BactEXTRACT: an R Shiny app to quickly extract, plot and analyse bacterial growth and gene expression data

Area of Science:

• Microbiology
• Computational Biology
• Bioinformatics

Background:

• Microtitre plate readers are widely used for bacterial growth and gene expression studies.
• Analyzing and visualizing data from these readers can be complex and time-consuming.
• Existing tools may lack user-friendliness or broad applicability.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop an intuitive R Shiny application for streamlining bacterial growth and gene expression data analysis.
• To simplify the process of converting raw microtitre plate data into publication-ready visualizations.
• To provide a generally applicable and user-friendly tool for researchers.

Main Methods:

• Development of an R Shiny application named BactEXTRACT.
• Integration of functions for analyzing optical density, fluorescence, and luminescence data.
• Creation of a user-friendly interface for data input and visualization.

Main Results:

• BactEXTRACT successfully simplifies the transition from raw data to publication-ready plots.
• The application provides an intuitive interface for complex growth curve and gene expression analysis.
• The tool is designed for general applicability in microbiology research.

Conclusions:

• BactEXTRACT offers a user-friendly solution for analyzing bacterial growth and gene expression data.
• The application reduces the complexity associated with microtitre plate data visualization.
• BactEXTRACT is a valuable tool for researchers in microbiology and related fields.