Software

TileQC: A system for tile-based quality control of Solexa data

Peter C Dolan^* and Dee R Denver

• * Corresponding author: Peter C Dolan dolanp@science.oregonstate.edu

Author Affiliations

Department of Zoology and Center for Genome Research and Biocomputing, Oregon State University, Corvallis, Oregon 97331, USA

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BMC Bioinformatics 2008, 9:250 doi:10.1186/1471-2105-9-250

Published: 28 May 2008

Abstract

Background

Next-generation DNA sequencing technologies such as Illumina's Solexa platform and Roche's 454 approach provide new avenues for investigating genome-scale questions. However, they also present novel analytical challenges that must be met for their effective application to biological questions.

Results

Here we report the availability of tileQC, a tile-based quality control system for Solexa data written in the R language. TileQC provides a means of recognizing bias and error in Solexa output by graphically representing data generated by flow cell tiles. The data represented in the images is then made available in the R environment for further analysis and automation of error detection.

Conclusion

TileQC offers a highly adaptable and powerful tool for the quality control of Solexa-based DNA sequence data.