Truke, a web tool to check for and handle excel misidentified gene symbols

Background: Genomic datasets accompanying scientific publications show a surprisingly high rate of gene name corruption. This error is generated when files and tables are imported into Microsoft Excel and certain gene symbols are automatically converted into dates. Results: We have developed Truke, a fexible Web tool to detect, tag and fix, if possible, such misconversions. Aside, Truke is language and regional locale-aware, providing file format customization (decimal symbol, field sepator, etc.) following user's preferences. Conclusions: Truke is a data format conversion tool with a unique corrupted gene symbol detection utility. Truke is freely available without registration at http://maplab.cat/truke.