BACKGROUND: RNA-seq followed by de novo transcriptome assembly has been a transformative technique in biological research of non-model organisms, but the computational processing of RNA-seq data entails many different software tools. The complexity of these de novo transcriptomics workflows therefore presents a major barrier for researchers to adopt best-practice methods and up-to-date versions of software. RESULTS: Here we present a streamlined and universal de novo transcriptome assembly and annotation pipeline, transXpress, implemented in Snakemake. transXpress supports two popular assembly programs, Trinity and rnaSPAdes, and allows parallel execution on heterogeneous cluster computing hardware. CONCLUSIONS: transXpress simplifies the use of best-practice methods and up-to-date software for de novo transcriptome assembly, and produces standardized output files that can be mined using SequenceServer to facilitate rapid discovery of new genes and proteins in non-model organisms.

Department of Biology Massachusetts Institute of Technology Cambridge MA 02139 USA

Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry of the Czech Academy of Sciences Flemingovo náměstí 2 16000 Prague 6 Czech Republic

Scripps Institution of Oceanography UC San Diego 9500 Gilman Dr La Jolla CA 92093 USA

Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research 455 Main Street Cambridge MA 02142 USA

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