Week 5: Metagenomics

Week beginning November 24th 2025

Andrea Telatin and Alise Ponsero, QIB Core Bioinformatics

This module has a dedicated website that we will use to store training materials and hands-on tutorials

Monday 24th, UG55C

Morning

  • Microbiome genomics: profiling vs de novo
  • Tools: Kraken2, Bracken, Biobakery, Kaiju, …
  • Practical: MetaPhlAn / HUMAnN

Afternoon

  • Sequence Coverage and assembly
  • Tools: MegaHit, Minimap2, Samtools, BamToCov, CoverM
  • Practical: De novo assembly and read recruitment

Tuesday 25th, UG55C

Morning

  • Quality checks: assessing sequencing quality (adaptors, etc), library quality (negative controls) and sample quality (host contamination)
  • Tools: FastQC, fastp, fastqlong, seqfu, kraken2, hostile
  • Practical: Host removal using Hostile

Afternoon

  • Binning contigs
  • Practical: SemiBin2

Thursday 27th, UG44B

To be defined

This day we will focus on exploring datasets using Anvi’o or using command line tools to perform strain tracking and k-mer sketches. This is subject to technical details that will be assessed before the training.

Friday 29th, UG55C

Morning

  • Functional characterization
  • Tools: HUMAnN, Metaprokka, CoverM, …
  • Practical: extracting metabolic pathways of interest