BOL: Related items

Computer simulation of genetic mechanism !!

Jit — Sun, 13 Mar 2016 09:29:56 -0500

Computer simulation is the discipline of designing a model of an actual or theoretical physical/biological system, executing the model on a digital computer, and analyzing the execution output. Simulation embodies the principle of ``learning by doing'' --- to learn about the system we must first build a model of some sort and then operate the model. The use of simulation is an activity that is as natural as a child who role plays. Children understand the world around them by simulating (with toys and figurines) most of their interactions with other people, animals and objects. As adults, we lose some of this childlike behavior but recapture it later on through computer simulation. To understand reality and all of its complexity, we must build artificial objects and dynamically act out roles with them. Computer simulation is the electronic equivalent of this type of role playing and it serves to drive synthetic environments and virtual worlds. Within the overall task of simulation, there are three primary sub-fields: model design, model execution and model analysis

Simulation models have become important tools in Bioinformatics studies. There are many reasons for this, but we emphasize three of the more important:

(1) they enable exploration of hypotheses, and as such, have become invaluable means to guide research;

(2) they are unique approaches to integrate (in the literal term of the word) biological knowledge, in the form of experimental results; and

(3) they enable connecting biology with other fields of study ranging from physiology to genomics;

This blog, and this software list, is intended to guide the potential user of simulation models.
It is not, in any way, meant to be comprehensive on the very diverse simulation tools that already exist, but focuses on mechanistic, dynamic models. Similarly, it is not meant to provide any coverage of the breadth of applications; however, for interested readers, we provide references to use as a possible starting point.

Simulation models are meant to answer questions which scientists have in a dynamic, quantitative, and often, a pictorial way. Much of the bioinformatics research and its applications, in particular, involve a large number of components, actors, and factors. Assembling these in a coherent framework may seem a daunting task, especially for beginners, and can lead to confusion, even for experienced scientists, especially if the objectives of such an exercise are not well defined. Followings are the list of tools bioinformatician may use to analyze and provide answers to complex biological mechanisms and related problems.

Software Resource	Brief Description and Homepage
Aladyn	Tools to investigate how demographic parameters, populations genetics and abiotic conditions affect the rate of adaptation http://www.katja-schiffers.eu/research.html
ALF	A Simulation Framework for Genome Evolution http://www.cbrg.ethz.ch/alf
ART	ART is a set of simulation tools to generate synthetic next-generation sequencing data by mimicking real sequencing process with empirical error models or quality profiles. http://www.niehs.nih.gov/research/resources/software/biostatistics/art/
BAMSurgeon	Methods for realistic simulation of mutations in real data. https://github.com/adamewing/bamsurgeon
Bayesian Serial SimCoal	Bayesian Serial SimCoal, (BayeSSC) is a modification of SIMCOAL 1.0, a program written by Laurent Excoffier, John Novembre, and Stefan Schneider. http://www.stanford.edu/group/hadlylab/ssc/index.html
BaySICS	An integral platform with a graphical interface for statistical inference based on approximate Bayesian computation. https://sites.google.com/site/baysicsabc/
BEERS	BEERS was designed to benchmark RNA-Seq alignment algorithms and also algorithms that aim to reconstruct different isoforms and alternate splicing from RNA-Seq data http://cbil.upenn.edu/beers/
BOTTLENECK	Bottleneck is a program for detecting recent effective population size reductions from allele data frequencies http://www.ensam.inra.fr/urlb/bottleneck/bottleneck.html
BottleSim	BottleSim is a computer simulation program for simulating the process of population bottlenecks http://chkuo.name/software/bottlesim.html
CASS	Protein Sequence Simulation https://liberles.cst.temple.edu/software/cass/index.html
CDPOP	CDPOP is a landscape genetics tool for simulating the emergence of spatial genetic structure in populations resulting from specified landscape processes governing organism movement behavior. http://cel.dbs.umt.edu/cdpop
Classical Genetics Simulator	Web-based simulation software http://www.cgslab.com/
CoaSim	CoaSim is a tool for simulating the coalescent process with recombination and geneconversion under various demographic models. http://users-birc.au.dk/mailund/coasim/index.html
cosi	The cosi package is written in C and is available as a tar file. http://www.broadinstitute.org/~sfs/cosi/
CS-PSeq-Gen	A program to simulate the evolution of protein sequences under the constraints of the information of a particular reconstructed phylogeny http://bioserv.rpbs.univ-paris-diderot.fr/software/cs-pseq-gen/
DAWG	An application designed to simulate the evolution of recombinant DNA sequences in continuous time http://scit.us/projects/dawg
Easypop	EASYPOP is an individual based model intended to simulate datasets under a very broad range of conditions http://www.unil.ch/dee/en/home/menuinst/softwares--dataset/softwares/easypop.html
EggLib	EggLib is a C++/Python library and program package for evolutionary genetics and genomics. http://egglib.sourceforge.net/
EpiSIM	EpiSIM: simulation of multiple epistasis, linkage disequilibrium patterns and haplotype blocks for genome-wide interaction analysis https://sourceforge.net/projects/episimsimulator/files/
EvolSimulator	A simulation test bed for hypotheses of genome evolution http://acb.qfab.org/acb/evolsim/
EvolveAGene	A realistic coding sequence simulation program that separates mutation from selection and allows the user to set selection conditions http://bellinghamresearchinstitute.com/software/index.html
fastsimcoal	A continuous-‐time coalescent simulator of genomic diversity under arbitrarily complex evolutionary scenarios http://cmpg.unibe.ch/software/fastsimcoal/
FastSLINK	Simulation of Marker and Phenotype Data in Pedigrees https://watson.hgen.pitt.edu/
FFPopSim	C++/Python library for population genetics. http://webdav.tuebingen.mpg.de/ffpopsim/
FLUX SIMULATOR	The Flux Simulator aims at providing a deterministic in silico reproduction of the experimental pipelines for RNA-Seq, employing a minimal set of parameters. http://sammeth.net/confluence/display/sim/home
forqs	Forward-in-time simulation of Recombination, Quantitative Traits, and Selection https://bitbucket.org/dkessner/forqs
ForSim	ForSim: A Forward Evolutionary Computer Simulation http://anth.la.psu.edu/research/weiss-lab/research/research
ForwSim	The program given below is based on the algorithm described in Padhukasahasram et al. 2008 to simulate genetic drift in a standard Wright-Fisher process. http://badri-populationgeneticsimulators.blogspot.com/
FPG	Forward Population Genetic simulation https://bio.cst.temple.edu/~hey/software/software.htm#fpg
FREGENE	FREGENE is a C++ program that simulates sequence-like data over large genomic regions in large diploid populations. http://www.ebi.ac.uk/projects/bargen
FIGG	FIGG is a genome simulation tool that uses known or theorized variation frequency, per a given fragment size and grouped by GC content across a genome to model new genomes in FASTA format while tracking applied mutations for use in analysis http://insilicogenome.sourceforge.net/
fwdpp	A C++ template library for implementing efficient forward simulations. http://molpopgen.github.io/fwdpp/
GAMETES	Genetic Architecture Model Emulator for Testing and Evaluating Software: Simulates complex SNP models with pure, strict epistatic interactions with n-loci. http://sourceforge.net/projects/gametes/?source=navbar
GASP	Genometric Analysis Simulation Program. A software tool for testing and investigating methods in statistical genetics by generating samples of family data based on user specified models. http://research.nhgri.nih.gov/gasp/
GCTA	Genome-wide Complex Trait Analysis http://www.complextraitgenomics.com/software/gcta/download.html
GemSIM	Next generation sequencing read simulator http://sourceforge.net/projects/gemsim/
GeneArtisan	Simulation of Markers in Case-Control Study Designs http://www.rannala.org/?page_id=241
GENOME	A rapid coalescent-based whole genome simulator http://www.sph.umich.edu/csg/liang/genome/
GenomePop2	GenomePop2 is a specialization of the program GenomePop just to manage SNPs under more flexible and useful settings. If you need models with more than 2 alleles please use the GenomePop program version. https://ritchielab.psu.edu/research/research-areas/statistical-genetics-and-gen-epi/methods/genomesimla
GenomeSimla	GenomeSIMLA is currently under development- however, we have a beta release that we are asking to be tested http://chgr.mc.vanderbilt.edu/genomesimla/
GENS2	Simulates interactions among two genetic and one environmental factor and also allows for epistatic interactions. https://sourceforge.net/projects/gensim/
GWAsimulator	A rapid whole genome simulation program http://biostat.mc.vanderbilt.edu/wiki/main/gwasimulator
HAP-SAMPLE	An association simulator for candidate regions or genome scans http://www.hapsample.org/
HAPGEN	A simulator for the simulation of case control datasets at SNP markers https://mathgen.stats.ox.ac.uk/genetics_software/hapgen/hapgen2.html
HapSim	A simulation tool for generating haplotype data with pre-specified allele frequencies and LD coefficients http://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/hapsim/index.html
HAPSIMU	A program that simulates heterogeneous populations with various known and controllable structures under the continuous migration model or the discrete model http://l.web.umkc.edu/liujian/
IBDsim	IBDSim is a computer package for the simulation of genotypic data under general isolation by distance models. http://raphael.leblois.free.fr/
indel-Seq-Gen	A biological sequence simulation program that simulates highly divergent DNA sequences and protein superfamilies http://bioinfolab.unl.edu/~cstrope/isg/
Indelible	A powerful and flexible simulator of biological evolution http://abacus.gene.ucl.ac.uk/software/indelible/
invertFREGENE	InvertFREGENE is a forward-in-time simulator of inversions in population genetic data http://www.ebi.ac.uk/projects/bargen/
kernalPop	A spatially explicit population genetic simulation engine http://cran.r-project.org/src/contrib/archive/kernelpop/
MaCS	Markovian Coalescent Simulator http://www-hsc.usc.edu/~garykche/
Marlin	Marlin provides a user-friendly interface for performing forward-in-time population genetic simulations. http://www.patrickmeirmans.com/software/marlin.html
Mason	A package for the simulation of nucleotide data. http://www.seqan.de/projects/mason/
mbs	modifying Hudson's ms software to generate samples of DNA sequences with a biallelic site under selection http://www.sendou.soken.ac.jp/esb/innan/innanlab/software.html
Mendel's Accountant	Mendel's Accountant (MENDEL) is an advanced numerical simulation program for modeling genetic change over time and was developed collaboratively by Sanford, Baumgardner, Brewer, Gibson and ReMine http://mendelsaccount.sourceforge.net/
MetaPopGen	Simulates genetics in large size metapopulations https://sites.google.com/site/marcoandrello/metapopgen
MetaSim	A tool to generate collections of synthetic reads that reflect the diverse taxonomical composition of typical metagenome data sets http://ab.inf.uni-tuebingen.de/software/metasim/
mlcoalsim	Multilocus Coalescent Simulations http://code.google.com/p/mlcoalsim-v1/
ms	The purpose of this program is to allow one to investigate the statistical properties of such samples, to evaluate estimators or statistical tests, and generally to aid in the interpretation of polymorphism data sets. http://home.uchicago.edu/~rhudson1/source/mksamples.html
msHOT	The purpose of this program is to allow one to investigate the statistical properties of such samples, to evaluate estimators or statistical tests, and generally to aid in the interpretation of polymorphism data sets. http://home.uchicago.edu/~rhudson1/
msms	A coalescent Simlation tool with selection. http://www.mabs.at/ewing/msms/index.shtml
MySSP	A program for the simulation of DNA sequence evolution across a phylogenetic tree http://www.rosenberglab.net/software.html
Nemo	A forward-time, individual-based, genetically explicit, and stochastic simulation program designed to study the evolution of genetic markers, life history traits, and phenotypic traits in a flexible (meta-)population framework. http://nemo2.sourceforge.net/
NetRecodon	Coalescent simulation of coding DNA sequences with recombination (inter and intracodon), migration and demography http://code.google.com/p/netrecodon/
OncoSimulR	BioConductor package for Forward Genetic Simulation of Cancer Progresion with Epistasis https://github.com/rdiaz02/oncosimul
PEDAGOG	Software for simulating eco-evolutionary population dynamics https://bcrc.bio.umass.edu/pedigreesoftware/node/5
phenosim	A tool to add phenotypes to simulated genotypes http://evoplant.uni-hohenheim.de/doku.php?id=software:software
PhyloSim	An R package for the Monte Carlo simulation of sequence evolution http://www.ebi.ac.uk/goldman-srv/phylosim/
pIRS	Profile-based Illumina pair-end reads simulator https://code.google.com/p/pirs/
ProteinEvolver	Simulation of protein evolution along phylogenies under structure-based substitution models http://code.google.com/p/proteinevolver/
QMSim	QTL and Marker Simulator http://www.aps.uoguelph.ca/~msargol/qmsim/
quantiNEMO	An individual-based program for the analysis of quantitative traits with explicit genetic architecture potentially under selection in a structured population http://www2.unil.ch/popgen/softwares/quantinemo/
RECOAL	Simulates new haplotype data from a reference population of haplotypes. ftp://popgen.usc.edu/
Recodon	Coalescent simulation of coding DNA sequences with recombination, migration and demography http://code.google.com/p/recodon/
rlsim	A package for simulating RNA-seq library preparation with parameter estimation http://bit.ly/rlsim-git
Rmetasim	Rmetasim is a front-end for the metasim engine that is implemented as a package that runs in the statistical computing environment R http://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/rmetasim/index.html
RNA Seq Simulator	RSS takes SAM alignment files from RNA-Seq data and simulates over dispersed, multiple replica, differential, non-stranded RNA-Seq datasets. http://useq.sourceforge.net/cmdlnmenus.html#rnaseqsimulator
Rose	Random model of sequence evolution http://bibiserv.techfak.uni-bielefeld.de/rose/
scrm	A coalescent simulator optimized for long sequences and large samples. https://scrm.github.io/
SelSim	SelSim is a program for Monte Carlo simulation of DNA polymorphism data for a recom- bining region within which a single bi-allelic site has experienced natural selection http://www.well.ox.ac.uk/~spencer/selsim/
Seq-Gen	An application for the Monte Carlo simulation of molecular sequence evolution along phylogenetic trees. http://tree.bio.ed.ac.uk/software/seqgen/
SEQPower	Statistical power analysis for sequence-based association studies http://bioinformatics.org/spower/
SeqSIMLA	SeqSIMLA can simulate sequence data with user-specified disease and quantitative trait models. Family or unrelated case-control data can be simulated. http://seqsimla.sourceforge.net/
Serial NetEvolve	A flexible utility for generating serially-sampled sequences along a tree or recombinant network http://biorg.cis.fiu.edu/sne/
SFS_CODE	SFS_CODE can perform forward population genetic simulations under a general Wright-Fisher model with arbitrary migration, demographic, selective, and mutational effects. http://sfscode.sourceforge.net/sfs_code/index/index.html
SIBSIM	Quantitative phenotype simulation in extended pedigrees http://sourceforge.net/projects/sibsim/
SimAdapt	A spatially explicit, individual-based, forward-time, landscape-genetic simulation model combined with a landscape cellular automaton. https://www.openabm.org/model/3137
SIMCOAL2	A coalescent program for the simulation of complex recombination patterns over large genomic regions under various demographic models http://cmpg.unibe.ch/software/simcoal2/
SimCopy	An R package simulating the evolution of copy number profiles along a tree. http://bit.ly/simcopy
SIMLA	SIMLA is a SIMuLAtion program that generates data sets of families for use in Linkage and Association studies. http://dmpi.duke.edu/simla-simulation-software-version-32
SimPed	A Simulation Program to Generate Haplotype and Genotype Data for Pedigree Structures http://bioinformatics.org/simped/
Simprot	A program to simulate protein evolution by substitution, insertion and deletion http://www.uhnresearch.ca/labs/tillier/software.htm#3
SimRare	Rare variant simulation and analysis tool http://code.google.com/p/simrare/
simuGWAS	A forward-time simulator that simulates realistic samples for genome-wide association studies. http://simupop.sourceforge.net/cookbook/simugwas
simuPOP	simuPOP is a general-purpose individual-based forward-time population genetics simulation environment. http://simupop.sourceforge.net/
SISSI	A software tool to generate data of related sequences along a given phylogeny, taking into account user defined system of neighbourhoods and instantaneous rate matrices. http://www.cibiv.at/software/sissi/
SMARTPOP	Simulating Mating Alliance as a Reproductive Tactic for Populations http://smartpop.sourceforge.net/
SNPsim	Coalescent simulation of hotspot recombination http://code.google.com/p/phylosoftware/
SPIP	SPIP simulates the transmission of genes from parents to offspring in a population having demographic structure defined by the user http://swfsc.noaa.gov/textblock.aspx?division=fed&id=3434
Splatche	Spatial and Temporal Coalescences in Heterogeneous Environment http://www.splatche.com/
srv	Simulator of Rare Varaints (srv) is a simulator for the simulation of the introduction and evolution of (rare) genetic variants. http://simupop.sourceforge.net/cookbook/simurarevariants
SUP	SLINK/FastSLINK utility program http://mlemire.freeshell.org/software.html
TreesimJ	A flexible, forward-time population genetic simulator http://code.google.com/p/treesimj/
Variant Simulation Tools	A simulation tool for post-GWAS genetic epidemiological studies using whole-genome or whole-exome next-gen sequencing data, with an emphasis on user-friendliness and reproducibility. http://varianttools.sourceforge.net/simulation/homepage
Vortex	VORTEX is an individual-based simulation model for population viability analysis (PVA). http://www.vortex9.org/vortex.html
Wessim	Whole Exome Sequencing SIMulator http://sak042.github.io/wessim/

Bioinformatics market in India

Rahul Agarwal — Fri, 23 Aug 2013 07:08:49 -0500

Key Topics Covered in the Report:

The market size of the Indian Bioinformatics Industry , FY’2007-FY’2013
Market segmentation of India bioinformatics industry by application by sectors, FY’2007-FY’2013
Market Segmentation of India bioinformatics industry by products and services,FY’2007-FY’2013
Market Segmentation of India bioinformatics industry by applications of bioinformatics ,FY’2007-FY’2013
India bioinformatics industry trends and developments
Government regulations and initiatives of India bioinformatics industry
Major bioinformatics research institutes in India
Market Share of leading players in bioinformatics industry in India,FY’2013
Company profiles of major players in India bioinformatics industry
Future outlook and projections on the basis of revenue in India bioinformatics market, FY’2014-FY’2018

(Source: Ken Research)

Address of the bookmark: http://www.kenresearch.com/healthcare/biotechnology/india-bioinformatics-industry-research-report/392-91.html

Learn Genetics Online

Rahul Agarwal — Wed, 09 Apr 2014 19:12:42 -0500

Great source to learn genetics and other relevant stuffs online.

Address of the bookmark: http://learn.genetics.utah.edu/

Tigers genome sequenced

Rahul Agarwal — Tue, 17 Sep 2013 16:48:24 -0500

Fifteen scientists led by Dr Jong Bhak of Genome Research Foundation, South Korea, decoded as many as 3 billion nucleotides (organic molecules that form the basic building blocks of nucleic acids, such as DNA). They identified 20,000 genes related to various functions of the tiger.

The biggest and perhaps most fearsome of the world's big cats, the tiger, shares 95.6 percent of its DNA with humans' cute and furry companions, domestic cats.

The new research showed that big cats have genetic mutations that enabled them to be carnivores. The team also identified mutations that allow snow leopards to thrive at high altitudes.

Reference:

http://www.nbcnews.com/science/your-cat-ferocious-tigers-share-lot-95-6-percent-their-4B11182690

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/environment/flora-fauna/Gene-mapping-of-tiger-completed/articleshow/22671681.cms

Paper:

http://www.nature.com/ncomms/2013/130917/ncomms3433/full/ncomms3433.html

Opera: An optimal genome scaffolding program

Jit — Mon, 27 Nov 2017 10:18:20 -0600

Opera (Optimal Paired-End Read Assembler) is a sequence assembly program (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sequence_assembly ). It uses information from paired-end or long reads to optimally order and orient contigs assembled from shotgun-sequencing reads.

An updated version called OPERA-LG has been re-engineered with features for the assembly of large and complex genomes.

Song Gao, Denis Bertrand, Burton K. H. Chia and Niranjan Nagarajan. OPERA-LG: efficient and exact scaffolding of large, repeat-rich eukaryotic genomes with performance guarantees. Genome Biology, May 2016, doi: 10.1186/s13059-016-0951-y.

Song Gao, Wing-Kin Sung, Niranjan Nagarajan. Opera: reconstructing optimal genomic scaffolds with high-throughput paired-end sequences. Journal of Computational Biology, Sept. 2011, doi:10.1089/cmb.2011.0170.

https://genomebiology.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13059-016-0951-y

Address of the bookmark: https://sourceforge.net/projects/operasf/

SPAdes hybrid genome assembly

Jit — Mon, 27 Nov 2017 08:05:40 -0600

When you have both Illumina and Nanopore data, then SPAdes remains a good option for hybrid assembly - SPAdes was used to produce the B fragilis assembly by Mick Watson’s group.

Again, running spades.py will show you the options:

spades.py

This produces:

SPAdes genome assembler v3.10.1

Usage: /usr/local/SPAdes-3.10.1-Linux/bin/spades.py [options] -o 

Basic options:
-o          directory to store all the resulting files (required)
--sc                    this flag is required for MDA (single-cell) data
--meta                  this flag is required for metagenomic sample data
--rna                   this flag is required for RNA-Seq data
--plasmid               runs plasmidSPAdes pipeline for plasmid detection
--iontorrent            this flag is required for IonTorrent data
--test                  runs SPAdes on toy dataset
-h/--help               prints this usage message
-v/--version            prints version

Input data:
--12          file with interlaced forward and reverse paired-end reads
-1            file with forward paired-end reads
-2            file with reverse paired-end reads
-s            file with unpaired reads
--pe<#>-12            file with interlaced reads for paired-end library number <#> (<#> = 1,2,..,9)
--pe<#>-1             file with forward reads for paired-end library number <#> (<#> = 1,2,..,9)
--pe<#>-2             file with reverse reads for paired-end library number <#> (<#> = 1,2,..,9)
--pe<#>-s             file with unpaired reads for paired-end library number <#> (<#> = 1,2,..,9)
--pe<#>-    orientation of reads for paired-end library number <#> (<#> = 1,2,..,9;  = fr, rf, ff)
--s<#>                file with unpaired reads for single reads library number <#> (<#> = 1,2,..,9)
--mp<#>-12            file with interlaced reads for mate-pair library number <#> (<#> = 1,2,..,9)
--mp<#>-1             file with forward reads for mate-pair library number <#> (<#> = 1,2,..,9)
--mp<#>-2             file with reverse reads for mate-pair library number <#> (<#> = 1,2,..,9)
--mp<#>-s             file with unpaired reads for mate-pair library number <#> (<#> = 1,2,..,9)
--mp<#>-    orientation of reads for mate-pair library number <#> (<#> = 1,2,..,9;  = fr, rf, ff)
--hqmp<#>-12          file with interlaced reads for high-quality mate-pair library number <#> (<#> = 1,2,..,9)
--hqmp<#>-1           file with forward reads for high-quality mate-pair library number <#> (<#> = 1,2,..,9)
--hqmp<#>-2           file with reverse reads for high-quality mate-pair library number <#> (<#> = 1,2,..,9)
--hqmp<#>-s           file with unpaired reads for high-quality mate-pair library number <#> (<#> = 1,2,..,9)
--hqmp<#>-  orientation of reads for high-quality mate-pair library number <#> (<#> = 1,2,..,9;  = fr, rf, ff)
--nxmate<#>-1         file with forward reads for Lucigen NxMate library number <#> (<#> = 1,2,..,9)
--nxmate<#>-2         file with reverse reads for Lucigen NxMate library number <#> (<#> = 1,2,..,9)
--sanger              file with Sanger reads
--pacbio              file with PacBio reads
--nanopore            file with Nanopore reads
--tslr        file with TSLR-contigs
--trusted-contigs             file with trusted contigs
--untrusted-contigs           file with untrusted contigs

Pipeline options:
--only-error-correction runs only read error correction (without assembling)
--only-assembler        runs only assembling (without read error correction)
--careful               tries to reduce number of mismatches and short indels
--continue              continue run from the last available check-point
--restart-from      restart run with updated options and from the specified check-point ('ec', 'as', 'k', 'mc')
--disable-gzip-output   forces error correction not to compress the corrected reads
--disable-rr            disables repeat resolution stage of assembling

Advanced options:
--dataset             file with dataset description in YAML format
-t/--threads               number of threads
                                [default: 16]
-m/--memory                RAM limit for SPAdes in Gb (terminates if exceeded)
                                [default: 250]
--tmp-dir              directory for temporary files
                                [default: /tmp]
-k                 comma-separated list of k-mer sizes (must be odd and
                                less than 128) [default: 'auto']
--cov-cutoff             coverage cutoff value (a positive float number, or 'auto', or 'off') [default: 'off']
--phred-offset  <33 or 64>      PHRED quality offset in the input reads (33 or 64)
                                [default: auto-detect]

As you can see this is also a “pipeline” of tools that can be switched on or off. SPAdes takes quite a long time, so for the purposes of this practical, something like this may suffice:

spades.py -t 4 \
          -m 32 \
          -k 31,51,71 \
          --only-assembler \
          -1 miseq.1.fastq -2 miseq.2.fastq \
          --nanopore minion.fastq \
          -o hybrid_assembly

In turn, these parameters mean

use 4 threads
max memory is 32Gb
use 3 kmer values to build the de bruijn graph(s) - 31, 51 and 71
only run the assembler, not the correction algorithm (for speed)
read 1 and read 2 of the MiSeq data
the nanopore data
put the output in folder “hybrid_assembly”

COPE: an accurate k-mer-based pair-end reads connection tool to facilitate genome assembly

Jit — Wed, 06 Dec 2017 02:08:14 -0600

An efficient tool called Connecting Overlapped Pair-End (COPE) reads, to connect overlapping pair-end reads using k-mer frequencies. We evaluated our tool on 30× simulated pair-end reads from Arabidopsis thaliana with 1% base error. COPE connected over 99% of reads with 98.8% accuracy, which is, respectively, 10 and 2% higher than the recently published tool FLASH. When COPE is applied to real reads for genome assembly, the resulting contigs are found to have fewer errors and give a 14-fold improvement in the N50 measurement when compared with the contigs produced using unconnected reads.

Address of the bookmark: ftp://ftp.genomics.org.cn/pub/cope

Tools for bacterial whole genome annotation

Radha Agarkar — Sat, 16 Dec 2017 17:37:47 -0600

RAST – Web tool (upload contigs), uses the subsystems in the SEED database and provides detailed annotation and pathway analysis. Takes several hours per genome but I think this is the best way to get a high quality annotation (if you have only a few genomes to annotate).

Prokka – Standalone command line tool, takes just a few minutes per genome. This is the best way to get good quality annotation in a flash, which is particularly useful if you have loads of genomes or need to annotate a pangenome or metagenome. Note however that the quality of functional information is not as good as RAST, and you will need several extra steps if you want to do functional profiling and pathway analysis of your genome(s)… which is in-built in RAST.

NCBI Prokaryotic Genome Annotation Pipeline is designed to annotate bacterial and archaeal genomes (chromosomes and plasmids).

Genome annotation is a multi-level process that includes prediction of protein-coding genes, as well as other functional genome units such as structural RNAs, tRNAs, small RNAs, pseudogenes, control regions, direct and inverted repeats, insertion sequences, transposons and other mobile elements.

PGAP: NCBI has developed an automatic prokaryotic genome annotation pipeline that combines ab initio gene prediction algorithms with homology based methods. The first version of NCBI Prokaryotic Genome Automatic Annotation Pipeline (PGAAP; see Pubmed Article) developed in 2005 has been replaced with an upgraded version that is capable of processing a larger data volume. NCBI's annotation pipeline depends on several internal databases and is not currently available for download or use outside of the NCBI environment.

BEACON (automated tool for Bacterial GEnome Annotation ComparisON), a fast tool for an automated and a systematic comparison of different annotations of single genomes. The extended annotation assigns putative functions to many genes with unknown functions. BEACON is available under GNU General Public License version 3.0 and is accessible at: http://www.cbrc.kaust.edu.sa/BEACON/.

BlastKOLA: Assigns K numbers to the user's sequence data by BLAST searches, respectively, against a nonredundant set of KEGG GENES. KOALA (KEGG Orthology And Links Annotation) is KEGG's internal annotation tool for K number assignment of KEGG GENES using SSEARCH computation. Annotate Sequence in KEGG Mapper and Pathogen Checker in KEGG Pathogen are special interfaces to this server and can be executed in an interactive mode. BlastKOALA is suitable for annotating fully sequenced genomes.

PAGIT: Provides a toolkit for improving the quality of genome assemblies created via an assembly software. PAGIT compiled four tools: (i) ABACAS which classifies and orientates contigs and estimates the sizes of gaps between them; (ii) IMAGE uses paired-end reads to extend contigs and close gaps within the scaffolds; (iii) ICORN for identifying and correcting small errors in consensus sequences and; (iv) RATT for help annotation. The software was mainly created to analyze parasite genomes of up to about 300 Mb.

MAKER: A portable and easily configurable genome annotation pipeline. MAKER allows smaller eukaryotic and prokaryotic genome projects to independently annotate their genomes and to create genome databases. It identifies repeats, aligns ESTs and proteins to a genome, produces ab-initio gene predictions and automatically synthesizes these data into gene annotations having evidence-based quality values. MAKER's inputs are minimal and its ouputs can be directly loaded into a Generic Model Organism Database (GMOD). They can also be viewed in the Apollo genome browser; this feature of MAKER provides an easy means to annotate, view and edit individual contigs and BACs without the overhead of a database. MAKER is available for download and can be tested online via the MAKER Web Annotation Service (MWAS).

MyPro is a software pipeline for high-quality prokaryotic genome assembly and annotation. It was validated on 18 oral streptococcal strains to produce submission-ready, annotated draft genomes. MyPro installed as a virtual machine and supported by updated databases will enable biologists to perform quality prokaryotic genome assembly and annotation with ease.

List of visualization tools for genome alignments

Rahul Nayak — Fri, 02 Feb 2018 13:25:33 -0600

Genome browsers are useful not only for showing final results but also for improving analysis protocols, testing data quality, and generating result drafts. Its integration in analysis pipelines allows the optimization of parameters, which leads to better results. But sometime, we need publication ready figure of genomes. Following are the list of genome alignment visualization tools, which could be useful for analysis and interpretation of results:

ABySS Explorer

Interactive Java application that uses a novel graph-based representation to display a sequence assembly and associated metadata

http://www.bcgsc.ca/platform/bioinfo/software/abyss-explorer

BamView

Genome browser and annotation tool that allows visualization of sequence features, next-generation sequencing (NGS) data and the results of analyses within the context of the sequence, and also its six-frame translation

http://www.sanger.ac.uk/resources/software/artemis/

DNannotator

Annotation web toolkit for regional genomic sequences

http://bioapp.psych.uic.edu/DNannotator.htm

JVM

Java Visual Mapping tool for NGS reads

http://www.springer.com/cda/content/document/cda_downloaddocument/9789401792448-c2.pdf?SGWID=0-0-45-1487072-p176815501

LookSeq

Web-based visualization of sequences derived from multiple sequencing technologies. Low- or high-depth read pileups and easy visualization of putative single nucleotide and structural variation

http://lookseq.sourceforge.net

MagicViewer

Visualization of short read alignment, identification of genetic variation and association with annotation information of a reference genome

http://bioinformatics.zj.cn/magicviewer/

MapView

Alignments of huge-scale single-end and pair-end short reads

http://omictools.com/mapview-s1367.html

MultiPipMaker

Computes alignments of similar regions in two DNA sequences. The resulting alignments are summarized with a ‘percent identity plot’ (pip)

http://pipmaker.bx.psu.edu/pipmaker/

PileLineGUI

Handling genome position files in NGS studies

http://sing.ei.uvigo.es/pileline/pilelinegui.html

SAMtools tview

Simple and fast text alignment viewer; NGS compatible

http://www.htslib.org/

SEWAL

Uses a locality-sensitive hashing algorithm to enumerate all unique sequences in an entire Illumina sequencing run

http://www.sourceforge.net/projects/sewal

STAR

A web-based integrated solution to management and visualization of sequencing data

http://wanglab.ucsd.edu/star/browser

SVA

Software for annotating and visualizing sequenced human genomes

http://www.svaproject.org

Viewer (IGV)

Visualization of large heterogeneous datasets, providing a smooth and intuitive user experience at all levels of genome resolution

https://www.broadinstitute.org/igv/

ZOOM Lite

NGS data mapping and visualization software

http://bioinfor.com/zoom/lite/

ARCS: scaffolding genome drafts with linked reads

Rahul Nayak — Tue, 06 Mar 2018 16:35:26 -0600

ARCS, an application that utilizes the barcoding information contained in linked reads to further organize draft genomes into highly contiguous assemblies. We show how the contiguity of an ABySS H.sapiensgenome assembly can be increased over six-fold, using moderate coverage (25-fold) Chromium data. We expect ARCS to have broad utility in harnessing the barcoding information contained in linked read data for connecting high-quality sequences in genome assembly drafts.

Address of the bookmark: https://github.com/bcgsc/ARCS/