Beav: a bacterial genome and mobile element annotation pipeline.

Annotation of genome features, such as the presence of genes and their predicted function, or larger loci encoding secretion systems or biosynthetic gene clusters, is necessary for understanding the functions encoded by an organism. Genomes can also host diverse mobile genetic elements, such as integrative and conjugative elements and/or phages, that are often not annotated by existing pipelines. These elements can horizontally mobilize genes encoding for virulence, antimicrobial resistance, or other adaptive functions and alter the phenotype of an organism. We developed a software pipeline, called Beav, that combines new and existing tools for the comprehensive annotation of these and other major features. Existing pipelines often misannotate loci important for virulence or mutualism in plant-associated bacteria. Beav includes custom databases and optional workflows for the improved annotation of plant-associated bacteria. Beav is designed to be easy to install and run, making comprehensive genome annotation broadly available to the research community.