HaPlone: a User-Friendly Web-Based Application for the Management of Molecular Antropology Data - By BioDec (http://www.biodec.com)

1. Molecular Anthropology in the Genomic Era
HaPlone: a User-Friendly Web-Based Application for
the Management of Molecular Antropology Data
Andrea Zauli1, Alessio Boattini2, Alberto Eusebi1, Mauro Amico1, Ivan Rossi*,1,
Rita Casadio2, Donata Luiselli2, Davide Pettener*,2
(1) BioDec S.r.l., Via Calzavecchio 20/2, 40033 Casalecchio di Reno (BO),
Italy
(2) Dip. di Biologia E. S., Univ. of Bologna, Via Selmi 3 , 40126 Bologna, Italy
(*) Email: davide.pettener@unibo.it , ivan@biodec.com
Molecular Anthropology in the Genomic Era
Rome, Dec. 3rd-5th 2009

2. What is HaPlone?
● An application for the
management of molecular
anthropology data, built on top of
the open-source enterprise-grade
Plone Content Management
System (http://plone.org)
● It has been developed for the “BiBi
– Biodiversity and Bioinformatics”
project of the University of
Bologna. One of the goals was “the
design, the implementation, the
test and maintenance of a data
base useful for theoretical studies”.
Molecular Anthropology in the Genomic Era
Rome, Dec. 3rd-5th 2009

3. What HaPlone does ...
● Allows to store, inspect, search
and retrieve data through the
familiar interface of a standard web
browser
● It now handles Y-UEP and Y-STR
molecular data, together with
personal data
● Population subsets can be easily
selected (by location, haplogroup,
sex, MRCA) using simple query
forms, whose reports also provide
basic grouping, statistics and
charts on the selected sets.
Molecular Anthropology in the Genomic Era
Rome, Dec. 3rd-5th 2009

4. What HaPlone does ...
● Massive data import may be
performed from CSV files
● The selected data can be exported
to external programs (via CSV
files).
● By leveraging on Plone access-
control features, the application
can handle selective fine-grained
access control to stored data, so it
can be used both for internal
information sharing and data
dissemination simultaneously.
Molecular Anthropology in the Genomic Era
Rome, Dec. 3rd-5th 2009

5. ● Data are stored in the "Subject"
data structure, containing both
personal and molecular data.
● Easy editing of UEP and STR
data.
● For each subject, the application
calculates on-the-fly the
haplogroup, based on its tested
UEPs, as well as the most recent
common ancestor for each sexual
lineage, based on the stored
population.
Molecular Anthropology in the Genomic Era
Rome, Dec. 3rd-5th 2009

6. Error checking
The system also takes care of
checking data consistency and
flags the user for potential errors
through on-the-fly:
● error-checking on conflicting or
inconsistent UEPs with respect to
the calculated haplogroup and
branch nodes;
● flagging out-of-range STRs
Molecular Anthropology in the Genomic Era
Rome, Dec. 3rd-5th 2009

7. Would like to see more?
● The first public HaPlone installation is
at http://anthropos.biocomp.unibo.it
● ..but if you stop by the poster, I have it
running on my laptop and you may
see it live
Molecular Anthropology in the Genomic Era
Rome, Dec. 3rd-5th 2009