Table of Contents

nf-core/sarek: Output

Introduction

This document describes the output produced by the pipeline. Most of the plots are taken from the MultiQC report, which summarises results at the end of the pipeline.

The directories listed below will be created in the results directory after the pipeline has finished. All paths are relative to the top-level results directory.

Pipeline overview

The pipeline is built using Nextflow and processes data using the following steps:

Preprocessing

Sarek pre-processes raw FASTQ files or unmapped BAM files, based on GATK best practices.

Map to Reference

bwa

bwa is a software package for mapping low-divergent sequences against a large reference genome.

Such files are intermediate and not kept in the final files delivered to users.

BWA-mem2

BWA-mem2 is a software package for mapping low-divergent sequences against a large reference genome.

Such files are intermediate and not kept in the final files delivered to users.

Mark Duplicates

GATK MarkDuplicates

By default, Sarek will use GATK MarkDuplicatesSpark, Spark implementation of GATK MarkDuplicates, which locates and tags duplicate reads in a BAM or SAM file, where duplicate reads are defined as originating from a single fragment of DNA.

Specify --no_gatk_spark to use GATK MarkDuplicates instead.

This directory is the location for the BAM files delivered to users. Besides the duplicates-marked BAM files, the recalibration tables (*.recal.table) are also stored, and can be used to create recalibrated BAM files.

For all samples:

Output directory: results/Preprocessing/[SAMPLE]/DuplicatesMarked

For further reading and documentation see the data pre-processing for variant discovery from the GATK best practices.

Base (Quality Score) Recalibration

GATK BaseRecalibrator

GATK BaseRecalibrator generates a recalibration table based on various co-variates.

For all samples:

Output directory: results/Preprocessing/[SAMPLE]/DuplicatesMarked

GATK ApplyBQSR

GATK ApplyBQSR recalibrates the base qualities of the input reads based on the recalibration table produced by the GATK BaseRecalibrator tool.

This directory is the location for the final recalibrated BAM files. Recalibrated BAM files are usually 2-3 times larger than the duplicates-marked BAM files. To re-generate recalibrated BAM file you have to apply the recalibration table delivered to the DuplicatesMarked\ folder either using Sarek ( --step recalibrate ) , or doing this recalibration yourself.

For all samples:

Output directory: results/Preprocessing/[SAMPLE]/Recalibrated

For further reading and documentation see the data pre-processing for variant discovery from the GATK best practices.

TSV files

The TSV files are auto-generated and can be used by Sarek for further processing and/or variant calling.

For further reading and documentation see the --input section in the usage documentation.

For all samples:

Output directory: results/Preprocessing/TSV

TSV files with --skip_markduplicates

WARNING Only with --skip_markduplicates

For all samples:

Output directory: results/Preprocessing/TSV

TSV files with --sentieon

WARNING Only with --sentieon

For all samples:

Output directory: results/Preprocessing/TSV

Variant Calling

All the results regarding Variant Calling are collected in this directory. If some results from a variant caller do not appear here, please check out the --tools section in the usage documentation.

Recalibrated BAM files can used as an input to start the Variant Calling.

SNVs and small indels

FreeBayes

FreeBayes is a Bayesian genetic variant detector designed to find small polymorphisms, specifically SNPs, indels, MNPs, and complex events smaller than the length of a short-read sequencing alignment.

For all samples:

Output directory: results/VariantCalling/[SAMPLE]/FreeBayes

For further reading and documentation see the FreeBayes manual.

GATK HaplotypeCaller

GATK HaplotypeCaller calls germline SNPs and indels via local re-assembly of haplotypes.

Germline calls are provided for all samples, to enable comparison of both, tumor and normal, for possible mixup.

For all samples:

Output directory: results/VariantCalling/[SAMPLE]/HaploTypeCaller

For further reading and documentation see the HaplotypeCaller manual.

GATK GenotypeGVCFs

GATK GenotypeGVCFs performs joint genotyping on one or more samples pre-called with HaplotypeCaller.

Germline calls are provided for all samples, to enable comparison of both, tumor and normal, for possible mixup.

For all samples:

Output directory: results/VariantCalling/[SAMPLE]/HaplotypeCallerGVCF

For further reading and documentation see the GenotypeGVCFs manual.

GATK Mutect2

GATK Mutect2 calls somatic SNVs and indels via local assembly of haplotypes.

For further reading and documentation see the Mutect2 manual. It is recommended to have panel of normals (PON) for this version of GATK Mutect2 using at least 40 normal samples. Additionally, you can add your PON file to get filtered somatic calls.

For a Tumor/Normal pair:

Output directory: results/VariantCalling/[TUMOR_vs_NORMAL]/Mutect2

Files created:

samtools mpileup

samtools mpileup generates pileup of a BAM file.

For all samples:

Output directory: results/VariantCalling/[SAMPLE]/mpileup

For further reading and documentation see the samtools manual.

Strelka2

Strelka2 is a fast and accurate small variant caller optimized for analysis of germline variation in small cohorts and somatic variation in tumor/normal sample pairs.

For all samples:

Output directory: results/VariantCalling/[SAMPLE]/Strelka

For a Tumor/Normal pair:

Output directory: results/VariantCalling/[TUMOR_vs_NORMAL]/Strelka

Using Strelka Best Practices with the candidateSmallIndels from Manta:

Output directory: results/VariantCalling/[TUMOR_vs_NORMAL]/Strelka

For further reading and documentation see the Strelka2 user guide.

Sentieon DNAseq

WARNING Only with --sentieon

Sentieon DNAseq implements the same mathematics used in the Broad Institute's BWA-GATK HaplotypeCaller 3.3-4.1 Best Practices Workflow pipeline.

For all samples:

Output directory: results/VariantCalling/[SAMPLE]/SentieonDNAseq

For further reading and documentation see the Sentieon DNAseq user guide.

Sentieon DNAscope

WARNING Only with --sentieon

Sentieon DNAscope calls SNPs and small indels.

For all samples:

Output directory: results/VariantCalling/[SAMPLE]/SentieonDNAscope

For further reading and documentation see the Sentieon DNAscope user guide.

Sentieon TNscope

WARNING Only with --sentieon

Sentieon TNscope calls SNPs and small indels on an Tumor/Normal pair.

For a Tumor/Normal pair:

Output directory: results/VariantCalling/[TUMOR_vs_NORMAL]/SentieonTNscope

For further reading and documentation see the Sentieon TNscope user guide.

Structural Variants

Manta

Manta calls structural variants (SVs) and indels from mapped paired-end sequencing reads. It is optimized for analysis of germline variation in small sets of individuals and somatic variation in tumor/normal sample pairs. Manta provides a candidate list for small indels that can be fed to Strelka following Strelka Best Practices.

For all samples:

Output directory: results/VariantCalling/[SAMPLE]/Manta

For Normal sample only:

For a Tumor sample only:

For a Tumor/Normal pair:

Output directory: results/VariantCalling/[TUMOR_vs_NORMAL]/Manta

For further reading and documentation see the Manta user guide.

TIDDIT

TIDDIT identifies intra and inter-chromosomal translocations, deletions, tandem-duplications and inversions.

Germline calls are provided for all samples, to enable comparison of both, tumor and normal, for possible mixup. Low quality calls are removed internally, to simplify processing of variant calls but they are saved by Sarek.

For all samples:

Output directory: results/VariantCalling/[SAMPLE]/TIDDIT

For further reading and documentation see the TIDDIT manual.

Sentieon DNAscope SV

WARNING Only with --sentieon

Sentieon DNAscope can perform structural variant calling in addition to calling SNPs and small indels.

For all samples:

Output directory: results/VariantCalling/[SAMPLE]/SentieonDNAscope

For further reading and documentation see the Sentieon DNAscope user guide.

Sample heterogeneity, ploidy and CNVs

ConvertAlleleCounts

Running ASCAT on NGS data requires that the BAM files are converted into BAF and LogR values. This can be done using the software AlleleCount followed by the provided ConvertAlleleCounts R-script.

For a Tumor/Normal pair:

Output directory: results/VariantCalling/[TUMOR_vs_NORMAL]/ASCAT

ASCAT

ASCAT is a software for performing allele-specific copy number analysis of tumor samples and for estimating tumor ploidy and purity (normal contamination). It infers tumor purity and ploidy and calculates whole-genome allele-specific copy number profiles. ASCAT is written in R and available here: github.com/Crick-CancerGenomics/ascat. The ASCAT process gives several images as output, described in detail in this book chapter.

For a Tumor/Normal pair:

Output directory: results/VariantCalling/[TUMOR_vs_NORMAL]/ASCAT

The text file [TUMORSAMPLE].cnvs.txt countains predictions about copy number state for all the segments. The output is a tab delimited text file with the following columns:

The file [TUMORSAMPLE].cnvs.txt contains all segments predicted by ASCAT, both those with normal copy number (nMinor = 1 and nMajor =1) and those corresponding to copy number aberrations.

For further reading and documentation see the ASCAT manual.

Control-FREEC

Control-FREEC is a tool for detection of copy-number changes and allelic imbalances (including loss of heterozygoity (LOH)) using deep-sequencing data. Control-FREEC automatically computes, normalizes, segments copy number and beta allele frequency profiles, then calls copy number alterations and LOH. And also detects subclonal gains and losses and evaluate the most likely average ploidy of the sample.

For a Tumor/Normal pair:

Output directory: results/VariantCalling/[TUMOR_vs_NORMAL]/ControlFREEC

For further reading and documentation see the Control-FREEC manual.

MSI status

Microsatellite instability is a genetic condition associated to deficiencies in the mismatch repair (MMR) system which causes a tendency to accumulate a high number of mutations (SNVs and indels). An altered distribution of microsatellite length is associated to a missed replication slippage which would be corrected under normal MMR conditions.

MSIsensor

MSIsensor is a tool to detect the MSI status of a tumor scanning the length of the microsatellite regions. It requires a normal sample for each tumour to differentiate the somatic and germline cases.

For a Tumor/Normal pair:

Output directory: results/VariantCalling/[TUMORSAMPLE]_vs_[NORMALSAMPLE]/MSIsensor

For further reading see the MSIsensor paper.

Variant annotation

This directory contains results from the final annotation steps: two tools are used for annotation, snpEff and VEP. Only a subset of the VCF files are annotated, and only variants that have a PASS filter. Currently, FreeBayes results are not annotated as we are lacking a decent somatic filter.

snpEff

snpeff is a genetic variant annotation and effect prediction toolbox. It annotates and predicts the effects of variants on genes (such as amino acid changes) using multiple databases for annotations. The generated VCF header contains the software version and the used command line.

For all samples:

Output directory: results/Annotation/[SAMPLE]/snpEff

For further reading and documentation see the snpEff manual

VEP

VEP (Variant Effect Predictor), based on Ensembl, is a tool to determine the effects of all sorts of variants, including SNPs, indels, structural variants, CNVs. The generated VCF header contains the software version, also the version numbers for additional databases like Clinvar or dbSNP used in the VEP line. The format of the consequence annotations is also in the VCF header describing the INFO field. Currently, it contains:

For all samples:

Output directory: results/Annotation/[SAMPLE]/VEP

For further reading and documentation see the VEP manual

QC and reporting

QC

FastQC

FastQC gives general quality metrics about your sequenced reads. It provides information about the quality score distribution across your reads, per base sequence content (%A/T/G/C), adapter contamination and overrepresented sequences.

For all samples:

Output directory: results/Reports/[SAMPLE]/fastqc

NB: The FastQC plots displayed in the MultiQC report shows untrimmed reads. They may contain adapter sequence and potentially regions with low quality.

For further reading and documentation see the FastQC help pages.

bamQC

Qualimap bamqc reports information for the evaluation of the quality of the provided alignment data. In short, the basic statistics of the alignment (number of reads, coverage, GC-content, etc.) are summarized and a number of useful graphs are produced.

Plot will show:

For all samples:

Output directory: results/Reports/[SAMPLE]/bamQC

For further reading and documentation see the Qualimap bamqc manual

GATK MarkDuplicates reports

More information in the GATK MarkDuplicates section

Duplicates can arise during sample preparation e.g. library construction using PCR. Duplicate reads can also result from a single amplification cluster, incorrectly detected as multiple clusters by the optical sensor of the sequencing instrument. These duplication artifacts are referred to as optical duplicates.

For all samples:

Output directory: results/Reports/[SAMPLE]/MarkDuplicates

For further reading and documentation see the MarkDuplicates manual.

samtools stats

samtools stats collects statistics from BAM files and outputs in a text format.

Plots will show:

For all samples:

Output directory: results/Reports/[SAMPLE]/SamToolsStats

For further reading and documentation see the samtools manual

bcftools stats

bcftools is a program for variant calling and manipulating VCF files.

Plot will show:

For all samples:

Output directory: results/Reports/[SAMPLE]/BCFToolsStats

For further reading and documentation see the bcftools stats manual

VCFtools

VCFtools is a program package designed for working with VCF files.

Plots will show:

For all samples:

Output directory: results/Reports/[SAMPLE]/VCFTools

For further reading and documentation see the VCFtools manual

snpEff reports

snpeff is a genetic variant annotation and effect prediction toolbox. It annotates and predicts the effects of variants on genes (such as amino acid changes) using multiple databases for annotations.

Plots will shows :

For all samples:

Output directory: results/Reports/[SAMPLE]/snpEff

For further reading and documentation see the snpEff manual

VEP reports

VEP (Variant Effect Predictor), based on Ensembl, is a tools to determine the effects of all sorts of variants, including SNPs, indels, structural variants, CNVs.

For all samples:

Output directory: results/Reports/[SAMPLE]/VEP

For further reading and documentation see the VEP manual

Reporting

MultiQC

MultiQC is a visualization tool that generates a single HTML report summarizing all samples in your project. Most of the pipeline QC results are visualised in the report and further statistics are available in the report data directory.

The pipeline has special steps which also allow the software versions to be reported in the MultiQC output for future traceability.

Output files:

For more information about how to use MultiQC reports, see https://multiqc.info.

Pipeline information

Nextflow provides excellent functionality for generating various reports relevant to the running and execution of the pipeline. This will allow you to troubleshoot errors with the running of the pipeline, and also provide you with other information such as launch commands, run times and resource usage.

Output files: