The lion's share of bacteria in various environments cannot be cloned in the laboratory and thus cannot be sequenced using existing technologies. A major goal of single-cell genomics is to complement gene-centric metagenomic data with whole-genome assemblies of uncultivated organisms. Assembly of single-cell data is challenging because of highly non-uniform read coverage as well as elevated levels of sequencing errors and chimeric reads. We describe SPAdes, a new assembler for both single-cell and standard (multicell) assembly, and demonstrate that it improves on the recently released E+V-SC assembler (specialized for single-cell data) and on popular assemblers Velvet and SoapDeNovo (for multicell data). SPAdes generates single-cell assemblies, providing information about genomes of uncultivatable bacteria that vastly exceeds what may be obtained via traditional metagenomics studies. SPAdes is available online ( http://bioinf.spbau.ru/spades ). It is distributed as open source software.

SPAdes, a new genome assembly algorithm and its applications to single-cell sequencing ( 7th Annual SFAF Meeting, 2012)

Motivation Quality control and preprocessing of FASTQ files are essential to providing clean data for downstream analysis. Traditionally, a different tool is used for each operation, such as quality control, adapter trimming and quality filtering. These tools are often insufficiently fast as most are developed using high-level programming languages (e.g. Python and Java) and provide limited multi-threading support. Reading and loading data multiple times also renders preprocessing slow and I/O inefficient. Results We developed fastp as an ultra-fast FASTQ preprocessor with useful quality control and data-filtering features. It can perform quality control, adapter trimming, quality filtering, per-read quality pruning and many other operations with a single scan of the FASTQ data. This tool is developed in C++ and has multi-threading support. Based on our evaluation, fastp is 2-5 times faster than other FASTQ preprocessing tools such as Trimmomatic or Cutadapt despite performing far more operations than similar tools. Availability and implementation The open-source code and corresponding instructions are available at https://github.com/OpenGene/fastp.

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fastp: an ultra-fast all-in-one FASTQ preprocessor.

DNA sequence represents a single format onto which a broad range of biological phenomena can be projected for high-throughput data collection. Over the past three years, massively parallel DNA sequencing platforms have become widely available, reducing the cost of DNA sequencing by over two orders of magnitude, and democratizing the field by putting the sequencing capacity of a major genome center in the hands of individual investigators. These new technologies are rapidly evolving, and near-term challenges include the development of robust protocols for generating sequencing libraries, building effective new approaches to data-analysis, and often a rethinking of experimental design. Next-generation DNA sequencing has the potential to dramatically accelerate biological and biomedical research, by enabling the comprehensive analysis of genomes, transcriptomes and interactomes to become inexpensive, routine and widespread, rather than requiring significant production-scale efforts.

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Next-generation DNA sequencing.

This invention provides methods of monitoring the expression levels of a multiplicity of genes. The methods involve hybridizing a nucleic acid sample to a high density array of oligonucleotide probes where the high density array contains oligonucleotide probes complementary to subsequences of target nucleic acids in the nucleic acid sample. In one embodiment, the method involves providing a pool of target nucleic acids comprising RNA transcripts of one or more target genes, or nucleic acids derived from the RNA transcripts, hybridizing said pool of nucleic acids to an array of oligonucleotide probes immobilized on surface, where the array comprising more than 100 different oligonucleotides and each different oligonucleotide is localized in a predetermined region of the surface, the density of the different oligonucleotides is greater than about 60 different oligonucleotides per 1 cm2, and the oligonucleotide probes are complementary to the RNA transcripts or nucleic acids derived from the RNA transcripts; and quantifying the hybridized nucleic acids in the array.

Expression monitoring by hybridization to high density oligonucleotide arrays

A nanopore-based device provides single-molecule detection and analytical capabilities that are achieved by electrophoretically driving molecules in solution through a nano-scale pore. The nanopore provides a highly confined space within which single nucleic acid polymers can be analyzed at high throughput by one of a variety of means, and the perfect processivity that can be enforced in a narrow pore ensures that the native order of the nucleobases in a polynucleotide is reflected in the sequence of signals that is detected. Kilobase length polymers (single-stranded genomic DNA or RNA) or small molecules (e.g., nucleosides) can be identified and characterized without amplification or labeling, a unique analytical capability that makes inexpensive, rapid DNA sequencing a possibility. Further research and development to overcome current challenges to nanopore identification of each successive nucleotide in a DNA strand offers the prospect of 'third generation' instruments that will sequence a diploid mammalian genome for ∼$1,000 in ∼24 h.

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The Potential and Challenges of Nanopore Sequencing

The conditions under which oligonucleotides hybridize only with entirely homologous sequences are recognized. The sequence of a given DNA fragment is read by the hybridization and assembly of positively hybridizing probes through overlapping portions. By simultaneous hybridization of DNA molecules applied as dots and bound onto a filter, representing single-stranded phage vector with the cloned insert, with about 50,000 to 100,000 groups of probes, the main type of which is (A,T,C,G)(A,T,C,G)N8(A,T,C,G), information for computer determination of a sequence of DNA having the complexity of a mammalian genome are obtained in one step. To obtain a maximally completed sequence, three libraries are cloned into the phage vector, M13, bacteriophage are used: with the 0.5 kb and 7 kbp insert consisting of two sequences, with the average distance in genomic DNA of 100 kbp. For a million bp of genomic DNA, 25,000 subclones of the 0.5 kbp are required as well as 700 subclones 7 kb long and 170 jumping subclones. Subclones of 0.5 kb are applied on a filter in groups of 20 each, so that the total number of samples is 2,120 per million bp. The process can be easily and entirely robotized for factory reading of complex genomic fragments or DNA molecules.

Method of sequencing of genomes by hybridization of oligonucleotide probes

The conditions under which oligonucleotide probes hybridize preferentially with entirely complementary and homologous nucleic acid targets are described. Using these hybridization conditions, overlapping oligonucleotide probes associate with a target nucleic acid. Following washes, positive hybridization signals are used to assemble the sequence of a given nucleic acid fragment. Representative target nucleic acids are applied as dots. Up to to 100,000 probes of the type (A,T,C,G) (A,T,C,G)N8(A,T,C,G) are used to determine sequence information by simultaneous hybridization with nucleic acid molecules bound to a filter. Additional hybridization conditions are provided that allow stringent hybridization of 6-10 nucleotide long oligomers which extends the utility of the invention. A computer process determines the information sequence of the target nucleic acid which can include targets with the complexity of mammalian genomes. Sequence generation can be obtained for a large complex mammalian genome in a single process.

Method of sequencing by hybridization of oligonucleotide probes

Sequencing of megabase plus DNA by hybridization: Theory of the method

The concept of sequencing by hybridization (SBH) makes use of an array of all possible n-nucleotide oligomers (n-mers) to identify n-mers present in an unknown DNA sequence. Computational approaches can then be used to assemble the complete sequence. As a validation of this concept, the sequences of three DNA fragments, 343 base pairs in length, were determined with octamer oligonucleotides. Possible applications of SBH include physical mapping (ordering) of overlapping DNA clones, sequence checking, DNA fingerprinting comparisons of normal and disease-causing genes, and the identification of DNA fragments with particular sequence motifs in complementary DNA and genomic libraries. The SBH techniques may accelerate the mapping and sequencing phases of the human genome project.

https://science.sciencemag.org/content/sci/260/5114/1649.full.pdf

DNA sequence determination by hybridization: A strategy for efficient large-scale sequencing

Background More extensive use of metagenomic shotgun sequencing in microbiome research relies on the development of high-throughput, cost-effective sequencing. Here we present a comprehensive evaluation of the performance of the new high-throughput sequencing platform BGISEQ-500 for metagenomic shotgun sequencing and compare its performance with that of 2 Illumina platforms. Findings Using fecal samples from 20 healthy individuals, we evaluated the intra-platform reproducibility for metagenomic sequencing on the BGISEQ-500 platform in a setup comprising 8 library replicates and 8 sequencing replicates. Cross-platform consistency was evaluated by comparing 20 pairwise replicates on the BGISEQ-500 platform vs the Illumina HiSeq 2000 platform and the Illumina HiSeq 4000 platform. In addition, we compared the performance of the 2 Illumina platforms against each other. By a newly developed overall accuracy quality control method, an average of 82.45 million high-quality reads (96.06% of raw reads) per sample, with 90.56% of bases scoring Q30 and above, was obtained using the BGISEQ-500 platform. Quantitative analyses revealed extremely high reproducibility between BGISEQ-500 intra-platform replicates. Cross-platform replicates differed slightly more than intra-platform replicates, yet a high consistency was observed. Only a low percentage (2.02%-3.25%) of genes exhibited significant differences in relative abundance comparing the BGISEQ-500 and HiSeq platforms, with a bias toward genes with higher GC content being enriched on the HiSeq platforms. Conclusions Our study provides the first set of performance metrics for human gut metagenomic sequencing data using BGISEQ-500. The high accuracy and technical reproducibility confirm the applicability of the new platform for metagenomic studies, though caution is still warranted when combining metagenomic data from different platforms.

Radoje Drmanac

Papers

Method of sequencing of genomes by hybridization of oligonucleotide probes

Method of sequencing by hybridization of oligonucleotide probes

Sequencing of megabase plus DNA by hybridization: Theory of the method

DNA sequence determination by hybridization: A strategy for efficient large-scale sequencing

Assessment of the cPAS-based BGISEQ-500 platform for metagenomic sequencing