TEnest 2.0: Computational Annotation and Visualization of Nested Transposable Elements

Grass genomes harbor a diverse and complex content of repeated sequences. Most of these repeats occur as abundant transposable elements (TEs), which present unique challenges to sequence, assemble, and annotate genomes. Multiple copies of Long Terminal Repeat (LTR) retrotransposons can hinder sequence assembly and also cause problems with gene annotation. TEs can also contain protein-encoding genes, the ancient remnants of which can mislead gene identification software if not correctly masked. Hence, accurate assembly is crucial for gene annotation. We present TEnest v2.0. TEnest computationally annotates and chronologically displays nested transposable elements. Utilizing organism-specific TE databases as a reference for reconstructing degraded TEs to their ancestral state, annotation of repeats is accomplished by iterative sequence alignment. Subsequently, an output consisting of a graphical display of the chronological nesting structure and coordinate positions of all TE insertions is the result. Both linux command line and Web versions of the TEnest software are available at www.wiselab.org and www.plantgdb.org/tool/ , respectively.