scholarly journals Improving the Chromosome-Level Genome Assembly of the Siamese Fighting Fish (Betta splendens) in a University Master’s Course

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (7) ◽  
pp. 2179-2183 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stefan Prost ◽  
Malte Petersen ◽  
Martin Grethlein ◽  
Sarah Joy Hahn ◽  
Nina Kuschik-Maczollek ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Genome Assembly ◽  
High Throughput Sequencing ◽  
Siamese Fighting Fish ◽  
Betta Splendens ◽  
High Quality ◽  
Sequencing Platform ◽  
Sequencing Technologies ◽  
Oxford Nanopore ◽  
Long Read ◽  
Chromosome Level

Ever decreasing costs along with advances in sequencing and library preparation technologies enable even small research groups to generate chromosome-level assemblies today. Here we report the generation of an improved chromosome-level assembly for the Siamese fighting fish (Betta splendens) that was carried out during a practical university master’s course. The Siamese fighting fish is a popular aquarium fish and an emerging model species for research on aggressive behavior. We updated the current genome assembly by generating a new long-read nanopore-based assembly with subsequent scaffolding to chromosome-level using previously published Hi-C data. The use of ∼35x nanopore-based long-read data sequenced on a MinION platform (Oxford Nanopore Technologies) allowed us to generate a baseline assembly of only 1,276 contigs with a contig N50 of 2.1 Mbp, and a total length of 441 Mbp. Scaffolding using the Hi-C data resulted in 109 scaffolds with a scaffold N50 of 20.7 Mbp. More than 99% of the assembly is comprised in 21 scaffolds. The assembly showed the presence of 96.1% complete BUSCO genes from the Actinopterygii dataset indicating a high quality of the assembly. We present an improved full chromosome-level assembly of the Siamese fighting fish generated during a university master’s course. The use of ∼35× long-read nanopore data drastically improved the baseline assembly in terms of continuity. We show that relatively in-expensive high-throughput sequencing technologies such as the long-read MinION sequencing platform can be used in educational settings allowing the students to gain practical skills in modern genomics and generate high quality results that benefit downstream research projects.

scholarly journals Improving the chromosome-level genome assembly of the Siamese fighting fish (Betta splendens) in a university Master’s course

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stefan Prost ◽  
Malte Petersen ◽  
Martin Grethlein ◽  
Sarah Joy Hahn ◽  
Nina Kuschik-Maczollek ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Genome Assembly ◽  
High Throughput Sequencing ◽  
Siamese Fighting Fish ◽  
Betta Splendens ◽  
High Quality ◽  
Sequencing Platform ◽  
Sequencing Technologies ◽  
Oxford Nanopore ◽  
Long Read ◽  
Chromosome Level

AbstractBackgroundEver decreasing costs along with advances in sequencing and library preparation technologies enable even small research groups to generate chromosome-level assemblies today. Here we report the generation of an improved chromosome-level assembly for the Siamese fighting fish (Betta splendens) that was carried out during a practical university Master’s course. The Siamese fighting fish is a popular aquarium fish and an emerging model species for research on aggressive behaviour. We updated the current genome assembly by generating a new long-read nanopore-based assembly with subsequent scaffolding to chromosome-level using previously published HiC data.FindingsThe use of nanopore-based long-read data sequenced on a MinION platform (Oxford Nanopore Technologies) allowed us to generate a baseline assembly of only 1,276 contigs with a contig N50 of 2.1 Mbp, and a total length of 441 Mbp. Scaffolding using previously published HiC data resulted in 109 scaffolds with a scaffold N50 of 20.7 Mbp. More than 99% of the assembly is comprised in 21 scaffolds. The assembly showed the presence of 95.8% complete BUSCO genes from the Actinopterygii dataset indicating a high quality of the assembly.ConclusionWe present an improved full chromosome-level assembly of the Siamese fighting fish generated during a university Master’s course. The use of ~35× long-read nanopore data drastically improved the baseline assembly in terms of continuity. We show that relatively in-expensive high-throughput sequencing technologies such as the long-read MinION sequencing platform can be used in educational settings allowing the students to gain practical skills in modern genomics and generate high quality results that benefit downstream research projects.

scholarly journals NGSpeciesID: DNA barcode and amplicon consensus generation from long-read sequencing data

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kristoffer Sahlin ◽  
Marisa Lim ◽  
Stefan Prost
Keyword(s):  
High Throughput Sequencing ◽  
Dna Barcode ◽  
Amplicon Sequencing ◽  
Error Rates ◽  
Sequencing Data ◽  
Sequencing Platform ◽  
Consensus Sequences ◽  
Sequencing Technologies ◽  
Oxford Nanopore ◽  
Long Read

Third generation sequencing technologies, such as Oxford Nanopore Technologies (ONT) and Pacific Biosciences (PacBio), have gained popularity over the last years. These platforms can generate millions of long read sequences. This is not only advantageous for genome sequencing projects, but also for amplicon-based high-throughput sequencing experiments, such as DNA barcoding. However, the relatively high error rates associated with these technologies still pose challenges for generating high quality consensus sequences. Here we present NGSpeciesID, a program which can generate highly accurate consensus sequences from long-read amplicon sequencing technologies, including ONT and PacBio. The tool includes clustering of the reads to help filter out contaminants or reads with high error rates and employs polishing strategies specific to the appropriate sequencing platform. We show that NGSpeciesID produces consensus sequences with improved usability by minimizing preprocessing and software installation and scalability by enabling rapid processing of hundreds to thousands of samples, while maintaining similar consensus accuracy as current pipelines

scholarly journals Hapo-G, haplotype-aware polishing of genome assemblies with accurate reads

2021 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jean-Marc Aury ◽  
Benjamin Istace
Keyword(s):  
Single Molecule ◽  
Direct Consequence ◽  
High Quality ◽  
Sequencing Errors ◽  
Coding Regions ◽  
Sequencing Technologies ◽  
Long Reads ◽  
Oxford Nanopore ◽  
Long Read ◽  
Genome Assemblies

Abstract Single-molecule sequencing technologies have recently been commercialized by Pacific Biosciences and Oxford Nanopore with the promise of sequencing long DNA fragments (kilobases to megabases order) and then, using efficient algorithms, provide high quality assemblies in terms of contiguity and completeness of repetitive regions. However, the error rate of long-read technologies is higher than that of short-read technologies. This has a direct consequence on the base quality of genome assemblies, particularly in coding regions where sequencing errors can disrupt the coding frame of genes. In the case of diploid genomes, the consensus of a given gene can be a mixture between the two haplotypes and can lead to premature stop codons. Several methods have been developed to polish genome assemblies using short reads and generally, they inspect the nucleotide one by one, and provide a correction for each nucleotide of the input assembly. As a result, these algorithms are not able to properly process diploid genomes and they typically switch from one haplotype to another. Herein we proposed Hapo-G (Haplotype-Aware Polishing Of Genomes), a new algorithm capable of incorporating phasing information from high-quality reads (short or long-reads) to polish genome assemblies and in particular assemblies of diploid and heterozygous genomes.

scholarly journals Chromosome-level genome assembly of the female western mosquitofish (Gambusia affinis)

GigaScience ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (8) ◽  
Author(s):  
Feng Shao ◽  
Arne Ludwig ◽  
Yang Mao ◽  
Ni Liu ◽  
Zuogang Peng
Keyword(s):  
Dna Sequences ◽  
Genome Assembly ◽  
Gambusia Affinis ◽  
Comparative Genomic ◽  
Suitable Model ◽  
High Quality ◽  
Western Mosquitofish ◽  
Poeciliid Fish ◽  
Oxford Nanopore ◽  
Chromosome Level

Abstract Background The western mosquitofish (Gambusia affinis) is a sexually dimorphic poeciliid fish known for its worldwide biological invasion and therefore an important research model for studying invasion biology. This organism may also be used as a suitable model to explore sex chromosome evolution and reproductive development in terms of differentiation of ZW sex chromosomes, ovoviviparity, and specialization of reproductive organs. However, there is a lack of high-quality genomic data for the female G. affinis; hence, this study aimed to generate a chromosome-level genome assembly for it. Results The chromosome-level genome assembly was constructed using Oxford nanopore sequencing, BioNano, and Hi-C technology. G. affinis genomic DNA sequences containing 217 contigs with an N50 length of 12.9 Mb and 125 scaffolds with an N50 length of 26.5 Mb were obtained by Oxford nanopore and BioNano, respectively, and the 113 scaffolds (90.4% of scaffolds containing 97.9% nucleotide bases) were assembled into 24 chromosomes (pseudo-chromosomes) by Hi-C. The Z and W chromosomes of G. affinis were identified by comparative genomic analysis of female and male G. affinis, and the mechanism of differentiation of the Z and W chromosomes was explored. Combined with transcriptome data from 6 tissues, a total of 23,997 protein-coding genes were predicted and 23,737 (98.9%) genes were functionally annotated. Conclusions The high-quality female G. affinis reference genome provides a valuable omics resource for future studies of comparative genomics and functional genomics to explore the evolution of Z and W chromosomes and the reproductive developmental biology of G. affinis.

scholarly journals Chasing perfection: validation and polishing strategies for telomere-to-telomere genome assemblies

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arang Rhie ◽  
Ann Mc Cartney ◽  
Kishwar Shafin ◽  
Michael Alonge ◽  
Andrey Bzikadze ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Genome Assembly ◽  
Tandem Repeats ◽  
Hydatidiform Mole ◽  
Segmental Duplications ◽  
Sequencing Technologies ◽  
Oxford Nanopore ◽  
Human Genome Assembly ◽  
Long Read ◽  
Genome Assemblies ◽  
Oxford Nanopore Technologies

Abstract Advances in long-read sequencing technologies and genome assembly methods have enabled the recent completion of the first Telomere-to-Telomere (T2T) human genome assembly, which resolves complex segmental duplications and large tandem repeats, including centromeric satellite arrays in a complete hydatidiform mole (CHM13). Though derived from highly accurate sequencing, evaluation revealed that the initial T2T draft assembly had evidence of small errors and structural misassemblies. To correct these errors, we designed a novel repeat-aware polishing strategy that made accurate assembly corrections in large repeats without overcorrection, ultimately fixing 51% of the existing errors and improving the assembly QV to 73.9. By comparing our results to standard automated polishing tools, we outline common polishing errors and offer practical suggestions for genome projects with limited resources. We also show how sequencing biases in both PacBio HiFi and Oxford Nanopore Technologies reads cause signature assembly errors that can be corrected with a diverse panel of sequencing technologies

scholarly journals Construction of a chromosome-scale long-read reference genome assembly for potato

GigaScience ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (9) ◽  
Author(s):  
Gina M Pham ◽  
John P Hamilton ◽  
Joshua C Wood ◽  
Joseph T Burke ◽  
Hainan Zhao ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Genome Sequence ◽  
Reference Genome ◽  
Agronomic Traits ◽  
Solanum Tuberosum L ◽  
Fold Increase ◽  
High Quality ◽  
Sequencing Technologies ◽  
Oxford Nanopore ◽  
Long Read ◽  
Oxford Nanopore Technologies

Abstract Background Worldwide, the cultivated potato, Solanum tuberosum L., is the No. 1 vegetable crop and a critical food security crop. The genome sequence of DM1–3 516 R44, a doubled monoploid clone of S. tuberosum Group Phureja, was published in 2011 using a whole-genome shotgun sequencing approach with short-read sequence data. Current advanced sequencing technologies now permit generation of near-complete, high-quality chromosome-scale genome assemblies at minimal cost. Findings Here, we present an updated version of the DM1–3 516 R44 genome sequence (v6.1) using Oxford Nanopore Technologies long reads coupled with proximity-by-ligation scaffolding (Hi-C), yielding a chromosome-scale assembly. The new (v6.1) assembly represents 741.6 Mb of sequence (87.8%) of the estimated 844 Mb genome, of which 741.5 Mb is non-gapped with 731.2 Mb anchored to the 12 chromosomes. Use of Oxford Nanopore Technologies full-length complementary DNA sequencing enabled annotation of 32,917 high-confidence protein-coding genes encoding 44,851 gene models that had a significantly improved representation of conserved orthologs compared with the previous annotation. The new assembly has improved contiguity with a 595-fold increase in N50 contig size, 99% reduction in the number of contigs, a 44-fold increase in N50 scaffold size, and an LTR Assembly Index score of 13.56, placing it in the category of reference genome quality. The improved assembly also permitted annotation of the centromeres via alignment to sequencing reads derived from CENH3 nucleosomes. Conclusions Access to advanced sequencing technologies and improved software permitted generation of a high-quality, long-read, chromosome-scale assembly and improved annotation dataset for the reference genotype of potato that will facilitate research aimed at improving agronomic traits and understanding genome evolution.

scholarly journals Long-read and chromosome-scale assembly of the hexaploid wheat genome achieves higher resolution for research and breeding

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jean-Marc Aury ◽  
Stefan Engelen ◽  
Benjamin Istace ◽  
Cécile Monat ◽  
Pauline Lasserre-Zuber ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Bread Wheat ◽  
Rapid Evolution ◽  
Wheat Genome ◽  
High Quality ◽  
Sequencing Technologies ◽  
Repeat Content ◽  
Long Reads ◽  
Oxford Nanopore ◽  
Long Read ◽  
Reference Quality

AbstractThe sequencing of the wheat (Triticum aestivum) genome has been a methodological challenge for many years due to its large size (15.5 Gb), repeat content, and hexaploidy. Many initiatives aiming at obtaining a reference genome of cultivar Chinese Spring have been launched in the past years and it was achieved in 2018 as the result of a huge effort to combine short-read whole genome sequencing with many other resources. Reference-quality genome assemblies were then produced for other accessions but the rapid evolution of sequencing technologies offers opportunities to reach high-quality standards at lower cost. Here, we report on an optimized procedure based on long-reads produced on the ONT (Oxford Nanopore Technology) PromethION device to assemble the genome of the French bread wheat cultivar Renan. We provide the most contiguous and complete chromosome-scale assembly of a bread wheat genome to date, a resource that will be valuable for the crop community and will facilitate the rapid selection of agronomically important traits. We also provide the methodological standards to generate high-quality assemblies of complex genomes.

scholarly journals Perspectives and benefits of high-throughput long-read sequencing in microbial ecology

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leho Tedersoo ◽  
Mads Albertsen ◽  
Sten Anslan ◽  
Benjamin Callahan
Keyword(s):  
Microbial Ecology ◽  
High Throughput ◽  
Single Molecule ◽  
High Throughput Sequencing ◽  
Environmental Dna ◽  
Nanopore Sequencing ◽  
High Quality ◽  
Short Read ◽  
Sequencing Technologies ◽  
Long Read

Short-read, high-throughput sequencing (HTS) methods have yielded numerous important insights into microbial ecology and function. Yet, in many instances short-read HTS techniques are suboptimal, for example by providing insufficient phylogenetic resolution or low integrity of assembled genomes. Single-molecule and synthetic long-read (SLR) HTS methods have successfully ameliorated these limitations. In addition, nanopore sequencing has generated a number of unique analysis opportunities such as rapid molecular diagnostics and direct RNA sequencing, and both PacBio and nanopore sequencing support detection of epigenetic modifications. Although initially suffering from relatively low sequence quality, recent advances have greatly improved the accuracy of long read sequencing technologies. In spite of great technological progress in recent years, the long-read HTS methods (PacBio and nanopore sequencing) are still relatively costly, require large amounts of high-quality starting material, and commonly need specific solutions in various analysis steps. Despite these challenges, long-read sequencing technologies offer high-quality, cutting-edge alternatives for testing hypotheses about microbiome structure and functioning as well as assembly of eukaryote genomes from complex environmental DNA samples.

scholarly journals Comparative Analysis of PacBio and Oxford Nanopore Sequencing Technologies for Transcriptomic Landscape Identification of Penaeus monodon

Life ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (8) ◽  
pp. 862
Author(s):  
Zulema Udaondo ◽  
Kanchana Sittikankaew ◽  
Tanaporn Uengwetwanit ◽  
Thidathip Wongsurawat ◽  
Chutima Sonthirod ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Penaeus Monodon ◽  
Influential Factors ◽  
Read Length ◽  
Sequencing Platform ◽  
Sequencing Technologies ◽  
Research Fields ◽  
Oxford Nanopore ◽  
Long Read ◽  
Assembly Features ◽  
Sequencing Platforms

With the advantages that long-read sequencing platforms such as Pacific Biosciences (Menlo Park, CA, USA) (PacBio) and Oxford Nanopore Technologies (Oxford, UK) (ONT) can offer, various research fields such as genomics and transcriptomics can exploit their benefits. Selecting an appropriate sequencing platform is undoubtedly crucial for the success of the research outcome, thus there is a need to compare these long-read sequencing platforms and evaluate them for specific research questions. This study aims to compare the performance of PacBio and ONT platforms for transcriptomic analysis by utilizing transcriptome data from three different tissues (hepatopancreas, intestine, and gonads) of the juvenile black tiger shrimp, Penaeus monodon. We compared three important features: (i) main characteristics of the sequencing libraries and their alignment with the reference genome, (ii) transcript assembly features and isoform identification, and (iii) correlation of the quantification of gene expression levels for both platforms. Our analyses suggest that read-length bias and differences in sequencing throughput are highly influential factors when using long reads in transcriptome studies. These comparisons can provide a guideline when designing a transcriptome study utilizing these two long-read sequencing technologies.

42 An Improved, High-quality Ovine Reference Genome Assembly

2021 ◽  
Vol 99 (Supplement_3) ◽  
pp. 23-24
Author(s):  
Kimberly M Davenport ◽  
Derek M Bickhart ◽  
Kim Worley ◽  
Shwetha C Murali ◽  
Noelle Cockett ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Genome Assembly ◽  
Functional Annotation ◽  
Reference Genome ◽  
De Novo ◽  
The United States ◽  
Read Length ◽  
Chromosome 11 ◽  
High Quality ◽  
Oxford Nanopore ◽  
Long Read

Abstract Sheep are an important agricultural species used for both food and fiber in the United States and globally. A high-quality reference genome enhances the ability to discover genetic and biological mechanisms influencing important traits, such as meat and wool quality. The rapid advances in genome assembly algorithms and emergence of increasingly long sequence read length provide the opportunity for an improved de novo assembly of the sheep reference genome. Tissue was collected postmortem from an adult Rambouillet ewe selected by USDA-ARS for the Ovine Functional Annotation of Animal Genomes project. Short-read (55x coverage), long-read PacBio (75x coverage), and Hi-C data from this ewe were retrieved from public databases. We generated an additional 50x coverage of Oxford Nanopore data and assembled the combined long-read data with canu v1.9. The assembled contigs were polished with Nanopolish v0.12.5 and scaffolded using Hi-C data with Salsa v2.2. Gaps were filled with PBsuite v15.8.24 and polished with Nanopolish v0.12.5 followed by removal of duplicate contigs with PurgeDups v1.0.1. Chromosomes were oriented by identifying centromeres and telomeres with RepeatMasker v4.1.1, indicating a need to reverse the orientation of chromosome 11 relative to Oar_rambouillet_v1.0. Final polishing was performed with two rounds of a pipeline which consisted of freebayes v1.3.1 to call variants, Merfin to validate them, and BCFtools to generate the consensus fasta. The ARS-UI_Ramb_v2.0 assembly has improved continuity (contig N50 of 43.19 Mb) with a 19-fold and 38-fold decrease in the number of scaffolds compared with Oar_rambouillet_v1.0 and Oar_v4.0. ARS-UI_Ramb_v2.0 has greater per-base accuracy and fewer insertions and deletions identified from mapped RNA sequence than previous assemblies. This significantly improved reference assembly, public at NCBI GenBank under accession number GCA_016772045, will optimize the functional annotation of the sheep genome and facilitate improved mapping accuracy of genetic variant and expression data for traits relevant the sheep industry.

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