MicrobeBridge™ Software

MicrobeBridge™ software is a desktop software solution that connects .ab1 data files generated on Applied Biosystems™ Sanger sequencers with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)’s MicrobeNet™ database for bacterial identification using 16S rRNA gene sequencing analysis.

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MicrobeNet is a web-based tool, built by the CDC, for the identification of microbial pathogens through 16S rRNA gene sequence BLAST searches. It contains a highly curated database of genetic and phenotypic properties for the identification of bacterial and microbial species.

Current workflows require manual quality checks of sequence data assembly, manual examination of the assembled sequence, and a manual alignment search against Genbank to identify the species. MicrobeBridge software provides a streamlined workflow starting with importing .ab1 data files generated on any Applied Biosystems capillary electrophoresis sequencing instrument. The software performs contig assembly, contig editing, primer trimming, data quality check, as well as copies the contig sequence and provides a one-click connection to MicrobeNet.

Features
• Overview of read coverage shows the range of forward and reverse sequences in a specimen.
• Contig review shows the forward and reverse sequences, identifies discrepancies in the assembled contig sequence, and allows editing of the contig sequence.
• Quality status displays color-coded trace files based on user-settable quality ranges and provides thumbnail trace views to examine raw data.
• One-click access to MicrobeNet provides one-click copy contig sequence function.
• Export contig file allows export of contig file in FASTA format.

Seamlessly connects Sanger results to the CDC
The software seamlessly connects Sanger sequencing data to the CDC MicrobeNet reference database, allowing researchers to identify microbes and other pathogens in one database. It automates the process of compiling raw sequence data for matching against known pathogenic sequences in MicrobeNet.

System requirements
• Minimum 1.8 GHz processor, 2 GB RAM, and 20GB of free hard disk space
• Software has been tested on Windows 10 Professional and Windows 7 32-bit/64-bit SP1

View the Release Notes (PDF) >