Cited by 2,132Genomics and Phylogenetic StudiesAlgorithms and Data CompressionMicrobial Community Ecology and Physiology

PANDAseq: paired-end assembler for Illumina sequences

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Masella, Andre P, Bartram, Andrea K, Truszkowski, Jakub M, Brown, Daniel G, Neufeld, Josh D·2012·BMC Bioinformatics

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Illumina paired-end reads are used to analyse microbial communities by targeting amplicons of the 16S rRNA gene. Publicly available tools are needed to assemble overlapping paired-end reads while correcting mismatches and uncalled bases; many errors could be corrected to obtain higher sequence yields using quality information. RESULTS: PANDAseq assembles paired-end reads rapidly and with the correction of most errors. Uncertain error corrections come from reads with many low-quality bases identified by upstream processing. Benchmarks were done using real error masks on simulated data, a pure source template, and a pooled template of genomic DNA from known organisms. PANDAseq assembled reads more rapidly and with reduced error incorporation compared to alternative methods. CONCLUSIONS: PANDAseq rapidly assembles sequences and scales to billions of paired-end reads. Assembly of control libraries showed a 4-50% increase in the number of assembled sequences over naïve assembly with negligible loss of "good" sequence.

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  • PANDAseq assumes that all paired-end reads can be merged.

    “However, it assumes that all paired-end reads can be merged.”

    From PEAR: a fast and accurate Illumina Paired-End reAd mergeR (2014) · cites this paper as Masella et al., 2012

  • PANDAseq merges fragments by maximizing the probability of true sequence matches, given the observed sequences.

    “PANDAseq merges fragments by maximizing the probability of true sequence matches, given the observed sequences.”

    From PEAR: a fast and accurate Illumina Paired-End reAd mergeR (2014) · cites this paper as Masella et al., 2012

  • PANDAseq combines quality scores with sequence matches and thereby improves merging quality.

    “It combines quality scores with sequence matches and thereby improves merging quality.”

    From PEAR: a fast and accurate Illumina Paired-End reAd mergeR (2014) · cites this paper as Masella et al., 2012

  • PANDAseq works well with short overlap regions and does not require prior knowledge of the target DNA fragment size.

    “In contrast to FLASH, PANDAseq works well with short overlap regions and does not require prior knowledge of the target DNA fragment size.”

    From PEAR: a fast and accurate Illumina Paired-End reAd mergeR (2014) · cites this paper as Masella et al., 2012

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Authors
Masella, A. P., Bartram, A. K., Truszkowski, J. M., Brown, D. G., & Neufeld, J. D.
Affiliations
University of Waterloo (CA)
Corresponding author
Neufeld, Josh D
Venue
BMC Bioinformatics
Published
2012-02-14
Volume
13
Issue
1
Pages
31-31
ISSN
1471-2105 (ISSN-L)
OpenAlex
W2132548846
Cited by
2,132
References
12
Citations by year
2026: 61 · 2025: 89 · 2024: 90 · 2023: 115 · 2022: 187 · 2021: 254 · 2020: 277 · 2019: 264 · 2018: 251 · 2017: 204 · 2016: 152 · 2015: 108 · 2014: 56 · 2013: 21 · 2012: 3
FWCI
24.15
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
cc-by
Locations
  • BMC Bioinformatics (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
Funders
  • Government of Ontario
  • Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada
Topics
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Genomics and Phylogenetic Studies
  • Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Artificial Intelligence › Algorithms and Data Compression
  • Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Ecology › Microbial Community Ecology and Physiology
Keywords
16S rRNA gene, microbial community analysis, error correction, amplicon sequencing, sequencing errors
MeSH terms
Bacteria, RNA, Bacterial, RNA, Ribosomal, 16S, Software, Metagenomics

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