Circlator

Circlator automates assembly circularization and produces accurate linear representations of circular sequences from long-read sequencing data.

Key Features:

• Circular sequence identification: Circlator identifies each circular sequence in a genome assembly.
• End-read assembly: Circlator assembles all reads that map to contig ends to resolve circularization.
• Contig comparison: Circlator compares resulting contigs against the input assembly to validate circularization.
• Linearized output: Circlator outputs a linearized version of each identified circular sequence.

Scientific Applications:

• Bacterial genome finishing: Circlator circularizes bacterial chromosomes and plasmids from long-read assemblies.
• Organelle genome assembly: Circlator circularizes apicoplast and mitochondrion genomes, as demonstrated for Plasmodium falciparum and human mitochondrion.
• Long-read sequencing analysis: Circlator processes Pacific Biosciences and Oxford Nanopore data for complete genome circularization.

Methodology:

Circlator assembles all reads that map to contig ends and compares the resulting contigs with the input assembly to identify and linearize circular sequences.