ACT: aggregation and correlation toolbox for analyses of genome tracks

We have implemented aggregation and correlation toolbox ( ACT), an efficient, multifaceted toolbox for analyzing continuous signal and discrete region tracks from high-throughput genomic experiments, such as RNA-seq or ChIP-chip signal profiles from the ENCODE and modENCODE projects, or lists of single nucleotide polymorphisms from the 1000 genomes project. It is able to generate aggregate profiles of a given track around a set of specified anchor points, such as transcription start sites. It is also able to correlate related tracks and analyze them for saturation-i.e. how much of a certain feature is covered with each new succeeding experiment. The ACT site contains downloadable code in a variety of formats, interactive web servers ( for use on small quantities of data), example datasets, documentation and a gallery of outputs. Here, we explain the components of the toolbox in more detail and apply them in various contexts.