SoRT²: A tool for sorting genomes and reconstructing phylogenetic trees by reversals, generalized transpositions and translocations

SoRT² is a web server that allows the user to perform genome rearrangement analysis involving reversals, generalized transpositions and translocations (including fusions and fissions), and infer phylogenetic trees of genomes being considered based on their pairwise genome rearrangement distances. It takes as input two or more linear/circular multi-chromosomal gene (or synteny block) orders in FASTA-like format. When the input is two genomes, SoRT² will quickly calculate their rearrangement distance, as well as a corresponding optimal scenario by highlighting the genes involved in each rearrangement operation. In the case of multiple genomes, SoRT² will also construct phylogenetic trees of these genomes based on a matrix of their pairwise rearrangement distances using distance-based approaches, such as neighbor-joining (NJ), unweighted pair group method with arithmetic mean (UPGMA) and Fitch-Margoliash (FM) methods. In addition, if the function of computing jackknife support values is selected, SoRT² will further perform the jackknife analysis to evaluate statistical reliability of the constructed NJ, UPGMA and FM trees. SoRT² is available online at http://bioalgorithm.life.nctu.edu .tw/SORT2/.