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Step-by-Step Guide to Running Genome Assembly

Abhi — Fri, 13 Dec 2024 11:35:55 -0600

Genome assembly is a critical process in bioinformatics, enabling the reconstruction of an organism's genome from short DNA sequence reads. Whether you’re working on a new microbial genome or a complex eukaryotic organism, this guide will walk you through the steps of genome assembly using state-of-the-art tools and best practices.

What is Genome Assembly?

Genome assembly involves piecing together short DNA sequence reads generated by sequencing platforms (e.g., Illumina, PacBio, Oxford Nanopore) into longer, contiguous sequences called contigs. This can be performed as:

De Novo Assembly: Without a reference genome.
Reference-Guided Assembly: Using a reference genome to guide the assembly process.

Step 1: Preparing Your Data

Before starting the assembly, ensure that your raw sequencing data is high quality.

Input Data
- Short Reads: Illumina sequencing generates short, accurate reads ideal for scaffolding.
- Long Reads: PacBio and Nanopore sequencing provide long reads for resolving repetitive regions.
Quality Control (QC)
Use tools like FastQC or MultiQC to assess the quality of your reads:

fastqc reads.fastq multiqc .

Look for issues like low-quality bases, adapter contamination, or overrepresented sequences.
Read Trimming and Filtering
Trim low-quality bases and adapters using Trimmomatic or Cutadapt:

trimmomatic PE reads_R1.fastq reads_R2.fastq trimmed_R1.fastq trimmed_R2.fastq \ ILLUMINACLIP:adapters.fa:2:30:10 LEADING:3 TRAILING:3 SLIDINGWINDOW:4:20 MINLEN:36

Step 2: Choosing an Assembly Strategy

Select an assembly strategy based on your data type:

Short-Read Assemblers:
- SPAdes: Popular for microbial genomes.
- Velvet: Fast for smaller genomes.
Long-Read Assemblers:
- Canu: Ideal for long-read datasets.
- Flye: Versatile for small and large genomes.
Hybrid Assemblers:
- MaSuRCA: Combines short and long reads.
- Unicycler: Optimized for bacterial genomes.

Step 3: Running the Assembly

3.1. SPAdes (Short-Read Assembly)

SPAdes is an excellent choice for small genomes, such as bacteria.

spades.py -1 trimmed_R1.fastq -2 trimmed_R2.fastq -o spades_output

The output includes assembled contigs (contigs.fasta) and scaffolds (scaffolds.fasta).

3.2. Canu (Long-Read Assembly)

Canu is designed for high-error long reads from PacBio or Nanopore.

canu -p genome -d canu_output genomeSize=4.7m -nanopore-raw reads.fastq

The output will be in canu_output/genome.contigs.fasta.

3.3. Hybrid Assembly with Unicycler

Unicycler combines short and long reads for improved assemblies.

unicycler -1 trimmed_R1.fastq -2 trimmed_R2.fastq -l long_reads.fastq -o unicycler_output

Step 4: Assessing Assembly Quality

After assembly, evaluate its quality using the following tools:

QUAST
QUAST generates assembly statistics, such as N50, genome size, and GC content:

quast contigs.fasta -o quast_output
BUSCO
BUSCO checks genome completeness by identifying conserved genes:

busco -i contigs.fasta -o busco_output -l fungi_odb10 -m genome
Assembly Graph Visualization
Visualize assembly graphs with Bandage:

Bandage load assembly_graph.gfa

Step 5: Post-Assembly Steps

Polishing
Improve assembly accuracy using tools like Pilon (for short reads) or Racon (for long reads).

racon long_reads.fasta mapped_reads.sam contigs.fasta > polished_contigs.fasta
Scaffolding
Link contigs into scaffolds using tools like SSPACE or Opera-LG if required.
Annotation
Annotate the assembled genome using Prokka for prokaryotes or Maker for eukaryotes.

prokka --outdir annotation_output --prefix genome contigs.fasta

Step 6: Sharing and Archiving

Submit to Public Repositories
Share your assembly in databases like NCBI GenBank, ENA, or DDBJ.
Metadata Preparation
Include detailed metadata for your submission, such as organism name, sequencing platform, and coverage.

Best Practices

Always perform quality checks at each stage to ensure data integrity.
Use multiple tools to cross-validate results when working with complex genomes.
Document parameters and software versions for reproducibility.

Conclusion

Genome assembly is a powerful process that transforms raw sequencing data into a coherent representation of an organism’s genome. By following this step-by-step guide, you can successfully assemble genomes and uncover valuable biological insights. Whether you’re assembling a microbial genome or tackling the complexities of a eukaryotic genome, these tools and strategies will set you on the path to success.

JBrowse: Embeddable genome browser built completely with JavaScript and HTML5

Jit — Fri, 29 Jun 2018 09:19:56 -0500

JBrowse is a fast, embeddable genome browser built completely with JavaScript and HTML5, with optional run-once data formatting tools written in Perl. Headline Features: Fast, smooth scrolling and zooming. Explore your genome with unparalleled speed. Scales easily to multi-gigabase genomes and deep-coverage sequencing. Quickly open and view data files on your computer without uploading them to any server. Supports GFF3, BED, FASTA, Wiggle, BigWig, BAM, VCF (with either .tbi or .idx index), REST, and more. BAM, BigBed, BigWig, and VCF data are displayed directly from chunks of the compressed binary files, no conversion needed. Includes an optional “faceted” track selector (see demo) suitable for large installations with thousands of tracks. Very light server resource requirements. In fact, JBrowse has no back-end server code, just tools for formatting data files to be read directly over HTTP. Serve huge datasets from a single low-cost cloud instance. Can run as a stand-alone app on OSX and Windows using the Electron platform Highly extensible plugin architecture, with a large plugin registry of existing examples here https://gmod.github.io/jbrowse-registry https://jbrowse.org/

Address of the bookmark: https://github.com/GMOD/jbrowse

VCF Compare !

Rahul Nayak — Wed, 19 Jan 2022 10:30:14 -0600

compare two BWA mapping methods with the online hg18-mapped data

We first operate a rapid inspection of the different BAM files using samtools flagstat. Illumina provided chr21 read mapping obtained with their GA IIx deep sequencing platform <ftp://webdata:webdata@ussd-ftp.illumina.com/Data/SequencingRuns/NA18507_GAIIx_100_chr21.bam>, aligned to the b36/hg18 reference genome)

Address of the bookmark: https://wiki.bits.vib.be/index.php/NGS_Exercise.6#compare_aln_.26_mem_results_with_vcf-compare

Genome Workbench 2.10.7

Gudiya Pal — Fri, 01 Jul 2016 12:09:59 -0500

Genome Workbench 2.10.7 is here! New features include added support for local custom BLAST databases and improvements to Tree View.

For the full list of features, improvements and fixes, see the release notes:https://ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/tools/gbench/releasenotes

New Features

BLAST Tool: added support for local custom BLAST databases
Graphical Sequence View: added log scaling option for graph tracks
Generic Table View: new tutorial added

Bug Fixes and Improvements

Project Tree View: Genomic Collections/Assemblies now show accessions, not just names
Tree View: layout updated to better accommodate nodes of different sizes
Table Import Dialog (MacOS): fixed issue with table visibility
Fixed bug where different molecules IDs in GenBank could resolve to the same sequence
Graphical Sequence View: fixed issue where sequence track was not shown for some sequences
Graphical Sequence View: fixed protein coloration methods
Graphical Sequence View: improved rendering of Markers to better indicate boundaries and produce higher quality PDF images
Create Gene Model tool: fixed scenario when gene model tool failed with local sequences
Search View: ORF Finder – fixed incorrect protein lengths
Fixed bug with not opening project file (.gbp) on a click
Fixed issues in GVF import
Fixed BLAST Search tool against NCBI databases not working
Fixed tblastn (protein BLAST) not working in standalone mode
Fixed GTF export failure

OrganellarGenomeDRAW

Jit — Tue, 16 Aug 2016 08:13:13 -0500

OrganellarGenomeDRAW is dedicated to convert genetic information stored in GenBank entries to graphical maps. The input text file has to be in GenBank flat file format, whereas the output format can be chosen among several formats. The application is especially optimized and adapted for the creation of high-quality, detailed circular maps of organellar genomes like the plastid genome (plastome) or the mitochondrial genome (chondriome). Nevertheless, you can upload any GenBank entry. The workflow is devided into three steps.

More at http://ogdraw.mpimp-golm.mpg.de/cgi-bin/ogdraw.pl

Address of the bookmark: http://ogdraw.mpimp-golm.mpg.de/index.shtml

vcfR

Archana Malhotra — Fri, 19 Aug 2016 07:38:24 -0500

Most variant calling pipelines result in files containing large quantities of variant information. The variant call format (vcf) is an increasingly popular format for this data. The format of these files and their content is discussed in the vignette ‘vcf data.’ These files are typically intended to be post-processed (i.e., filtered) as an attempt to remove false positives or otherwise problematic sites. The R package vcfR provides tools to facilitate this filtering as well as to visualize the effects of choices made during this process.

Address of the bookmark: https://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/vcfR/vignettes/visualization_1.html

LUMPY

Shruti Paniwala — Thu, 25 Aug 2016 08:05:02 -0500

A probabilistic framework for structural variant discovery.

Ryan M Layer, Colby Chiang, Aaron R Quinlan, and Ira M Hall. 2014. "LUMPY: a Probabilistic Framework for Structural Variant Discovery." Genome Biology 15 (6): R84. doi:10.1186/gb-2014-15-6-r84.

More at https://github.com/arq5x/lumpy-sv

Address of the bookmark: https://github.com/arq5x/lumpy-sv

Ka, Ks and Ka/Ks calculations

Poonam Mahapatra — Mon, 29 Aug 2016 11:44:11 -0500

gKaKs is a codon-based genome-level Ka/Ks computation pipeline developed and based on programs from four widely used packages: BLAT, BLASTALL (including bl2seq, formatdb and fastacmd), PAML (including codeml and yn00) and KaKs_Calculator (including 10 substitution rate estimation methods). gKaKs can automatically detect and eliminate frameshift mutations and premature stop codons to compute the substitution rates (Ka, Ks and Ka/Ks) between a well-annotated genome and a non-annotated genome or even a poorly assembled scaffold dataset. It is especially useful for newly sequenced genomes that have not been well annotated.

Look for KaKs calculation:

https://github.com/fumba/kaks-calculator

http://longlab.uchicago.edu/?q=gKaKs

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23314322

Address of the bookmark: http://longlab.uchicago.edu/?q=gKaKs

R-chie

Jit — Thu, 01 Sep 2016 11:47:24 -0500

R-chie allows you to make arc diagrams of RNA secondary structures, allowing for easy comparison and overlap of two structures, rank and display basepairs in colour and to also visualize corresponding multiple sequence alignments and co-variation information.
R4RNA is the R package powering R-chie, available for download and local use for more customized figures and scripting.

http://www.e-rna.org/r-chie/plot.cgi?eg=single

Address of the bookmark: http://www.e-rna.org/r-chie/plot.cgi?eg=single

Structural variants PPT

Jit — Wed, 07 Sep 2016 03:16:09 -0500

1000 Genomes data tutorial at ASHG

Structural variants presentation by

Jan Korbel

European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) Heidelberg Genome Biology Research Unit

Reference:

https://www.genome.gov/pages/research/der/1000genomesprojecttutorials/structuralvariants-jankorbel.pdf