A practical introduction to bacterial genomics

5 important questions on A practical introduction to bacterial genomics

What are the steps to take to get to the whole-genome sequencing of bacteria?

Bacterial culturing
  • isolate bacteria from clinical specimens, healthy people or environment


DNA isolation
  • Release DNA from bacterial cells
  • Purify DNA to a high concentration


Sequence library preparation
  • Prepare DNA for sequencing
    • fragment DNA to get correct length
    • ligate barcodes and adapters


Whole-genome sequencing
  • Determine the base sequence of the DNA molecules

How does Illumina sequencing work?

  • PCR-based method
  • Short, paired-end reads with high accuracy

How does Nanopore sequencing work?

  • No PCR needed
  • long, single-end reads with many errors
  • 90-95% accuracy
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What is "de novo assembly"?

  • Try to stitch together all sequencing reads
  • Create a genome from scratch/de novo using Unicycler software

What is the problem with repeats in the genome?

When the reads are short, if there are repeats it will never give you a hole sequence (mulitple combination possible).

By using nanopore sequence (longer sequences) in combination with the Illumina sequence (short sequence) a hole genome sequence is possible.

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