Workshop VIII - Genome Annotation Workshop


These exercises use the Apollo Gene Annotation system available at http://apollo.berkeleybop.org/current/index.html.


Install Apollo and data, load and save demo data.


  1. On the Mac's, you can run Apollo from the folder /nfs/ecg/Applications/Apollo. You can find this folder by clicking on the mac_hd icon on the upper left in the Finder window.

    On the PC's, you will need to download Apollo from the WWW site above, and run it from your Desktop or Downloads folder.

  2. Once you have installed Apollo, you should copy the apollo data to your directory. On the Mac's, the data is in /nfs/ecg/data/apollo. Drag the /nfs/ecg/data/apollo folder to your desktop or home directory.

    On the PC's, you will need to map a network drive from courses.cshl.edu:/ecg. You can mount the drive with guest access.

There are two distinct problems on the WWW site. If you are doing problem 'A', which involves annotating the TBX18 gene, you will need to work with the h_tbx18.fa and h_tbx18.gff files. If you are working on problem 'B', you will use orang.fa and orang.gff.

  1. Once you have installed Apollo and the data, start up Apollo. When Apollo asks for a dataset to start, DO NOT use the default provided. Tell Apollo that you want ENSEMBL GFF Format, and you will be given two lines to fill in, the Ensembl GFF format file, and the Sequence file. Use the Browse option to find your local copy of the apollo/h_tbx18.gff or apollo/orang.gff and apollo/h_tbx18.fa or apollo/orang.fa files.

  2. Then, save your annotations (File Menu). Save them as Game XML with a filename h_tbx18_work.xml / orange_work.xml.

    Be sure to save the data on your local home directory or Desktop, e.g. /Users/your-id/orang.xml on Macs.

  3. Quit Apollo.

Now follow the instructions for building the gene models in the handouts.


The proteins you find can be compared to the TBX18 or Orang Zn finger sequences.


Course Home Page