Project Scientist-I
Experimental / Computation analysis experience in highthroughput genomics/ clinical application.

Project Manager
Experience in handling large biological projects involving high-throughput genomics/ clinical application.

Scientific Administrative Assistant
Lab Work.

More at https://vinodscaria.genomes.in/positionsopen

The "Ifs" of NGS QC and Trimming

1. Ensures Data Integrity
   If you want to minimize errors in downstream analyses, QC and trimming remove low-quality reads and bases, ensuring high-confidence data. This step is essential for reliable variant calling, assembly, and other applications.

2. Removes Contaminants
   If adapter sequences or contaminants are present in the raw reads, trimming can eliminate them. This prevents issues like misalignment or incorrect biological interpretations, ensuring cleaner data for analysis.

3. Improves Mapping and Assembly
   If your goal is better alignment to a reference genome or improved de novo assembly, trimming low-quality bases and adapters is critical. High-quality reads map more efficiently and generate more accurate assemblies.

4. Reduces Computational Load
   If you want to save computational resources, trimming reduces the dataset size, which speeds up processing and analysis. Clean datasets mean less computational time spent on processing low-quality data.

5. Prepares for Standardized Analyses
   If your project involves multiple datasets, QC and trimming ensure uniformity across them. This standardization makes comparisons valid and reproducible, particularly in large collaborative studies.

The "Buts" of NGS QC and Trimming

1. Risk of Over-Trimming
   But excessive trimming can lead to the loss of informative sequences, reducing read depth and potentially discarding biologically relevant data. This is especially critical in studies with limited sequencing depth.

2. Bias Introduction
   But trimming algorithms might introduce biases, especially if they inadvertently remove sequences with specific biological patterns. This can skew results and compromise biological insights.

3. Loss of Context in Paired-End Reads
   But trimming one read in a pair more than the other can lead to loss of pairing information. This complicates downstream analyses that rely on paired-end data, such as structural variant detection.

4. Time and Resource Intensive
   But running QC and trimming for large datasets can be computationally expensive and time-consuming. As sequencing depth increases, preprocessing becomes a bottleneck in the analysis pipeline.

5. Variable Standards
   But the criteria for trimming (e.g., quality threshold, minimum read length) can vary between tools and datasets. This variability may affect reproducibility and comparability of results across studies.

Balancing the "Ifs" and "Buts"

To maximize the benefits of QC and trimming while mitigating the challenges, consider the following best practices:

• Use QC Tools Wisely: Start with tools like FastQC to identify quality issues in your raw data. Visualizing quality metrics helps tailor your trimming parameters.

• Choose Reliable Trimming Tools: Tools like Trimmomatic, Cutadapt, and BBduk offer adaptive and customizable trimming options. Select one that aligns with your dataset and project goals.

• Set Reasonable Parameters: Avoid over-trimming by setting quality thresholds and minimum read lengths that balance data retention and quality improvement.

• Test Downstream Effects: Validate the impact of QC and trimming on downstream analyses, such as alignment efficiency, variant calling accuracy, or assembly quality.

• Document Your Workflow: Maintain detailed records of the parameters and tools used for QC and trimming. This ensures reproducibility and enables better troubleshooting.

Conclusion

NGS quality control and trimming are essential steps to ensure reliable and accurate data for analysis. While the "ifs" highlight the clear benefits of these steps, the "buts" remind us of the potential pitfalls. By adopting best practices and carefully balancing these considerations, you can optimize your preprocessing workflow and unlock the full potential of your sequencing data.

minimap -t 24 assembly.fasta long_reads.fastq.gz | racon -t 24 long_reads.fastq.gz - assembly.fasta racon_assembly.fasta
nucmer -p nucmer assembly.fasta racon_assembly.fasta
show-snps -C -T -r nucmer.delta

This reports Racon's changes in a table. You can exclude indels with the -I option in show-snps. 

This process (Racon -> MUMmer -> SNP table) solves the problem I originally raised in this issue. So as far as I'm concerned, you can close this issue (or keep it open if you still want to implement some kind of variant table).

We accomplish this by first calculating genotype likelihoods for every site. For a given site in a diploid genome, there are 10 possible genotypes (AA, AC, AG, AT, CC, CG, CT, GG, GT, TT). Referee takes as input the genotype likelihoods calculated for all 10 genotypes given the called reference base at each position.

Referee is a program to calculate a quality score for every position in a genome assembly. This allows for easy filtering of low quality sites for any downstream analysis.

https://github.com/gwct/referee

Address of the bookmark: https://gwct.github.io/referee/#

Research Scientists within the Bioinformatics Program are involved in research related to cutting edge genomics and analysis of omics data. The research will utilize concepts, theories and best practices obtained from bioinformatics discipline and applied to biological and other biomedical data for analysis. The role may also involve designing databases, algorithm and/or computation methods for analyzing genomics and other omics data. The scientist will be working closely with the Translational Medicine Program within a state-of-the art research setting.

Please check the details of the opening and apply here: http://careers.sidra.org/sidra/Vacan...acancyID=60181

A swift, versatile phylogenomic and high-throughput sequencing simulator https://jackalope.lucasnell.com

Address of the bookmark: https://github.com/lucasnell/jackalope

About National Institute Of Plant Genome Research (NIPGR) http://www.nipgr.res.in/

The National Institute of Plant Genome Research is an autonomous institution supported by the Department of Biotechnology, Government of India. It is committed to make the institute a premier Institution for plant genomic research in the country. It was established to contribute in the achievement of such hopes as a part of national effort for meeting the challenges in the midst of fast pace of international genomic research and grasping of opportunities on long-term basis.

About the Internship:

The selected intern(s) will work in the area of in Bioinformatics under the BTISNET program of DBT in the Distributed Information Sub center (DISC) facility at NIPGR, New Delhi, under the supervision of Dr. Gitanjali Yadav, Scientist, NIPGR.

Who can apply:

Students currently pursuing the final year of Masters Degree (or equivalent) in Bioinformatics/Biotechnology with strong interest in Computational Biology and First class/division throughout academic career may apply.