A novice’s guide to analyzing NGS-derived organelle and metagenome data

Next generation sequencing (NGS) technologies have revolutionized many areas of biological research due to the sharp reduction in costs that has led to the generation of massive amounts of sequence information. Analysis of large genome data sets is however still a challenging task because it often requires significant computer resources and knowledge of bioinformatics. Here, we provide a guide for an uninitiated who wish to analyze high-throughput NGS data. We focus specifically on the analysis of organelle genome and metagenome data and describe the current bioinformatic pipelines suited for this purpose.