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Tip
titleReservations

Use our summer school reservation (core-ngs-class-0605) for today when submitting batch jobs to get higher priority on the ls6 normal queue.

Code Block
languagebash
titleRequest an interactive (idev) node
# Request a 180 minute interactive node on the normal queue using our reservation
idev -m 120 -N 1 -A OTH21164 -r core-ngs-class-0605  # Thursday
idev -m 120 -N 1 -A OTH21164 -r core-ngs-class-0606  # Friday

# Request a 120 minute idev node on the development queue 
idev -m 120 -N 1 -A OTH21164 -p development


# Using our reservation
Code Block
languagebash
titleSubmit a batch job
using our reservation
sbatch --reseservation=core-ngs-class-0605 <batch_file>.slurm  # Thursday
sbatch --reseservation=core-ngs-class-06050606 <batch_file>.slurm  # Friday

Note that todaythe day's reservation name (core-ngs-class-0605) is different from the TACC allocation/project for this class, which is OTH21164.

...

Code Block
languagebash
titleStart an idev session
idev -m 180120 -N 1 -A OTH21164 -r core-ngs-class-0605

Then stage the sample datasets and references we will use.

Code Block
languagebash
titleGet the alignment exercises files
# Copy the   # Thursday
idev -m 120 -N 1 -A OTH21164 -r core-ngs-class-0606  # Friday

# or, without the reservation:
idev -m 120 -N 1 -A OTH21164 -p development

Then stage the sample datasets and references we will use.

Code Block
languagebash
titleGet the alignment exercises files
# Copy the FASTA files for building references
mkdir -p $SCRATCH/core_ngs/references/fasta
cp $CORENGS/references/fasta/*.fa   $SCRATCH/core_ngs/references/fasta/

# Copy the FASTQ files that will be used for alignment
mkdir -p $SCRATCH/core_ngs/alignment/fastq
cp $CORENGS/alignment/*fastq.gz $SCRATCH/core_ngs/alignment/fastq/
cd $SCRATCH/core_ngs/alignment/fastq

...

ReferenceSpeciesBase LengthContig NumberSourceDownload
hg19Human3.1 Gbp25 (really 93)UCSCUCSC GoldenPath
sacCer3Yeast12.2 Mbp17UCSCUCSC GoldenPath
mirbase v20Human subset160 Kbp1908miRBasemiRBase Downloads
vibCho (O395ASM836960v1)Vibrio cholerae~4 Mbp23GenBankGenBank Downloads

Searching genomes is computationally hard work and takes a long time if done on linear genomic sequence. So aligners require that references first be indexed to accelerate lookup. The aligners we are using each require a different index, but use the same method (the Burrows-Wheeler Transform) to get the job done.

...

Tip

The BioITeam maintains a set of reference indexes for many common organisms and aligners. They can be found in aligner-specific sub-directories of the /work/projects/BioITeam/ref_genome area. E.g.:

bash
Code Block
language
/work/projects/BioITeam/ref_genome/
   bowtie2/
   bwa/
   hisat2/
   kallisto/
   star/
   tophat/


...

#
Code Block
languagebash
titlegrep to match contig names in a FASTA file
Stage
the
FASTA
files
cds
mkdir -p core_ngs/references/fasta
cd core_ngs/references/fasta
cp $CORENGS/references/fasta/*.fa .

...

There are many aligners available, but we will concentrate on two of the most popular general-purpose ones: bwa and bowtie2. The table below outlines the available protocols for them.

alignment typealigner optionspro'scon's
global with bwa 

single end reads:

  • bwa aln <R1>
  • bwa samse

paired end reads:

  • bwa aln <R1>
  • bwa aln <R2>
  • bwa sampe
  • simple to use (take default options)
  • good for basic global alignment
  • multiple steps needed
global with bowtie2bowtie2 
  • extremely configurable
  • can be used for RNAseq alignment (after adapter trimming) because of its many options
  • complex (many options)
local with bwa bwa mem
  • simple to use (take default options)
  • very fast
  • no adapter trimming needed
  • good for simple RNAseq analysis
    • the secondary alignments it reports can provide splice junction information
  • always produces alignments with secondary reads
    • must be filtered if not desired
local with bowtie2bowtie2 --local
  • extremely configurable
  • no adapter trimming needed
  • good for small RNA alignment because of its many options
  • complex – many options


Exercise #1: BWA global alignment – Yeast ChIP-seq

...

Code Block
languagebash
titleStart an idev session
idev -m 180120 -N 1 -A OTH21164 -r core-ngs-class-0605  # Thursday
idev -m 120 -N 1 -A OTH21164 -r core-ngs-class-0606  # Friday

# or, without the reservation
idev -m 120 -N 1 -A OTH21164 -p development  


Code Block
languagebash
module load biocontainers  # takes a while
module load bwa
bwa

...

Code Block
languagebash
titlePrepare BWA reference directory for sacCer3
mkdir -p $SCRATCH/core_ngs/references/bwa/sacCer3
cd $SCRATCH/core_ngs/references/bwa/sacCer3

# Create a symbolic link to the sacCer3 FASTA file
# so it can
# be accessed directly from this directory
ln -sf ../../fasta/sacCer3.fa
ls -l

...

Expand
titleHint

Examine the sub-command's usage:

bwa aln 2>&1 | more

If you just type bwa aln | more, the text will probably scroll off your Terminal. This is because bwa always writes its usage to standard error, not to standard output

The pipe ( | ) only connects standard output from bwa aln to standard input of the more command – but no standard output is generated. The And the standard error text that is generated just goes to your Terminal, bypassing more.

...

Expand
titleAnswer

The bwa aln usage says:

     Usage: bwa aln [options] <prefix> <in.fq>

Required arguments are a <prefix> of the bwa index files, and the input FASTQ file.

There are no arguments specified for the program's output results, but later in the Options section it says

                   -f FILE file to write output to instead of stdout

so So we know output results are written to standard output by default (unless the -f option is specified).

...

Tip
titleMake sure your output files are not empty

Double check that output was written by doing ls -lh and making sure the file sizes listed are not 0.

When redirection ( > ) to a file is used, the target file is created whether or not the command produced any output!

...

Since you have your own private compute node, you can use all its resources. It has 128 cores, so re-run the R2 alignment asking for 60 execution threads.

Code Block
languagebash
bwa aln -t 60 sacCer3/sacCer3.fa \
  fastq/Sample_Yeast_L005_R2.cat.fastq.gz > yeast_pe_R2.sai

...

Exercise: How would you capture the diagnostic output from bwa aln?

# Copy the FASTA files for building references mkdir -p $SCRATCH/core_ngs/references cp $CORENGS/references/fasta/*.fa $SCRATCH/core_ngs/references/fasta/ # Copy a pre-built bwa index for sacCer3 mkdir -p $SCRATCH/core_ngs/references/bwa/sacCer3 cp $CORENGS/references/bwa/sacCer3/*.* $SCRATCH/core_ngs/references/bwa/sacCer3/
Expand
Expand
titleSetup (if needed)
Code Block
languagebash
titleHint

Examine the sub-command's usage:

bwa aln 2>&1 | more

If you just type bwa aln | more, the text will probably scroll off your Terminal. This is because bwa always writes its usage to standard error, not to standard output

The pipe ( | ) only connects standard output from bwa aln to standard input of the more command – but no standard output is generated.

The standard error text that is generated just goes to your Terminal, bypassing more.

Expand
titleAnswer

The bwa aln usage says:

     Usage: bwa aln [options] <prefix> <in.fq>

There are no arguments specified for the program's output results, but later in the Options section it says

                   -f FILE file to write output to instead of stdout

so we know output results are written to standard output by default (unless the -f option is specified).

N

Next we use the bwa sampe command to pair the reads and output SAM format data. Just type that command in with no arguments to see its usage.

For this command you provide the same reference index prefix as for bwa aln, along with the two .sai files and the two original FASTQ files. Also, bwa writes its output to standard output, so redirect that to a .sam file.

Here is the command line statement you need. Just execute it on the command line.

Answer

The bwa aln usage doesn't say anything about the program's diagnostic output, so we can assume it will be written to standard error. So it could be redirected like this:

Code Block
bwa aln -t 60 sacCer3/sacCer3.fa \
  fastq/Sample_Yeast_L005_R2.cat.fastq.gz \
  > yeast_pe_R2.sai 2> yeast_pe_R2.log


Next we use the bwa sampe command to pair the reads and output SAM format data. Just type bwa sampe 2>&1 | more to see its usage.

For this command you provide the same reference index prefix as for bwa aln, along with the two .sai files and the two original FASTQ files. Also, bwa writes its output to standard output by default, so redirect that to a .sam file.

Here is the command line statement you need. Just execute it on the command line.

Expand
titleSetup (if needed)


Code Block
languagebash
# Copy the FASTA files for building references
mkdir -p $SCRATCH/core_ngs/references
cp $CORENGS/references/fasta/*.fa $SCRATCH/core_ngs/references/fasta/

# Copy a pre-built bwa index for sacCer3
mkdir -p $SCRATCH/core_ngs/references/bwa/sacCer3
cp $CORENGS/references/bwa/sacCer3/*.* \
  $SCRATCH/core_ngs/references/bwa/sacCer3/

# Get the FASTQ to align
mkdir -p $SCRATCH/core_ngs/alignment/fastq
cp $CORENGS/alignment/*fastq.gz $SCRATCH/core_ngs/alignment/fastq/

# Stage the BWA .sai files
mkdir -p $SCRATCH/core_ngs/alignment/yeast_bwa
cd $SCRATCH/core_ngs/alignment/yeast_bwa
ln -sf ../fastq
ln -sf ../../references/bwa/sacCer3
cp $CORENGS/catchup/yeast_bwa/*.sai .


...

You should now have a SAM file (yeast_pe.sam) that contains the alignments.

ExerciseExercises:

  • How many lines does the SAM file have?
  • How does this compare to the number of input sequences (R1+R2)?
Expand
titleAnswer

wc -l yeast_pe.sam  reports 1,184,378 lines

The alignment SAM file will contain records for both R1 and R2 reads, so we need to count sequences in both files.

zcat ./fastq/Sample_Yeast_L005_R[12]*gz | wc -l | awk '{print $1/4}' reports 1,184,360 reads that were alignedread sequences.

So the SAM file has 18 more lines than the R1+R2 total. These are the header records that appear before any alignment records.

It's yeast_pe.sam is just a text file, so take a look with head, more, less, tail, or whatever you feel like. Later you'll learn additional ways to analyze the data with samtools once you create a BAM file.

...

Exercise: How many alignment records (not header records) are in the SAM file?

Expand
titleHint

This The grep command below looks for the pattern  '^HWI' which is the start of every read name (which starts every alignment record).
Remember -c says just count the records, don't display them.

Code Block
languagebash
grep -P -c '^HWI' yeast_pe.sam

Or use the -v (invert) option to tell grep to print all lines that don't match a particular pattern; here, all header lines, which start with @.

Code Block
languagebash
grep -P -v -c '^@' yeast_pe.sam


...

Expand
titleAnswers

The SAM file must contain both mapped and un-mapped reads, because there were 1,184,360 R1+R2 reads and the same number of alignment records.

Alignment records occur in the same read-name order as they did in the FASTQ, except that they come in pairs. The R1 read comes 1st, then the corresponding R2. This is called read name ordering.

Using cut to isolate fields

Recall the format of a SAM alignment record:

Image Removed

...

The command below uses cut to extract the 1st tab-delimited field (-f 1) from the first few alignment records:

Code Block
languagebash
grep -Pv '^@' yeast_pe.sam | head | cut -f 1

Next we'll see how to tell which read is the R1 and which is the R2.

Using cut to isolate fields

Recall the format of a SAM alignment record:

Image Added

Suppose you wanted to look only at field 3 (contig name) values in the SAM file. You can do this with the handy cut command. Below is a simple example where you're asking cut to display the 3rd column value for the last 10 alignment records.

...

You can also specify a range of fields, and mix adjacent and non-adjacent fields. This displays fields 2 through 6 , and field 9:

Code Block
languagebash
titleCut syntax for multiple fields
tail -20 yeast_pe.sam | cut -f 2-6,9

You may have noticed that some alignment records contain contig names (e.g. chrV) in field 3 while others contain an asterisk ( * ). The * means the record didn't map. We're going to use this heuristic along with cut to see about how many records represent aligned sequences. (Note this is not the strictly correct method of finding unmapped reads because not all unmapped reads have an asterisk in field 3. Later you'll see how to properly distinguish between mapped and unmapped reads using samtools.)

...

Code Block
languagebash
titleCount aligned SAM records
grep -v -P '^@' yeast_pe.sam | cut -f 3 | grep -v '*' | wc -l
# or
grep -v -P '^@' yeast_pe.sam | cut -f 3 | grep -c -v '*'

Read more at Some Linux commands: Advanced commands

...

Expand
titleMake sure you're in a idev session


Code Block
languagebash
titleStart an idev session
idev -m 120 -N 1 -A OTH21164 -r core-ngs-class-0605  # Thursday
idev -m 90120 -N 1 -A OTH21164 -p r core-ngs-class-0606  # Friday

# or, without the reservation:
idev -m 120 -N 1 -A OTH21164 -p development  



Code Block
languagebash
# If not already loaded
module load biocontainers  # takes a while

module load samtools
samtools 2>&1 | more


Code Block
titleSAMtools suite usage
Program: samtools (Tools for alignments in the SAM format)
Version: 1.920 (using htslib 1.920)

Usage:   samtools <command> [options]

Commands:
  -- Indexing
     dict           create a sequence dictionary file
 
   faidx          index/extract FASTA
 
   fqidx          index/extract FASTQ
 
   index          index alignment



-- Editing
 
   calmd          recalculate MD/NM tags and '=' bases
 
   fixmate        fix mate information
 
   reheader       replace BAM header
     targetcut      cut fosmid regions (for fosmid pool only)
 
   addreplacerg   adds or replaces RG tags
 
   markdup        mark duplicates
   ampliconclip   clip oligos from the end of reads

-- File operations
 
   collate        shuffle and group alignments by name
 
   cat            concatenate BAMs
   consensus  merge    produce a consensus Pileup/FASTA/FASTQ
   merge sorted alignments      mpileup  merge sorted alignments
   mpileup        multi-way pileup
 
   sort           sort alignment file
 
   split          splits a file by read group
 
   quickcheck     quickly check if SAM/BAM/CRAM file appears intact
 
   fastq          converts a BAM to a FASTQ
 
   fasta          converts a BAM to a FASTA
   --import Statistics      bedcov  Converts FASTA or FASTQ files to SAM/BAM/CRAM
 read depth perreference BED region    Generates a coveragereference from aligned data
   alignmentreset depth and percent coverage      depthReverts aligner changes in reads

-- Statistics
  compute bedcov   the depth     read flagstatdepth per BED region
   simplecoverage stats      idxstatsalignment depth and percent coverage
  BAM indexdepth stats      phase   compute the depth
   flagstat phase heterozygotes     simple stats
   idxstats      generate statsBAM (formerindex bamcheck)stats
   cram--size Viewing     list flagsCRAM Content-ID and Data-Series sizes
   phase  explain BAM flags
     tview       phase heterozygotes
   stats          generate stats (former bamcheck)
   ampliconstats  generate amplicon specific stats

-- Viewing
   flags explain  BAM flags
   head           header viewer
   tview text     alignment viewer
   view           SAM<->BAM<->CRAM conversion
   depad         view convert padded BAM to unpadded BAM
           SAM<->BAM<->CRAM conversion
     depad          convert padded BAM to unpadded BAM

In this exercise, we will explore five utilities provided by samtools: view, sort, index, flagstat, and idxstats. Each of these is executed in one line for a given SAM/BAM file. In the SAMtools/BEDtools sections tomorrow we will explore samtools capabilities more in depth.

Warning
titleKnow your samtools version!

There are two main "eras" of SAMtools development:

  • "original" samtools
    • v 0.1.19 is the last stable version
  • "modern" samtools
    • v 1.0, 1.1, 1.2 – avoid these (very buggy!)
    • v 1.3+ – finally stable!

Unfortunately, some functions with the same name in both version eras have different options and arguments! So be sure you know which version you're using. (The samtools version is usually reported at the top of its usage listing).

TACC BioContainers also offers the original samtools version: samtools/ctr-0.1.19--3.

samtools view

The samtools view utility provides a way of converting between SAM (text) and BAM (binary, compressed) format. It also provides many, many other functions which we will discuss lster. To get a preview, execute samtools view without any other arguments. You should see:

Code Block
titlesamtools view usage
Usage: samtools view [options] <in.bam>|<in.sam>|<in.cram> [region ...]

Options:
  -b       output BAM
  -C       output CRAM (requires -T)
  -1       use fast BAM compression (implies -b)
  -u       uncompressed BAM output (implies -b)
  -h       include header in SAM output
  -H       print SAM header only (no alignments)
  -c       print only the count of matching records
  -o FILE  output file name [stdout]
  -U FILE  output reads not selected by filters to FILE [null]
  -t FILE  FILE listing reference names and lengths (see long help) [null]
  -X       include customized index file
  -L FILE  only include reads overlapping this BED FILE [null]
  -r STR   only include reads in read group STR [null]
  -R FILE  only include reads with read group listed in FILE [null]
  -d STR:STR
           only include reads with tag STR and associated value STR [null]
  -D STR:FILE
           only include reads with tag STR and associated values listed in
           FILE [null]
  -q INT   only include reads with mapping quality >= INT [0]
  -l STR   only include reads in library STR [null]
  -m INT   only include reads with number of CIGAR operations consuming
           query sequence >= INT [0]
  -f INT   only include reads with all  of the FLAGs in INT present [0]
  -F INT   only include reads with none of the FLAGS in INT present [0]
  -G INT   only EXCLUDE reads with all  of the FLAGs in INT present [0]
  -s FLOAT subsample reads (given INT.FRAC option value, 0.FRAC is the
           fraction of templates/read pairs to keep; INT part sets seed)
  -M       use the multi-region iterator (increases the speed, removessamples        list the samples in a set of SAM/BAM/CRAM files

-- Misc
   help [cmd]     display this help message or help for [cmd]
   version        detailed version information

In this exercise, we will explore five utilities provided by samtools: view, sort, index, flagstat, and idxstats. Each of these is executed in one line for a given SAM/BAM file. In the SAMtools/BEDtools sections tomorrow we will explore samtools capabilities more in depth.

Warning
titleKnow your samtools version!

There are two main "eras" of SAMtools development:

  • "original" samtools, controlled by author Heng Li
    • v 0.1.19 is the last stable version
  • "modern" samtools, controlled by a group of programmers
    • v 1.0, 1.1, 1.2 – avoid these (very buggy!)
    • v 1.3+ – finally stable!

Unfortunately, some functions with the same name in both version eras have different options and arguments! So be sure you know which version you're using. (The samtools version is usually reported at the top of its usage listing).

TACC BioContainers also offers the original samtools version: samtools/ctr-0.1.19--3.

samtools view

The samtools view utility provides a way of converting between SAM (text) and BAM (binary, compressed) format. It also provides many, many other functions which we will discuss lster. To get a preview, execute samtools view 2>&1 | more. You should see:

Code Block
titlesamtools view usage
Usage: samtools view [options] <in.bam>|<in.sam>|<in.cram> [region ...]

Options:
  -b       output BAM
  -C       output CRAM (requires -T)
  -1       use fast BAM compression (implies -b)
  -u       uncompressed BAM output (implies -b)
  -h       include header in SAM output
  -H       print SAM header only (no alignments)
  -c       print only the count of matching records
  -o FILE  output file name [stdout]
  -U FILE  output reads not selected by filters to FILE [null]
  -t FILE  FILE listing reference names and lengths (see long help) [null]
  -X       include customized index file
  -L FILE  only include reads overlapping this BED FILE [null]
  -r STR   only include reads in read group STR [null]
  -R FILE  only include reads with read group listed in FILE [null]
  -d STR:STR
           only include reads with tag STR and associated value STR [null]
  -D STR:FILE
           only include reads with tag STR and associated values listed in
           FILE [null]
  -q INT   only include reads with mapping quality >= INT [0]
  -l STR   only include reads in library STR [null]
  -m INT   only include reads with number of CIGAR operations consuming
           query sequence >= INT [0]
  -f INT   only include reads with all  of the FLAGs in INT present [0]
  -F INT   only include reads with none of the FLAGS in INT present [0]
  -G INT   only EXCLUDE reads with all  of the FLAGs in INT present [0]
  -s FLOAT subsample reads (given INT.FRAC option value, 0.FRAC is the
           fraction of templates/read pairs to keep; INT part sets seed)
  -M       use the multi-region iterator (increases the speed, removes
           duplicates and outputs the reads as they are ordered in the file)
  -x STR   read tag to strip (repeatable) [null]
  -B       collapse the backward CIGAR operation
  -?       print long help, including note about region specification
  -S       ignored (input format is auto-detected)
  --no-PG  do not add a PG line
      --input-fmt-option OPT[=VAL]
               Specify a single input file format option in the form
               of OPTION or OPTION=VALUE
  -O, --output-fmt FORMAT[,OPT[=VAL]]...
               Specify output format (SAM, BAM, CRAM)
      --output-fmt-option OPT[=VAL]
             duplicates and outputsSpecify thea readssingle asoutput theyfile areformat orderedoption in the form
file)    -x STR   read tag to strip (repeatable) [null]  of -BOPTION or OPTION=VALUE
  -T, --reference collapseFILE
the backward CIGAR operation   -?       print long help,Reference includingsequence noteFASTA aboutFILE region[null]
specification  -@, --Sthreads INT
       ignored (input format is auto-detected)   --no-PG Number doof notadditional addthreads ato PGuse line[0]
      --inputwrite-fmt-option OPT[=VAL]index
               Automatically Specifyindex athe singleoutput inputfiles file[off]
format option in the form  --verbosity INT
            of OPTION or OPTION=VALUESet level  -O, --output-fmt FORMAT[,OPT[=VAL]]...
               Specify output format (SAM, BAM, CRAM)
      --output-fmt-option OPT[=VAL]
               Specify a single output file format option in the form
               of OPTION or OPTION=VALUE
  -T, --reference FILE
               Reference sequence FASTA FILE [null]
  -@, --threads INT
               Number of additional threads to use [0]
      --write-index
               Automatically index the output files [off]
      --verbosity INT
               Set level of verbosity

That is a lot to process! For now, we just want to read in a SAM file and output a BAM file. The input format is auto-detected, so we don't need to specify it (although you do in v0.1.19). We just need to tell the tool to output the file in BAM format, and to include the header records.

...

titleSetup (if needed)
Code Block
languagebash
titleGet the alignment exercises files
mkdir -p $SCRATCH/core_ngs/alignment/yeast_bwa
cd $SCRATCH/core_ngs/alignment/yeast_bwa
cp $CORENGS/catchup/yeast_bwa/yeast_pe.sam .
Code Block
languagebash
titleConvert SAM to binary BAM
cd $SCRATCH/core_ngs/alignment/yeast_bwa
samtools view -b yeast_pe.sam > yeast_pe.bam 
  • the -b option tells the tool to output BAM format

The BAM file is a binary file, not a text file, so how do you look at its contents now? Just use samtools view without the -b option. Remember to pipe output to a pager!

Code Block
languagebash
titleView BAM records
samtools view yeast_pe.bam | more

Notice that this does not show us the header record we saw at the start of the SAM file.

Exercise: What samtools view option will include the header records in its output? Which option would show only the header records?

Expand
titleHint

Note that samtools (like bwa) writes its help to standard error, but less and more only accept input on standard input. So the syntax redirecting standard error to standard input must be used before the pipe to less or more.

samtools view 2>&1 | less

then search for "header" ( /header )

Expand
titleAnswer

samtools view -h shows header records along with alignment records.

samtools view -H shows header records only.

samtools sort

Looking at some of the alignment record information (e.g. samtools view yeast_pe.bam | cut -f 1-4 | more), you will notice that read names appear in adjacent pairs (for the R1 and R2), in the same order they appeared in the original FASTQ file. Since that means the corresponding mappings are in no particular order, searching through the file very inefficient. samtools sort re-orders entries in the SAM file either by locus (contig name + coordinate position) or by read name.

If you execute samtools sort without any options, you see its help page:

Code Block
titlesamtools sort usage
Usage: samtools sort [options...] [in.bam]
Options:
  -l INT     Set compression level, from 0 (uncompressed) to 9 (best)
  -m INT     Set maximum memory per thread; suffix K/M/G recognized [768M]
  -n         Sort by read name
  -t TAG     Sort by value of TAG. Uses position as secondary index (or read name if -n is set)
  -o FILE    Write final output to FILE rather than standard output
  -T PREFIX  Write temporary files to PREFIX.nnnn.bamof verbosity

That is a lot to process! For now, we just want to read in a SAM file and output a BAM file. The input format is auto-detected, so we don't need to specify it (although you do in v0.1.19). We just need to tell the tool to output the file in BAM format, and to include the header records.

Expand
titleSetup (if needed)


Code Block
languagebash
titleGet the alignment exercises files
mkdir -p $SCRATCH/core_ngs/alignment/yeast_bwa
cd $SCRATCH/core_ngs/alignment/yeast_bwa
cp $CORENGS/catchup/yeast_bwa/yeast_pe.sam .



Code Block
languagebash
titleConvert SAM to binary BAM
cd $SCRATCH/core_ngs/alignment/yeast_bwa
samtools view -b yeast_pe.sam > yeast_pe.bam 
  • the -b option tells the tool to output BAM format

The BAM file is a binary file, not a text file, so how do you look at its contents now? Just use samtools view without the -b option. Remember to pipe output to a pager!

Code Block
languagebash
titleView BAM records
samtools view yeast_pe.bam | more

Notice that this does not show us the header record we saw at the start of the SAM file.

Exercises:

  • What samtools view option will include the header records in its output?
  • Which option would show only the header records?
Expand
titleHint

Note that samtools (like bwa) writes its help to standard error, but less and more only accept input on standard input. So the syntax redirecting standard error to standard input must be used before the pipe to less or more.

samtools view 2>&1 | less -I

then search for "header" ( /header )


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titleAnswer

samtools view -h shows both header and alignment records.

samtools view -H shows header records only.

samtools sort

Looking at some of the alignment record information:

Code Block
languagebash
titleView BAM records
samtools view yeast_pe.bam | cut -f 1-4 | more

You will notice that read names appear in adjacent pairs (for the R1 and R2), in the same order they appeared in the original FASTQ file. This means the records are in name order and, searching through the file is very inefficient. samtools sort re-orders entries in the SAM file either by locus (contig name + coordinate position) or by read name.

If you execute samtools sort 2>&1 | more, you see its help page:

Code Block
titlesamtools sort usage
Usage: samtools sort [options...] [in.bam]
Options:
  -l INT     Set compression level, from 0 (uncompressed) to 9 (best)
  -u         Output uncompressed data (equivalent to -l 0)
  -m INT     Set maximum memory per thread; suffix K/M/G recognized [768M]
  -M         Use minimiser for clustering unaligned/unplaced reads
  -R         Do not use reverse strand (only compatible with -M)
  -K INT     Kmer size to use for minimiser [20]
  -I FILE    Order minimisers by their position in FILE FASTA
  -w INT     Window size for minimiser indexing via -I ref.fa [100]
  -H         Squash homopolymers when computing minimiser
  -n         Sort by read name (natural): cannot be used with samtools index
  -N         Sort by read name (ASCII): cannot be used with samtools index
  -t TAG     Sort by value of TAG. Uses position as secondary index (or read name if -n is set)
  -o FILE    Write final output to FILE rather than standard output
  -T PREFIX  Write temporary files to PREFIX.nnnn.bam
      --no-PG
               Do not add a PG line
      --template-coordinate
               Sort by template-coordinate
      --input-fmt-option OPT[=VAL]
               Specify a single input file format option in the form
  
            of OPTION or OPTION=VALUE
  -O, --output-fmt FORMAT[,OPT[=VAL]]...
               Specify output format (SAM, BAM, CRAM)
      --output-fmt-option OPT[=VAL]=VAL]
               Specify a single output file format option in the form
of OPTION or OPTION=VALUE
      --reference FILE
               Reference Specifysequence aFASTA singleFILE output[null]
file format option in the form-@, --threads INT
               Number of additional OPTIONthreads to or OPTION=VALUEuse [0]
      --write-referenceindex
FILE               Automatically Referenceindex sequencethe FASTAoutput FILEfiles [nulloff]
  -@,    --threadsverbosity INT
               Set Numberlevel of additional threads to use [0]verbosity

In most cases you will be sorting a BAM file from name order to locus order. You can use either -o or redirection with > to control the output.

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  • The -O options says the Output format should be BAM
  • The -T options gives a prefix for Temporary files produced during sorting
    • sorting large BAMs will produce many temporary files during processing
    • make sure the temporary file prefix is different from the input BAM file prefix!
  • By default sort writes its output to standard output, so we use > to redirect to a file named yeast_pairedendpe.sort.bam

Exercise: Compare the file sizes of the yeast_pe .sam, .bam, and .sort.bam files and explain why they are different.

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Expand
titleAnswer

The yeast_pe.sam text file is the largest at ~348 MB because it is an uncompressed text file.

The name-ordered binary yeast_pe.bam text file only about 1/3 that size, ~111 ~109 MB. They contain exactly the same records, in the same order, but conversion from text to binary results in a much smaller file.

The coordinate-ordered binary yeast_pe.sort.bam file is even slightly smaller, ~92 ~90 MB. This is because BAM files are actually customized gzip-format files. The customization allows blocks of data (e.g. all alignment records for a contig) to be represented in an even more compact form. You can read more about this in section 4 of the SAM format specification.

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The utility samtools index creates an index that has the same name as the input BAM file, with suffix .bai appended. Here's the samtools index usage:

Usage
Code Block
titlesamtools index usage
titlesamtools index usage
Usage: samtools index -M [-bc] [-m INT] <in1.bam> <in2.bam>...
   or: samtools index [-bc] [-m INT] <in.bam> [out.index]
Options:
  -b, --bai            Generate BAI-format index for BAM files [default]
  -c, --csi            Generate CSI-format index for BAM files
  -m, --min-shift INT  Set minimum interval size for CSI indices to 2^INT [14]
  -bM       Generate BAI-format index for BAM files [default]   -c   Interpret all filename arguments Generateas CSI-formatfiles indexto forbe BAMindexed
files  -o, --moutput INTFILE   Set minimumWrite intervalindex sizeto forFILE CSI[alternative indicesto to<out.index> 2^INTin [14args]
  -@, --threads INT    Sets the number of threads [none]

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Expand
titleAnswer

While the yeast_pe.sort.bam file is ~92 ~90 MB, its index (yeast_pe.sort.bai) is only 20 KB.

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Code Block
titlesamtools flagstat output
1184360 + 0 in total (QC-passed reads + QC-failed reads)
1184360 + 0 primary
0 + 0 secondary
0 + 0 supplementary
0 + 0 duplicates
0 + 0 primary duplicates
547664 + 0 mapped (46.24% : N/A)
547664 + 0 primary mapped (46.24% : N/A)
1184360 + 0 paired in sequencing
592180 + 0 read1
592180 + 0 read2
473114 + 0 properly paired (39.95% : N/A)
482360 + 0 with itself and mate mapped
65304 + 0 singletons (5.51% : N/A)
534 + 0 with mate mapped to a different chr
227 + 0 with mate mapped to a different chr (mapQ>=5)

...

The most important statistic is the mapping rate ( here 46%) but , which is low. But this readout also allows you to verify that some common expectations (e.g. that about the same number of R1 and R2 reads aligned, and that most mapped reads are proper pairs) are met.

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Expand
titleAnswer

About 86% of mapped read were properly paired. This is actually a bit on the low side for ChIP-seq alignments which are typically over 90% properly paired.

samtools idxstats

More information about the alignment is provided by the samtools idxstats report, which shows how many reads aligned to each contig in your reference.

Note that samtools idxstats must be run on a sorted, indexed BAM file.

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The output has four tab-delimited columns:

  1. contig name
  2. contig length
  3. number of mapped reads
  4. number of unmapped reads

The reason that the "unmapped reads" field for named chromosomes is not zero is that the aligner may initially assign a potential mapping (contig name and start coordinate) to a read, but then mark it later as unampped if it does meet various quality thresholds.

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