VERKKO SOFTWARE

21st February, 2023 Science and Technology

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Context

Researchers have developed and released an innovative software tool to assemble truly complete, gapless genome sequences from a variety of species, according to a new study

Details

This software, called Verkko, makes the process of assembling complete genome sequences more affordable and accessible.
Verkko, which means “network” in Finnish, grew from assembling the first gapless human genome sequence, which was finished last year by the Telomere-to-Telomere (T2T) consortium, a collaborative project funded by the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI).
The T2T consortium used new DNA sequencing technologies and analytical methods to generate and assemble the remaining 8-10 per cent of the human genome sequence.
However, the researchers assembled those fragments manually - a process that took this massive and highly skilled team several years to complete.
Verkko can finish the same task in a couple of days. The final product is an accurate and complete genome sequence.

Trivia

Assembling a genome sequence is like putting together a jigsaw puzzle, and different DNA sequencing technologies generate different types of genomic puzzle pieces. Some are small and highly detailed, while others are much bigger though the image is blurry, the researchers said. Verkko compares and assembles both types of pieces to generate a complete and accurate picture.

Read:

https://www.iasgyan.in/daily-current-affairs/human-genome-project

https://www.iasgyan.in/daily-current-affairs/genomics

https://www.iasgyan.in/daily-current-affairs/end-to-end-genome-sequencing