BOL: Related items

Sample bandage input file for visual analysis

Jit — Wed, 06 Jan 2021 03:51:50 -0600

Sample bandage input file for visual analysis ...

HapSolo: An optimization approach for removing secondary haplotigs during diploid genome assembly and scaffolding.

Jit — Mon, 26 Oct 2020 21:23:36 -0500

Despite marked recent improvements in long-read sequencing technology, the assembly of diploid genomes remains a difficult task. A major obstacle is distinguishing between alternative contigs that represent highly heterozygous regions. If primary and secondary contigs are not properly identified, the primary assembly will overrepresent both the size and complexity of the genome, which complicates downstream analysis such as scaffolding.

More at https://github.com/esolares/HapSolo

Address of the bookmark: https://github.com/esolares/HapSolo

HapSolo: An optimization approach for removing secondary haplotigs during diploid genome assembly and scaffolding

Jit — Sat, 08 May 2021 21:25:00 -0500

HapSolo, that identifies secondary contigs and defines a primary assembly based on multiple pairwise contig alignment metrics. HapSolo evaluates candidate primary assemblies using BUSCO scores and then distinguishes among candidate assemblies using a cost function. The cost function can be defined by the user but by default considers the number of missing, duplicated and single BUSCO genes within the assembly. HapSolo performs hill climbing to minimize cost over thousands of candidate assemblies.

Address of the bookmark: https://github.com/esolares/HapSolo

Short-read assembly using Spades !

Abhimanyu Singh — Mon, 31 Jan 2022 07:18:16 -0600

If we only had Illumina reads, we could also assemble these using the tool Spades.

You can try this here, or try it later on your own data.

Get data

We will use the same Illumina data as we used above:

illumina_R1.fastq.gz: the Illumina forward reads
illumina_R2.fastq.gz: the Illumina reverse reads

Assemble

Run Spades:

spades.py -1 illumina_R1.fastq.gz -2 illumina_R2.fastq.gz --careful --cov-cutoff auto -o spades_assembly_all_illumina

-1 is input file of forward reads
-2 is input file of reverse reads
--careful minimizes mismatches and short indels
--cov-cutoff auto computes the coverage threshold (rather than the default setting, “off”)
-o is the output directory

Results

Move into the output directory and look at the contigs:

infoseq contigs.fasta

auN: a new metric to measure assembly contiguity

Jit — Tue, 02 Aug 2022 01:18:47 -0500

Given a de novo assembly, we often measure the “average” contig length by N50. N50 is neither the real average nor median. It is the length of the contig such that this and longer contigs cover at least 50% of the assembly. A longer N50 indicates better contiguity. We can similarly define Nx such that contigs no shorter than Nx covers x% of the assembly. The Nx curve plots Nx as a function of x, where x is ranged from 0 to 100.

Address of the bookmark: https://lh3.github.io/2020/04/08/a-new-metric-on-assembly-contiguity

Mitochondrial genome assembly tools !

Abhi — Wed, 06 Sep 2023 00:37:18 -0500

Mitochondrial genome assembly tools are specialized software and algorithms designed to accurately reconstruct the mitochondrial genome (mitogenome) from sequencing data, typically obtained through techniques like next-generation sequencing (NGS). The mitochondrial genome is relatively small compared to the nuclear genome, making it an ideal target for assembly. Here are some commonly used mitochondrial genome assembly tools:

MitoFinder: Mitofinder is a pipeline to assemble mitochondrial genomes and annotate mitochondrial genes from trimmed read sequencing data.

MitoHiFi: a python pipeline for mitochondrial genome assembly from PacBio high fidelity reads

MITObim: MITObim is a tool specifically developed for the iterative assembly of mitochondrial genomes. It starts with a reference mitogenome and iteratively refines the assembly using the read data.

MITOS: MITOS is a web-based platform that provides a pipeline for annotating mitochondrial genomes. It integrates multiple software tools for assembly, annotation, and visualization of mitogenomes.

MIRA: MIRA (Mimicking Intelligent Read Assembly) is a versatile genome assembly tool that can be used for mitochondrial genome assembly. It supports various sequencing technologies and allows for reference-based or de novo assembly.

NOVOPlasty: NOVOPlasty is a user-friendly tool designed for de novo assembly of organelle genomes, including mitochondria. It utilizes a seed-and-extend algorithm and is suitable for both short-read and long-read data.

MITOS2: MITOS2 is an updated version of the MITOS pipeline, which automates the annotation of mitochondrial genomes. It provides improved accuracy and additional features for mitochondrial genome analysis.

GetOrganelle: While primarily designed for chloroplast genome assembly, GetOrganelle can also be used for mitochondrial genome assembly. It is particularly useful for dealing with high-throughput sequencing data.

SPAdes: SPAdes (St. Petersburg genome assembler) is a versatile genome assembly tool that can be employed for mitochondrial genome assembly, especially when dealing with complex datasets that may contain nuclear mitochondrial DNA sequences (numts).

IDBA-UD: IDBA-UD (Iterative De Bruijn Graph De Novo Assembler) is another de novo assembly tool that can be used for mitochondrial genome assembly, especially in cases with relatively low coverage.

Velvet: Velvet is a de novo assembly tool that can be applied to mitochondrial genome assembly, especially when working with short-read data.

When selecting a mitochondrial genome assembly tool, it's important to consider the specific characteristics of your sequencing data, such as read length and coverage, as well as the complexity of the mitochondrial genome. Additionally, some tools are better suited for specific organisms or research objectives, so choosing the right tool will depend on your particular project requirements.

nf-core/mag v5: Advancing Genome-Resolved Metagenomics

LEGE — Sat, 12 Sep 2026 20:27:51 -0500

Metagenomics is rapidly moving beyond short-read sequencing. With the increasing adoption of long-read technologies, researchers can generate more contiguous assemblies—but converting these reads into reliable metagenome-assembled genomes (MAGs) remains computationally challenging.

nf-core/mag v5 (https://github.com/nf-core/mag) addresses this challenge by extending its reproducible Nextflow-based workflow for modern genome-resolved metagenomics.

A key addition is support for long-read-only metagenomic assembly and bin refinement, enabling long-read data to be processed through an integrated workflow. The release also introduces five additional binning tools, providing complementary strategies for recovering genomes from complex microbial communities.

The workflow has also expanded beyond conventional bacterial and archaeal MAGs, with improved classification of viruses and eukaryotes, together with enhanced genome-quality assessment.

Conceptually, the workflow brings together:

Reads → QC → Assembly → Binning → Bin refinement → Taxonomic classification → MAG quality assessment

The real strength of nf-core/mag is not any single algorithm, but the integration and reproducibility of multiple tools within a standardized workflow. This is particularly important for large-scale metagenomic studies where software versions, parameters, databases and computational environments can strongly influence results.

After seven years of development involving multiple curator teams and the wider nf-core community, v5 demonstrates how community-driven workflow development can keep metagenomic analysis aligned with rapidly evolving sequencing technologies.

The future of genome-resolved metagenomics is not simply longer reads—it is better integration of assembly, binning, refinement and quality control within reproducible computational workflows.

Read the full paper in Bioinformatics https://academic.oup.com/bioinformatics/article/42/9/btag628/8770536?

CrossMap

Jitendra Narayan — Mon, 08 Feb 2016 15:47:00 -0600

CrossMap is a program for convenient conversion of genome coordinates (or annotation files) between different assemblies (such as Human hg18 (NCBI36) <> hg19 (GRCh37), Mouse mm9 (MGSCv37) <> mm10 (GRCm38)).

It supports most commonly used file formats including SAM/BAM, Wiggle/BigWig, BED, GFF/GTF, VCF.

CrossMap is designed to liftover genome coordinates between assemblies. It’s not a program for aligning sequences to reference genome.

We do not recommend using CrossMap to convert genome coordinates between species.

More at http://crossmap.sourceforge.net/

Address of the bookmark: http://crossmap.sourceforge.net/

Easyfig

Poonam Mahapatra — Fri, 29 Apr 2016 05:49:39 -0500

Easyfig has moved to github, for newer releases of Easyfig please visit our new webpage - https://mjsull.github.io/Easyfig. Easyfig is a Python application for creating linear comparison figures of multiple genomic loci with an easy-to-use graphical user interface (GUI).

More at http://easyfig.sourceforge.net/

Address of the bookmark: http://easyfig.sourceforge.net/

QUAST: quality assessment tool for genome assemblies

Jitendra Prajapati — Wed, 06 Apr 2016 18:23:33 -0500

QUAST evaluates genome assemblies. For metagenomes, please see MetaQUAST project.
It can works both with and without a given reference genome.
The tool accepts multiple assemblies, thus is suitable for comparison.

More at http://bioinf.spbau.ru/quast

http://bioinformatics.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2013/03/09/bioinformatics.btt086.long

Address of the bookmark: http://bioinformatics.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2013/03/09/bioinformatics.btt086.long