Returning to more finished genomes.

Jonas Korlach

doi:10.1016/j.gdata.2014.02.003

Abstract

Genomic data have become commonplace in most branches of the biological sciences and have fundamentally altered the way research is conducted. However, the predominance of short-read sequence data from second-generation sequencing technologies has commonly resulted in fragmented and partial genomic data characteristics. In this opinion, I will highlight how long, unbiased reads from single molecule, real-time (SMRT) sequencing now allow for a return to more contiguous and comprehensive views of genomes.

Highlights

Genomic data have become commonplace in most branches of the biological sciences and have fundamentally altered the way research is conducted
The development of single molecule, real-time (SMRT) DNA sequencing has made it possible to return to genomic data in the form of high-quality, finished genomes [2,3]
SMRT sequencing has been demonstrated to exhibit the least degree of bias in sequencing data across different technologies [5], producing high-quality sequence even for extreme DNA sequence contexts [5,6,7,8]. – Contiguity: the quality of genome assemblies is strongly dependent on the read lengths of the underlying sequence data [9]

Summary

Introduction

Genomic data have become commonplace in most branches of the biological sciences and have fundamentally altered the way research is conducted. The development of single molecule, real-time (SMRT) DNA sequencing has made it possible to return to genomic data in the form of high-quality, finished genomes [2,3].

Results

Conclusion