Genome Skimming: A Rapid Approach to Gaining Diverse Biological Insights into Multicellular Pathogens

The N50 statistic, a common statistical measure for average length of a set of sequences (see S1 Text for more detail) was 8,863 bp on average for the six PPN species analyzed. Since nematode genes average ~2-3 kb in length [1,11,12], the contigs resulting from our single-pass assembly are sufficiently long to be useful database resources for BLAST [14]. Genome skimming summary information and effector gene hits. http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.ppat.1005713.t001 Characterizing Genomic Variation Early genome sequencing initiatives focused on model organisms such as C. elegans, in which sequenced DNA came from highly inbred lab populations. The median number of orthologs detected was 2 for all 3 Pratylenchus species.\n The addition of a simple single BLAST step to our genome skimming strategy quickly revealed the presence of numerous putative effector genes in the PPN species, though follow-up experimentation and analysis remains necessary to evaluate whether or not bona fide effectors are encoded by the DNA sequences identified.