This is an easy-to-use, start-to-end package for finding sets of primers that selectively amplify a particular genome (the "foreground" genome) over a background genome. For instance, we can design a set of primers that amplify a parasite's genome in a sample that is overwhelmingly composed of host DNA.
You can run SWGA on hardware ranging from a Mac laptop to a high-end server.
- Counts all the possible primers in a size range in both genomes
- Filters primers based on:
- foreground and background genome binding rates
- melting temperatures (with a built-in melt temp calculator that accounts for mono- and divalent cation solutions!)
- Possible homodimerization
- Finds primer sets containing primers that are compatible with each other using graph theory (largest clique formation). The process ensures:
- No primer in a set is a heterodimer
- Even binding site spacing in foreground genome
- Low total binding to background genome
- Score each set based on certain binding metrics and allows exploration of high-scoring sets via output to common formats.
Follow the installation instructions here
Follow the guide on our Wiki/Quick Start to get started!
New features and bugfixes are released all the time. To update, simply follow steps 3-5 on the installation instructions.
SWGA incorporates code from other open-source projects:
cliquer, a clique-finding library by Sampo Niskanen and Patric OstergardDSK, a disk-based kmer-counting tool by G. Rizk- http://minia.genouest.org/dsk/
- Citation: (Rizk, G., Lavenier, D. and Chikhi, R. DSK: k-mer counting with very low memory usage, Bioinformatics, 2013.)
Cliquer is copyright © 2002 Sampo Niskanen, Patric Östergård. and licensed under the GPL.
DSK is licensed under the CeCILL license, which can be found in src/dsk/LICENSE, and is GPL compatible.