SEGUL: An ultrafast, memory-efficient alignment manipulation and summary
tool for phylogenomics
Abstract
Phylogenetic studies now routinely require manipulating and summarizing
thousands of data files. For most of these tasks, currently available
software requires considerable computing resources and substantial
knowledge of command-line applications. We develop ultrafast and
memory-efficient software that performs over a dozen common phylogenomic
manipulations and calculates statistics summarizing essential data
features. Our software is available as standalone command-line (CLI) and
graphical user interface (GUI) applications, and as a programming
language library for Rust, R, and Python, with possible support of other
languages. The CLI and library versions, SEGUL, run native on Windows,
Linux, and macOS, including Apple ARM Macs. The GUI version extends
support to include mobile iOS and Android operating systems. SEGUL offer
fast execution times and low memory footprints regardless of dataset
size and platform choice. The inclusion of a GUI minimizes
bioinformatics barriers to phylogenomics while SEGUL’s efficiency
reduces economic barriers by enabling analysis on inexpensive hardware.
Our support for mobile operating systems further enables teaching
phylogenomics where access to computing power is limited.