PABS: an online platform to assist BAC-by-BAC sequencing projects

Genome sequencing projects are either based on whole genome shotgun (WGS) or on a BAC-by-BAC strategy. Although WGS is in most cases the preferred choice, sometimes the BAC-by-BAC approach may be better because it requires a much simpler assembly process. Furthermore, when the study is limited to specific regions of the genome, the WGS would require an unjustified effort, making the BAC-by-BAC the only feasible strategy. In this paper we describe an informatics pipeline called PABS (Platform Assisted BAC-by-BAC Sequencing) that we developed to provide a tool to optimize the BAC-by-BAC sequencing strategy. PABS has two main functions: (i) PABS-Select, to choose suitable overlapping clones; and (ii) PABS-Validate, to verify whether a BAC under analysis is actually overlapping the neighboring BAC.