BOL: Related items

RefKA: A fast and efficient long-read genome assembly approach for large and complex genomes

Rahul Nayak — Fri, 01 May 2020 03:00:40 -0500

RefKA, a reference-based approach for long read genome assembly. This approach relies on breaking up a closely related reference genome into bins, aligning k-mers unique to each bin with PacBio reads, and then assembling each bin in parallel followed by a final bin-stitching step.

Address of the bookmark: https://github.com/AppliedBioinformatics/RefKA

odgi: optimized dynamic genome/graph implementation

Abhimanyu Singh — Tue, 01 Feb 2022 23:42:21 -0600

odgi provides an efficient and succinct dynamic DNA sequence graph model, as well as a host of algorithms that allow the use of such graphs in bioinformatic analyses.

Careful encoding of graph entities allows odgi to efficiently compute and transform pangenomes with minimal overheads. odgi implements a dynamic data structure that leveraged multi-core CPUs and can be updated on the fly.

The edges and path steps are recorded as deltas between the current node id and the target node id, where the node id corresponds to the rank in the global array of nodes. Graphs built from biological data sets tend to have local partial order and, when sorted, the deltas be small. This allows them to be compressed with a variable length integer representation, resulting in a small in-memory footprint at the cost of packing and unpacking.

The RAM and computational savings are substantial. In partially ordered regions of the graph, most deltas will require only a single byte.

Address of the bookmark: https://github.com/pangenome/odgi

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?

Minia

Jit — Thu, 08 Dec 2016 05:07:00 -0600

Minia is a short-read assembler based on a de Bruijn graph, capable of assembling a human genome on a desktop computer in a day. The output of Minia is a set of contigs. Minia produces results of similar contiguity and accuracy to other de Bruijn assemblers (e.g. Velvet).

Download

Minia 2.0.7 Linux 64-bits binaries (Source code) (Legacy codebase)

For the impatient

A typical Minia command line looks like:

./minia -in reads.fa -kmer-size 31 -abundance-min 3 -out output_prefix

Type

./minia

for a quick explanation of the parameters.

For more information, refer to the manual.

KmerGenie can be used to determine the best k-mer size, minimum abundance of correct k-mers, and genome size estimation for your dataset.

Address of the bookmark: http://minia.genouest.org/

MetaBAT: An Efficient Tool for Accurately Reconstructing Single Genomes from Complex Microbial Communities

Jit — Mon, 06 Mar 2017 03:44:34 -0600

MetaBAT, An Efficient Tool for Accurately Reconstructing Single Genomes from Complex Microbial Communities

Grouping large genomic fragments assembled from shotgun metagenomic sequences to deconvolute complex microbial communities, or metagenome binning, enables the study of individual organisms and their interactions. Here we developed an automated metagenome binning software, called MetaBAT, which integrates empirical probabilistic distances of genome abundance and tetranucleotide frequency. Tested on both synthetic and real metagenome datasets, MetaBAT outperforms alternative methods in both accuracy and computational efficiency. Applying MetaBAT to an assembly from 1,704 human gut samples formed 1,634 genome bins (>200kb) in 3 hours, where 621 genome bins are >50% complete with <5% contamination from other species. Further analysis shows that the quality of these genome bins approaches manually curated genomes.

Address of the bookmark: https://bitbucket.org/berkeleylab/metabat

JumboDB: tool for de Bruijn graph construction

BioStar — Tue, 17 Aug 2021 13:33:46 -0500

jumboDB tool for fast de Bruijn graph construction from long sequences (reads or genomes) with very low error rate. JumboDB is not a genome assembler by itself but rather a subroutine that translates a set of reads into compressed de Bruijn graph.

More at https://github.com/AntonBankevich/jumboDB

Address of the bookmark: https://github.com/AntonBankevich/jumboDB

Rainbow: an integrated tool for efficient clustering and assembling RAD-seq reads

Rahul Nayak — Fri, 19 Oct 2018 08:23:42 -0500

Rainbow is developed to provide an ultra-fast and memory-efficient solution to clustering and assembling short reads produced by RAD-seq. First, Rainbow clusters reads using a spaced seed method. Then, Rainbow implements a heterozygote calling like strategy to divide potential groups into haplotypes in a top–down manner. And along a guided tree, it iteratively merges sibling leaves in a bottom–up manner if they are similar enough. Here, the similarity is defined by comparing the 2nd reads of a RAD segment. This approach tries to collapse heterozygote while discriminate repetitive sequences. At last, Rainbow uses a greedy algorithm to locally assemble merged reads into contigs. Rainbow not only outputs the optimal but also suboptimal assembly results. Based on simulation and a real guppy RAD-seq data, we show that Rainbow is more competent than the other tools in dealing with RAD-seq data

Address of the bookmark: https://sourceforge.net/projects/bio-rainbow/files/

ChopStitch: exon annotation and splice graph construction using transcriptome assembly and whole genome sequencing data

Rahul Nayak — Tue, 03 Jul 2018 04:14:52 -0500

ChopStitch is a new method for finding putative exons and constructing splice graphs using an assembled transcriptome and whole genome shotgun sequencing (WGSS) data. ChopStitch identifies exon-exon boundaries in de novo assembled RNA-seq data with the help of a Bloom filter that represents the k-mer spectrum of WGSS reads. The algorithm also detects base substitutions in transcript sequences corresponding to sequencing or assembly errors, haplotype variations, or putative RNA editing events. The primary output of our tool is a FASTA file containing putative exons. Further, exon edges are interrogated for alternative exon-exon boundaries to detect transcript isoforms, which are reported as splice graphs in dot output format.

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

GraphUnzip: Phases an assembly graph using Hi-C data and/or long reads.

Jit — Fri, 05 Feb 2021 21:22:24 -0600

GraphUnzip, a fast, memory-efficient and accurate tool to unzip assembly graphs into their constituent haplotypes using long reads and/or Hi-C data. As GraphUnzip only connects sequences in the assembly graph that already had a potential link based on overlaps, it yields high-quality gap-less supercontigs. To demonstrate the efficiency of GraphUnzip, we tested it on a simulated diploid Escherichia coli genome, and on two real datasets for the genomes of the rotifer Adineta vaga and the potato Solanum tuberosum. In all cases, GraphUnzip yielded highly continuous phased assemblies.

https://www.biorxiv.org/content/biorxiv/early/2021/02/01/2021.01.29.428779.full.pdf

Address of the bookmark: https://github.com/nadegeguiglielmoni/GraphUnzip

ContigExtender: a new approach to improving de novo sequence assembly for viral metagenomics data

LEGE — Wed, 08 May 2024 07:32:45 -0500

ContigExtender, was developed to extend contigs, complementing de novo assembly. ContigExtender employs a novel recursive Overlap Layout Candidates (r-OLC) strategy that explores multiple extending paths to achieve longer and highly accurate contigs. ContigExtender is effective for extending contigs significantly in in silico synthesized and real metagenomics datasets.

More at https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7953547/

Address of the bookmark: https://github.com/dengzac/contig-extender