MOTIVATION: Several algorithms exist for detecting copy number variants (CNVs) from human exome sequencing read depth, but previous tools have not been well suited for large population studies on the order of tens or hundreds of thousands of exomes. Their limitations include being difficult to integrate into automated variant-calling pipelines and being ill-suited for detecting common variants. To address these issues, we developed a new algorithm--Copy number estimation using Lattice-Aligned Mixture Models (CLAMMS)--which is highly scalable and suitable for detecting CNVs across the whole allele frequency spectrum. RESULTS: In this note, we summarize the methods and intended use-case of CLAMMS, compare it to previous algorithms and briefly describe results of validation experiments. We evaluate the adherence of CNV calls from CLAMMS and four other algorithms to Mendelian inheritance patterns on a pedigree; we compare calls from CLAMMS and other algorithms to calls from SNP genotyping arrays for a set of 3164 samples; and we use TaqMan quantitative polymerase chain reaction to validate CNVs predicted by CLAMMS at 39 loci (95% of rare variants validate; across 19 common variant loci, the mean precision and recall are 99% and 94%, respectively). In the Supplementary Materials (available at the CLAMMS Github repository), we present our methods and validation results in greater detail. AVAILABILITY AND IMPLEMENTATION: https://github.com/rgcgithub/clamms (implemented in C). CONTACT: [email protected] SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.

UNLABELLED: The functional annotation of variants obtained through sequencing projects is generally assumed to be a simple intersection of genomic coordinates with genomic features. However, complexities arise for several reasons, including the differential effects of a variant on alternatively spliced transcripts, as well as the difficulty in assessing the impact of small insertions/deletions and large structural variants. Taking these factors into consideration, we developed the Variant Annotation Tool (VAT) to functionally annotate variants from multiple personal genomes at the transcript level as well as obtain summary statistics across genes and individuals. VAT also allows visualization of the effects of different variants, integrates allele frequencies and genotype data from the underlying individuals and facilitates comparative analysis between different groups of individuals. VAT can either be run through a command-line interface or as a web application. Finally, in order to enable on-demand access and to minimize unnecessary transfers of large data files, VAT can be run as a virtual machine in a cloud-computing environment. AVAILABILITY AND IMPLEMENTATION: VAT is implemented in C and PHP. The VAT web service, Amazon Machine Image, source code and detailed documentation are available at vat.gersteinlab.org.

SUMMARY: The advent of next-generation sequencing for functional genomics has given rise to quantities of sequence information that are often so large that they are difficult to handle. Moreover, sequence reads from a specific individual can contain sufficient information to potentially identify and genetically characterize that person, raising privacy concerns. In order to address these issues, we have developed the Mapped Read Format (MRF), a compact data summary format for both short and long read alignments that enables the anonymization of confidential sequence information, while allowing one to still carry out many functional genomics studies. We have developed a suite of tools (RSEQtools) that use this format for the analysis of RNA-Seq experiments. These tools consist of a set of modules that perform common tasks such as calculating gene expression values, generating signal tracks of mapped reads and segmenting that signal into actively transcribed regions. Moreover, the tools can readily be used to build customizable RNA-Seq workflows. In addition to the anonymization afforded by MRF, this format also facilitates the decoupling of the alignment of reads from downstream analyses. AVAILABILITY AND IMPLEMENTATION: RSEQtools is implemented in C and the source code is available at http://rseqtools.gersteinlab.org/.