Eukaryotic Genome Assembly: How to Use BlobToolKit for Quality Assessment (FutureLearn)

The BlobToolKit software is an essential tool for the quality assessment of novel genomes. It is being used to support the ambitious EarthBioGenome project to sequence the genomes of all 1.5 million eukaryotic species on the planet, not just humans or model organisms.

With this knowledge, you’ll be prepared to use these approaches with your own projects to improve your work.

Take your genomic research further

As you delve into BlobtoolKit, you’ll learn how to select an organism and interpret the blob plot to determine what it shows. Next, you’ll learn how to navigate the BlobToolKit viewer, including filtering and different settings.

With this knowledge, you’ll be able to interpret the visual representations of genomes from samples containing multiple organisms.

Learn how to clean a genome assembly

You’ll learn how to go further with BlobToolKit with techniques such as cleaning a genome assembly and assessing newly generated data.

You’ll also learn how to access genome assemblies from public databases and repositories and use the toolkit to assess their quality.

Develop practical skills in genome sequencing

Throughout the course, you’ll have the opportunity to put what you have learned into practice through different exercises. This includes a peer review course assignment to cement your knowledge.

Guided by the experts at Wellcome Connecting Science, you’ll finish the course with the skills to improve the quality of your genome work with BlobToolKit.

What topics will you cover?

- Introduction to the BlobToolKit software for quality assessment of novel genomes, and background of why it is useful

- Interpreting BlobToolkit visual representations of genomes from samples containing multiple organisms

- Accessing genome assemblies from public databases and repositories in order to use BlobToolkit to assess their quality

- Outline of advanced use of BlobToolkit to assess newly generated data, potentially including learners’ own genome assemblies.

What will you achieve?

By the end of the course, you‘ll be able to...

- Use BlobToolKit to assess the quality of genome assemblies

- Interpret different visual representations of genome assemblies

- Describe how to set up and interpret a new genome assembly

- Evaluate existing genome assemblies which have been shared by using the public BlobToolKit server

- Identify organisms / symbionts / contaminants using GC-coverage plots

Who is the course for?

This course is designed for those working with genome assembly.

You may be a researcher or genome assembler or you could be working on other stages of genome sequencing pipelines wanting to understand the genome assembly assessment process.

Students and early career researchers who want to develop their skills in genome assembly and its analysis will also benefit from this course.