Ariadne: Synthetic Long Read Deconvolution Using Assembly Graphs

Synthetic Long Read (SLR) sequencing techniques such as USTs TELL-Seq, and Loop Genomics LoopSeq combine 3' barcoding with standard short-read sequencing to expand the range of linkage resolution from hundreds to tens of thousands of base-pairs. However, the lack of a 1:1 correspondence between a long fragment and a 3' unique molecular identifier (UMI) confounds the assignment of linkage between short-reads. We introduce Ariadne, a novel assembly graph-based SLR deconvolution algorithm, that can be used to extract single-species read-clouds from SLR datasets to improve the taxonomic classification and de novo assembly of complex populations, such as metagenomes.