BOL: Related items

BEAP: Blast Extension and Assembly Program

Shruti Paniwala — Mon, 11 Jun 2018 04:52:56 -0500

The Blast Extension and Assembly Program (BEAP) is a computer program that uses a short starting DNA fragment, often a EST or partial gene segment, as "primer", to recursively blast nucleotide databases in an attempt to obtain all sequences that overlaps, directly or indirectly, with the "primer" therefore help to "extend" the length of the original sequence for constructing a "full length" sequence for functional analysis, or at least to obtain neighboring regions of the segment for SNP discovery and linkage disequilibrium analysis. The confidence of assembling the resulting sequences is achieved by using a known genome, such as human genome, as a reference. https://www.animalgenome.org/tools/beap/

Address of the bookmark: https://www.animalgenome.org/tools/beap/

BAUM – Improving Genome Assembly by Adaptive Unique Mapping and Local Overlap-Layout-Consensus

Jit — Wed, 24 Oct 2018 23:35:09 -0500

BAUM, breaks the whole genome into regions by adaptive unique mapping; then the local OLC is used to assemble each region in parallel. BAUM can: (1) perform reference-assisted assembly based on the genome of a close species; (2) or improve the results of existing assemblies that are obtained based on short or long sequencing reads.

Address of the bookmark: http://www.zhanyuwang.xin/wordpress/index.php/2017/07/21/baum-improving-genome-assembly-by-adaptive-unique-mapping-and-local-overlap-layout-consensus/

SPADes team announce new version SPADes v3.15

BioStar — Fri, 15 Jan 2021 10:24:27 -0600

New SPAdes 3.15.0.0. announced by the SPADes team This release includes such new features as:
- CoronaSPAdes pipeline for the assembly of transcriptomic and metatranscriptomic data of full-length coronaviridae genomes;
- Meta-Viral and RNA-Viral pipelines for metagenomic and metatranscriptomic data defining viral genomes;
-New trusted contiguous use algorithm;
-Switched to the memory allocator mimalloc;
- PlasmidSPAdes and bgcSPAdes are now provided as an input assembly graph;
- Important improvements and corrections to the metaplasmid pipeline;
- Multiple performance improvements in procedures for simplification and repeat resolving.
Please, consider updating.

Check out more at https://cab.spbu.ru/software/spades/

Genome Assembly Workshop 2020

Jit — Wed, 25 Aug 2021 04:30:32 -0500

Our team offers custom bioinformatics services to academic and private organizations. We have a strong academic background with a focus on cutting edge, open source software. We replicate standard analysis pipelines (best practices) when appropriate, and/or develop novel applications and pipelines when needed, however we always emphasize biological interpretation of the data.

More at https://ucdavis-bioinformatics-training.github.io/

Address of the bookmark: https://ucdavis-bioinformatics-training.github.io/2020-Genome_Assembly_Workshop/snakemake/snakemake_intro

NCBI Datasets pages

BioStar — Wed, 12 Jul 2023 06:29:31 -0500

Update! Assembly and Genome record pages now redirect to new NCBI Datasets pages. NCBI Datasets is a new resource that makes it easier to find and download genome data. Learn more: https://ncbiinsights.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/2023/07/11/ncbi-datasets-genome-assembly-pages/ #NCBICGR

Effective July 10, 2023, NCBI’s Assembly and Genome record pages now redirect to new NCBI Datasets pages. As previously announced, these updates are part of our ongoing effort to modernize and improve your user experience. NCBI Datasets is a new resource that makes it easier to find and download genome data.  

The following pages have been updated:

The NCBI Assembly record pages now redirect to the new NCBI Datasets Genome record pages that describe assembled genomes and provide links to related NCBI tools such as Genome Data Viewer and BLAST. 
The NCBI Genome record pages now redirect to the NCBI Datasets Taxonomy record pages that provide a taxonomy-focused portal to genes, genomes, and additional NCBI resources.

During this transition, you will have the option to return to the legacy Genome and Assembly record pages. We will remove the legacy pages in early 2024. 

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.

ARC: pipeline which facilitates iterative, reference guided de novo assemblies

Jit — Thu, 26 Jul 2018 09:20:26 -0500

ARC is a pipeline which facilitates iterative, reference guided de novo assemblies with the intent of:

Reducing time in analysis and increasing accuracy of results by only considering those reads which should assemble together.
Reducing/removing reference bias as compared to mapping based approaches.

The software is designed to work in situations where a whole-genome assembly is not the objective, but rather when the researcher wishes to assemble discreet 'targets' contained within next-generation shotgun sequence data. ARC decomplexifies the traditionally difficult problem of assembly by breaking the reads into small, manageable subsets which can then be assembled quickly and efficiently in parallel. Applications include those in which the researcher wishes to de novo assemble specific content and a set of semi-similar reference targets is available to initialize the assembly process.

https://ibest.github.io/ARC/

Address of the bookmark: https://ibest.github.io/ARC/

Mash: fast genome and metagenome distance estimation using MinHash

Jit — Tue, 12 Dec 2017 17:30:12 -0600

Mash is normally distributed as a dependency-free binary for Linux or OSX (see https://github.com/marbl/Mash/releases). This source distribution is intended for other operating systems or for development. Mash requires c++11 to build, which is available in and GCC >= 4.8 and OSX >= 10.7.

See http://mash.readthedocs.org for more information.

Address of the bookmark: https://github.com/marbl/Mash/releases

LAMSA: fast split read alignment with long approximate matches

Jit — Tue, 15 May 2018 04:44:42 -0500

LAMSA (Long Approximate Matches-based Split Aligner) is a novel split alignment approach with faster speed and good ability of handling SV events. It is well-suited to align long reads (over thousands of base-pairs). LAMSA takes takes the advantage of the rareness of SVs to implement a specifically designed two-step strategy. That is, LAMSA initially splits the read into relatively long fragments and co-linearly align them to solve the small variations or sequencing errors, and mitigate the effect of repeats. The alignments of the fragments are then used for implementing a sparse dynamic programming (SDP)-based split alignment approach to handle the large or non-co-linear variants. We benchmarked LAMSA with simulated and real datasets having various read lengths and sequencing error rates, the results demonstrate that it is substantially faster than the state-of-the-art long read aligners; mean-while, it also has good ability to handle various categories of SVs. LAMSA is open source and free for non-commercial use. LAMSA is mainly designed by Bo Liu & Yan Gao and developed by Yan Gao in Center for Bioinformatics, Harbin Institute of Technology, China.

Address of the bookmark: https://github.com/hitbc/LAMSA

FLAS: fast and high throughput algorithm for PacBio long read self-correction.

Jit — Sat, 22 Jun 2019 12:16:39 -0500

FLAS, a wrapper algorithm of MECAT, to achieve high throughput long read self-correction while keeping MECAT's fast speed. FLAS finds additional alignments from MECAT prealigned long reads to improve the correction throughput, and removes misalignments for accuracy.

Address of the bookmark: https://github.com/baoe/flas