The input gene lists of functional enrichment tools originate from a broad range of experimental platforms, each having unique identifier types supported by default. Most of the tools accept only a limited subset of possible identifiers, thus creating an obstacle that the users need to overcome via external tools. This common hurdle is avoided in g:Profiler by automatically detecting and accepting close to a hundred different identifier types, possibly mixed together in the same query. This name mapping functionality is provided also as an independent g:Convert service that has already been incorporated as an interoperability function to several tools (11–13).
