PerSVade: personalized structural variant detection in any species of interest

Structural variants (SVs) underlie genomic variation but are often overlooked due to difficult detection from short reads. Most algorithms have been tested on humans, and it remains unclear how applicable they are in other organisms. To solve this, we develop perSVade (personalized structural variation detection), a sample-tailored pipeline that provides optimally called SVs and their inferred accuracy, as well as small and copy number variants. PerSVade increases SV calling accuracy on a benchmark of six eukaryotes. We find no universal set of optimal parameters, underscoring the need for sample-specific parameter optimization. PerSVade will facilitate SV detection and study across diverse organisms. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s13059-022-02737-4.