MAIRA- real-time taxonomic and functional analysis of long reads on a laptop

Abstract

Background: Advances in mobile sequencing devices and laptop performance make metagenomic sequencing and analysis in the field a technologically feasible prospect. However, metagenomic analysis pipelines are usually designed to run on servers and in the cloud. Results: MAIRA is a new standalone program for interactive taxonomic and functional analysis of long read metagenomic sequencing data on a laptop, without requiring external resources. The program performs fast, online, genus-level analysis, and on-demand, detailed taxonomic and functional analysis. It uses two levels of frame-shift-aware alignment of DNA reads against protein reference sequences, and then performs detailed analysis using a protein synteny graph. Conclusions: We envision this software being used by researchers in the field, when access to servers or cloud facilities is difficult, or by individuals that do not routinely access such facilities, such as medical researchers, crop scientists, or teachers.