How much would you pay to be able to analyze epigenomic data sets for multiple modifications, from various sources and different experiment types simultaneously? Before you answer, check out this new software tool, Podbat (Positioning database and analysis tool) that lets you do all of that and more…for free!
When we first heard the name, we assumed that it this was some new flying MP3 player from Apple, but quickly found out that Podbat was the work of a clever team from the Karolinska Institutet in Sweden. Their slick new Podbat freeware can accept various types of datasets, like microarray or sequencing data, and analyze multiple experiments together in relation to the reference genome of your choice. Once you have finished crunching the data, you can then store and share it there too.
To demonstrate the power of the Podbat, the Swedish group gathered up 16 ChIP-chip and RNA microarray datasets in S. pombe and looked at the genome occupancy of the histone H2A.Z. Here are some of the highlights that Podbat revealed:
- Swr1 organizes nucleosomes and adds H2A.Z as an active mark
- H2A.Z distribution altered by Swr1 during the cell cycle
- Swr1-independent H2A.Z incorporation is associated with the genotoxic stress response
Podbat is open source, and even allows people to create and deposit their own plug-in modules to use. The only requirement is that you use a platform with Java 1.6 or higher.
You don’t need to wait for night-time to get more Podbat info at PLoS Computational Biology, August 2011