CLUSTOM-CLOUD

CLUSTOM-CLOUD clusters 16S rRNA sequence reads into operational taxonomic units (OTUs) using an In-Memory Data Grid to enable scalable distributed processing for microbial diversity analysis.

Key Features:

• In-Memory Data Grid Technology: Utilizes IMDG to store data in main memory across multiple computing nodes for distributed in-memory data access.
• Distributed Processing System: Performs distributed sequence clustering across laboratory clusters and cloud-computing environments such as Amazon EC2.
• Scalability and Performance: Processes approximately 200 K reads in ~3 hours on a ten-node cluster and one million reads in 11–20 hours on Amazon EC2 using 20–40 nodes.
• High Accuracy: Demonstrated superior clustering accuracy on 16S rRNA pyrosequences from a mock community compared with DOTUR, mothur, ESPRIT-Tree, UCLUST, and Swarm.

Scientific Applications:

• Microbial community analysis: Clusters 16S rRNA reads into OTUs to support microbial diversity studies across human, soil, and water microbiomes.

Methodology:

Pre-processing of high-throughput sequencing data followed by distributed clustering of processed 16S rRNA sequences into OTUs using In-Memory Data Grid-enabled computation.