A new tool has been added to Proksee:

Genome Artistry

• Create poster-style comparative genome maps from a reference genome and one or more comparison genomes.
• Color aligned regions by sequence identity so conservation patterns can be seen across many related genomes.
• Choose from linear, wrapped, circular, and spiral layouts.
• Apply built-in color schemes, legends, labels, and optional info panels.
• Download figure outputs and summary metadata for downstream review.

Genome Artistry turns reference-based genome comparisons into polished visual summaries. It aligns each comparison genome to a reference coordinate system, colors retained alignment blocks by percent identity, and leaves unaligned regions visible as gaps or dark no-hit regions. The result is useful for quickly scanning broad conservation patterns and for creating communication-ready figures from comparative genome analyses.

The available layouts are:

• Linear: shows each comparison genome as a horizontal row across the reference coordinate system.
• Wrapped: splits the reference into shorter sections so long genomes can be reviewed in stacked blocks.
• Circular: arranges genomes as concentric rings around the reference coordinate system.
• Spiral: draws the comparison set as an Archimedean coil, with one loop per genome.

The examples below use an E. coli K-12 MG1655 reference genome with 16 related E. coli assemblies. The light-mode figures use the Daylight color scheme, and matching dark-mode figures using the Aurora color scheme. In both versions, the legend maps lower-to-higher sequence identity across the retained minimap2 alignments.

Linear layout showing each genome as a reference-coordinate row. Empty regions mark positions without retained alignments.

Wrapped layout splitting the same reference coordinate system into shorter sections for dense review.

Circular layout showing the same comparisons as concentric rings.

Spiral layout presenting the comparison set as a compact poster-style genome map.

Genome Artistry uses minimap2-based alignments and is designed for microbial-scale genome comparisons. It can be used to review conservation patterns across related assemblies, explore how layout and color choices affect interpretation, and produce high-resolution figures for reports, posters, and presentations.