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refresh-bio / vclust

Fast and accurate tool for calculating Average Nucleotide Identity (ANI) and clustering virus genomes and metagenomes
GNU General Public License v3.0
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[feature request] AAI calculation #11

Open valentynbez opened 1 month ago

valentynbez commented 1 month ago

Thanks for the amazing tool!

The viral DNA code is very dynamic and has no repair mechanisms, therefore viruses quickly mutate. However, they should be conserved on the aminoacid level, because deleterious mutations will prevent viruses from replication inside the host.

This type of clustering will be more appropriate methodologically.

aziele commented 1 month ago

Hi Valentyn,

Thanks for reaching out! You are absolutely right. With nucleotide-based sequence comparisons and clustering, we can only reliably group viruses into species, or genera at best.

The AAI feature is on our to-do list, but we can't provide an estimated time for its availability yet. In the meantime, you can calculate AAI with external software and use Vclust's component, Clusty, for clustering based on the obtained AAI values.

Thanks! Andrzej