How to draw this kind of genome comparison circle figure

Question

[flavobacteria]

Like the Fig. 1 appear in this paper: Complete Genome Sequence and Transcriptomic Analysis of the Novel Pathogen Elizabethkingia anophelis in Response to Oxidative Stress. Thank you!

Answer 1

[Philipp Bayer]

You mean this paper?

That looks like a Circos plot to me, the homepage is here. It's not trivial to use but there are numerous tutorials out there.

[dariober]

Thanks for linking the paper. If I can add a bit of a rant... These circos plots look beautiful but do they actually convey some message? Most of these plots cram so much data that I don't get much out of them.

[Philipp Bayer]

I fully agree with you - Circos lets you add unlimited tracks so authors are often tempted into throwing every track of data they have in there, one track or type of information is enough for me. These plots are becoming very widespread so I assume there's be a bit of a public backlash soon.