Peak Studio: A Tool for the Visualization and Analysis of Fragment Analysis Files

While emerging technologies such as next-generation sequencing are increasingly important tools for the analysis of metagenomic communities, molecular fingerprinting techniques such as automated ribosomal intergenic spacer analysis (ARISA) and terminal restriction fragment length polymorphisms (T-RFLP) remain in use due to their rapid speed and low cost. Peak Studio is a java-based graphical user interface (GUI) designed for the visualization and analysis of fragment analysis (FSA) files generated by the Applied Biosystems capillary electrophoresis instrument. Specifically designed for ARISA and T-RFLP experiments, Peak Studio provides the user the ability to freely adjust the parameters of a peak-calling algorithm and immediately see the implications for downstream clustering by principal component analysis. Peak Studio is fully open-source and, unlike proprietary solutions, can be deployed on any computer running Windows, OS X or Linux. Peak Studio allows data to be saved in multiple formats and can serve as a pre-processing suite that prepares data for statistical analysis in programs such as SAS or R.