Development of Web Interface of Image Analysis System DDGEL for 2D Gel Electrophoresis

Recently, a method called RLGS (Restriction Landmark Genomic Scanning) has been developed in order to detect and analyze the genetic alterations by observing the entire genomic DNA after separating DNA fragments in a single two-dimensional slab gel [1]. To analyze gel images obtained by the RLGS method, a lot of tasks must be done: thousands of spots must be detected where each spot corresponds to particular genetic landmark; a correspondence of spots between two images must be detected; links between spots and genetic information must be classi ed and stored in a database. We have been developing a software tool named DDGEL so that such tasks can be done automatically or semi-automatically [2], where similar systems have been developed by other groups [3, 4]. Previously, user interface of DDGEL was implemented using the X-WINDOW (X11R6) system. However, it is hard to install X-WINDOW on standard PCs (personal computers) and thus limited users (i.e., users having UNIX workstations) can use DDGEL. In order to make DDGEL more user-friendly, we have newly developed a web interface for DDGEL, using which DDGEL can be easily accessed from standard PCs using standard web browsers such as NETSCAPE and INTERNET EXPLORER.