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Updated: Sep 21, 2025

Targeted Next-generation Sequencing and Bioinformatics Pipeline to Evaluate Genetic Determinants of Constitutional Disease
Published on: April 4, 2018
Annotation Query (AnnoQ): an integrated and interactive platform for large-scale genetic variant annotation
Zhu Liu1, Tremayne Mushayahama1, Bryan Queme1
1Division of Bioinformatics, Department of Population and Public Health Sciences, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90089, USA.
Annotation Query (AnnoQ) provides up-to-date functional annotations for human genetic variants using a large database and an optimized search framework. This integrated platform simplifies variant annotation for researchers of all skill levels.
Area of Science:
- Genomics
- Bioinformatics
- Computational Biology
Background:
- Functional annotation of human genetic variants is crucial for understanding disease mechanisms.
- Existing tools often require significant bioinformatics expertise and setup.
- A centralized, up-to-date resource for variant annotation is needed.
Purpose of the Study:
- To introduce Annotation Query (AnnoQ), a system for comprehensive and current functional annotations of human genetic variants.
- To provide an accessible platform for variant annotation, catering to researchers with diverse bioinformatics skills.
- To enable programmatic access to variant annotation data via an API.
Main Methods:
- Development of a database containing approximately 39 million human variants from the Haplotype Reference Consortium (HRC).
- Pre-annotation of variants with sequence features (WGSA) and functional data (Gene Ontology, PANTHER pathways).
- Implementation using an optimized Elasticsearch framework for real-time complex searches.
- Creation of a user-friendly web interface and an API for data access and programmatic annotation.
Main Results:
- AnnoQ offers comprehensive functional annotations for a large set of human genetic variants.
- The Elasticsearch framework enables efficient and real-time complex variant searches.
- A web interface and API facilitate easy access and integration of annotation data.
- Availability of R packages allows seamless embedding of annotation queries into scripts.
Conclusions:
- AnnoQ serves as an integrated annotation platform, simplifying the process of functional variant annotation.
- The system is well-suited for a wide range of researchers, including those with limited bioinformatics experience.
- AnnoQ enhances the accessibility and utility of human genetic variant annotation data for diverse research applications.
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