biostudies-literatureUnknown27(1)Ershov A<h4>Background</h4>High-throughput sequencing technologies generate massive amounts of FASTQ data comprising nucleotide sequences, quality scores, and read identifiers, necessitating efficient compression to alleviate storage and transmission burdens. Compared to general-purpose compressors, specialized FASTQ compressors achieve higher compression performance by exploiting the inherent redundancy in FASTQ files. However, existing FASTQ-specialized compressors often suffer from limited data applicability and tend to over-optimize either compression ratio or compression speed at the expense of the other.<h4>Results</h4>We present zDUR, a reference-free FASTQ compressor designed for efficient and scalable handling of next-generation sequencing data across diverse platforms and sequencing dataBMC bioinformatics46https://www.ebi.ac.uk/biostudies/studies/S-EPMC12911337biostudies-literaturezDUR: reference-free FASTQ compressor with high compression ratio and speed.PMC12911337Mozheiko EFu QDing RKozlov IErshov AZhou YNi MHou YFadeeva EfalsezDUR: reference-free FASTQ compressor with high compression ratio and speed.<h4>Background</h4>High-throughput sequencing technologies generate massive amounts of FASTQ data comprising nucleotide sequences, quality scores, and read identifiers, necessitating efficient compression to alleviate storage and transmission burdens. Compared to general-purpose compressors, specialized FASTQ compressors achieve higher compression performance by exploiting the inherent redundancy in FASTQ files. However, existing FASTQ-specialized compressors often suffer from limited data applicability and tend to over-optimize either compression ratio or compression speed at the expense of the other.<h4>Results</h4>We present zDUR, a reference-free FASTQ compressor designed for efficient and scalable handling of next-generation sequencing data across diverse platforms and sequencing data2026-01-01T00:00:00Z2026 Jan2026-07-16T00:40:16.576Z2026-07-09T10:25:51.057ZS-EPMC129113374157817210.1186/s12859-025-06364-1