PIPEBAR and OverlapPER: tools for a fast and accurate DNA barcoding analysis and paired-end assembly

Area of Science:

• Bioinformatics
• Genomics
• Taxonomy

Background:

• Morphological identification of species is challenging and time-consuming.
• DNA barcoding offers a rapid method for species discovery and identification.
• Current DNA barcode sequence analysis tools require significant user interaction.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop an automated pipeline for DNA chromatogram analysis.
• To create a tool for accurate paired-end reads assembly.
• To reduce manual interaction in DNA barcoding workflows.

Main Methods:

• Developed PIPEBAR, a command-line pipeline for Sanger sequencing DNA chromatogram analysis.
• Developed OverlapPER, a tool for accurate paired-end reads assembly, handling errors.
• Utilized DNA barcoding techniques targeting specific gene regions for species discrimination.

Main Results:

• PIPEBAR provides high-quality consensus sequences with efficient processing times.
• PIPEBAR is significantly faster than existing tools like Geneious and SeqTrace.
• OverlapPER achieved superior results in merging paired-end reads compared to current tools.

Conclusions:

• PIPEBAR and OverlapPER automate and enhance DNA barcoding analysis.
• These tools are freely available for various operating systems.
• The developed software reduces researcher interaction and improves efficiency in taxonomic identification.