BOL: Related items

RASTtk : algorithm for building custom annotation pipelines and annotating batches of genomes

Abhi — Wed, 27 Apr 2016 11:07:59 -0500

The RAST (Rapid Annotation using Subsystem Technology) annotation engine was built in 2008 to annotate bacterial and archaeal genomes. It works by offering a standard software pipeline for identifying genomic features (i.e., protein-encoding genes and RNA) and annotating their functions. Recently, in order to make RAST a more useful research tool and to keep pace with advancements in bioinformatics, it has become desirable to build a version of RAST that is both customizable and extensible. In this paper, we describe the RAST tool kit (RASTtk), a modular version of RAST that enables researchers to build custom annotation pipelines. RASTtk offers a choice of software for identifying and annotating genomic features as well as the ability to add custom features to an annotation job. RASTtk also accommodates the batch submission of genomes and the ability to customize annotation protocols for batch submissions. This is the first major software restructuring of RAST since its inception.

More at http://www.nature.com/articles/srep08365

Address of the bookmark: http://rast.nmpdr.org/

MOSAIK: A Hash-Based Algorithm for Accurate Next-Generation Sequencing Short-Read Mapping

Neel — Fri, 20 May 2016 18:53:49 -0500

MOSAIK is a stable, sensitive and open-source program for mapping second and third-generation sequencing reads to a reference genome. Uniquely among current mapping tools, MOSAIK can align reads generated by all the major sequencing technologies, including Illumina, Applied Biosystems SOLiD, Roche 454, Ion Torrent and Pacific BioSciences SMRT. Indeed, MOSAIK was the only aligner to provide consistent mappings for all the generated data (sequencing technologies, low-coverage and exome) in the 1000 Genomes Project. To provide highly accurate alignments, MOSAIK employs a hash clustering strategy coupled with the Smith-Waterman algorithm. This method is well-suited to capture mismatches as well as short insertions and deletions. To support the growing interest in larger structural variant (SV) discovery, MOSAIK provides explicit support for handling known-sequence SVs, e.g. mobile element insertions (MEIs) as well as generating outputs tailored to aid in SV discovery.

Address of the bookmark: http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0090581

GAEMR

Jit — Tue, 14 Jun 2016 06:18:37 -0500

The Genome Assembly Evaluation Metrics and Reporting (GAEMR) package is an assembly analysis framework composed a number of integrated modules. These modules can be executed as a single program to generate a complete analysis report, or executed individually to generate specific charts and tables. GAEMR standardizes input by converting a variety of read types to Binary Alignment Map (BAM) format, allowing a single input format to be entered into GAEMR’s analysis pipeline, hence enabling the generation of standard reports.

GAEMR’s analysis philosophy is centered on contiguity, correctness, and completeness -- how many pieces in an assembly composed of, how well those pieces accurately represent the genome sequenced, and how much of that genome is represented by those pieces. By performing over twenty different analyses based on these principles, GAEMR gives a clear picture of the condition of a genome assembly.

Address of the bookmark: https://www.broadinstitute.org/software/gaemr/

HivePlot

Jit — Thu, 16 Feb 2017 11:39:34 -0600

The hive plot is a rational visualization method for drawing networks. Nodes are mapped to and positioned on radially distributed linear axes — this mapping is based on network structural properties. Edges are drawn as curved links. Simple and interpretable.

The purpose of the hive plot is to establish a new baseline for visualization of large networks — a method that is both general and tunable and useful as a starting point in visually exploring network structure.

More at http://www.hiveplot.com/

Address of the bookmark: http://www.hiveplot.com/

BBSplit: Read Binning Tool for Metagenomes and Contaminated Libraries

Poonam Mahapatra — Wed, 03 Jan 2018 00:25:27 -0600

BBSplit internally uses BBMap to map reads to multiple genomes at once, and determine which genome they match best. This is different than with ordinary mapping. If a genome (say, human) contains an exact repeat somewhere, reads mapping to it will be mapped ambiguously. But if you want to determine whether reads are mouse or human, it does not matter whether they map ambiguously within human, only whether they are ambiguous between human and mouse. BBSplit tracks this additional ambiguity information and decides how to use it based on the “ambig2” flag. The normal use of BBSplit is like Seal, either quantifying how many reads go to each reference, or splitting the reads into multiple output files, one per reference. BBSplit can only be run using references indexed with BBSplit, as they contain additional information regarding which sequences came from which reference file.

BBSplit is a tool that bins reads by mapping to multiple references simultaneously, using BBMap. The reads go to the bin of the reference they map to best. There are also disambiguation options, such that reads that map to multiple references can be binned with all of them, none of them, one of them, or put in a special "ambiguous" file for each of them. Paired reads will always be kept together.

For example, if you had a library of something that was contaminated with e.coli and salmonella, you could do this:

bbsplit.sh in=reads.fq ref=ecoli.fa,salmonella.fa basename=out_%.fq outu=clean.fq int=t

This will produce 3 output files:
out_ecoli.fq (ecoli reads)
out_salmonella.fq (salmonella reads)
clean.fq (unmapped reads)

In this case, "int=t" means that the input file is paired and interleaved. For single-end reads you would leave that out. For paired reads in 2 files, you would do this:
bbsplit.sh in1=reads1.fq in2=reads2.fq ref=ecoli.fa,salmonella.fa basename=out_%.fq outu1=clean1.fq outu2=clean2.fq

BBSplit is available here:
https://sourceforge.net/projects/bbmap/

The sensitivity can be raised to be equivalent to BBMap with these flags: "minratio=0.56 minhits=1 maxindel=16000"

CViT: Chromosome Viewing Tool

Rahul Nayak — Wed, 02 Jan 2019 04:10:09 -0600

CViT - Chromosome Viewing Tool. A collection of Perl scripts that enable quick visualizations of features on linkage groups, psuedochromosomes or cytogenetic maps. Intended for whole-genome views of data but can be used to create images of single chromosomes/linkage groups, contigs, or BACs, or even proteins -- any feature that has a location on a backbone. Handles most standard genetic/genomic coordinate systems. Reads GFF3 data and produces a PNG or SVG image.

https://www.hindawi.com/journals/ijpg/2011/373875/

Address of the bookmark: https://sourceforge.net/projects/cvit/

QuasR: Quantification and annotation of short reads in R

Neel — Fri, 13 Aug 2021 07:44:05 -0500

The QuasR package (short for Quantify and annotate short reads in R) integrates the functionality of several R packages (such as IRanges (Lawrence et al. 2013) and Rsamtools) and external software (e.g. bowtie, through the Rbowtie package, and HISAT2, through the Rhisat2 package). The package aims to cover the whole analysis workflow of typical high throughput sequencing experiments, starting from the raw sequence reads, over pre-processing and alignment, up to quantification. A single R script can contain all steps of a complete analysis, making it simple to document, reproduce or share the workflow containing all relevant details.

Address of the bookmark: https://www.bioconductor.org/packages/devel/bioc/vignettes/QuasR/inst/doc/QuasR.html

When DNA Data Tells the Wrong Story - CrossFit assist to resolve !

BioStar — Fri, 04 Sep 2026 03:41:38 -0500

Imagine comparing humans and chimpanzees to discover which genes make us different. You have millions of RNA-sequencing reads—but there is a catch: the computer may align these reads more easily to one species' genome than the other.

Suddenly, a technical error can look like a biological difference.

This is the problem Kenneth A. Barr and Yoav Gilad tackle with CrossFilt, a new computational tool introduced in Genome Biology journal.

CrossFilt acts like a careful referee. It keeps only sequencing reads that can be reliably compared across species, filtering out reads that could create alignment bias.

When tested on human, chimpanzee, and rhesus macaque data, CrossFilt reduced false discoveries and produced more reliable cross-species comparisons.

The message is simple: before asking what makes species different, we need to make sure our methods aren't creating those differences.

In genomics, sometimes the most important discovery is finding—and removing—the bias hiding in the data.

Read more at https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s13059-026-04082-2?

EXCAVATOR2tool

Bulbul — Wed, 30 Nov 2016 04:09:19 -0600

EXCAVATOR2 is a collection of bash, R and Fortran scripts and codes that analyses Whole Exome Sequencing (WES) data to identify CNVs. EXCAVATOR2 enhances the identification of all genomic CNVs, both overlapping and non-overlapping targeted exons by integrating the analysis of In-targets and Off- targets reads. Specifically, it improves the precision of calling CNVs overlapping targeted exons from WES data and enlarges the spectrum of detectable CNVs to off-target events.
EXCAVATOR2 can be effectively employed for the identification of CNVs in small as well as large-scale re-sequencing population and cancer studies. Lastly, it’s of particular interest that all WES experiments can be re-analysed using our method with the beneficial effect to identify novelCNVs in extra-exonic regions by having the full-genome CN profile.

Address of the bookmark: https://sourceforge.net/projects/excavator2tool/

RAMI: a tool for identification and characterization of phylogenetic clusters in microbial communities

Jit — Mon, 07 Aug 2017 18:49:27 -0500

RAMI, which clusters related nodes in a phylogenetic tree based on the patristic distance. RAMI also produces indices of cluster properties and other indices used in population and community studies on-the-fly.

Availability: RAMI is licensed under GNU GPL and can be run or downloaded from http://www.acgt.se/online.html.

Address of the bookmark: https://academic.oup.com/bioinformatics/article-lookup/doi/10.1093/bioinformatics/btp051