MeStanG-Resource

MeStanG generates high-throughput sequencing Nanopore data sets to evaluate and validate bioinformatics pipelines through mock metagenomic sample simulation.

Key Features:

• Mock metagenomic sample design: Users define organism abundances expressed as exact number of reads, reference sequences, and error profiles.
• Customizable error modeling: Supports both predetermined and custom sequencing error profiles.
• Exact read count generation: Produces artificial HTS data sets with precise control over read abundance for each organism.

Scientific Applications:

• Bioinformatics pipeline evaluation: Assesses diagnostic performance metrics including read mapping, genome assembly, and taxonomic classification.
• Bacterial community simulation: Models communities composed of multiple different organisms with known read abundances.
• Pathogen detection validation: Generates samples resembling pathogen-infected host plants for testing diagnostic workflows.
• Viral pathogen dilution analysis: Creates serial dilution sampling scenarios to evaluate detection sensitivity.

Methodology:

The simulator pipeline generates mock metagenomic samples based on user-defined organism abundances, reference sequences, and error profiles, with evaluation performed through read mapping, genome assembly, and taxonomic classification.