Comparative study of de novo assembly and genome-guided assembly strategies for transcriptome reconstruction based on RNA-Seq.

Transcriptome reconstruction is an important application of RNA-Seq, providing critical information for further analysis of transcriptome. Although RNA-Seq offers the potential to identify the whole picture of transcriptome, it still presents special challenges. To handle these difficulties and reconstruct transcriptome as completely as possible, current computational approaches mainly employ two strategies: de novo assembly and genome-guided assembly. In order to find the similarities and differences between them, we firstly chose five representative assemblers belonging to the two classes respectively, and then investigated and compared their algorithm features in theory and real performances in practice. We found that all the methods can be reduced to graph reduction problems, yet they have different conceptual and practical implementations, thus each assembly method has its specific advantages and disadvantages, performing worse than others in certain aspects while outperforming others in anther aspects at the same time. Finally we merged assemblies of the five assemblers and obtained a much better assembly. Additionally we evaluated an assembler using genome-guided de novo assembly approach, and achieved good performance. Based on these results, we suggest that to obtain a comprehensive set of recovered transcripts, it is better to use a combination of de novo assembly and genome-guided assembly.

Lu B ，Zeng Z ，Shi T 《-》

Challenges and strategies in transcriptome assembly and differential gene expression quantification. A comprehensive in silico assessment of RNA-seq experiments.

Transcriptome Shotgun Sequencing (RNA-seq) has been readily embraced by geneticists and molecular ecologists alike. As with all high-throughput technologies, it is critical to understand which analytic strategies are best suited and which parameters may bias the interpretation of the data. Here we use a comprehensive simulation approach to explore how various features of the transcriptome (complexity, degree of polymorphism π, alternative splicing), technological processing (sequencing error ε, library normalization) and bioinformatic workflow (de novo vs. mapping assembly, reference genome quality) impact transcriptome quality and inference of differential gene expression (DE). We find that transcriptome assembly and gene expression profiling (EdgeR vs. BaySeq software) works well even in the absence of a reference genome and is robust across a broad range of parameters. We advise against library normalization and in most situations advocate mapping assemblies to an annotated genome of a divergent sister clade, which generally outperformed de novo assembly (Trans-Abyss, Trinity, Soapdenovo-Trans). Transcriptome complexity (size, paralogs, alternative splicing isoforms) negatively affected the assembly and DE profiling, whereas the effects of sequencing error and polymorphism were almost negligible. Finally, we highlight the challenge of gene name assignment for de novo assemblies, the importance of mapping strategies and raise awareness of challenges associated with the quality of reference genomes. Overall, our results have significant practical and methodological implications and can provide guidance in the design and analysis of RNA-seq experiments, particularly for organisms where genomic background information is lacking.

Vijay N ，Poelstra JW ，Künstner A ，Wolf JB ... -  《-》

Comparative analysis of de novo transcriptome assembly.

The fast development of next-generation sequencing technology presents a major computational challenge for data processing and analysis. A fast algorithm, de Bruijn graph has been successfully used for genome DNA de novo assembly; nevertheless, its performance for transcriptome assembly is unclear. In this study, we used both simulated and real RNA-Seq data, from either artificial RNA templates or human transcripts, to evaluate five de novo assemblers, ABySS, Mira, Trinity, Velvet and Oases. Of these assemblers, ABySS, Trinity, Velvet and Oases are all based on de Bruijn graph, and Mira uses an overlap graph algorithm. Various numbers of RNA short reads were selected from the External RNA Control Consortium (ERCC) data and human chromosome 22. A number of statistics were then calculated for the resulting contigs from each assembler. Each experiment was repeated multiple times to obtain the mean statistics and standard error estimate. Trinity had relative good performance for both ERCC and human data, but it may not consistently generate full length transcripts. ABySS was the fastest method but its assembly quality was low. Mira gave a good rate for mapping its contigs onto human chromosome 22, but its computational speed is not satisfactory. Our results suggest that transcript assembly remains a challenge problem for bioinformatics society. Therefore, a novel assembler is in need for assembling transcriptome data generated by next generation sequencing technique.

Clarke K ，Yang Y ，Marsh R ，Xie L ，Zhang KK ... -  《-》

Improved transcriptome quantification and reconstruction from RNA-Seq reads using partial annotations.

Mangul S ，Caciula A ，Glebova O ，Mandoiu I ，Zelikovsky A ... -  《-》

Bridger: a new framework for de novo transcriptome assembly using RNA-seq data.

Chang Z ，Li G ，Liu J ，Zhang Y ，Ashby C ，Liu D ，Cramer CL ，Huang X ... -  《GENOME BIOLOGY》