Plasmid or Chromosome?

Question

[Jaykumar]

Hello there,

Can anybody please direct me as in how to distinguish between plasmid and chromosomal contig in assembled genome?

All of my genomes have multiple contigs, but all of them are circular. One of them is quite large, indicating a chromosome but I am not sure about the others. Plasmidfinder indicates some of the contigs having known plasmid replicon. Shoudld I consider others as secondary chromosomes then?

All my genomes are prokaryotic only.

[Asaf]

Is it a single bacteria? Do you have a close enough reference for comparing the structure of the genome? Naturally I will look at the genes on the contigs in question and try to figure out if those are naturally chromosomal or plasmids, a seasoned microbiologist would be able to tell you exactly what you're looking at.

[Jaykumar]

Thank you, Asaf. I kinda used the similar approach using tool RFplasmid, which is also looking through gene usually present within chromosome or plasmid and based on that categorise each contig. Thanks a ton for confirming!!