BactoGeNIE, the Bacterial Gene Neighborhood Investigation Environment, is a genome visualization approach developed at Electronic Visualization Laboratory (EVL) to address growing volumes of genome sequence data, specifically microbial genomes, in the biological sciences. Decreases in sequencing costs have driven a proliferation in the volume of complete sequenced genomes. Existing visualization approaches are not designed to enable the comparison of hundreds to thousands of sequenced genomes in one view. At the same time, advances in display hardware have enabled growth in display resolution and the development of large, high-resolution display environments, presenting an opportunity for high-resolution visualization design.

This novel high-resolution genomics visualization approach transforms genomic data into high-resolution digital maps that enable rapid comparison of hundreds of microbial genomes in one view. The image shown right shows segments of 600 draft E. coli genomes from the PubMed database displayed on the Cyber-Commons display wall at the University of Illinois at Chicago, EVL. Alignment of similar genes from related bacterial strains and coloring by gene identity on a gradient around a target gene, enables researchers to quickly spot insertion, inversion and deletion events across hundreds of bacterial strains. BactoGeNIE demonstrates the potential of high-resolution display environments to facilitate large-scale genomic data analysis.

See a BactoGeNIE video on the EVL YouTube channel.