<p><em>This question has also been asked on <a href="https://www.biostars.org/p/9533382/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Biostars</a></em></p>
<p>From hearsay I know that de Bruijn graphs of large genomes (e.g. human) are usually constructed with k = 51, or that k = 51 is at least a good initial choice.</p>
<p>I however am unable to find any source for this, does anyone know where it is coming from?</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-08-03T13:26:21.447Z
Not an answer. SGA is the first assembler I know that has a 51-mer default (more exactly ≥51bp overlap) but I am not sure if k=51 comes from SGA. Note that ALLPATHS-LG/DISCOVAR, arguably the best short-read dBG assembler for large genomes, uses k>100 for end-merged reads, so I don't think k=51 is necessarily an optimal choice.
user172818
CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-08-04T19:07:45.117Z
Note that `k` should (must?) be odd to avoid kmers that are reverse-complement palindromes.
Darlingtonia
<de-bruijn-graphs>
Where does the choice of k = 51 for de Bruijn graphs of large genomes come from?
# Where does the choice of k = 51 for de Bruijn graphs of large genomes come from?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2022-08-03)

*This question has also been asked on [Biostars](https://www.biostars.org/p/9533382/)*

From hearsay I know that de Bruijn graphs of large genomes (e.g. human) are usually constructed with k = 51, or that k = 51 is at least a good initial choice.

I however am unable to find any source for this, does anyone know where it is coming from?

**Tags:** de-bruijn-graphs
> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: Not an answer. SGA is the first assembler I know that has a 51-mer default (more exactly ≥51bp overlap) but I am not sure if k=51 comes from SGA. Note that ALLPATHS-LG/DISCOVAR, arguably the best short-read dBG assembler for large genomes, uses k>100 for end-merged reads, so I don't think k=51 is necessarily an optimal choice.  
> **username_2**: Note that `k` should (must?) be odd to avoid kmers that are reverse-complement palindromes.  

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