Related Experiment Video

Updated: Sep 8, 2025

Hybrid De Novo Genome Assembly for the Generation of Complete Genomes of Urinary Bacteria using Short- and Long-read Sequencing Technologies
12:08

Hybrid De Novo Genome Assembly for the Generation of Complete Genomes of Urinary Bacteria using Short- and Long-read Sequencing Technologies

Published on: August 20, 2021

5.2K

Current Approaches in Genome Assembly of Human Fungal Pathogens

Johanna Rhodes1

  • 1Department of Medical Microbiology, Radboudumc, Nijmegen, The Netherlands. j.rhodes@bham.ac.uk.

Methods in Molecular Biology (Clifton, N.J.)
|July 30, 2025
PubMed

Insights

Human fungal pathogens cause millions of deaths yearly. Genome assembly is crucial for understanding these pathogens, their drug resistance, and virulence, despite unique challenges in fungal genomics.

Area of Science:

  • Fungal genomics
  • Medical mycology
  • Bioinformatics

Background:

  • Human fungal pathogens cause approximately 1.5 million deaths annually, exceeding malaria and tuberculosis combined.
  • Significant morbidity and economic costs are associated with fungal infections.
  • Genome sequencing is vital for analyzing fungal pathogens, revealing virulence factors, drug resistance, and population structures.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To explore genome assembly methods and techniques specifically for human fungal pathogens.
  • To enhance understanding of fungal pathogen biology, evolution, and life cycles.
  • To highlight the specific challenges encountered in assembling fungal genomes.

Main Methods:

  • Review of current genome assembly algorithms and software.
  • Comparative analysis of assembly strategies for various fungal species.
  • Discussion of data quality assessment and validation techniques.

Main Results:

  • Identification of key challenges in fungal genome assembly, such as repetitive regions and high GC content.
  • Evaluation of the effectiveness of different assembly approaches for achieving complete and accurate fungal genomes.
  • Demonstration of how improved genome assemblies contribute to understanding fungal pathogenesis.

Conclusions:

  • Genome assembly is fundamental to advancing the study of human fungal pathogens.
  • Addressing the unique challenges of fungal genome assembly is critical for developing new diagnostics and therapeutics.
  • Further research into specialized assembly techniques will improve our ability to combat fungal diseases.
Keywords:
AlignmentDe novoReference-based

More Related Videos

Whole Genome Sequencing of Candida glabrata for Detection of Markers of Antifungal Drug Resistance08:45

Whole Genome Sequencing of Candida glabrata for Detection of Markers of Antifungal Drug Resistance

Published on: December 28, 2017

13.9K
CRISPR-Cas9-Mediated Genome Editing in the Filamentous Ascomycete Huntiella omanensis07:25

CRISPR-Cas9-Mediated Genome Editing in the Filamentous Ascomycete Huntiella omanensis

Published on: June 9, 2020

9.7K

Related Concept Videos

Genome Annotation and Assembly03:36

Genome Annotation and Assembly

The genome refers to all of the genetic material in an organism. It can range from a few million base pairs in microbial cells to several billion base pairs in many eukaryotic organisms. Genome assembly refers to the process of taking the DNA sequencing data and putting it all back together in a correct order to create a close representation of the original genome. This is followed by the identification of functional elements on the newly assembled genome, a process called genome annotation.
19.3K
Modern Molecular Taxonomy01:29

Modern Molecular Taxonomy

Advancements in molecular biology have revolutionized the identification and characterization of bacteria, with multiple methods leveraging DNA sequencing for enhanced precision. As sequencing technologies improve and costs decline, these approaches are increasingly used in clinical, environmental, and evolutionary studies.Multilocus Sequence Typing (MLST) examines several housekeeping genes, essential chromosomal genes encoding cellular functions, to distinguish strains. Approximately...
136
Evolutionary Relationships through Genome Comparisons02:54

Evolutionary Relationships through Genome Comparisons

Genome comparison is one of the excellent ways to interpret the evolutionary relationships between organisms. The basic principle of genome comparison is that if two species share a common feature, it is likely encoded by the DNA sequence conserved between both species. The advent of genome sequencing technologies in the late 20th century enabled scientists to understand the concept of conservation of domains between species and helped them to deduce evolutionary relationships across diverse...
6.1K
Fungal Phylum Microsporidia01:28

Fungal Phylum Microsporidia

Microsporidia are a group of obligate intracellular fungi that were initially classified as protists but were later reclassified based on phylogenetic, molecular, and structural evidence linking them to the Chytridiomycota. These unicellular, non-motile organisms are highly specialized parasites that infect a wide range of animal hosts, including humans. They have evolved extensive genomic and metabolic reductions, making them highly dependent on their hosts for survival.Morphology and Genomic...
110
Fungal Phylum Ascomycota01:28

Fungal Phylum Ascomycota

Phylum Ascomycota, a major division within the subkingdom Dikarya, comprises a diverse range of fungal species, including both unicellular yeasts and filamentous molds such as Aspergillus and Penicillium. These fungi thrive in a variety of habitats, from aquatic ecosystems to terrestrial environments, playing crucial ecological and economic roles.Morphology and ReproductionThe defining characteristic of Ascomycetes, commonly referred to as sac fungi, is the ascus—a sac-like structure that...
138
Next-generation Sequencing03:00

Next-generation Sequencing

The first human genome sequencing project cost $2.7 billion and was declared complete in 2003, after 15 years of international cooperation and collaboration between several research teams and funding agencies. Today, with the advent of next-generation sequencing technologies, the cost and time of sequencing a human genome have dropped over 100 fold.
Next-Generation Sequencing Methods
Although all next-generation methods use different technologies, they all share a set of standard features....
92.5K