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Annotations indicate the known or suspected locations of genomic landmark features such as genes, exons, promoter regions, pseudogenes, and so forth; these are referred to as features, elements or gene models. Sometimes the word 'annotation' refers to a specific feature within an annotation track as well. Other less obvious data, including alignments of EST sequences, GeneChip probe sequences, and other sequences onto chromosome, are also sometimes referred to as annotations, particularly when they don't include the sequence of the aligned entity. Annotation data can be loaded from files, QuickLoad and DAS servers. Read Working with Annotation Tracks.
Graphs are tracks showing scores or other numeric values as a function of genomic position. Graphs are generally displayed as some form of plot (line plot, bar plot, heat map, etc.). The results from tiling arrays are generally represented as graphs. There are two types of graph data: point-based graphs, in which numerical values are associated with individual (single) base positions; and interval graphs, which capture values associated with ranges of genomic positions. IGB can generate certain types of graphs from annotation tracks, based on the data within the annotation track. Read Working with Graph Tracks.
Sequences are sets of DNA residues comprising a chromosome. Sequences can be fully or partially loaded from local files, QuickLoad sites, or DAS servers. It is recommended to load sequence data only for small regions of the genome at a time. IGB allows you to examine sequence data in a separate window called the Sequence Viewer. Read Working with Sequence Data.
Alignments or Reads represent how sequences obtained from an experiment (such as reads from an RNA-Seq experiment) align onto the reference genomic sequence. At low zoom they look like annotations, but with marks representing mismatches between the read and the reference genome whenever these data are available. At higher zoom they show the sequence of the aligned read, and sometimes indicate scores and the degree of agreement with the reference sequence. These are typically loaded from BAM (binary alignment) files. Read Viewing short read alignments.