ANItools web: a web tool for fast genome comparison within multiple bacterial strains

BACKGROUND Early classification of prokaryotes was based solely on phenotypic similarities, but modern prokaryote characterization has been strongly influenced by advances in genetic methods. With the fast development of the sequencing technology, the ever increasing number of genomic sequences per species offers the possibility for developing distance determinations based on whole-genome information. The average nucleotide identity (ANI), calculated from pair-wise comparisons of all sequences shared between two given strains, has been proposed as the new metrics for bacterial species definition and classification. RESULTS In this study, we developed the web version of ANItools (http://ani.mypathogen.cn/), which helps users directly get ANI values from online sources. A database covering ANI values of any two strains in a genus was also included (2773 strains, 1487 species and 668 genera). Importantly, ANItools web can automatically run genome comparison between the input genomic sequence and data sequences (Genus and Species levels), and generate a graphical report for ANI calculation results. CONCLUSION ANItools web is useful for defining the relationship between bacterial strains, further contributing to the classification and identification of bacterial species using genome data.Database URL: http://ani.mypathogen.cn/.