Java
Open-source code Available Available Available Available Available Available Available Available
Open-source entity https://github.com/thekaplanlab/msabrowser https://github.com/plotly/dash-bio https://github.com/sanderlab/alignmentviewer https://github.com/wilzbach/msa https://bitbucket.org/daveylab/proviz/ https://github.com/veidenberg/wasabi https://github.com/AndrewCRMartin/JSAV/ https://source.jalview.org/crucible/browse/jalview
Embeddable component to a website Available Available Not available Available Not available Not available Available Not available
VISUALIZABLE DATA SOURCES
MSA/PSA data source Fasta Not available Fasta, Stockholm Fasta, Clustal Fasta, UniProt Data Retrieving Fasta, Clustal, Ensembl Data Retrieving, NEXUS, Phylip Fasta Fasta, Clustal, Stockholm, Phylip
Alignment data export Fasta, Image Fasta, NEXUS, Phylip Fasta, Stockholm Fasta, Image Available Fasta, NEXUS, Phylip Fasta Fasta, Clustal, Stockholm, Phylip, Image
Variations / PTMs / Modifications Available Available Not available Not available Automatic retrieval Not available Not available Available, Automatic retrieval
Annotations (Domains/Sequence intervals) JSON JSON Not available GFF Automatic retrieval Not available Not available GFF
Sequence annotation formats JSON Not available Tab separated text file JalView and GFFv3 Automatic retrieval Not available Not available GFF
Phylogenetic tree data Not available Not available Not available Newick Not available Newick, NEXUS, Ensembl Data Retrieving Not available Newick
USER INTERFACE & EXPERIENCE
Direct jumping to a specific position (i.e.residue) Available Available Not available Available Not available Not available Not available Not available
Addressing a specific position in a sequence (i.e. species) Available Not available Not available Not available Not available Not available Not available Not available
Searching a motif in the sequence(s) Not available Not available Not available Available Available Not available Not available Available
Change among different color schemas Available Not available Not available Available Not available Available Available Available
Removing sequence(s) Available Not available Available Available Available Available Available Available
Generating consensus Available Not available Available Available Not available Not available Not available Available
Linking the identifiers to the resources Ensembl, UniProtKB, NCBI, Pfam Not available UniProtKB, Pfam UniProtKB, GenBank UniProtKB Not available Not available EMBL-EBI Search

Requirements and Installation

MSABrowser is entirely developed in JavaScript and works on a web browser at any platform including Linux, Mac OS X and Windows systems without any installation.

How to use MSABrowser?

Parameters & Examples for the Functions

Parameters for MSABrowser

Parameter Description Example
id It defines the ID of the element where you place MSABrowser component. <section id="MSABrowserDemo"></section>
fasta It refers a variable that holds your sequence alignment or the name of the file in FASTA format sample_msa.txt or sample_msa.fasta
hasConsensus It asks whether you would like to display the consensus sequence or not. Please state as either true or false.
annotations It refers a variable that holds your annotations such as protein domains. Please check the example below.
alterations It serves for adding variations and modifications on the corresponding positions. Please check the example below.
colorSchema It defines the name of the color schema you would like to display. Please the check the list of color schemas below.

Functions for MSABrowser

Function Description Example
scrollToPosition(sequenceIndex, position) It enables addressing a specific position in a species. Please, specify the sequenceIndex according to the order of sequence in the alignment file and give the position for the navigating. The dashes/gaps should not be considered while counting the positions, in other words, the real position/residue number in sequence alone should be entered.
export("MSA_export.fasta") It serves for downloading the alignment data. You can give a filename for the output into the function. Default name is "MSA_export.fasta", might be changed always.

Color Schemas List

You need to select a color schema and put the name of the color schema into the variable:

Example for this:

colorSchema = "clustal";

List of the color schemas:

  • hydrophobicity
  • buried
  • cinema
  • clustal
  • clustal2
  • helix
  • lesk
  • mae
  • strand
  • taylor
  • turn
  • zappo
  • nucleotide

Adding Annotations (Protein Domains) & Example

You are able to visualize the protein domains above the sequence aligner in the annotation part.

Also, you might consider to add more than one annotation parts in the MSABrowser.

Here is the example use of annotations variable.

var annotations = [
    {
        source: "SourceName1",
        data: [
            {
                'annotation_id': 'AnnotationID',
                'annotation_name': 'AnnotationName',
                'annotation_external_link': 'https://thekaplanlab.github.io',
                'annotation_start_point': 15,
                'annotation_end_point': 290
            },
            {
                'annotation_id': 'SecondAnnotationID',
                'annotation_name': 'SecondAnnotationName',
                'annotation_external_link': 'https://thekaplanlab.github.io',
                'annotation_start_point': 450,
                'annotation_end_point': 570
            }
        ]
    }, 
    {
        source: "SourceName2",
        data: [
            {
                'annotation_id': 'AnnotationID',
                'annotation_name': 'AnnotationName',
                'annotation_external_link': 'https://thekaplanlab.github.io',
                'annotation_start_point': 25,
                'annotation_end_point': 160
            },
            {
                'annotation_id': 'SecondAnnotationID',
                'annotation_name': 'SecondAnnotationName',
                'annotation_external_link': 'https://thekaplanlab.github.io',
                'annotation_start_point': 250,
                'annotation_end_point': 490
            }
        ]
    }
]

Here is the details for use of annotations :

Key Description Example
annotation_id ID of the annotation/sequence interval to be shown in the annotations bar. PF00091.25
annotation_name A name of the annotation can be provided. Tubulin
annotation_external_link The link might be provided for referring the source of the annotation once it is clicked. https://pfam.xfam.org/family/PF00091.25
annotation_start_point It refers to starting point of the defined sequence interval. The dashes/gaps in alignment should not be considered while counting the positions, in other words, the real position/residue number in sequence alone should be entered. 3 should be provided if we start it from "L" within such a sequence: "MA--LKER--MA--R"
annotation_end_point It refers to end point of the defined sequence interval. The dashes/gaps in alignment should not be considered while counting the positions, in other words, the real position/residue number in sequence alone should be entered. 9 should be provided if we start it from "R" within such a sequence: "MA--LKER--MA--R"

Adding Variations and Modifications & Example

You are able to add variations and modifications or any types of notes on the corresponding positions.

Here is the details for use of alterations :

Key Description Example
sequenceIndex The order of the sequence in the alignment file. 1
position The (real) position of the nucleotide or amino acid in the protein. 5
note The annotation part for this position. M->A : Pathogenic and causes a disease with a name of X.
source The source of the information. Surname et. al (2020)
type The type of the alteration: Variation or modification If it is modficiation, state as Alteration.Modification.

Here is the example how to add a variation or modification:

var alterations = [
    {
        'sequenceIndex': 2, 
        'position': 5, 
        'note': 'M->A : Pathogenic and causes a disease X', 
        'source': 'Surname et. al (2020)'
    },
]

Here, this variation will be added onto the 5th position in the sequnce of 2nd species in the alignment data with a note of "M->A : Pathogenic and causes a disease with a name of X" and source of "Surname et. al (2020)".

In addition, if you state the type as Alteration.Modification (i.e. post-translational modification), it also will be notified as red asterisk in the viewer.

NOTE:

Also, you might want to add several other HTML tags such as a, div, p, or img into the notes section of an alteration to provide more detail about your variation or modification.

For instance, cross-reference link by adding it within the note after changing the link in href attribute:

<a href="http://thekaplanlab.github.io" target="_blank">For details, visit here</a>

Moreover, use of other tags (div, p, and img in addition a) is provided as an example in the template file. Please click here to reach MSABrowser basic template to learn how you other HTML tags are used and to see how a basic example can be done.

Example Usages (Use Cases) of MSABrowser

Evolutionary/Comparative Genomics Study

In this example, human TUBA1A protein and its homologous proteins are aligned and human protein domains are added. Additionaly, some genetic variations are also included from different sources such as gnomAD and ClinVar.

Click here to reach MSABrowser example for Evolutionary/Comparative Genomics Study.

<iframe height="640" style="width: 100%;" scrolling="no" title="MSABrowser | TUBA1A" src="https://codepen.io/bilginhalil/embed/NWGzgdy?height=640&theme-id=light&default-tab=result" frameborder="no" allowtransparency="true" allowfullscreen="true"> See the Pen MSABrowser | TUBA1A by halil bilgin (@bilginhalil) on CodePen. </iframe>

NIPBL Protein Homologs Study

In this example, human NIPBL protein and its homologous sequences are aligned and human sequence annotations are added. Additionaly, some genetic variations are also included from available sources.

Click here to reach MSABrowser example for NIPBL Protein Homologs Study.

<iframe height="748" style="width: 100%;" scrolling="no" title="MSABrowser | NIPBL" src="https://codepen.io/bilginhalil/embed/bGVxJGY?height=748&theme-id=light&default-tab=result" frameborder="no" allowtransparency="true" allowfullscreen="true"> See the Pen MSABrowser | NIPBL by halil bilgin @bilginhalil) on CodePen.</iframe>

COVID-19 / Virology Study

In this example, some available SARS-CoV-2 sequences are aligned with default options of MUSCLE and their genetic variations received from China National Center for Bioinformation 2019 Novel Coronavirus Resource (2019nCoVR) are added.

Click here to reach MSABrowser example for COVID-19 / Virology Study.

<iframe height="565" style="width: 100%;" scrolling="no" title="MSABrowser | SARS - CoV-2 Example" src="https://codepen.io/bilginhalil/embed/QWjxgwa?height=565&theme-id=light&default-tab=result" frameborder="no" allowtransparency="true" allowfullscreen="true"> See the Pen MSABrowser | SARS - CoV-2 Example by halil bilgin (@bilginhalil) on CodePen. </iframe>

Spike Proteins Example

In this example, spike proteins are retrieved and aligned. Additionaly, some genetic variations and modifications are also added.

Click here to reach MSABrowser example for Spike Proteins.

<iframe height="614" style="width: 100%;" scrolling="no" title="MSABrowser | Spike Proteins" src="https://codepen.io/bilginhalil/embed/JjYBBGz?height=614&theme-id=light&default-tab=result" frameborder="no" allowtransparency="true" allowfullscreen="true"> See the Pen MSABrowser | Spike Proteins by halil bilgin @bilginhalil) on CodePen</iframe>

Simulated FASTA Example

In this example, we created a FASTA file with 75 sequences each have more than 75000 amino acids. This is to show the power of our visualization tool. It works smoothly even if the FASTA file is huge.

Click here to reach MSABrowser example for Simulated fasta.

<iframe height="614" style="width: 100%;" scrolling="no" title="MSABrowser | Spike Proteins" src="https://codepen.io/bilginhalil/embed/xxqogqp?height=614&theme-id=light&default-tab=result" frameborder="no" allowtransparency="true" allowfullscreen="true"> See the Pen MSABrowser | Spike Proteins by halil bilgin @bilginhalil) on CodePen</iframe>

Do you have another study which is not listed here?

Please do not hesitate to contact us for adding your study!

We would be very happy to list your study here!

Contributing & Feedback

MSABrowser is released as an open-source and web-based software under MIT license. The visualizer, documentation, all source code and examples are available on https://thekaplanlab.github.io/ and at GitHub repository https://github.com/thekaplanlab/msabrowser.

Moreover, please do not hesitate to open an issue via Github if you have any suggestion or feedback.

Developers

Halil I. Bilgin (@halilbilgin) | [email protected] | Academia: Google Scholar Profile

Furkan M. Torun (@furkanmtorun) | [email protected] | Academia: Google Scholar Profile

Oktay I. Kaplan | [email protected] | Academia: Google Scholar Profile