WEScover: selection between clinical whole exome sequencing and gene panel testing

Background Whole exome sequencing (WES) is widely adopted in clinical and research settings; however, one of the practical concerns is the potential false negatives due to incomplete breadth and depth of coverage for several exons in clinically implicated genes. In some cases, a targeted gene panel testing may be a dependable option to ascertain true negatives for genomic variants in known disease-associated genes. We developed a web-based tool to quickly gauge whether all genes of interest would be reliably covered by WES or whether targeted gene panel testing should be considered instead to minimize false negatives in candidate genes. Results WEScover is a novel web application that provides an intuitive user interface for discovering breadth and depth of coverage across population-scale WES datasets, searching either by phenotype, by targeted gene panel(s) or by gene(s). Moreover, the application shows metrics from the Genome Aggregation Database to provide gene-centric view on breadth of coverage. Conclusions WEScover allows users to efficiently query genes and phenotypes for the coverage of associated exons by WES and recommends use of panel tests for the genes with potential incomplete coverage by WES.

WEScover: selection of whole exome sequencing vs. gene panel testing

MotivationWhole exome sequencing (WES) is widely adopted in clinical and research settings. However, there is potential for false negatives due to incomplete breadth and depth of coverage for several exons in clinically implicated genes. In some cases, a targeted gene panel testing may be a dependable option to ascertain true negatives for genomic variants in known phenotype associated genes. We developed a tool for quickly gauging whether all genes of interest would be reliably covered by WES or whether targeted gene panel testing should instead be considered to minimize false negatives in candidate genes.ResultsWEScover is a novel web application that provides an interface for discovering breadth and depth of coverage across population scale WES datasets, searching either by phenotype, by targeted gene panels and by gene(s). Moreover, the application shows metrics from the Genome Aggregation Database to provide gene-centric view on breadth of coverage.ConclusionWEScover allows users to efficiently query genes and phenotype for exome coverage of associated exons, and recommends use of panel tests for genes that are potentially not well covered by WES.