BigTop

BigTop renders a three-dimensional virtual-reality representation of Manhattan plots to enable multidimensional visualization and exploration of genome-wide association study (GWAS) results.

Key Features:

• Three-Dimensional Visualization: Transforms a 2D Manhattan plot into a 3D cylindrical room representing chromosomal locations, p-values, and minor allele frequencies in spatial context.
• Additional Data Dimension: Encodes minor allele frequency on the z-axis to add a third quantitative dimension to SNP visualization.
• Enhanced Interactivity: Allows selection of individual single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) to display SNP name, exact values, and gene location when available.
• Implementation: Implements VR-enabled 3D rendering using JavaScript with the React and A-Frame frameworks.
• Flexible Data Input: Accepts input in JSON format or as tab-separated text files.

Scientific Applications:

• GWAS exploration: Enables identification and examination of significant allelic variants in genome-wide association study datasets.
• Multidimensional variant analysis: Facilitates analysis of relationships among chromosomal location, p-values, and minor allele frequency across variants.
• Educational visualization: Provides a three-dimensional representation of association data for teaching and demonstration of genomic associations.

Methodology:

Renders GWAS Manhattan plots into a 3D cylindrical room, maps minor allele frequency to the z-axis, supports interactive selection of SNPs to reveal SNP name, values, and gene location, and is implemented with JavaScript using React and A-Frame while accepting JSON or tab-separated text inputs.