BinMat: a molecular genetics tool for processing binary data obtained
from fragment analysis in R.
Abstract
Processing and visualising trends in the binary data obtained from
fragment analysis methods in molecular biology can be a time-consuming,
and often cumbersome process. Scoring and processing binary data (from
methods such as AFLPs, ISSRs, and RFLPs) entails complex workflows that
require a high level of computational and/or bioinformatic skills. The
application presented here (BinMat) is a free, open-source, and
user-friendly R Shiny program that automates the analysis pipeline on
one platform. BinMat is presented as a Graphical User Interface (GUI)
via the Shiny package in R that is available online across different
operating systems. It is also available as an R package. BinMat
consolidates replicate sample pairs in a dataset into consensus reads,
produces summary statistics, and allows the user to visualise their data
as ordination plots and clustering trees without having to use multiple
software programs and input files, or rely on previous programming
experience.