Diversity in Content and Analytical Algorithms of Biologist-Centric Software(s) for DNA and Sequence Data: Mega, DNASp, GenAlex and ARLEQUIN. – F. U. Ogban, U. O. Udensi, G. A. Inyang, F Osang
ABSTRACT
The proliferation of analytical software in life science, specifically in DNA and protein sequence data analytics has exposed users and researchers to a dilemma of extensive review of such software in order to ascertain and consider which of the software is most suitable for their application. The relative merits and the associated focus of these different software packages remain unclear. Of essence is the fact that users and researchers are often in the quest for the identification of genomic variants at different levels. Of the much, our attention is on (a) the Molecular Evolutionary Genetics Analysis (MEGA) version 7, (b) DNA Sequence Polymorphism (DNASP) version 5.10, (c) the Genetic Analysis in Excel (GenALEx) version 6.5 and (d) the Integrated Software Package for Population Genetics Data Analysis (ARLEQUIN) version 3.5. Criteria to compare their developmental philosophy, interfaces, algorithms and efficiency were developed. The results presented here would give a user and or a researcher a firsthand direction in their quest for the best application that suits their needs. Our result also provides insights into the need for standardization of life science analytical software modules based on developer/users software quality measure.