Summary: Real-time surveillance of infectious disease using whole genome sequencing data poses challenges in both result generation and communication. SnapperDB represents a set of tools to store bacterial variant data and facilitate reproducible and scalable analysis of bacterial populations. We also introduce the 'SNP address' nomenclature to describe the relationship between isolates in a population to the single nucleotide resolution. We announce the release of SnapperDB v1.0 a program for scalable routine SNP analysis and storage of microbial populations. Availability and implementation: SnapperDB is implemented as a python application under the open source BSD license. All code and user guides are available at https://github.com/phe-bioinformatics/snapperdb. Reference genomes and SnapperDB configs are available at https://github.com/phe-bioinformatics/snapperdb_references.

BACKGROUND: Large scale bacterial sequencing has made the determination of genetic relationships within large sequence collections of bacterial genomes derived from the same microbial species an increasingly common task. Solutions to the problem have application to public health (for example, in the detection of possible disease transmission), and as part of divide-and-conquer strategies selecting groups of similar isolates for computationally intensive methods of phylogenetic inference using (for example) maximal likelihood methods. However, the generation and maintenance of distance matrices is computationally intensive, and rapid methods of doing so are needed to allow translation of microbial genomics into public health actions. RESULTS: We developed, tested and deployed three solutions. BugMat is a fast C++ application which generates one-off in-memory distance matrices. FindNeighbour and FindNeighbour2 are server-side applications which build, maintain, and persist either complete (for FindNeighbour) or sparse (for FindNeighbour2) distance matrices given a set of sequences. FindNeighbour and BugMat use a variation model to accelerate computation, while FindNeighbour2 uses reference-based compression. Performance metrics show scalability into tens of thousands of sequences, with options for scaling further. CONCLUSION: Three applications, each with distinct strengths and weaknesses, are available for distance-matrix based analysis of large bacterial collections. Deployed as part of the Public Health England solution for M. tuberculosis genomic processing, they will have wide applicability.

BACKGROUND: A typical bacterial pathogen genome mapping project can identify thousands of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP). Interpreting SNP data is complex and it is difficult to conceptualise the data contained within the large flat files that are the typical output from most SNP calling algorithms. One solution to this problem is to construct a database that can be queried using simple commands so that SNP interrogation and output is both easy and comprehensible. RESULTS: Here we present snp-search, a tool that manages SNP data and allows for manipulation and searching of SNP data. After creation of a SNP database from a VCF file, snp-search can be used to convert the selected SNP data into FASTA sequences, construct phylogenies, look for unique SNPs, and output contextual information about each SNP. The FASTA output from snp-search is particularly useful for the generation of robust phylogenetic trees that are based on SNP differences across the conserved positions in whole genomes. Queries can be designed to answer critical genomic questions such as the association of SNPs with particular phenotypes. CONCLUSIONS: snp-search is a tool that manages SNP data and outputs useful information which can be used to test important biological hypotheses.