EzAAI

EzAAI computes high-throughput prokaryotic average amino acid identity (AAI) to support taxonomic delineation and comparative genomic analyses.

Key Features:

• High-throughput AAI calculation: Calculates average amino acid identity across large-scale prokaryotic datasets for taxonomic comparisons.
• MMSeqs2 acceleration: Uses the MMSeqs2 program to perform rapid sequence comparisons for AAI computation.
• BLAST-comparable results: Produces AAI values comparable to BLAST-based methods while offering improved computational speed.
• Hierarchical clustering and dendrograms: Integrates a module for hierarchical clustering to generate dendrograms for visualizing taxonomic relationships.
• Integrated AAI and clustering workflow: Combines AAI calculation and clustering in a single suite to streamline taxonomic analyses.
• Enhanced taxonomic resolution: Employs AAI, which provides finer taxonomic resolution beyond the species level compared with average nucleotide identity (ANI).

Scientific Applications:

• Taxonomic delineation: Delineates prokaryotic taxa and refines taxonomic boundaries using AAI metrics.
• Comparative genomics: Enables large-scale comparisons of prokaryotic genomes using AAI to assess genomic relatedness.
• Phylogenetic and evolutionary inference: Supports inference of evolutionary relationships among prokaryotes using AAI and hierarchical clustering.
• Visualization of taxonomic relationships: Generates dendrograms to visualize and interpret taxonomic structure within datasets.

Methodology:

AAI values are computed using MMSeqs2-based sequence comparisons with results comparable to BLAST, and hierarchical clustering is applied to generate dendrograms.