Mason – A Read Simulator for Second Generation Sequencing Data

Abstract

We present a read simulator software for Illumina, 454 and Sanger reads. Its features include position specific error rates and base quality values. For Illumina reads, we give a comprehensive analysis with empirical data for the error and quality model. For the other technologies, we use models from the literature. It has been written with performance in mind and can sample reads from large genomes. The C++ source code is extensible, and freely available under the GPL/LGPL.