PyIR: a scalable wrapper for processing billions of immunoglobulin and T cell receptor sequences using IgBLAST

Abstract Background Recent advances in DNA sequencing technologies have enabled significant leaps in capacity to generate large volumes of DNA sequence data, which has spurred a rapid growth in the use of bioinformatics as a means of interrogating antibody variable gene repertoires. Common tools use...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Cinque Soto, Jessica A. Finn, Jordan R. Willis, Samuel B. Day, Robert S. Sinkovits, Taylor Jones, Samuel Schmitz, Jens Meiler, Andre Branchizio, James E. Crowe
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: BMC 2020-07-01
Series:BMC Bioinformatics
Subjects:
Online Access:http://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s12859-020-03649-5
Description
Summary:Abstract Background Recent advances in DNA sequencing technologies have enabled significant leaps in capacity to generate large volumes of DNA sequence data, which has spurred a rapid growth in the use of bioinformatics as a means of interrogating antibody variable gene repertoires. Common tools used for annotation of antibody sequences are often limited in functionality, modularity and usability. Results We have developed PyIR, a Python wrapper and library for IgBLAST, which offers a minimal setup CLI and API, FASTQ support, file chunking for large sequence files, JSON and Python dictionary output, and built-in sequence filtering. Conclusions PyIR offers improved processing speed over multithreaded IgBLAST (version 1.14) when spawning more than 16 processes on a single computer system. Its customizable filtering and data encapsulation allow it to be adapted to a wide range of computing environments. The API allows for IgBLAST to be used in customized bioinformatics workflows.
ISSN:1471-2105