Y-mer: a k-mer based method for determining human Y chromosome haplogroups from ultra-low sequencing depth data

Abstract Determining genetic ancestry of an individual is challenging from poorly preserved or mixed samples that permit only ultra-low coverage sequence at depths less than 0.1 × at target loci. Leveraging recent advances in telomere-to-telomere sequencing of whole genomes with long reads, we devel...

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Main Authors: Tarmo Puurand, Märt Möls, Lauris Kaplinski, Kadri Maal, Kaarel Krjutskov, Andres Salumets, Toomas Kivisild, Maido Remm
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: BMC 2025-08-01
Series:Genome Biology
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Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1186/s13059-025-03714-3
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Summary:Abstract Determining genetic ancestry of an individual is challenging from poorly preserved or mixed samples that permit only ultra-low coverage sequence at depths less than 0.1 × at target loci. Leveraging recent advances in telomere-to-telomere sequencing of whole genomes with long reads, we develop a new k-mer based method, Y-mer, and show how information from hundreds of thousands of k-mers in distance-based models enables accurate inference of chrY haplogroup from whole-genome sequence at depth less than 0.01x. We test the performance of Y-mer on ancient DNA and prenatal screening data, showing its potential for genetic ancestry inference for cell-free, forensic and ancient DNA research.
ISSN:1474-760X