Question

Mitochondria are present in about 200 copies per cell. The nuclear genome is present in 2 copies. You have collected shotgun Illumina sequence data for a particular genome. You would like to do k-mer spectra error-correction of the sequence reads. What do you predict will happen for the mitochondrial DNA reads in k-mer based error correction?

Answer 1

Step-by-step explanation:

In k-mer based error correction, the reads from mitochondrial DNA are expected to behave differently compared to the nuclear DNA reads. This is because the mitochondrial DNA has a higher copy number (around 200 copies per cell) compared to the nuclear genome (2 copies). As a result, the k-mers derived from mitochondrial DNA will be more abundant in the sequencing data, leading to a higher coverage and more accurate error correction for mitochondrial DNA reads. Conversely, the nuclear DNA reads may have lower coverage and could be less accurately error-corrected due to their lower copy number.