artfastqgenerator

outputs artificial FASTQ files derived from a reference genome

ArtificialFastqGenerator takes the reference genome (in FASTA format) as input and outputs artificial FASTQ files in the Sanger format. It can accept Phred base quality scores from existing FASTQ files, and use them to simulate sequencing errors. Since the artificial FASTQs are derived from the reference genome, the reference genome provides a gold-standard for calling variants (Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms (SNPs) and insertions and deletions (indels)). This enables evaluation of a Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) analysis pipeline which aligns reads to the reference genome and then calls the variants.