Genome-wide SNP identification by high-throughput sequencing and selective mapping allows sequence assembly positioning using a framework genetic linkage map

BACKGROUND: Determining the position and order of contigs and scaffolds from a genome assembly within an organism's genome remains a technical challenge in a majority of sequencing projects. In order to exploit contemporary technologies for DNA sequencing, we developed a strategy for whole genome single nucleotide polymorphism sequencing allowing the positioning of sequence contigs onto a linkage map using the bin mapping method. RESULTS: The strategy was tested on a draft genome of the fungal pathogen Venturia inaequalis, the causal agent of apple scab, and further validated using sequence contigs derived from the diploid plant genome Fragaria vesca. Using our novel method we were able to anchor 70% and 92% of sequences assemblies for V. inaequalis and F. vesca, respectively, to genetic linkage maps. CONCLUSIONS: We demonstrated the utility of this approach by accurately determining the bin map positions of the majority of the large sequence contigs from each genome sequence and validated our method by mapping single sequence repeat markers derived from sequence contigs on a full mapping population.