Fastqz

Fastqz compresses FASTQ files produced by DNA sequencing instruments (Sanger format) to reduce storage and transmission requirements for high-throughput sequencing data.

Key Features:

• Compression efficiency: Achieves high compression ratios for FASTQ files.
• Reference-based compression: Can utilize a reference genome to improve compression rates.
• CPU resource usage: Provides comparatively low computational cost for compression operations.

Scientific Applications:

• High-throughput sequencing data management: Reduces storage requirements for large-scale sequencing datasets.
• Data transfer and sharing: Lowers file sizes to facilitate faster transmission in collaborative genomics projects.

Methodology:

Evaluated in the SequenceSqueeze contest organized by the Pistoia Alliance and compared against reference-based compressors (CRAM, Goby), non-reference-based compressors (DSRC, BAM), and other entrants such as Quip and SCALCE.