NOTICE: Due to a lapse in annual appropriations, most of this website is not being updated. Learn more.
Form submissions will still be accepted but will not receive responses at this time. Sections of this site for programs using non-appropriated funds (such as NVLAP) or those that are excepted from the shutdown (such as CHIPS and NVD) will continue to be updated.
An official website of the United States government
Here’s how you know
Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.
Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock (
) or https:// means you’ve safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.
Small variant benchmark from a complete assembly of X and Y chromosomes
Published
Author(s)
Justin Wagner, Nathanael Olson, Jennifer McDaniel, Lindsay Harris, Chunlin Xiao, Fritz Sedlazeck, Kishwar Shafin, Andrew Carroll, Justin Zook
Abstract
The sex chromosomes contain complex, important genes impacting medical phenotypes, but differ from the autosomes in their ploidy and large repetitive regions. To enable technology developers along with research and clinical laboratories to evaluate variant detection on male sex chromosomes X and Y, we create a small variant benchmark set with 111,725 variants for the Genome in a Bottle HG002 reference material. We develop an active evaluation approach to demonstrate the benchmark set reliably identifies errors in challenging genomic regions and across short and long read callsets. We show how complete assemblies can expand benchmarks to difficult regions, but highlight remaining challenges benchmarking variants in long homopolymers and tandem repeats, complex gene conversions, copy number variable gene arrays, and human satellites.
Wagner, J.
, Olson, N.
, McDaniel, J.
, Harris, L.
, Xiao, C.
, Sedlazeck, F.
, Shafin, K.
, Carroll, A.
and Zook, J.
(2025),
Small variant benchmark from a complete assembly of X and Y chromosomes, Nature Communications, [online], https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-55710-z, https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=956904
(Accessed October 6, 2025)