dbVAST: A web server for single nucleotide polymorphism variations in penaeid shrimp

Although farmed shrimp contribute to global food security and foreign exchange, the development of genomic resources such as single nucleotide polymorphisms for these shrimp is at slow pace. Public genomic resources like Genbank and Ensembl do not host polymorphism data for shrimp. Therefore, through analysis of the short RNA-sequence reads generated on pooled-individual samples, using the latest bioinformatics tools, this study documents data of single nucleotide polymorphisms in two shrimp species, Penaeus vannamei and Penaeus indicus, and presents these data in a searchable user-friendly webtool, the dbVAST. The webtool also hosts the information about the possible effects that the variations could have on the functioning of the coded protein. This is the first open-access SNP database of shrimp intended to benefit researchers and academicians by showcasing variations in shrimp transcripts.