Metagenome analysis using MEGAN

In metagenomics, the goal is to analyze the genomic content of a sample of organisms collected from a common habitat. One approach is to apply large-scale random shotgun sequencing techniques to obtain a collection of DNA reads from the sample. This data is then compared against databases of known sequences such as NCBI-nr or NCBI-nt, in an attempt to identify the taxonomical content of the sample. We introduce a new software called MEGAN (Meta Genome ANalyzer) that generates species profiles from such sequencing data by assigning reads to taxa of the NCBI taxonomy using a straight-forward assignment algorithm. The approach is illustrated by application to a number of datasets obtained using both sequencing-by-synthesis and Sanger sequencing technology, including metagenomic data from a mammoth bone, a portion of the Sargasso sea data set, and several complete microbial test genomes used for validation proposes.