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Fofanov, Yuriy

Publications and source records attributed to Fofanov, Yuriy.

Broom: application for non-redundant storage of high throughput sequencing data

Abstract Motivation The data generation capabilities of high throughput sequencing (HTS) instruments have exponentially increased over the last few years, while the cost of sequencing has dramatically decreased allowing this technology to become widely used in biomedical studies. For small labs and individual researchers, however, storage and transfer of large amounts of HTS data present a significant challenge. The recent trends in increased sequencing quality and genome coverage can be used to reconsider HTS data storage strategies. Results We present Broom, a stand-alone application designed to select and store only high-quality sequencing reads at extremely high compression rates. Written in C++, the application accepts single and paired-end reads in FASTQ and FASTA formats and decompresses data in FASTA format. Availability and implementation C++ code available at https://scsb.utmb.edu/labgroups/fofanov/broom.asp. Supplementary information Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.

Albayrak, Levent↗

Metagenomic Analysis of the Airborne Environment in Urban Spaces

The organisms in aerosol microenvironments, especially densely populated urban areas, are relevant to maintenance of public health and detection of potential epidemic or biothreat agents. To examine aerosolized microorganisms in this environment, we performed sequencing on the material from an urban aerosol surveillance program. Whole metagenome sequencing was applied to DNA extracted from air filters obtained during periods from each of the four seasons. The composition of bacteria, plants, fungi, invertebrates, and viruses demonstrated distinct temporal shifts. Bacillus thuringiensis serovar kurstaki was detected in samples known to be exposed to aerosolized spores, illustrating the potential utility of this approach for identification of intentionally introduced microbial agents. Together, these data demonstrate the temporally dependent metagenomic complexity of urban aerosols and the potential of genomic analytical techniques for biosurveillance and monitoring of threats to public health.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗