DSBplot: Indels in DNA Double-strand Break Repair Experiments

Abstract

Double-strand breaks (DSBs) in DNA are naturally occurring destructive events in all organisms that may lead to genome instability. Cells employ various repair methods known as non-homologous end joining (NHEJ), microhomology mediated end joining (MMEJ), and homology-directed recombination (HDR). These repair processes may lead to DNA sequence variations (e.g., nucleotide insertions, deletions, and substitutions) at the location of the break. Studying DNA DSB repair processes often involves the use of high throughput sequencing assays to precisely quantify the sequence variations near the break with software tools. Often methods of assessing and visualizing these data have not taken into account the full complexity of the sequencing data, such as the frequency, type, and position of the sequence variations in a single comprehensive representation. Here we present a method that allows visualization of the overall variation pattern as well as comparison of these patterns among experimental setups.