NSF/MCB-BSF: Developing a metavirome assembler for uncovering the global virome

虽然病毒是地球上最多样化的生物实体，但它们基因组测序方面的挑战阻碍了对地球病毒群的调查。在探索病毒多样性的道路上的关键障碍是缺乏从从广泛环境中对DNA进行测序时获得的短重叠DNA序列来组装病毒基因组的计算方法。该项目将开发这样的方法，以便能够对病毒基因组进行更完整的编目，并为微生物学提供关键的新资源。此外，它还将导致在加州大学圣迭戈分校和特拉维夫大学开设一个新的在线学习课程，以及一个旨在分析病毒基因组的在线顶峰项目。本活动将扩展在线Coursera专业课程“生物信息学”和大规模在线公开课(MOOC)“肠道检查：探索您的微生物组”，包括一个新的元基因组学组件。这项教育工作将惠及来自世界各地的数千名学生，因为这些MOOC的注册人数很多。该项目将导致专门针对重建元基因组的病毒成分的新的基因组组装器。它将使开发一种新的变态病毒组装器成为可能，目的是在广泛的环境中发现完整的病毒基因组。这项研究将重新组合所有公开可用的元基因组数据集，以编制全球病毒全基因组目录，这将使病毒多样性的探索成为可能。这一合作项目得到了美国国家科学基金会分子和细胞生物科学部、生物科学局和美国国家科学基金会计算机和信息科学与工程局的计算生物学活动的支持。

While viruses are the most diverse biological entities on Earth, challenges in their genome sequencing have prevented surveys of Earth's virome. The key obstacle on the way towards exploration of viral diversity is the absence of computational methods of assembling virus genomes from the short overlapping sequences of DNA obtained when sequencing DNA from a wide range of environments. This project will develop such methods to enable a more complete cataloging of virus genomes and provide a critical new resource for microbiology. In addition, it will result in a new online learning classes at UCSD and Tel Aviv University as well as an online capstone project aimed at analyzing viral genomes. This activity will extend the online Coursera Specializations 'Bioinformatics' and the Massive Online Open Course (MOOC) "Gut Check: Exploring Your Microbiome" by including a new metagenomics component. This educational effort will reach thousands of students from all over the world since these MOOCs have large enrollments.This project will result in new genome assemblers specifically aimed at reconstructing the viral component of metagenomes. It will enable the development of a new metavirome assembler aimed at discovery of complete viral genomes across a wide range of environments. This research will result in reassembling all publicly available metagenomics datasets to compile the global catalog of complete viral genomes, which will enable the exploration of viral diversity.This collaborative US/Israel project is supported by the Division of Molecular and Cellular Biosciences, Biological Sciences Directorate and the Computational Biology activity in the Computer and Information Sciences and Engineering Directorate at the US National Science Foundation and by the Israeli Binational Science Foundation.