BOL: Related items

The "Ifs" and "Buts" of NGS Quality Control and Trimming

BioStar — Thu, 02 Jan 2025 20:11:07 -0600

Next-Generation Sequencing (NGS) has revolutionized biological research, providing vast amounts of data for a wide range of applications. However, the reliability of NGS analyses heavily depends on the quality of raw sequencing data. Quality control (QC) and trimming are critical preprocessing steps that can make or break your downstream analyses. In this blog, we explore the "ifs" (why you should perform QC and trimming) and the "buts" (challenges or considerations) of this vital step in NGS workflows.

The "Ifs" of NGS QC and Trimming

Ensures Data Integrity
If you want to minimize errors in downstream analyses, QC and trimming remove low-quality reads and bases, ensuring high-confidence data. This step is essential for reliable variant calling, assembly, and other applications.
Removes Contaminants
If adapter sequences or contaminants are present in the raw reads, trimming can eliminate them. This prevents issues like misalignment or incorrect biological interpretations, ensuring cleaner data for analysis.
Improves Mapping and Assembly
If your goal is better alignment to a reference genome or improved de novo assembly, trimming low-quality bases and adapters is critical. High-quality reads map more efficiently and generate more accurate assemblies.
Reduces Computational Load
If you want to save computational resources, trimming reduces the dataset size, which speeds up processing and analysis. Clean datasets mean less computational time spent on processing low-quality data.
Prepares for Standardized Analyses
If your project involves multiple datasets, QC and trimming ensure uniformity across them. This standardization makes comparisons valid and reproducible, particularly in large collaborative studies.

The "Buts" of NGS QC and Trimming

Risk of Over-Trimming
But excessive trimming can lead to the loss of informative sequences, reducing read depth and potentially discarding biologically relevant data. This is especially critical in studies with limited sequencing depth.
Bias Introduction
But trimming algorithms might introduce biases, especially if they inadvertently remove sequences with specific biological patterns. This can skew results and compromise biological insights.
Loss of Context in Paired-End Reads
But trimming one read in a pair more than the other can lead to loss of pairing information. This complicates downstream analyses that rely on paired-end data, such as structural variant detection.
Time and Resource Intensive
But running QC and trimming for large datasets can be computationally expensive and time-consuming. As sequencing depth increases, preprocessing becomes a bottleneck in the analysis pipeline.
Variable Standards
But the criteria for trimming (e.g., quality threshold, minimum read length) can vary between tools and datasets. This variability may affect reproducibility and comparability of results across studies.

Balancing the "Ifs" and "Buts"

To maximize the benefits of QC and trimming while mitigating the challenges, consider the following best practices:

Use QC Tools Wisely: Start with tools like FastQC to identify quality issues in your raw data. Visualizing quality metrics helps tailor your trimming parameters.
Choose Reliable Trimming Tools: Tools like Trimmomatic, Cutadapt, and BBduk offer adaptive and customizable trimming options. Select one that aligns with your dataset and project goals.
Set Reasonable Parameters: Avoid over-trimming by setting quality thresholds and minimum read lengths that balance data retention and quality improvement.
Test Downstream Effects: Validate the impact of QC and trimming on downstream analyses, such as alignment efficiency, variant calling accuracy, or assembly quality.
Document Your Workflow: Maintain detailed records of the parameters and tools used for QC and trimming. This ensures reproducibility and enables better troubleshooting.

Conclusion

NGS quality control and trimming are essential steps to ensure reliable and accurate data for analysis. While the "ifs" highlight the clear benefits of these steps, the "buts" remind us of the potential pitfalls. By adopting best practices and carefully balancing these considerations, you can optimize your preprocessing workflow and unlock the full potential of your sequencing data.

Omega2: metagenome assembly pipeline

Jit — Mon, 10 Jul 2017 05:56:07 -0500

Omega found overlaps between reads using a prefix/suffix hash table. The overlap graph of reads was simplified by removing transitive edges and trimming short branches. Unitigs were generated based on minimum cost flow analysis of the overlap graph and then merged to contigs and scaffolds using mate-pair information. In comparison with three de Bruijn graph assemblers (SOAPdenovo, IDBA-UD and MetaVelvet), Omega provided comparable overall performance on a HiSeq 100-bp dataset and superior performance on a MiSeq 300-bp dataset. In comparison with Celera on the MiSeq dataset, Omega provided more continuous assemblies overall using a fraction of the computing time of existing overlap-layout-consensus assemblers. This indicates Omega can more efficiently assemble longer Illumina reads, and at deeper coverage, for metagenomic datasets.

Address of the bookmark: http://omega.omicsbio.org/

RGFA: powerful and convenient handling of assembly graphs

Rahul Nayak — Thu, 25 Jan 2018 05:47:53 -0600

RGFA, an implementation of the proposed GFA specification in Ruby. It allows the user to conveniently parse, edit and write GFA files. Complex operations such as the separation of the implicit instances of repeats and the merging of linear paths can be performed. A typical application of RGFA is the editing of a graph, to finish the assembly of a sequence, using information not available to the assembler. We illustrate a use case, in which the assembly of a repetitive metagenomic fosmid insert was completed using a script based on RGFA.

https://github.com/ggonnella/rgfa

Address of the bookmark: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5103826/

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

Genobuntu: A software package containing more than 70 software and packages oriented towards NGS and genome assembly

BioStar — Tue, 11 Dec 2018 05:15:57 -0600

Genobuntu is a software package containing more than 70 software and packages oriented towards NGS. In its current version, Genobuntu supports pre assembly tools, genome assemblers as well as post assembly tools.

Commonly used biological software and example script files for different assembly pipelines have also been provided, where the example script files can be updated to suit one’s experimental needs. Genobuntu attempts to reduce the amount of time and energy needed to build software workstations and it can also act as a good teaching source for a class room setting.

https://sourceforge.net/projects/genobuntu/

Address of the bookmark: https://sourceforge.net/projects/genobuntu/

GMASS: a novel measure for genomeassembly structural similarity

Abhimanyu Singh — Sun, 14 Apr 2019 20:35:40 -0500

The GMASS score is a novel measure for representing structural similarity between two assemblies. It will contribute to the understanding of assembly output and developing de novo assemblers.

https://bmcbioinformatics.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12859-019-2710-z

Address of the bookmark: http://bioinfo.konkuk.ac.kr/GMASS/htdocs/syncircos.php

SvABA: Structural variation and indel detection by local assembly

Jit — Tue, 10 Mar 2020 07:52:15 -0500

SvABA is a method for detecting structural variants in sequencing data using genome-wide local assembly. Under the hood, SvABA uses a custom implementation of SGA (String Graph Assembler) by Jared Simpson, and BWA-MEM by Heng Li. Contigs are assembled for every 25kb window (with some small overlap) for every region in the genome. The default is to use only clipped, discordant, unmapped and indel reads, although this can be customized to any set of reads at the command line using VariantBam rules. These contigs are then immediately aligned to the reference with BWA-MEM and parsed to identify variants. Sequencing reads are then realigned to the contigs with BWA-MEM, and variants are scored by their read support.

Address of the bookmark: https://github.com/walaj/svaba

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

VICUNA: a software tool that enables consensus assembly of ultra-deep sequence derived from diverse viral or other heterogeneous populations.

biogeek — Tue, 25 Aug 2020 03:40:17 -0500

VICUNA is a de novo assembly program targeting populations with high mutation rates. It creates a single linear representation of the mixed population on which intra-host variants can be mapped. For clinical samples rich in contamination (e.g., >95%), VICUNA can leverage existing genomes, if available, to assemble only target-alike reads. After initial assembly, it can also use existing genomes to perform guided merging of contigs. For each data set (e.g., Illumina paired read, 454), VICUNA outputs consensus sequence(s) and the corresponding multiple sequence alignment of constituent reads. VICUNA efficiently handles ultra-deep sequence data with tens of thousands fold coverage.

http://software.broadinstitute.org/viral/docs/vicuna_v1.0.pdf

Address of the bookmark: https://www.broadinstitute.org/viral-genomics/vicuna

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