Session 2 - Variant calling analysis

Introduction

Variant calling entails identifying single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and small insertions and deletion (indels) from next generation sequencing data. This tutorial will cover SNP and Indel detection in germline cells. Other more complex rearrangements (such as Copy Number Variations) require additional analysis not covered in this tutorial.

Public data

https://www.genome.gov/10001688/international-hapmap-project

Reference HapMap Trio:

Sample ID

Description

Biological sample source

NA12878 (Daughter)

Mother; donor subject has a single bp (G-to-A) transition at nucleotide 681 in exon 5 of the CYP2C19 gene (CYP2C19*2) which creates an aberrant splice site. The change altered the reading frame of the mRNA starting with amino acid 215 and produced a premature stop codon 20 amino acids downstream, resulting in a truncated, nonfunctional protein. Because of the aberrant splice site, a 40-bp deletion occurred at the beginning of exon 5 (from bp 643 to bp 682), resulting in deletion of amino acids 215 to 227. The truncated protein had 234 amino acids and would be catalytically inactive because it lacked the heme-binding region.

https://catalog.coriell.org/0/Sections/Search/Sample_Detail.aspx?Ref=NA12878&Product=DNA

NA12891 (Father)

Maternal Grandfather; donor subject is homozygous for a single bp (G-to-A) transition at nucleotide 681 in exon 5 of the CYP2C19 gene (CYP2C19*2) which creates an aberrant splice site. The change altered the reading frame of the mRNA starting with amino acid 215 and produced a premature stop codon 20 amino acids downstream, resulting in a truncated, nonfunctional protein. Because of the aberrant splice site, a 40-bp deletion occurred at the beginning of exon 5 (from bp 643 to bp 682), resulting in deletion of amino acids 215 to 227. The truncated protein had 234 amino acids and would be catalytically inactive because it lacked the heme-binding region.

https://catalog.coriell.org/0/Sections/Search/Sample_Detail.aspx?Ref=NA12891&Product=DNA

NA12892 (Mother)

Maternal Grandmother

https://catalog.coriell.org/0/Sections/Search/Sample_Detail.aspx?Ref=NA12892&Product=DNA

https://www.nist.gov/programs-projects/genome-bottle

WGS = Whole Genome Sequencing

WES = Whole Exome Sequencing

Overview of the Nextflow nf-core/sarek variant calling pipeline

Source : https://nf-co.re/sarek/3.2.3

Pre-requisite:

This user guide assumes that you have already installed Nextflow. If you have not done this yet, follow the instructions in the link below:

https://eresearchqut.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/EG/pages/2207776769/Session+2+-+Installing+Nextflow

Convert BAM to FASTQ

Move to the folder where all the BAM files are present and prepare the following script (i.e., launch_BAM2FASTQ.pbs):

#!/bin/bash -l
#PBS -N BAM2FASTQ
#PBS -l walltime=24:00:00
#PBS -l mem=8gb
#PBS -l ncpus=4

cd $PBS_O_WORKDIR

#activate the conda environment with the necessary tools
conda activate liver

#Sort reads in BAM file by indentifier-name (-n) using 4 CPUs (-@ 4). Note 'prefix' for sorted file noted after $i (input BAM file)
for i in `ls --color=never *.bam`
do
  echo $i
  samtools sort -@ 4 -n $i ${i%%.bam}_sorted
done

#Extract paired end reads in FASTQ format
for file in `ls --color=never *sorted.bam`
do
  echo $file
  bedtools bamtofastq -i $file -fq ${file%%.bam}_R1.fastq -fq2 ${file%%.bam}_R2.fastq
  #compress FASTQ files to run using the sarek pipeline
  gzip -c -9 ${file%%.bam}_R1.fastq > ${file%%.bam}_R1.fastq.gz
  gzip -c -9 ${file%%.bam}_R1.fastq > ${file%%.bam}_R2.fastq.gz
done

Submit the job to the PBS scheduler:

qsub launch_BAM2FASTQ.pbs

Check the submitted job(s):

qjobs

Run variant calling using the nextflow nf-core/sarek pipeline

source: https://nf-co.re/sarek/3.1.2

To run Sarek 3 files are required:

launch.pbs → details on how to run the workflow
~/.nextflow/config → specify how to run the workflow in the HPC
samplesheet.csv → provides information on the samples and data to be used (i.e., FASTQ, BAM or CRAM)

We will run the Sarek pipeline in three phases:

Phase I: Preprocessing, mapping, markduplicates, recalibrate
Phase II: Variant calling
Phase III: Annotation

PHASE I - preprocessing

Below is an example of a launch_phase1.pbs file for mapping onto the selected genome:

#!/bin/bash -l
#PBS -N sarek_I
#PBS -l walltime=48:00:00
#PBS -l select=1:ncpus=1:mem=5gb
cd $PBS_O_WORKDIR
NXF_OPTS='-Xms1g -Xmx4g'
module load java

#specify the nextflow version to use to run the workflow
export NXF_VER=22.06.1-edge

#run the prepocessing tasks
nextflow run nf-core/sarek \
        -r 3.1.1 \
        -profile singularity \
        --genome GATK.GRCh38 \
        --input samplesheet.csv

~/.nextflow/config file: (Note: You may already have this file if you installed Nextflow using this guide )

singularity {
    cacheDir = '$HOME/NXF_SINGULARITY_CACHEDIR'
    autoMounts = true
}

conda {
    cacheDir = '$HOME/NXF_CONDA_CACHEDIR'
}

singularity {
    enabled = true
    autoMounts = true
}

process {
  executor = 'pbspro'
  beforeScript = {
      """
      source $HOME/.bashrc
      source $HOME/.profile
      """
  }
  scratch = false
  cleanup = false
}

Example of a samplesheet.csv file:

patient,sample,lane,fastq_1,fastq_2
healthy_11,1,1,/path/to/data/1.Healthy/Healthy_Combined_11_sorted_R1.fastq.gz,/path/to/data/1.Healthy/Healthy_Combined_11_sorted_R2.fastq.gz

Prepare a samplesheet.csv file that contains the information of all the samples to be processed. Once ready, submit the job to the PBS scheduler:

qsub launch_phase1.pbs

PHASE II - variant calling

Prepare/edit the following launch_phase2.pbs script:

#!/bin/bash -l
#PBS -N sarek_II
#PBS -l walltime=48:00:00
#PBS -l select=1:ncpus=1:mem=5gb
cd $PBS_O_WORKDIR
NXF_OPTS='-Xms1g -Xmx4g'
module load java

#specify the nextflow version to use to run the workflow
export NXF_VER=22.06.1-edge

#run the sarek pipeline
nextflow run nf-core/sarek \
        -r 3.1.1 \
        -profile singularity \
        --genome GATK.GRCh38 \
        --step variant_calling \
        --tools haplotypecaller \
        --wes \
        -resume

Note: Sarek will automatically detect the input for the variant calling phase based on the results from the phase 1 outputs (i.e., results/csv/recalibrate.csv)

Submit the job to the PBS scheduler:

qsub launch_phase2.pbs

monitor the progress on the HPC:

qjobs

Alternatively, view the progress of the submitted job on the Nextflow Tower.

PHASE III - annotation

Download the singularity container for VEP in your catched Nextflow Singularity folder

singularity pull  --name nfcore-vep-106.1.GRCh38.img docker://nfcore/vep:106.1.GRCh38

Prepare/edit the following launch_phase3.pbs script:

#!/bin/bash -l
#PBS -N sarek_III
#PBS -l walltime=48:00:00
#PBS -l select=1:ncpus=1:mem=5gb
cd $PBS_O_WORKDIR
NXF_OPTS='-Xms1g -Xmx4g'
module load java

#specify the nextflow version to use to run the workflow
export NXF_VER=22.06.1-edge

#run the sarek pipeline
nextflow run nf-core/sarek \
        -r 3.1.1 \
        -profile singularity \
        --genome GATK.GRCh38 \
        --step annotate \
        --tools vep,snpeff \
        --wes \
        -resume

Similarly to Phase 2, the Sarek pipeline will automatically detect the VCF input file for running annotation using the selected tool(s).

Submit the job to the PBS scheduler:

qsub launch_phase3.pbs

monitor the progress on the HPC:

qjobs

Alternatively, view the progress of the submitted job on the Nextflow Tower.