基量级序列对齐催化病毒发现
Robert C Edgar1, Brie Taylor2, Victor Lin3
1Independent researcher, Corte Madera, CA, USA.
Nature
|January 27, 2022
概括
研究人员开发了Serratus,一个用于超高吞吐量序列对齐的云基础设施. 该工具识别了超过10万种新型RNA病毒,显著扩大已知的病毒多样性,并有助于未来的流行病准备.
科学领域:
- 生物信息学
- 病毒学
- 计算生物学
背景情况:
- 公开的核酸序列数据库庞大 (超过20个petabase),但由于搜索方法效率低下,难以探索.
- 序列数据的指数增长需要先进的计算工具来进行系统分析.
研究的目的:
- 开发一个云计算基础设施以实现超高吞吐量序列对齐.
- 在大型多样化数据集中识别新型RNA病毒.
- 建立一个全面的病毒发现数据和工具数据库.
主要方法:
- 开发Serratus,一个云计算基础设施,用于petabase级别的序列对齐.
- 搜索来自570万个不同样本的数据库.
- 针对RNA依赖RNA聚合酶基因进行向搜索以识别RNA病毒.
主要成果:
- 识别了超过10^5个新型RNA病毒, 增加了已知的物种数量.
- 与冠状病毒,型肝炎病毒和大型菌体相关的新型病毒的特征.
- 对新发现的病毒环境储备的分析.
结论:
- 塞拉图斯能够有效地进行大规模的病毒发现.
- 扩大的病毒序列多样性为病原体进化提供了洞察力.
- 开发的数据库和工具有助于持续发现病毒,并加强疫情监测.
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