
Depth and evenness of sequencing coverage are considered potential indicators of genome assembly quality. In plastid genomics, where new data generation has outpaced the development of suitable assembly quality indicators, these coverage metrics could offer insights into the quality of plastomes of different sizes, structures, or taxonomic origins. However, the typical variation of sequencing depth and evenness among archived plastid genomes, their variability between plastome partitions, and any association with methodological factors have yet to be evaluated. This study explores the variation of sequencing depth and evenness across a sample of publicly accessible plastid genomes and their potential associations with plastome structure, assembly accuracy, and the methodological provenance of the genome data using statistical tests. Our results indicate significant differences in sequencing depth across the four structural partitions as well as between the coding and non-coding sections of the genomes, a significant correlation between sequencing evenness and the number of ambiguous nucleotides, and a significant difference in sequencing evenness between several DNA sequencing platforms. These findings highlight that many publicly accessible plastid genomes are based on sequence data with highly variable sequencing depth and evenness and that this variation is influenced, at least partially, by genome structure and methodological factors.
sequencing depth, sequencing platform, quadripartite structure, assembly quality, plastid genome, sequencing evenness, assembly software, sequencing coverage
sequencing depth, sequencing platform, quadripartite structure, assembly quality, plastid genome, sequencing evenness, assembly software, sequencing coverage
| selected citations These citations are derived from selected sources. This is an alternative to the "Influence" indicator, which also reflects the overall/total impact of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network (diachronically). | 0 | |
| popularity This indicator reflects the "current" impact/attention (the "hype") of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network. | Average | |
| influence This indicator reflects the overall/total impact of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network (diachronically). | Average | |
| impulse This indicator reflects the initial momentum of an article directly after its publication, based on the underlying citation network. | Average |
