BOL: Related items

HiCanu: accurate assembly of segmental duplications, satellites, and allelic variants from high-fidelity long reads

BioStar — Fri, 27 Mar 2020 22:49:31 -0500

HiCanu, a significant modification of the Canu assembler designed to leverage the full potential of HiFi reads via homopolymer compression, overlap-based error correction, and aggressive false overlap filtering.

More at https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.03.14.992248v3

Address of the bookmark: https://github.com/marbl/canu

Chekulaevalab

Tue, 12 Jan 2016 02:32:03 -0600

Focusing on understanding the molecular mechanisms that regulate mRNA translation, localization and stability and role of non-coding RNAs in this process. Up to 90% of human DNA is estimated to be transcribed into so called non-coding RNAs that are not translated into proteins. Many of them act as potent modifiers of gene expression. miRNAs are a class of such short non-coding RNAs. They regulate expression of more than a half of eukaryotic genes, thus, affecting multiple biological processes, including cell proliferation, differentiation, apoptosis and senescence. Not surprisingly, miRNAs are involved in many human pathologies, including cancer and neurological disorders and hold great potential as drug targets, disease markers, as well as therapeutic agents.
Our lab is located at the Berlin Institute for Medical Systems Biology (BIMSB), a part of the Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine (MDC).

http://www.chekulaevalab.org/

Hifiasm: a haplotype-resolved assembler for accurate Hifi reads

Jit — Thu, 24 Dec 2020 10:03:36 -0600

Hifiasm is a fast haplotype-resolved de novo assembler for PacBio Hifi reads. It can assemble a human genome in several hours and works with the California redwood genome, one of the most complex genomes sequenced so far. Hifiasm can produce primary/alternate assemblies of quality competitive with the best assemblers. It also introduces a new graph binning algorithm and achieves the best haplotype-resolved assembly given trio data.

Address of the bookmark: https://github.com/chhylp123/hifiasm

RA at University of Pune

Mon, 07 Mar 2016 03:48:33 -0600

Research Associate Job vacancies in University of Pune on temporary basis

No. of Post : 01

Department : Science and Technology

Qualifications : Ph.D. with specialization in Bioinformatics/Machine Learning/ Mathematical Biology/ Computational Biology/ Systems Biology with a minimum of 55% marks in M. Sc. (50% for candidates belongs to reserved category) or equivalent grade. Candidates who have submitted their Ph.D. thesis and are waiting for award of Ph.D. are also eligible. OR M. Sc. Bioinformatics with two years of research experience in the areas mentioned above, a minimum of 55% marks in M.Sc. (50% for candidates belongs to reserved categories) or equivalent grade and at least one publication in Science Citation Index (SCI) journal. Preference will be given to B.I.N.C. /J.R.F. /N.E.T. /S.E.T. qualified candidates.

Emoluments : Rs. 20,000/- (Including H.R.A.) per month.
How to apply

The complete application along with necessary documents and certificates should reach to 'The Director, Bioinformatics Centre, Savitribai Phule Pune University (Formerly University of Pune), Caneshkhind Road. Pune - 411 007 on or before 21st March, 2016 within official hours except Sundays (i.e. 10.20 am to 06.00 pm).

More at http://collegecirculars.unipune.ac.in/sites/documents/Job%20Openings/Forms/AllItems.aspx

Bioinformatics tools for telomere to telomere assembly !

BioStar — Tue, 17 Aug 2021 13:17:09 -0500

● Merfin – k-mer-based assembly and variant calling evaluation for improved consensus accuracy (Arang Rhie)
● PanGenie – algorithm that leverages a pangenome reference built from haplotype-resolved genome assemblies in conjunction with k-mer count information from raw, short-read sequencing data to genotype a wide spectrum of genetic variation (Tobias Marschall)
● SQANTI3 – an automated pipeline for the classification of long-read transcripts that can assess the quality of data and the preprocessing pipeline (Rocío Amorín de Hegedüs @rocioadh)
● tama (Transcriptome Annotation by Modular Algorithms) – software designed for processing Iso-Seq data and other long-read transcriptome data (Richard Kuo @GenomeRIK)
● pbaa (PacBio Amplicon Analysis) – separates complex mixtures of amplicon targets from genomic samples to cluster and generate high-quality consensus sequences from HiFi reads (Zev Kronenberg @zevkronenberg)
● bellerophon – analyzes MHC typing and other low-complexity gene amplicon data; performs allele calling while detecting polymorphic sites within the sequences and removing potential chimeric sequence variants (Yuanyuan Cheng @Yuanyuan929)
● svpack – tools for filtering, comparing, and annotating structural variant (SV) calls in VCF format (Aaron Wenger)
● JumboDB – tool for de Bruijn graph construction (Anton Bankevich @AntonBankevich)
● uLTRA – tool for splice alignment of long transcriptomic reads to a genome, guided by a database of exon annotations. (Kristoffer Sahlin @krsahlin)
● LeafGo – workflow to rapidly produce high-quality de novo plant genomes (Luca Ermini @ermini_luca)

Reference:

https://www.pacb.com/blog/young-investigators-share-stellar-science-career-advice-and-bioinformatics-tools-at-smrt-leiden-2021/

QuorUM: An Error Corrector for Illumina Reads

Jit — Wed, 08 Nov 2017 11:40:41 -0600

Illumina Sequencing data can provide high coverage of a genome by relatively short (most often 100 bp to 150 bp) reads at a low cost. Even with low (advertised 1%) error rate, 100 × coverage Illumina data on average has an error in some read at every base in the genome. These errors make handling the data more complicated because they result in a large number of low-count erroneous k-mers in the reads. However, there is enough information in the reads to correct most of the sequencing errors, thus making subsequent use of the data (e.g. for mapping or assembly) easier. Here we use the term “error correction” to denote the reduction in errors due to both changes in individual bases and trimming of unusable sequence. We developed an error correction software called QuorUM. QuorUM is mainly aimed at error correcting Illumina reads for subsequent assembly. It is designed around the novel idea of minimizing the number of distinct erroneous k-mers in the output reads and preserving the most true k-mers, and we introduce a composite statistic π that measures how successful we are at achieving this dual goal. We evaluate the performance of QuorUM by correcting actual Illumina reads from genomes for which a reference assembly is available.

QuorUM is distributed as an independent software package and as a module of the MaSuRCA assembly software. Both are available under the GPL open source license at http://www.genome.umd.edu.

Address of the bookmark: http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0130821

QuorUM: An Error Corrector for Illumina Reads

BioStar — Tue, 04 Feb 2020 23:26:55 -0600

We produce trimmed and error-corrected reads that result in assemblies with longer contigs and fewer errors. We compared QuorUM against several published error correctors and found that it is the best performer in most metrics we use. QuorUM is efficiently implemented making use of current multi-core computing architectures and it is suitable for large data sets (1 billion bases checked and corrected per day per core)

Address of the bookmark: http://www.genome.umd.edu/

Project Fellow Bioinformatics at Central University of Himachal Pradesh

Tue, 09 Feb 2016 03:58:00 -0600

Project Fellow Bioinformatics

Eligibility : MSc(Bio-Chemistry, Bio-Informatics)

Location : Kulu

Last Date : 07 Mar 2016

Hiring Process : Face to Face Interview
Central University of Himachal Pradesh

Project Fellow Bioinformatics Job in Central University of Himachal Pradesh

Project (MRP) entitled: “A project proposal on targeting novel prokaryotic ubiquitin like post-translational modification pathway for therapeutic interventions against Mycobacterium tuberculosis” (No. MRP-MAJOR-MICR-2013-26840)

Essential Qualification: 1. Master degree in Bioinformatics/Biochemistry/Biotechnology/Environmental Science/Microbiology or any branch of Life Sciences with a minimum of 55% marks for general category (50% in case of SC/ST/PH) 2. UGC/CSIR NET, GATE qualified candidates will be given preference. Desirable Qualification: Experience in basic Bioinformatics and Molecular Biology techniques.

Age: Below 40 years as on 01/10/2015.

No.of Post: 1

Salary: NET/GATE qualified candidate: Rs. 16,000/-p.m. for initial two years and Rs. 18,000/- p.m. for the third year. Non-NET/GATE candidates: Rs. 14,000/-p.m. for initial two years and Rs. 16,000/-p.m. for the third year.

Mode of Selection: The selection shall be made on the basis of merit. The eligible candidates are required to appear for interview before the duly constituted Selection Committee for the purpose. The scheduled date, time and venue for the interview shall be intimated to the eligible candidates through phone/ e-mail.
How to apply

Last date for the receipt of applications is 07.03.2016.

More at http://www.cuhimachal.ac.in/news_all.aspx

Simulating the Unseen: New Tools Reshaping Metagenomic Research

LEGE — Wed, 23 Sep 2026 09:42:30 -0500

When benchmarking a new metagenomic pipeline the first step is generally to face a simple problem. A bioinformatician might have a good deal of real sequencing data, but there's a drawback in that the actual biological composition underlying those reads is almost never known. What organisms really were there? In what quantities? How many sequencing errors occurred? Can the pipeline correctly reconstruct the community? Since the true answers are unknown, it is difficult to deal with these questions.

Metagenomic simulators are a way of dealing with this issue; they produce artificial sequencing datasets in which both the composition of the microorganisms and the expected results are known. Researchers can then test a pipeline on such a controlled dataset and see precisely how well it functions. However, as metagenomic studies have become larger, more diverse, and more complex, simply generating artificial reads is no longer sufficient. The simulators now have to replicate community variation, sequencing errors, different sequencing platforms, massive data volumes, and even laboratory-based biases.

MIDASim (2024) was designed with a particular emphasis on microbial community dynamics. Unlike previous tools which regarded each simulated sample as individual, MIDASim is able to efficiently generate realistic multi-sample microbiome datasets, covering the cases where changes over time are being tracked. This feature is particularly useful when investigating how microbial communities vary between people, different experimental setups, or at various times. By overcoming the computational limitations of earlier simulation methods, MIDASim has made it easier to carry out large and complex microbiome simulation studies.

A major challenge is scale. Since modern metagenomic projects can involve millions or even billions of sequencing reads, generating such large synthetic datasets can become a significant computational problem. In order to tackle this issue, Izzy (2025) was developed. As a high-throughput metagenomic read simulator, Izzy is designed with speed in mind while still reproducing the typical patterns of sequencing errors. The people who developed it stated that it can be as much as 60 times faster than earlier tools, which makes large-scale simulations far more practical. Now, researchers can begin to ask not how long a simulation will take but rather what size dataset they want to test.

At the same time, the sequencing technology became more diverse. Researchers were not any longer restricted to using Illumina short reads since Oxford Nanopore and PacBio long-read sequencing also became important in the field of metagenomic research. In order to address these new requirements, MeSS (Metagenomic Sequence Simulator, 2025) was developed. The programme is based on a Snakemake framework and is therefore compatible with the Illumina, Oxford Nanopore and PacBio platforms. MeSS has also been designed to operate efficiently and to use less memory than earlier tools; it provides ready-made templates for the microbiomes of different sites in the human body, thus giving researchers a simple means of beginning to generate realistic simulated communities.

The simulation problem became even more specialized. Suppose that sequencing is not based on uniform sampling of DNA? In the case of targeted sequencing and hybridization-capture experiments, particular sequences are deliberately enriched, and the probability of capturing a target depends on both the probe and the target sequence. A standard model based on uniform sampling might fail to take into account this important feature of real experiments. That is why RAmpSim has been designed specifically to handle simulations for capture-based and targeted sequencing. Instead of depending solely on the assumption of uniform sampling, it includes a thermodynamic nearest-neighbor energy model to represent probe–target interactions and sequence-dependent enrichment. As a result, it is especially suitable for applications such as hybridization capture in metagenomics, where the efficiency of recovering a sequence can depend strongly on how it relates to the capture probes. RAmpSim thus reflects a wider trend towards simulations that aim not only to reproduce sequencing output but also key aspects of the experimental process itself.

MIDASim, Izzy, MeSS and RAmpSim all demonstrate how fast metagenomic simulation is evolving. MIDASim is able to deal with realistic variation within a large number of and changing microbial communities. Izzy overcomes the problem of generating very large datasets. MeSS provides support for a number of sequencing technologies in an efficient and repeatable manner. RAmpSim increases the experimental realism for capture-based sequencing. Although each of these tools addresses a separate issue, they all contribute to advancing the field.

Modern metagenomic simulation therefore aims not only at producing artificial FASTQ files. Researchers nowadays desire simulated datasets that reflect community changes, incorporate the characteristics of the sequencing platform, include real error patterns, take into account computational scale, and account for experimental biases. As metagenomic workflows become more advanced, the simulators have to keep up with this development. The tools are now going beyond that of simple data generators; they produce controlled versions of complex metagenomic experiments and thus provide researchers with something that ordinary sequencing data seldom does: a dataset in which the answer is known before any analysis takes place.

Centurion

Jit — Fri, 12 Feb 2016 04:45:41 -0600

Although centromeres are essential for life and are the subject of extensive research, centromere locations in yeast genomes are difficult to infer, and in most species they are still unknown. Recently, the chromatin conformation assay Hi-C has been re-purposed for diverse applications, including de novo genome assembly, deconvolution of metagenomic samples, and inference of centromere locations. We describe a method, Centurion, that jointly infers the locations of all centromeres in a single yeast genome by exploiting the centromeres’ tendency to cluster in 3D space. We first demonstrate the accuracy of Centurion in identifying known centromere locations from high coverage Hi-C data of budding yeast and a human malaria parasite. We then use two metagenomic samples with relatively low coverage Hi-C data to infer centromere locations for each chromosome in 14 different yeast species. For yeasts with large centromeres (e.g., S. pombe) Centurion predicts the exact centromere locations. For seven yeasts with point centromeres, Centurion predicts most of the centromeres at an average of 5~kb distance from their known locations. Finally, we predict centromere coordinates for six yeast species that currently lack centromere annotations. These results suggest that Centurion can be used for centromere identification for a large number of yeast species, even with a limited amount of Hi-C sequencing.

Paper:http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25940625

More at http://cbio.ensmp.fr/centurion/

Address of the bookmark: http://cbio.ensmp.fr/centurion/