The GRanges class from Bioconductor provides for a optimized way to store sequence information and also extends the usage by accommodating further information if required, i.e. via mcols. But the restriction here is addition in terms of column-only format. What if I am looking to extend the profile of the GRanges object by including a character attribute. eg.

temp <- GRanges(seqnames= . . . , ranges = . . .) temp$name <- "ABC"

Here I want to have a character variable (accessible from the object), name that holds some textual information. Would it be possible by overriding the constructor of GRanges or am I going too far with this.

Thanks in advance. Best, Shaurya.