MISTIC: mutual information server to infer coevolution

TLDR

MISTIC is a web server that graphically represents information in a multiple sequence alignment and provides a comprehensive analysis of mutual information networks in protein families. The server generates circos visualizations of mutual information, conservation, cumulative and proximity MI scores, offers an interactive interface for exploring and selecting network subsets, allows node coloring by attributes, and provides downloadable results at http://mistic.leloir.org.ar. MISTIC delivers a unique, compact, visually rich view of MSA information, notably through novel circos representations of MI networks and visualization of cumulative and proximity MI concepts.

Abstract

MISTIC (mutual information server to infer coevolution) is a web server for graphical representation of the information contained within a MSA (multiple sequence alignment) and a complete analysis tool for Mutual Information networks in protein families. The server outputs a graphical visualization of several information-related quantities using a circos representation. This provides an integrated view of the MSA in terms of (i) the mutual information (MI) between residue pairs, (ii) sequence conservation and (iii) the residue cumulative and proximity MI scores. Further, an interactive interface to explore and characterize the MI network is provided. Several tools are offered for selecting subsets of nodes from the network for visualization. Node coloring can be set to match different attributes, such as conservation, cumulative MI, proximity MI and secondary structure. Finally, a zip file containing all results can be downloaded. The server is available at http://mistic.leloir.org.ar. In summary, MISTIC allows for a comprehensive, compact, visually rich view of the information contained within an MSA in a manner unique to any other publicly available web server. In particular, the use of circos representation of MI networks and the visualization of the cumulative MI and proximity MI concepts is novel.