5,205 research outputs found
Towards Better Understanding of Artifacts in Variant Calling from High-Coverage Samples
Motivation: Whole-genome high-coverage sequencing has been widely used for
personal and cancer genomics as well as in various research areas. However, in
the lack of an unbiased whole-genome truth set, the global error rate of
variant calls and the leading causal artifacts still remain unclear even given
the great efforts in the evaluation of variant calling methods.
Results: We made ten SNP and INDEL call sets with two read mappers and five
variant callers, both on a haploid human genome and a diploid genome at a
similar coverage. By investigating false heterozygous calls in the haploid
genome, we identified the erroneous realignment in low-complexity regions and
the incomplete reference genome with respect to the sample as the two major
sources of errors, which press for continued improvements in these two areas.
We estimated that the error rate of raw genotype calls is as high as 1 in
10-15kb, but the error rate of post-filtered calls is reduced to 1 in 100-200kb
without significant compromise on the sensitivity.
Availability: BWA-MEM alignment: http://bit.ly/1g8XqRt; Scripts:
https://github.com/lh3/varcmp; Additional data:
https://figshare.com/articles/Towards_better_understanding_of_artifacts_in_variating_calling_from_high_coverage_samples/981073Comment: Published versio
A Simple Data-Adaptive Probabilistic Variant Calling Model
Background: Several sources of noise obfuscate the identification of single
nucleotide variation (SNV) in next generation sequencing data. For instance,
errors may be introduced during library construction and sequencing steps. In
addition, the reference genome and the algorithms used for the alignment of the
reads are further critical factors determining the efficacy of variant calling
methods. It is crucial to account for these factors in individual sequencing
experiments.
Results: We introduce a simple data-adaptive model for variant calling. This
model automatically adjusts to specific factors such as alignment errors. To
achieve this, several characteristics are sampled from sites with low mismatch
rates, and these are used to estimate empirical log-likelihoods. These
likelihoods are then combined to a score that typically gives rise to a mixture
distribution. From these we determine a decision threshold to separate
potentially variant sites from the noisy background.
Conclusions: In simulations we show that our simple proposed model is
competitive with frequently used much more complex SNV calling algorithms in
terms of sensitivity and specificity. It performs specifically well in cases
with low allele frequencies. The application to next-generation sequencing data
reveals stark differences of the score distributions indicating a strong
influence of data specific sources of noise. The proposed model is specifically
designed to adjust to these differences.Comment: 19 pages, 6 figure
WaveCNV: allele-specific copy number alterations in primary tumors and xenograft models from next-generation sequencing.
MotivationCopy number variations (CNVs) are a major source of genomic variability and are especially significant in cancer. Until recently microarray technologies have been used to characterize CNVs in genomes. However, advances in next-generation sequencing technology offer significant opportunities to deduce copy number directly from genome sequencing data. Unfortunately cancer genomes differ from normal genomes in several aspects that make them far less amenable to copy number detection. For example, cancer genomes are often aneuploid and an admixture of diploid/non-tumor cell fractions. Also patient-derived xenograft models can be laden with mouse contamination that strongly affects accurate assignment of copy number. Hence, there is a need to develop analytical tools that can take into account cancer-specific parameters for detecting CNVs directly from genome sequencing data.ResultsWe have developed WaveCNV, a software package to identify copy number alterations by detecting breakpoints of CNVs using translation-invariant discrete wavelet transforms and assign digitized copy numbers to each event using next-generation sequencing data. We also assign alleles specifying the chromosomal ratio following duplication/loss. We verified copy number calls using both microarray (correlation coefficient 0.97) and quantitative polymerase chain reaction (correlation coefficient 0.94) and found them to be highly concordant. We demonstrate its utility in pancreatic primary and xenograft sequencing data.Availability and implementationSource code and executables are available at https://github.com/WaveCNV. The segmentation algorithm is implemented in MATLAB, and copy number assignment is implemented [email protected] informationSupplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online
SMaSH: A Benchmarking Toolkit for Human Genome Variant Calling
Motivation: Computational methods are essential to extract actionable
information from raw sequencing data, and to thus fulfill the promise of
next-generation sequencing technology. Unfortunately, computational tools
developed to call variants from human sequencing data disagree on many of their
predictions, and current methods to evaluate accuracy and computational
performance are ad-hoc and incomplete. Agreement on benchmarking variant
calling methods would stimulate development of genomic processing tools and
facilitate communication among researchers.
Results: We propose SMaSH, a benchmarking methodology for evaluating human
genome variant calling algorithms. We generate synthetic datasets, organize and
interpret a wide range of existing benchmarking data for real genomes, and
propose a set of accuracy and computational performance metrics for evaluating
variant calling methods on this benchmarking data. Moreover, we illustrate the
utility of SMaSH to evaluate the performance of some leading single nucleotide
polymorphism (SNP), indel, and structural variant calling algorithms.
Availability: We provide free and open access online to the SMaSH toolkit,
along with detailed documentation, at smash.cs.berkeley.edu
Target enrichment using parallel nanoliter quantitative PCR amplification
Background: Next generation targeted resequencing is replacing Sanger sequencing at high pace in routine genetic diagnosis. The need for well validated, high quality enrichment platforms to complement the bench-top next generation sequencing devices is high.
Results: We used the WaferGen Smartchip platform to perform highly parallelized PCR based target enrichment for a set of known cancer genes in a well characterized set of cancer cell lines from the NCI60 panel. Optimization of PCR assay design and cycling conditions resulted in a high enrichment efficiency. We provide proof of a high mutation rediscovery rate and have included technical replicates to enable SNP calling validation demonstrating the high reproducibility of our enrichment platform.
Conclusions: Here we present our custom developed quantitative PCR based target enrichment platform. Using highly parallel nanoliter singleplex PCR reactions makes this a flexible and efficient platform. The high mutation validation rate shows this platform’s promise as a targeted resequencing method for multi-gene routine sequencing diagnostics
SNPredict: A Machine Learning Approach for Detecting Low Frequency Variants in Cancer
Cancer is a genetic disease caused by the accumulation of DNA variants such as single nucleotide changes or insertions/deletions in DNA. DNA variants can cause silencing of tumor suppressor genes or increase the activity of oncogenes. In order to come up with successful therapies for cancer patients, these DNA variants need to be identified accurately. DNA variants can be identified by comparing DNA sequence of tumor tissue to a non-tumor tissue by using Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) technology. But the problem of detecting variants in cancer is hard because many of these variant occurs only in a small subpopulation of the tumor tissue. It becomes a challenge to distinguish these low frequency variants from sequencing errors, which are common in today\u27s NGS methods. Several algorithms have been made and implemented as a tool to identify such variants in cancer. However, it has been previously shown that there is low concordance in the results produced by these tools. Moreover, the number of false positives tend to significantly increase when these tools are faced with low frequency variants. This study presents SNPredict, a single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) detection pipeline that aims to utilize the results of multiple variant callers to produce a consensus output with higher accuracy than any of the individual tool with the help of machine learning techniques. By extracting features from the consensus output that describe traits associated with an individual variant call, it creates binary classifiers that predict a SNP’s true state and therefore help in distinguishing a sequencing error from a true variant
From cheek swabs to consensus sequences : an A to Z protocol for high-throughput DNA sequencing of complete human mitochondrial genomes
Background: Next-generation DNA sequencing (NGS) technologies have made huge impacts in many fields of biological research, but especially in evolutionary biology. One area where NGS has shown potential is for high-throughput sequencing of complete mtDNA genomes (of humans and other animals). Despite the increasing use of NGS technologies and a better appreciation of their importance in answering biological questions, there remain significant obstacles to the successful implementation of NGS-based projects, especially for new users.
Results: Here we present an ‘A to Z’ protocol for obtaining complete human mitochondrial (mtDNA) genomes – from DNA extraction to consensus sequence. Although designed for use on humans, this protocol could also be used to sequence small, organellar genomes from other species, and also nuclear loci. This protocol includes DNA extraction, PCR amplification, fragmentation of PCR products, barcoding of fragments, sequencing using the 454 GS FLX platform, and a complete bioinformatics pipeline (primer removal, reference-based mapping, output of coverage plots and SNP calling).
Conclusions: All steps in this protocol are designed to be straightforward to implement, especially for researchers who are undertaking next-generation sequencing for the first time. The molecular steps are scalable to large numbers (hundreds) of individuals and all steps post-DNA extraction can be carried out in 96-well plate format. Also, the protocol has been assembled so that individual ‘modules’ can be swapped out to suit available resources
Using GWAS Data to Identify Copy Number Variants Contributing to Common Complex Diseases
Copy number variants (CNVs) account for more polymorphic base pairs in the
human genome than do single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). CNVs encompass
genes as well as noncoding DNA, making these polymorphisms good candidates for
functional variation. Consequently, most modern genome-wide association studies
test CNVs along with SNPs, after inferring copy number status from the data
generated by high-throughput genotyping platforms. Here we give an overview of
CNV genomics in humans, highlighting patterns that inform methods for
identifying CNVs. We describe how genotyping signals are used to identify CNVs
and provide an overview of existing statistical models and methods used to
infer location and carrier status from such data, especially the most commonly
used methods exploring hybridization intensity. We compare the power of such
methods with the alternative method of using tag SNPs to identify CNV carriers.
As such methods are only powerful when applied to common CNVs, we describe two
alternative approaches that can be informative for identifying rare CNVs
contributing to disease risk. We focus particularly on methods identifying de
novo CNVs and show that such methods can be more powerful than case-control
designs. Finally we present some recommendations for identifying CNVs
contributing to common complex disorders.Comment: Published in at http://dx.doi.org/10.1214/09-STS304 the Statistical
Science (http://www.imstat.org/sts/) by the Institute of Mathematical
Statistics (http://www.imstat.org
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