Eureka Genomics^® xNA™ Bioinformatics Service offers a new opportunity to identify non-host genetic material (xenoNA) present in clinical samples. Thus, novel pathogens, including previously unknown pathogens and/or significantly modified pathogens may be discovered. Read more (PDF) of the approach or check out these references for further information. Contact us for sample quotes and examples of the deliverables.

This approach may be applied to any host/pathogen combination including infections of plants and animals.

For this service, all the sequencing reads which cannot be mapped onto the reference genome(s) with up to 1 mismatch are used as seeds for the de-novo assembly of the genomic material not present in the reference genome(s). This analysis requires 20+x coverage of the non-reference genomic material. The customer provides reference sequences (genes, genomes, draft assemblies) and/or chooses reference sequences from the Eureka Genomics’ collection containing 50+ eukaryotic, 500+ prokaryotic, and 100,000+ viral genomes. Eureka Genomics also uses its proprietarty taxonomy database for xNA discovery.

Read more about the description of the deliverables.

Major applications of this analysis include:

• Identification of phages and/or horizontal gene transfer (genomic islands) events in reference-based genome re-sequencing;
• Detection of the presence of non-host associated genomic material in the sample. For example identification of unknown pathogen(s) in the presence of host (human, animal, insect) genomic material.

Customers of Eureka Genomics Next Generation Bioinformatics Service have:

• Discovered novel plant pathogens
• Identified viruses in insect cultures

Eureka Genomics is currently working on projects to discover:

• A microbial association with brain disorders
• A microbial association with cardiovascular diseases
• A microbial association with cancer
• An association of genital tract microbiome composition with pre-term birth