In comparative genome analysis work, we usually compare more than two genomes and looks for syntenic regions amongst them. In my research I used Evolution Highway (RH) http://eh-demo.ncsa.uiuc.edu/, which is a collaborative project designed to provide a visual means for simultaneously comparing genomes of multiple amniote species. The tool removes the burden of manually aligning these maps and allows cognitive skills to be used toward something more valuable than preparation and transformation of data. In addition to EH, attractive Circos (http://circos.ca/) is also very popular for this kind of analysis.

The EH is available online, and can be easily access and use, whereas Circos installation is not entirely straightforward. One of the most difficult parts of the installation involves installing the GD library. Since there weren't good instructions for installing this library on the internet I decided to post instructions here in case they are useful to anyone else.

Following are the steps to install GD modules in Mac OS

1. Setup

Create a folder for the files:

$ mkdir -p /SourceCache
$ cd /SourceCache

Get and unpack the required Jpeg-6b and GD libraries:
Download Jpeg-6b (http://code.google.com/p/google-desktop-for-linux-mirror/downloads/detail?name=jpeg-6b.tar.gz&can=2&q)
Download GD (http://search.cpan.org/~lds/GD-2.46/)

Place the "tar.gz" files in "/SourceCache" and double click to unpack.

2. Install libjpeg

Copy the "config.sub" and "config.guess" files to "/SourceCache". Note that your "config.sub" and ""config.guess" files may be in a slightly different location. The commands below show where they were on my machine:

$ cd /SourceCache/jpeg-6b/src
$ cp /usr/share/libtool/config/config.sub .
$ cp /usr/share/libtool/config/config.guess .

Configure libjpeg as follows. Note that this was installed on a 64 bit machine. However, this method may configure it in a 32 bit format. This may not be the best way to configure the installation but it works.

$ .configure --enable-shared
$ make

Check to see if the following directories exist on your machine. Create the missing directories in the following manner:

$ mkdir -p /usr/local/include
$ mkdir -p /usr/local/bin
$ mkdir -p /usr/local/lib
$ mkdir -p /usr/local/man/man1

Finish making and installing libjpeg:

$ make install

3. Install GD

$ cd /SourceCache/GD-2.46/GD/
$ perl Makefile.PL
$ make
$ make test (optional)
$ make html (optional)
$ make install

Other way for Mac OS
The easiest way to get a lot of these is with a program called Fink, which is similar in nature to the CPAN installer, but installs common GNU utilities. Fink is available from <http://sourceforge.net/projects/fink/>.

Follow the instructions for setting up Fink. Once it's installed, you'll want to run the following as root: fink install gd

It will prompt you for a number of dependencies, type 'y' and hit enter to install all of the dependencies. Then watch it work.

To prevent creating conflicts with the software that Apple installs by default, Fink creates its own directory tree at /sw where it installs most of the software that it installs. This means your libraries and headers for libgd will be at /sw/lib and /sw/include instead of /usr/lib and /usr/local/include. Because of these changed locations for the libraries, the Perl GD module will not install directly via CPAN, because it looks for the specific paths instead of getting them from your environment. But there's a way around that :-)

Instead of typing "install GD" at the cpan> prompt, type look GD. This should go through the motions of downloading the latest version of the GD module, then it will open a shell and drop you into the build directory. Apply below patch to the Makefile.PL file (save the patch into a file and use the command patch < patchfile.)

Then, run these commands to finish the installation of the GD module:

perl Makefile.PL
make
make test
make install
And don't forget to run exit to get back to CPAN.

Install on MS Window, using PPM

C:\Documents and Settings\Owner>ppm
PPM interactive shell (2.2.0) - type 'help' for available commands.
PPM> install GD
Install package 'GD?' (y/N): y
Installing package 'GD'...
Downloading http://ppm.ActiveState.com/PPMPackages/5.6plus/MSW. ...
Installing C:\Perl\site\lib\auto\GD\GD.bs
Installing C:\Perl\site\lib\auto\GD\GD.dll
Installing C:\Perl\site\lib\auto\GD\GD.exp
Installing C:\Perl\site\lib\auto\GD\GD.lib
Installing C:\Perl\html\site\lib\GD.html
Installing C:\Perl\site\lib\GD.pm
Installing C:\Perl\site\lib\qd.pl
Installing C:\Perl\site\lib\auto\GD\autosplit.ix
PPM>


If you can't install it from ppm. You can download it:
http://ppm.ActiveState.com/PPMPackages/5.6plus/MSW.


BTW,All Perl 5.6.1 Modules are located at:

http://ppm.ActiveState.com/PPMPackages/5.6plus/MSW.

Install the Perl GD Module on Linux

$ sudo perl -MCPAN -e shell

Since it was the first time I had run this command on this particular machine I had to answer a lot of questions but simply selected the defaults for everything as this usually works for me. Once in the CPAN shell I entered

$ install Bundle::CPAN

and selected all of the defaults again. Once the CPAN bundle had finished installing I tried to install GD::Graph by typing

$ install GD::Graph

but it failed with hundreds of errors – the first of which was

GD.xs:7:16: error: gd.h: No such file or directory

This was fixed with the following apt-get command (in the bash shell)

$ sudo apt-get install libgd2-xpm-dev

back in the CPAN shell I still couldn’t get GD::Graph to build and I guessed this was because of some left over files from the failed build. I don’t know the command to clean things up inside the CPAN shell and am too lazy to read the docs so I simply went into the .cpan/build directory in my home directory and deleted anything that started with GD – eg

$ rm -rf GD-2.35-HC_vkB

$ rm -rf GDGraph-1.44-Evfibe

and so on. Those strings at the end (VkB and so on) look random so they might be different on your machine. Then I went back into the CPAN shell and ran

$ install GD::Graph

There were a few dependencies which the script fetched and installed for me but everything worked smoothly.

Manual and other Perl Module instalation are mentioned in my previous blog @ http://bioinformaticsonline.com/blog/view/710/how-to-install-perl-modules-manually-using-cpan-command-and-other-quick-ways

Can't locate XML/parser.pm in @INC (@INC contains:
/usr/lib/perl5/5.10.0/i386-linux-thread-multi
/usr/lib/perl5/5.10.0
/usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.10.0/i386-linux-thread-multi
/usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.10.0
/usr/lib/perl5/vendor_perl/5.10.0/i386-linux-thread-multi
/usr/lib/perl5/vendor_perl/5.10.0 /usr/lib/perl5/vendor_perl
/usr/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.10.0 .)

Manual Method of Perl Module Installation

• Install Perl Modules Manually

This manual method is very useful when your computer or server is not connected to the Internet.

Download Perl module:
Go to CPAN Search website and search for the module that you wish to download. In this example, let us search, download and install XML::Parser Perl module. I have downloaded the XML-Parser-2.36.tar.gz to /home/download

# cd /home/download
# gzip -d XML-Parser-2.36.tar.gz
# tar xvf XML-Parser-2.36.tar
# cd XML-Parser-2.36

Build the perl module:
Build by running Makefile.PL, remember the case sensitivity, make and make test.

# perl Makefile.PL
Checking if your kit is complete...
Looks good
Writing Makefile for XML::Parser::Expat
Writing Makefile for XML::Parser
# make
# make test

Install the perl module:
Now your package is ready to install.

# make install

As a newbie it looks pretty simple, and one go. But, luckily this is a very simple one module with no dependencies. Typically, Perl modules will be dependent on several other modules. Just imagine chasing all these dependencies one-by-one, thinking ... oh ye I got it. That will be very painful and annoying task. I recommend the CPAN method of installation as shown below.

Install Perl Modules using CPAN automatically

Logically, you should must have the CPAN perl module installed in your server or computer before you can install any other Perl modules using CPAN. I know you  are laughing, "to install a perl module you need another perl module"  ;)

Lets verify whether CPAN is already installed:

To install Perl modules using CPAN, make sure the cpan command is working. Following are the error message when CPAN module is not installed.

# cpan
-bash: cpan: command not found

# perl -MCPAN -e shell
Can't locate CPAN.pm in @INC (@INC contains:
/usr/lib/perl5/5.10.0/i386-linux-thread-multi
/usr/lib/perl5/5.10.0
/usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.10.0/i386-linux-thread-multi
/usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.10.0
/usr/lib/perl5/vendor_perl/5.10.0/i386-linux-thread-multi
/usr/lib/perl5/vendor_perl/5.10.0
/usr/lib/perl5/vendor_perl /usr/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.10.0 .).
BEGIN failed--compilation aborted.

Install the CPAN module using yum:
If CPAN in not installed in your system, you can use "yum" for the rescue. Dont worry biological data cruncher, this is true we are now dependent all these tiny magicians :).

# yum install perl-CPAN

Output of yum install perl-CPAN command:

Loaded plugins: refresh-packagekit
updates-newkey                       | 2.3 kB     00:00
primary.sqlite.bz2                   | 2.4 MB     00:00
Setting up Install Process
Parsing package install arguments

Resolving Dependencies
Transaction Summary
=============================================================================
Install      5 Package(s)
Update       0 Package(s)
Remove       0 Package(s)

Total download size: 1.0 M
Is this ok [y/N]: y
Downloading Packages:
(1/5): perl-ExtUtils-ParseXS-2.18-31.fc9.i386.rpm     |  30 kB     00:00
(2/5): perl-Test-Harness-2.64-31.fc9.i386.rpm         |  70 kB     00:00
(3/5): perl-CPAN-1.9205-31.fc9.i386.rpm               | 217 kB     00:00
(4/5): perl-ExtUtils-MakeMaker-6.36-31.fc9.i386.rpm   | 284 kB     00:00
(5/5): perl-devel-5.10.0-31.fc9.i386.rpm              | 408 kB     00:00

Installing     : perl-ExtUtils-ParseXS                             [1/5]
Installing     : perl-devel                                        [2/5]
Installing     : perl-Test-Harness                                 [3/5]
Installing     : perl-ExtUtils-MakeMaker                           [4/5]
Installing     : perl-CPAN                                         [5/5]


Installed: perl-CPAN.i386 0:1.9205-31.fc9
Dependency Installed:
  perl-ExtUtils-MakeMaker.i386 0:6.36-31.fc9
  perl-ExtUtils-ParseXS.i386 1:2.18-31.fc9
  perl-Test-Harness.i386 0:2.64-31.fc9
  perl-devel.i386 4:5.10.0-31.fc9
Complete!

Configure cpan the first time:
Once the CPAN is installed, you need to configure it by executing cpan, you should set some configuration parameters as shown below. I have shown only the important configuration parameters below. Accept all the default values by pressing enter.

Note: Make sure to execute “o conf commit” in the cpan prompt after the configuration to save the settings.

# cpan

Sorry, we have to rerun the configuration dialog for CPAN.pm due
to some missing parameters...

CPAN build and cache directory? [/root/.cpan]
Download target directory? [/root/.cpan/sources]
Directory where the build process takes place? [/root/.cpan/build]

Always commit changes to config variables to disk? [no]
Cache size for build directory (in MB)? [100]
Let the index expire after how many days? [1]

Perform cache scanning (atstart or never)? [atstart]
Cache metadata (yes/no)? [yes]
Policy on building prerequisites (follow, ask or ignore)? [ask]

Parameters for the 'perl Makefile.PL' command? []
Parameters for the 'perl Build.PL' command? []

Your ftp_proxy? []
Your http_proxy? []
Your no_proxy? []
Is it OK to try to connect to the Internet? [yes]

First, pick a nearby continent and country by typing in the number(s)
(1) Africa
(2) Asia
(3) Central America
(4) Europe
(5) North America
(6) Oceania
(7) South America
Select your continent (or several nearby continents) [] 5

(1) Bahamas
(2) Canada
(3) Mexico
(4) United States
Select your country (or several nearby countries) [] 4

(2) ftp://carroll.cac.psu.edu/pub/CPAN/
(3) ftp://cpan-du.viaverio.com/pub/CPAN/
(4) ftp://cpan-sj.viaverio.com/pub/CPAN/
(5) ftp://cpan.calvin.edu/pub/CPAN
(6) ftp://cpan.cs.utah.edu/pub/CPAN/
e.g. '1 4 5' or '7 1-4 8' [] 2-16

cpan[1]> o conf commit
commit: wrote '/usr/lib/perl5/5.10.0/CPAN/Config.pm'

cpan[2]> quit
No history written (no histfile specified).
Lockfile removed.

• Install Perl Modules using CPAN

Hey smile please, now you are ready with CPAN and can download modules in one line command.

You can use one of the following method to install a Perl module using cpan:

# perl -MCPAN -e 'install Bundle::BioPerl'

(or)

# cpan
cpan shell -- CPAN exploration and modules installation (v1.9205)
ReadLine support available (maybe install Bundle::CPAN or Bundle::CPANxxl?)

cpan[1]> install "Bundle::BioPerl"

In the example above, CPAN will check for Bundle::BioPerl dependencies and automatically resolves and installs Bundle::BioPerl with all the dependent Perl modules.

• Quick Ways

Oh, look at your face.. smily hmm :). This is what your are looking for, a quick and best way to install Perl modules, Bioperl. Following are the the steps to download BioPerl in your server/computer.

# sudo apt-cache search perl BioPerl

Output will be like as follows:

bioperl - Perl tools for computational molecular biology
bioperl-run - BioPerl wrappers: scripts
libbio-perl-perl - BioPerl core perl modules
libbio-perl-run-perl - BioPerl wrappers: modules
libbio-samtools-perl - Perl interface to SamTools library for DNA sequencing
libbiojava-java - Java API to biological data and applications (default version)
libbiojava3-java - Java API to biological data and applications (default version)
python-biopython-sql - Biopython support for the BioSQL database schema
libbtlib-perl - library for basic sequence manipulation

# sudo apt-get install bioperl

If it is installed then flash the following message:

Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree      
Reading state information... Done
bioperl is already the newest version.
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 10 not upgraded.

In it is found not installed in your server or system them install all with dependencies.

You can use the same approach to install all the modules, and packages if required.

Thanks for reading. Best of luck for your research.

1. Learn and get updated

Some of the bad biological programmers only learn new technical or non-technical things when it’s absolutely necessary. The good biological programmers learn new technical skills proactively. But great biological programmers not only learn new technical skills on their own but also learn non-technical skills, and have an open mind to sources of knowledge that others may shut out.

In other concrete term, the bad biological programmer learn Perl's regular expression when they started a project on comparative genomics; the good biological programmer learned it a year before because it looked interesting; and the great biological programmer also read about the BioPerl packages, genomics, DNA string, genomic theories, or some similar course of study so that they could understand the results and explain it biologically.

2. Not a merely coder!!!

I often encountered with biological programmer who call themself a hard-core computer programmer and avoid biology. I can almost guarantee that if you are one of them then you are not doing research but merely writing "dry" codes.

According to my supervisor most of the computational biologist, don't know what they are doing biologically. Even they struggle to explain their own programs output and results. Therefore, It is highly advisable to learn basic of biology which can assist you to explain the result and understand your discovery. Always remember you are a researcher not a coder.

3. Be Social with biologist

The computational biologist spends most of the time in from of computers, writing codes. They always think their job is to produce working codes, not technical research perfections. But, they are completely wrong. You should not forget that apart from your computational skills you also need some biologist, other than your supervisor, to explain and make you understand the complex biological mechanism.

I highly recommend your to interact with biotech researchers and learn how do they explain their one graph (which they generally produce after one year of work) biologically. Remember, the origin of your research project is complex biological phenomenon, which is more complex than that of your limited programming rules.

4. Do not search, research for answers

Researching for answers means more than typing several keywords into a search engine or posting a question at Stack Overflow or the BioStars forums. I have entered problems into search engines that generate no results, and every question I posted on Stack Overflow or the BioStars forums never got anything resembling an answer, yet I solved the issues and moved on. I’m not a magician — I just know how to find answers or discover root causes.

Many problems are situational, and if you depend on search engines and forums, you can waste a lot of time going down a rabbit hole and possibly never getting a solution. Learn to perform root cause analysis, learn enough about the underlying system to look for other clues and solutions, and learn to take a long distance view of an issue before deep diving into it.

5. Love and defend your research

You cannot rise to the top in this research profession without loving your work. There are some very good “it’s just a job” biological programmers (I’ve been one at times), but if that is your outlook, you won’t be willing to do whatever it takes to succeed. This idea gets a lot of folks in a huff, because they feel it is a personal insult. “I’m a good programmer, but I have other priorities and can’t make work my life.” I understand completely; I have other priorities too. As much as I hate to say it, when I am passionate about my work, I am willing (though not eager) to abandon my other priorities to finish the job. It is not an insult to say that if you aren’t willing to pull out all the stops you can’t be the best, it is a fact.

You must be passionate about more than programming — you must also be excited about your research, the tools and technology you are using, and so on. I have seen very good and even great biological programmers operating at mediocre levels because something was not a good fit, such as they hated the project or were using a technology they disliked. Therefore, like your research project and get excited about your discoveries. You have not only to discover but also defend your finding with scientific words.

Thanks to all of you for reading.