Oxford Nanopore R10.4 long-read sequencing enables the generation of near-finished bacterial genomes from pure cultures and metagenomes without short-read or reference polishing

Long-read Oxford Nanopore sequencing has democratized microbial genome sequencing and enables the recovery of highly contiguous microbial genomes from isolates or metagenomes. However, to obtain near-finished genomes it has been necessary to include short-read polishing to correct insertions and deletions derived from homopolymer regions. Here, we show that Oxford Nanopore R10.4 can be used to generate near-finished microbial genomes from isolates or metagenomes without short-read or reference polishing. This study demonstrates the feasibility of generating near-finished microbial genomes using only Oxford Nanopore R10.4 data from pure cultures or metagenomes.

Automated summary

This study demonstrates that near-finished microbial genomes can be generated using only Oxford Nanopore R10.4 data, without the need for short-read or reference polishing. This finding simplifies the microbial genome sequencing process and improves the accuracy and continuity of sequencing results.