In this tutorial series article, I will explore features and packages of python which are widely used in the big data, NGS, and bioinformatics. I will also walk through a real biological example which shows NGS data processing with the help of python packages and programming.

Python has a couple of points to recommend it to biologists and scientists specifically:

• It's widely used in the scientific community
• It has a couple of very well designed libraries for doing complex scientific computing (although we won't encounter them in this book)
• It lend itself well to being integrated with other, existing tools
• It has features which make it easy to manipulate strings of characters (for example, strings of DNA bases and protein amino acid residues, which we as biologists are particularly fond of)

In general, following are some of the important features of python which makes it a perfect fit for rapid application development.

• Python is interpreted language so the program does not need to be compiled. Interpreter parses the program code and generates the output.
• Python is dynamically typed, so the variables types are defined automatically.
• Python is strongly typed. So the developers need to cast the type manually.
• Less code and more use makes it more acceptable.
• Python is portable, extendable and scalable.

There are two major Python versions, Python 2 and Python 3. Python 2 and 3 are quite different. This tutorial uses Python 3, because it more semantically correct and supports newer features.

I will post tutorial on daily basis on this page. Check the sub-pages on right side.

https://csgillespie.github.io/efficientR/

https://r-graphics.org/

https://rstudio-education.github.io/hopr/

https://r-pkgs.org/

https://r4ds.had.co.nz/

Address of the bookmark: https://r-graphics.org/

More at https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/20494974/

Address of the bookmark: http://www.sequenceontology.org/cgi-bin/soba.cgi

Key Features of BLAST:
1. Sequence Comparison: BLAST searches for local alignments between the query sequence and sequences in a database. It identifies regions of similarity, which can help infer functional and evolutionary relationships.

2. Speed and Efficiency: BLAST uses heuristic algorithms, making it faster than exhaustive search methods, suitable for large-scale database searches.

3. Versatility: There are several versions of BLAST for different types of sequence comparisons:
- blastn: Compares a nucleotide query sequence against a nucleotide sequence database.
- blastp: Compares a protein query sequence against a protein sequence database.
- blastx: Compares a nucleotide query sequence translated in all reading frames against a protein sequence database.
- tblastn: Compares a protein query sequence against a nucleotide sequence database translated in all reading frames.
- tblastx: Compares the six-frame translations of a nucleotide query sequence against the six-frame translations of a nucleotide sequence database.

4. Scoring and E-value: BLAST results are scored based on the quality and length of the alignments. The E-value (expect value) indicates the number of alignments one can expect to find by chance, with lower E-values representing more significant matches.

5. Output Formats: BLAST provides results in various formats, including plain text, HTML, XML, and JSON, making it adaptable for different types of analyses and integrations with other tools.

Applications of BLAST:
- Genomic Research: Identifying genes, understanding genetic diversity, and mapping genome sequences.
- Protein Function Prediction: Inferring the function of unknown proteins by comparing them to known protein sequences.
- Evolutionary Studies: Exploring evolutionary relationships between organisms by comparing their genetic material.
- Medical Research: Identifying pathogens, understanding disease mechanisms, and developing treatments by comparing sequences of interest.

Overall, BLAST is an essential tool in bioinformatics, offering a reliable and efficient way to analyze and interpret biological sequence data.

Address of the bookmark: http://bioinfo.konkuk.ac.kr/GMASS/htdocs/syncircos.php

Job Description: We are interested in finding an excellent postdoc with interests in protein functional annotation, machine learning and computer grids. The position is open for 3.5 years at the Université Pierre et Marie Curie, in the heart of paris.

Research topic: Protein function annotation, multiple probabilistic models, domain architecture, machine learning, combinatorial optimization, computer grid.

Title: A novel integrative platform for large scale protein annotation that exploits a multitude of diversified probabilistic models in several protein signature databases.

We propose a novel integrated approach for large scale protein annotation that will exploit an unprecedented amount of genomic data as well as sophisticated machine learning techniques and combinatorial optimization approaches taking advantages of High Performance Computing (HPC) environments. The idea is to uncover as much as possible the evolutionary processes of protein sequences that took place throughout the whole tree of life and that affected the evolution of a protein family. We have already demonstrated in a previous work that the problem of functional annotation is inherent to the ability of uncovering such paths. Now, we shall extend this approach to large scale genome annotation by considering 11 different protein databases, constituted by about 10^9 protein sequences, and by producing a large pool of diversified probabilistic models coding for about 10^7 evolutionary protein pathways. Such models will be used to search for specific domains in genomes to be annotated. Our previous methodology needs to be fundamentally improved to deal with this large amount of biological data. In this project, we shall work on the algorithms to reduce the space of models and the search complexity, and we shall implement some important algorithmic changes towards the realization of a powerful integrated annotation tool.

Where: This project is run on the Laboratoire de Biologie Computationnelle et Quantitative UMR7238 CNRS-UPMC – Analytical Genomics team, headed by A.Carbone. It is co-advised with Pierre-Henri Wuillemin, Laboratoire d’Informatique de Paris 6 – Equipe DECISION.

Start date: September 1st, 2014
Contact Person: Alessandra Carbone
Contact: alessandra.carbone@lip6.fr

Lift over is the process of transferring annotations from one genome assembly to another. Usually lift over is done because there is a new, improved genome assembly for the species and good quality annotations (maybe manually curated or experimentally verified) are available on the old assembly.

The idea is simple: align the new assembly with the old one (e.g., with BLAT), process the alignment data to define how a coordinate or coordinate range on the old assembly should be transformed to the new assembly (e.g., as a chain file), transform the coordinates (e.g., with liftOver).

https://github.com/wurmlab/flo

Address of the bookmark: https://github.com/wurmlab/flo

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

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

Address of the bookmark: http://www.vicbioinformatics.com/software.prokka.shtml

The program utilizes tBLASTn and BLASTn algorithms to map genes from the reference genome (the annotated strain) to the new sequence (the unannotated strain). The goal is to annotate the majority of the new genome’s genes in a single step. ORFs present in the target genome and absent from the reference genome are also identified; these ORFs can be further analyzed using BLAST, VGO and BBB. Afterwards, they can either be accepted for/rejected from annotation. GATU can handle multiple-exon genes as well as mature peptides. Although it was designed for use with viral genomes, GATU can also be used to help annotate larger genomes (ie. bacterial genomes).

The output is saved in GenBank, XML, or EMBL file format.

Address of the bookmark: https://virology.uvic.ca/help/tool-help/help-books/genome-annotation-transfer-utility-gatu-documentation/