BOL: Related items

Software and Tools to detect structure variation with long reads !!

Archana Malhotra — Wed, 15 Mar 2017 14:31:09 -0500

Uncovering the connection between genetics and heritable diseases requires an approach that looks at all the variant bases and types in a genome. While a PacBio de novo assembly resolves the most novel SV variants. 8-10X PacBio coverage of single genomes or trios reveals triple the SVs detectable by short-read data.

With Single Molecule, Real-Time (SMRT) Sequencing, you can access structural variations having a broad range of sizes, types, and GC content with the ability to:

Uncover missing heritability linked to structural variation
Unambiguously identify genomic context and variant breakpoints at the sequence level to unravel the genetic etiology of disease
Resolve structural variation across the complete size spectrum with basepair resolution

Following are the SV tools, which can assist you to achieve your goal.

Sniffles: Structural variation caller using third generation sequencing

Sniffles is a structural variation caller using third generation sequencing (PacBio or Oxford Nanopore). It detects all types of SVs using evidence from split-read alignments, high-mismatch regions, and coverage analysis. Please note the current version of Sniffles requires sorted output from BWA-MEM (use -M and -x parameter) or NGM-LR with the optional SAM attributes enabled!

More at https://github.com/fritzsedlazeck/Sniffles

MultiBreak-SV: It identifies structural variants from next-generation paired end data, third-generation long read data, or data from a combination of sequencing platforms.

There are two pieces of software in this release: (1) a pre-processor that takes machineformat (.m5) BLASR files, and (2) MultiBreak-SV. For installation and usage instructions, see doc/MultiBreakSV-Manual.txt.

More at https://github.com/raphael-group/multibreak-sv

Parliament: A Structural Variation Tool. Why ask a single sv-detection approach to find every variant when you can have a parliament of tools deciding?

Publication about the algorithm and “…the first long-read characterization of structural variation in a diploid human personal genome…” (HS1011) - “Assessing structural variation in a personal genome—towards a human reference diploid genome”

More at https://sourceforge.net/projects/parliamentsv/

https://www.dnanexus.com/papers/Parliament_Info_Sheet.pdf

PBHoney: the structural variation discovery tool

PBHoney is an implementation of two variant-identification approaches designed to exploit the high mappability of long reads (i.e., greater than 10,000 bp). PBHoney considers both intra-read discordance and soft-clipped tails of long reads to identify structural variants.

Read The Paper http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2105/15/180/abstract

More at https://sourceforge.net/projects/pb-jelly/

SMRT-SV: Structural variant and indel caller for PacBio reads

Structural variant (SV) and indel caller for PacBio reads based on methods from Chaisson et al. 2014.

SMRT-SV provides an official software package for tools described in Chaisson et al. 2014 and adds several key features including the following.

Unified variant calling user interface with built-in cluster compute support
Small indel calling (2-49 bp)
Improved inversion calling (screenInversions)
Quality metric for SV calls based on number of local assemblies supporting each call
Higher sensitivity for SV calls using tiled local assemblies across the entire genome instead of "signature" regions
Genotyping of SVs with Illumina paired-end reads from WGS samples

More at https://github.com/EichlerLab/pacbio_variant_caller

Fools guide

Poonam Mahapatra — Sun, 02 Apr 2017 14:31:18 -0500

This website and accompaning documents are intended as a tool to help researchers dealing with non-model organisms acquire and process transcriptomic high-throughput sequencing data without having to learn extensive bioinformatics skills. It covers all steps from tissue collection, sample preparation and computer setup, through addressing biological questions with gene expression and SNP data.

http://sfg.stanford.edu/denovo.html

http://sfg.stanford.edu/sequencing.html

http://sfg.stanford.edu/BLAST.html

http://sfg.stanford.edu/denovo.html

Address of the bookmark: http://sfg.stanford.edu/guide.html

DeCoSTAR - Detection of Co-evolution

Jit — Fri, 14 Apr 2017 06:27:25 -0500

DeCoSTAR is a software which aims at reconstructing ancestral gene or genome organizations, in the form of sets of neighborhood relations -adjacencies- between pairs of ancestral genes or gene domains.
Ancestral genes or domains are deduced from reconciled gene trees in a context of birth, speciation, duplication, loss, transfer, which are either given as input or computed with the ecceTERA package, to which DeCoSTAR is integrated. DeCoSTAR constructs parsimonious scenarios of gains and breakages of adjacencies, and contains in particular all the features of previous software DeCo, DeCoLT, ArtDeCo and DeClone. It provides statistical supports on ancestral adjacencies, or the possibility to handle badly assembled genomes.
DeCoSTAR is able to reconstruct the histories of domains inside genes, including gene fusion and fission events, as well as ancestral genome structures for dozens of whole genomes from all kingdoms of life in a few minutes.

Address of the bookmark: http://pbil.univ-lyon1.fr/software/DeCoSTAR/

Mapping NGS

Abhimanyu Singh — Tue, 02 May 2017 07:58:07 -0500

NGS data are just a bunch of sequences, you have no idea which region in the genome each sequences comes from, which gene it represents...
To know that you have to align the sequences to the reference sequence. The reference sequence is in most cases the full genome sequence but sometimes, a library of EST sequences is used.
In either way, aligning your sequence reads to the reference sequence is called mapping.

The most used mappers of DNA-seq data are BWA and Bowtie for DNA-Seq data and Tophat, STAR or HISAT for RNA-Seq data. Mappers differ in which options they can take in, how fast and how accurate they are. Bowtie is faster than BWA, but looses some sensitivity (does not map an equal amount of reads to the correct position in the genome).

Address of the bookmark: http://wiki.bits.vib.be/index.php/Mapping_of_NGS_data

Salzberg lab

Mon, 15 May 2017 05:14:01 -0500

We are a computational biology lab that develops novel methods for analysis of DNA and RNA sequences. Our research includes software for aligning and assembling RNA-seq data, whole-genome assembly, and microbiome analysis. We work closely with biomedical scientists to apply these methods to current problems arising in a broad spectrum of biological and medical research areas. We’re also part of the Center for Computational Biology, a group of 20+ faculty members and their labs at Johns Hopkins working on computational, statistical, and mathematical methods that can turn massive genomic data sets into biologically and clinically useful information.

https://salzberg-lab.org/

NCBI Prokaryotic Genome Annotation Pipeline

Jit — Tue, 16 May 2017 08:56:03 -0500

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.

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. You can find a more detailed description of the new version of the pipeline in NCBI Handbook chapter. NCBI's annotation pipeline depends on several internal databases and is not currently available for download or use outside of the NCBI environment.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/genome/annotation_prok/

Address of the bookmark: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/genome/annotation_prok/

Edanchin Lab

Thu, 19 Nov 2020 08:00:07 -0600

My main topics of interest are:

The impact of non tree-like evolution such as horizontal gene transfers and hybridization on species biology
Evolution and adaptation of animals in the absence of sexual reproduction and the underlying mechanisms
Genomic signatures of adaptation to a parasitic life-style

More at https://edanchin.org/

Introduction to Bioinformatics and Computational Biology

Jit — Mon, 25 Jan 2021 01:32:30 -0600

This is the course material for STAT115/215 BIO/BST282 at Harvard University.

Xiaole Shirley Liu (lead instructor)
Joshua Starmer
Martin Hemberg
Ting Wang
Feng Yue

Ming Tang
Yang Liu
Jack Kang
Scarlett Ge
Jiazhen Rong
Phillip Nicol
Maartin De Vries

We thank many colleagues in the community, who helped Dr. Liu in prepare the STAT115/215 BIO/BST282 course over the years.

Address of the bookmark: https://liulab-dfci.github.io/bioinfo-combio/

Bioinformatics Head (Bioinformatics Manager III), Cancer Genomics Research Laboratory at Frederick National Laboratory

Wed, 18 Aug 2021 00:19:48 -0500

Frederick National Laboratory seeking an enthusiastic, creative, and seasoned bioinformatics professional to join our leadership team and direct the exceptional Bioinformatics Group at the Cancer Genomics Research Laboratory (CGR). CGR has a diverse team of bioinformatics and computational scientists that support all areas of bioinformatics and data analysis (infrastructure, data QC, pipeline development and maintenance, data curation and sharing, methodology development, statistical analyses, machine learning approaches, and scientific interpretation).

More at https://leidosbiomed.csod.com/ats/careersite/jobdetails.aspx?site=4&c=leidosbiomed&id=2040

The Role of lncRNA in Bioinformatics: Unlocking the Secrets of the Genome

LEGE — Sat, 07 Dec 2024 02:09:47 -0600

In the intricate dance of molecular biology, long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) have emerged as key players, capturing the interest of researchers worldwide. These RNA molecules, once dismissed as "junk," have proven to be vital in the regulation of gene expression, cellular processes, and the progression of diseases. The intersection of lncRNA studies and bioinformatics is transforming our understanding of these enigmatic molecules, offering profound insights into their structure, function, and therapeutic potential.

What Are lncRNAs?

lncRNAs are RNA transcripts longer than 200 nucleotides that do not code for proteins. Despite their non-coding nature, they play diverse roles in gene regulation, including chromatin remodeling, transcriptional control, and post-transcriptional processing. Unlike messenger RNAs (mRNAs), lncRNAs often function as scaffolds, decoys, or guides in cellular machinery, influencing biological processes such as cell differentiation, immune response, and even cancer metastasis.

Challenges in lncRNA Research

Identifying and understanding lncRNAs pose unique challenges:

High Sequence Variability: Unlike protein-coding genes, lncRNAs exhibit low sequence conservation across species, making functional predictions difficult.
Low Expression Levels: lncRNAs are often expressed at low levels, complicating their detection in transcriptomic data.
Diverse Functions: The multifunctional nature of lncRNAs requires advanced computational tools to decipher their roles in complex networks.

Bioinformatics: A Crucial Ally in lncRNA Research

Bioinformatics bridges the gap between raw biological data and meaningful insights, making it indispensable in lncRNA research. Here’s how:

1. Identification and Annotation

High-throughput sequencing technologies like RNA-seq generate vast amounts of data. Bioinformatics tools such as StringTie, Cufflinks, and HISAT2 help assemble and annotate lncRNAs from this data. Additionally, databases like NONCODE, LNCipedia, and Ensembl provide curated repositories of lncRNA sequences and annotations.

2. Functional Prediction

Bioinformatics algorithms predict the potential functions of lncRNAs by analyzing their interactions with DNA, RNA, and proteins. Tools like LncRNA2Function and RIblast utilize sequence motifs and secondary structure predictions to hypothesize about the roles of specific lncRNAs.

3. Network Construction

lncRNAs often act as regulatory hubs. Bioinformatics platforms such as Cytoscape enable the visualization of lncRNA-mediated networks, elucidating their roles in pathways like cell cycle regulation and apoptosis.

4. Epigenetic Studies

lncRNAs are known to interact with chromatin-modifying complexes, influencing gene expression epigenetically. Tools like ChIP-seq and ATAC-seq, combined with computational pipelines, identify these interactions and map them to the genome.

5. Clinical Applications

Bioinformatics aids in the discovery of lncRNA biomarkers for diseases like cancer and neurodegenerative disorders. Machine learning models analyze differential expression profiles, helping prioritize lncRNAs with therapeutic potential.

Case Study: lncRNAs in Cancer Research

lncRNAs such as HOTAIR and MALAT1 have been implicated in cancer progression. Bioinformatics analyses have revealed their roles in promoting metastasis and altering the tumor microenvironment. For example, transcriptome analysis in cancer patients identifies lncRNA expression signatures, enabling precision medicine approaches.

Future Directions

The fusion of bioinformatics with experimental biology is unlocking the secrets of lncRNAs. Advances in artificial intelligence, single-cell sequencing, and structural modeling promise to overcome current limitations. Here are some promising directions:

Integrative Analysis: Combining multi-omics data to understand the interplay of lncRNAs with other biomolecules.
CRISPR Screens: Leveraging bioinformatics to design CRISPR-based functional screens for lncRNAs.
Therapeutic Development: Using bioinformatics to design lncRNA-based therapeutics, including antisense oligonucleotides and RNA interference tools.

Conclusion

lncRNAs are the hidden gems of the genome, and bioinformatics is the key to unearthing their full potential. As research progresses, lncRNAs could pave the way for novel diagnostics, targeted therapies, and personalized medicine, revolutionizing our approach to complex diseases.

The journey into the world of lncRNAs is only beginning, and bioinformatics will continue to play a pivotal role in decoding these molecular mysteries. Whether you’re a researcher, clinician, or bioinformatics enthusiast, the study of lncRNAs offers a fascinating frontier of discovery.