BOL: Related items

The 5 reasons to mistakes at bioinformatics work !!!

Jit — Thu, 24 Jul 2014 02:51:41 -0500

When you're just starting out with biological programming, it's easy to run into complex problems that make you wonder how anyone has ever managed to write a program. There are some problems that trip up nearly every bioinformatician--everything from getting started understanding the biological problems to dealing with program design. Some random mistakes are so prominent that even experienced biological programmers do it. The 8 years in bioinformatics and my few random observations, most of them are snarky. These reasons will always take longer than expected and compel you to postpone your project deadline.

1.Stupid for biologist: Biology is so complex that it will make bioinformatician feel stupid. There are no any universal fixed rules; it can surprise you any time. So be nice to biologists who ask questions and resolve your biological puzzles. Sometime you will have no idea what the hell you were doing either.

2.Puzzling why: Do not hesitate to ask question. Especially. at the beginning of project you will have to ask a lot of questions. Instead of puzzling it out at end check out and clear your doubt even for a single error. It may can leads to wrong conclusion.

3.Running marathon: The most of the biological software’s documentation is always incomplete. In other word they are no more than 95 percent complete. Sometime a single problem can halt your entire project for months. Compilation and running the pipelines in tedious because almost all are interdependent and need proper configuration. I face the same kind of problem with Evolver :( …

4.Folders missing: The pipelines generate lots of data, and we keep them in several folders for future use. But sometime we delete them by mistake and move to recovery…

5.Digging deeper: Digging deeper is fruitful, but some time it can be catastrophic. You may get frustrated or direction less. So keep a biologist with you for rescue …. Sometime an expert computer programmer to handle your server. Remember, the server will always go down when you need it the most.

The most common frustrating common line: Why do we do this again?

Bioinformatics tools to explore SSRs in genomes !

BioStar — Tue, 07 Mar 2023 13:06:15 -0600

There are several bioinformatics tools that can be used to explore Simple Sequence Repeats (SSRs), which are also known as microsatellites. Here are a few examples:

MISA: MISA (MIcroSAtellite) is a web-based tool that can identify SSRs in DNA sequences. It can be used to analyze nucleotide sequences from various organisms and can identify perfect, compound, and imperfect SSRs.
SSR Locator: SSR Locator is a web-based tool that identifies SSRs in both DNA and RNA sequences. It can identify perfect, compound, and imperfect SSRs, and can also filter out low complexity regions.
SciRoKo: SciRoKo is a software tool that can identify SSRs in DNA sequences. It can be used to analyze genomic and transcriptomic sequences from various organisms and can identify perfect, compound, and imperfect SSRs.
Primer3: Primer3 is a web-based tool that designs PCR primers for SSRs. It can design primers for perfect and imperfect SSRs, and can be used to design primers for SSRs in various organisms.
QDD: QDD (Quick Detection of Duplication) is a software tool that can identify SSRs in DNA sequences and can also identify duplicate loci. It can be used to analyze genomic and transcriptomic sequences from various organisms.

These are just a few examples of the many bioinformatics tools available for exploring SSRs. Depending on your specific needs and research questions, you may find that other tools are more appropriate for your analysis.

PhD opportunity at Université de Liège - Belgium

Sat, 02 Aug 2014 01:12:43 -0500

PhD opportunity at Université de Liège - Belgium

The Bioinformatics and Systems Biology Unit of Université de Liège (Belgium) is looking for a highly motivated master student with programming skills for a PhD thesis project (4 years, fully funded) with the goal of designing computational tools that use literature, genomic and structural data in order to infer regulatory and metabolic networks.

Applicants are invited to send their resume and a recommendation letter to Prof. Patrick Meyer (more details at www.biosys.ulg.ac.be )

For more information : www.biosys.ulg.ac.be

Alignment-free sequence comparison tools available for next-generation sequencing data analysis

Abhimanyu Singh — Tue, 07 Nov 2017 05:33:33 -0600

kallisto

Transcript abundance quantification from RNA-seq data (uses pseudoalignment for rapid determination of read compatibility with targets)

Software (C++)

https://pachterlab.github.io/kallisto/

Sailfish

Estimation of isoform abundances from reference sequences and RNA-seq data (k-mer based)

Software (C++)

http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~ckingsf/software/sailfish/

Salmon

Quantification of the expression of transcripts using RNA-seq data (uses k-mers)

https://combine-lab.github.io/salmon/

RNA-Skim

RNA-seq quantification at transcript-level (partitions the transcriptome into disjoint transcript clusters; uses sig-mers, a special type of k-mers)

Software (C++)

http://www.csbio.unc.edu/rs/

Variant calling

ChimeRScope

Fusion transcript prediction using gene k-mers profiles of the RNA-seq paired-end reads

Software (Java)

https://github.com/ChimeRScope/ChimeRScope/wiki

FastGT

Genotyping of known SNV/SNP variants directly from raw NGS sequence reads by counting unique k-mers

Software (C)

https://github.com/bioinfo-ut/GenomeTester4/

Phy-Mer

Reference-independent mitochondrial haplogroup classifier from NGS data (k-mer based)

Software (Python)

https://github.com/danielnavarrogomez/phy-mer

LAVA

Genotyping of known SNPs (dbSNP and Affymetrix's Genome-Wide Human SNP Array) from raw NGS reads (k-mer based)

Software (C)

http://lava.csail.mit.edu/

MICADo

Detection of mutations in targeted third-generation NGS data (can distinguish patients’ specific mutations; algorithm uses k-mers and is based on colored de Bruijn graphs)

Software (Python)

http://github.com/cbib/MICADo

General mapper

Minimap

Lightweight and fast read mapper and read overlap detector (uses the concept of “minimazers”, a special type of k-mers)

Software (C)

https://github.com/lh3/minimap

Assembly

De novo genome assembly

MHAP

Produces highly continuous assembly (fully resolved chromosome arms) from third-generation long and noisy reads (10 kbp) using a dimensionality reduction technique MinHash

Software (Java)

https://github.com/marbl/MHAP

Miniasm

Assembler of long noisy reads (SMRT, ONT) using the Overlap-Layout Consensus (OLC) approach without the necessity of an error correction stage (uses minimap)

Software (C)

https://github.com/lh3/miniasm

LINKS

Scaffolding genome assembly with error-containing long sequence (e.g., ONT or PacBio reads, draft genomes)

Software (Perl)

https://github.com/warrenlr/LINKS/

Read clustering

afcluster

Clustering of reads from different genes and different species based on k-mer counts

Software (C++)

https://github.com/luscinius/afcluster

QCluster

Clustering of reads with alignment-free measures (k-mer based) and quality values

Software (C++)

http://www.dei.unipd.it/~ciompin/main/qcluster.html

Reads error correction

Lighter

Correction of sequencing errors in raw, whole genome sequencing reads (k-mer based)

Software (C++)

https://github.com/mourisl/Lighter

QuorUM

Error corrector for Illumina reads using k-mers

Software (C++)

https://github.com/gmarcais/Quorum

Trowel

Software (C++)

https://sourceforge.net/projects/trowel-ec/

Metagenomics

Assembly-free phylogenomics

AAF

Phylogeny reconstruction directly from unassembled raw sequence data from whole genome sequencing projects; provides bootstrap support to assess uncertainty in the tree topology (k-mer based)

Software (Python)

https://github.com/fanhuan/AAF

kSNP v3

Reference-free SNP identification and estimation of phylogenetic trees using SNPs (based on k-mer analysis)

Software (C)

https://sourceforge.net/projects/ksnp/files/

NGS-MC

Phylogeny of species based on NGS reads using alignment-free sequence dissimilarity measures d2* and d2 S under different Markov chain models (using k-words)

R package

http://www-rcf.usc.edu/~fsun/Programs/NGS-MC/NGS-MC.html

Species identification/taxonomic profiling

CLARK

Taxonomic classification of metagenomic reads to known bacterial genomes using k-mer search and LCA assignment

Software (C++)

http://clark.cs.ucr.edu/

FOCUS

Reports organisms present in metagenomic samples and profiles their abundances (uses composition-based approach and non-negative least squares for prediction)

Web service Software (Python)

http://edwards.sdsu.edu/FOCUS/

GSM

Estimation of abundances of microbial genomes in metagenomic samples (k-mer based)

Software (Go)

https://github.com/pdtrang/GSM

Mash

Species identification using assembled or unassembled Illumina, PacBio, and ONT data (based on MinHash dimensionality-reduction technique)

Software (C++)

https://github.com/marbl/mash

Kraken

Taxonomic assignment in metagenome analysis by exact k-mer search; LCA assignment of short reads based on a comprehensive sequence database

Software (C++)

https://ccb.jhu.edu/software/kraken/

LMAT

Assignment of taxonomic labels to reads by k-mers searches in precomputed database

Software (C++/Python)

https://sourceforge.net/projects/lmat/

stringMLST

k-mer-based tool for MLST directly from the genome sequencing reads

Software (Python)

http://jordan.biology.gatech.edu/page/software/stringMLST

Taxonomer

k-mer-based ultrafast metagenomics tool for assigning taxonomy to sequencing reads from clinical and environmental samples

Web service

http://taxonomer.iobio.io/

Other

d2-tools

Word-based (k-tuple) comparison (pairwise dissimilarity matrix using d2S measure) of metatranscriptomic samples from NGS reads

Software (Python/R)

https://code.google.com/p/d2-tools/

VirHostMatcher

Prediction of hosts from metagenomic viral sequences based on ONF using various distance measures (e.g., d2)

Software (C++)

https://github.com/jessieren/VirHostMatcher

MetaFast

Statistics calculation of metagenome sequences and the distances between them based on assembly using de Bruijn graphs and Bray–Curtis dissimilarity measure

Software (Java)

https://github.com/ctlab/metafast

MEGADOCK 4.0

Suleman Khan — Thu, 07 Aug 2014 18:08:54 -0500

An ultra–high-performance protein–protein docking software for heterogeneous supercomputers

Summary: The application of protein–protein docking in large-scale interactome analysis is a major challenge in structural bioinformatics and requires huge computing resources. In this work, we present MEGADOCK 4.0, an FFT-based docking software that makes extensive use of recent heterogeneous supercomputers and shows powerful, scalable performance of over 97% strong scaling.

Availability and Implementation: MEGADOCK 4.0 is written in C++ with OpenMPI and NVIDIA CUDA 5.0 (or later) and is freely available to all academic and non-profit users at: http://www.bi.cs.titech.ac.jp/megadock.

Contact: akiyama@cs.titech.ac.jp

Address of the bookmark: http://bioinformatics.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2014/08/06/bioinformatics.btu532.short

List of visualization tools for genome alignments

Rahul Nayak — Fri, 02 Feb 2018 13:25:33 -0600

Genome browsers are useful not only for showing final results but also for improving analysis protocols, testing data quality, and generating result drafts. Its integration in analysis pipelines allows the optimization of parameters, which leads to better results. But sometime, we need publication ready figure of genomes. Following are the list of genome alignment visualization tools, which could be useful for analysis and interpretation of results:

ABySS Explorer

Interactive Java application that uses a novel graph-based representation to display a sequence assembly and associated metadata

http://www.bcgsc.ca/platform/bioinfo/software/abyss-explorer

BamView

Genome browser and annotation tool that allows visualization of sequence features, next-generation sequencing (NGS) data and the results of analyses within the context of the sequence, and also its six-frame translation

http://www.sanger.ac.uk/resources/software/artemis/

DNannotator

Annotation web toolkit for regional genomic sequences

http://bioapp.psych.uic.edu/DNannotator.htm

JVM

Java Visual Mapping tool for NGS reads

http://www.springer.com/cda/content/document/cda_downloaddocument/9789401792448-c2.pdf?SGWID=0-0-45-1487072-p176815501

LookSeq

Web-based visualization of sequences derived from multiple sequencing technologies. Low- or high-depth read pileups and easy visualization of putative single nucleotide and structural variation

http://lookseq.sourceforge.net

MagicViewer

Visualization of short read alignment, identification of genetic variation and association with annotation information of a reference genome

http://bioinformatics.zj.cn/magicviewer/

MapView

Alignments of huge-scale single-end and pair-end short reads

http://omictools.com/mapview-s1367.html

MultiPipMaker

Computes alignments of similar regions in two DNA sequences. The resulting alignments are summarized with a ‘percent identity plot’ (pip)

http://pipmaker.bx.psu.edu/pipmaker/

PileLineGUI

Handling genome position files in NGS studies

http://sing.ei.uvigo.es/pileline/pilelinegui.html

SAMtools tview

Simple and fast text alignment viewer; NGS compatible

http://www.htslib.org/

SEWAL

Uses a locality-sensitive hashing algorithm to enumerate all unique sequences in an entire Illumina sequencing run

http://www.sourceforge.net/projects/sewal

STAR

A web-based integrated solution to management and visualization of sequencing data

http://wanglab.ucsd.edu/star/browser

SVA

Software for annotating and visualizing sequenced human genomes

http://www.svaproject.org

Viewer (IGV)

Visualization of large heterogeneous datasets, providing a smooth and intuitive user experience at all levels of genome resolution

https://www.broadinstitute.org/igv/

ZOOM Lite

NGS data mapping and visualization software

http://bioinfor.com/zoom/lite/

GrapheR !!!

John Parker — Thu, 14 Aug 2014 14:02:17 -0500

What a wonderful gem GrapheR is.... Oh yes it is. GrapheR is a GUI for base graphics in R by http://www.maximeherve.com/. The package provides a graphical user interface for creating base charts in R. It is ideal for beginners in R, as the user interface is very clear and the code is written along side into a text file, allowing users to recreate the charts directly in the console.

Adding and changing legends? Messing around with the plotting window settings? It is much easier/quicker with this GUI than reading the help file and trying to understand the various parameters.
Here is a little example using the iris data set.

library(GrapheR)
data(iris)
run.GrapheR()

This will bring up a window that helps me to create the chart and tweak the various parameters.

Finally, I find the underlying R code in a file created by GrapheR. For more details read also the package vignette, which is available in English, French and German!

List of non-commercial NGS genotype-calling software

Jit — Thu, 09 Aug 2018 04:21:32 -0500

Meaningful analysis of next-generation sequencing (NGS) data, which are produced extensively by genetics and genomics studies, relies crucially on the accurate calling of SNPs and genotypes. Recently developed statistical methods both improve and quantify the considerable uncertainty associated with genotype calling, and will especially benefit the growing number of studies using low- to medium-coverage data.

A list of programs for genotype and SNP calling :

SOAP2 http://soap.genomics.org.cn/index.html

Single-sample High-quality variant database (for example, dbSNP) Package for NGS data analysis, which includes a single individual genotype caller (SOAPsnp)

realSFS http://128.32.118.212/thorfinn/realSFS/

Single-sample Aligned reads Software for SNP and genotype calling using single individuals and allele frequencies. Site frequency spectrum (SFS) estimation

Samtools http://samtools.sourceforge.net/

Multi-sample Aligned reads Package for manipulation of NGS alignments, which includes a computation of genotype likelihoods (samtools) and SNP and genotype calling (bcftools)

GATK http://www.broadinstitute.org/gsa/wiki/index.php/The_Genome_Analysis_Toolkit Multi-sample Aligned reads Package for aligned NGS data analysis, which includes a SNP and genotype caller (Unifed Genotyper), SNP filtering (Variant Filtration) and SNP quality recalibration (Variant Recalibrator)

Beagle http://faculty.washington.edu/browning/beagle/beagle.html

Multi-sample LD Candidate SNPs, genotype likelihoods Software for imputation, phasing and association that includes a mode for genotype calling

IMPUTE2 http://mathgen.stats.ox.ac.uk/impute/impute_v2.html

Multi-sample LD Candidate SNPs, genotype likelihoods Software for imputation and phasing, including a mode for genotype calling. Requires fine-scale linkage map

QCall ftp://ftp.sanger.ac.uk/pub/rd/QCALL

Multi-sample LD ‘Feasible’ genealogies at a dense set of loci, genotype likelihoods Software for SNP and genotype calling, including a method for generating candidate SNPs without LD information (NLDA) and a method for incorporating LD information (LDA). The ‘feasible’ genealogies can be generated using Margarita (http://www.sanger.ac.uk/resources/software/margarita)

MaCH http://genome.sph.umich.edu/wiki/Thunder

Multi-sample LD Genotype likelihoods Software for SNP and genotype calling, including a method (GPT_Freq) for generating candidate SNPs without LD information and a method (thunder_glf_freq) for incorporating LD information

pybedtools

Shruti Paniwala — Wed, 20 Aug 2014 01:03:41 -0500

pybedtools is a Python wrapper for Aaron Quinlan's BEDtools programs (https://github.com/arq5x/bedtools), which are widely used for genomic interval manipulation or "genome algebra". pybedtools extends BEDTools by offering feature-level manipulations from with Python. See full online documentation, including installation instructions, at http://pythonhosted.org/pybedtools/.

More at http://pythonhosted.org/pybedtools/

A powerful toolset for genome arithmetic.http://code.google.com/p/bedtools/

List of tools frequently used while genome assembly

BioStar — Tue, 22 Jan 2019 09:39:02 -0600

List of tools frequently used while genome assembly:

I have used the following assemblers

Spades (v. 3.10.1)
CANU (v. 1.6)
Unicycler (v. v0.4.1)
Miniasm (v. 0.2-r137-dirty)

I have used the following mappers

minimap2 (v. 2.0rc1-r232)
minimap (v. 0.2-r124-dirty)
bwa (v. 0.7.12-r1039)

I have used the following polishing tools

Racon (v. not available)
Pilon (v. 1.18)
Nanopolish (v. 0.8.3)

I have used the following tools to assess genome assembly characteristics

ANI.pl (https://github.com/chjp/ANI)
CheckM (v. 1.0.7)
Prokka (v. 1.12)
QUAST (v. 2.3)
mummer (v. not available)

If you have any ideas or superior tools we have missed please let us know in the comments.