Provided by: axe-demultiplexer_0.3.2+dfsg1-1build1_amd64 bug

NAME

       axe - axe Documentation

       Axe  is  a  read  de-multiplexer,  useful  in  situations where sequence reads contain the
       barcodes that uniquely distinguish samples. Axe uses a rapid and accurate algorithm  based
       on hamming mismatch tries to competitively match the prefix of a sequencing read against a
       set of barcodes. Axe supports combinatorial barcoding schemes.

       Contents:

AXE USAGE

       NOTE:
          For arcane reasons, the name of the axe binary changed to axe-demux with version 0.3.0.
          Apologies  for  the  inconvenience, this was required to make axe installable in Debian
          and its derivatives. Command-line usage did not change.

       Axe has several usage  modes.  The  primary  distinction  is  between  the  two  alternate
       barcoding  schemes,  single  and  combinatorial barcoding. Single barcode matching is used
       when only the first read contains barcode sequences.  Combinatorial barcoding is used when
       both reads in a read pair contain independent (typically different) barcode sequences.

       For concise reference, the command-line usage of axe-demux is reproduced below:

          USAGE:
          axe-demux [-mzc2pt] -b (-f [-r] | -i) (-F [-R] | -I)
          axe-demux -h
          axe-demux -v

          OPTIONS:
              -m, --mismatch  Maximum hamming distance mismatch. [int, default 1]
              -z, --ziplevel  Gzip compression level, or 0 for plain text [int, default 0]
              -c, --combinatorial  Use combinatorial barcode matching. [flag, default OFF]
              -p, --permissive     Don't error on barcode mismatch confict, matching only
                                   exactly for conficting barcodes. [flag, default OFF]
              -2, --trim-r2   Trim barcode from R2 read as well as R1. [flag, default OFF]
              -b, --barcodes  Barcode file. See --help for example. [file]
              -f, --fwd-in    Input forward read. [file]
              -F, --fwd-out   Output forward read prefix. [file]
              -r, --rev-in    Input reverse read. [file]
              -R, --rev-out   Output reverse read prefix. [file]
              -i, --ilfq-in   Input interleaved paired reads. [file]
              -I, --ilfq-out  Output interleaved paired reads prefix. [file]
              -t, --table-file     Output a summary table of demultiplexing statistics to file. [file]
              -h, --help      Print this usage plus additional help.
              -V, --version   Print version string.
              -v, --verbose   Be more verbose. Additive, -vv is more vebose than -v.
              -q, --quiet          Be very quiet.

   Inputs and Outputs
       Regardless  of  read mode, three input and output schemes are supported: single-end reads,
       paired reads (separate R1 and R2 files) and interleaved paired reads (one  file,  with  R1
       and  R2  as  consecutive  reads). If single end reads are inputted, they must be output as
       single end reads. If either paired or interleaved paired  reads  are  read,  they  can  be
       output  as  either  paired  reads  or  interleaved  paired  reads.  This  applies  to both
       successfully de-multiplexed reads and reads that could not be de-multiplexed.

       The -z flag can  be  used  to  specify  that  outputs  should  be  compressed  using  gzip
       compression.  The -z flag takes an integer argument between 0 (the default) and 9, where 0
       indicates plain text output (gzopen mode "wT"),  and  1-9  indicate  that  the  respective
       compression level should be used, where 1 is fastest and 9 is most compact.

       The  output  flags should be prefixes that are used to generate the output file name based
       on the barcode's (or barcode pair's) ID. The names are generated as: prefix + _ +  barcode
       ID  +  _  +  read  number  +  .extension.   The  output  file  for reads that could not be
       demultiplexed is prefix + _ + unknown + _ + read number + .extension.  The read number  is
       omitted  unless  the  paired read file scheme is used, and is "il" for interleaved output.
       The extension is "fastq"; ".gz" is appended to the extension if the -z flag is used.

       The corresponding CLI flags are:-f and -F: Single end or paired R1 file input and output respectively.

              • -r and -R: Paired R2 file input and output.

              • -i and -I: Interleaved paired input and output.

   The barcode file
       The barcode file is a tab-separated file with an optional header. It is mandatory, and  is
       always supplied using the -b command line flag. The exact format is dependent on barcoding
       mode, and is described further in the sections below. If a header is present,  the  header
       line  must  start  with  either Barcode or barcode, or it will be interpreted as a barcode
       line, leading to a parsing error. Any line starting with ';' or '#' is  ignored,  allowing
       comments  to  be  added  in  line  with  barcodes. Please ensure that the software used to
       produce the barcode uses ASCII encoding, and does not insert a Byte-order  Mark  (BoM)  as
       many  text editors can silently use Unicode-based encoding schemes. I recommend the use of
       LibreOffice Calc (part of a free and open source office suite) to generate barcode tables;
       Microsoft Excel can also be used.

   Mismatch level selection
       Independent  of  barcode mode, the -m flag is used to select the maximum allowable hamming
       distance between a read's prefix and a barcode to be considered as a match.  As  "mutated"
       barcodes  must  be  unique, a hamming distance of one is the default as typically barcodes
       are designed to differ by a hamming distance of at least two. Optionally,  (using  the  -p
       flag),  axe  will  allow  selective  mismatch  levels, where, if clashes are observed, the
       barcode will only be matched exactly. This allows one to process  datasets  with  barcodes
       that don't have a sufficiently high distance between them.

   Single barcode mode
       Single  barcode  mode  is the default mode of operation. Barcodes are matched against read
       one (hereafter the forward read), and the barcode is trimmed from only the  forward  read,
       unless  the  -2  command line flag is given, in which case a prefix the same length as the
       matched barcode is also trimmed from the second or reverse read.  Note  that  sequence  of
       this second read is not checked before trimming.

       In single barcode mode, the barcode file has two columns: Barcode and ID.

   Combinatorial barcode mode
       Combinatorial barcode mode is activated by giving the -c flag on the command line. Forward
       read barcodes are matched against the forward read, and reverse read barcodes are  matched
       against the reverse read. The optimal barcodes are selected independently, and the barcode
       pair is selected from these two barcodes. The respective  barcodes are trimmed  from  both
       reads; the -2 command line flag has no effect in combinatorial barcode mode.

       In  combinatorial barcode mode, the barcode file has three columns: Barcode1, Barcode2 and
       ID. Individual barcodes can occur many times within the forward and reverse barcodes,  but
       barcode pairs must be unique combinations.

   The Demultipexing Statistics File
       The  -t  option  allows  the output of per-sample read counts to a tab-separated file. The
       file will have a header describing its format, and includes a line for unbarcoded reads.

AXE'S MATCHING ALGORITHM

       Axe uses an algorithm based on longest-prefix-in-trie matching to match a variable  length
       from the start of each read against a set of 'mutated' barcodes.

   Hamming distance matching
       While  for  most  applications  in  high-throughput  sequencing  hamming  distances  are a
       frowned-upon metric, it is typical for HTS read barcodes to  be  designed  to  tolerate  a
       certain  level  of hamming mismatches. Given these sequences are short and typically occur
       at the 5' end of reads, insertions and  deletions  rarely  need  be  considered,  and  the
       increased  rate  of  assignment of reads with many errors is offset by the risk of falsely
       assigning barcodes to an  incorrect  sample.  In  any  case,  reads  with  more  than  1-2
       sequencing  errors  in  their  first several bases are likely to be poor quality, and will
       simply be filtered out during downstream quality control.

   Hamming mismatch tries
       Typically, reads are matched to a set of barcodes  by  calculating  the  hamming  distance
       between  the  barcode,  and  the  first  l  bases of a read for a barcode of length l. The
       "correct" barcode is then selected by recording either the barcode with the lowest hamming
       distance  to the read (competitive matching) or by simply accepting the first barcode with
       a  hamming  distance  below  a  certain  threshold.   These  approaches  are   both   very
       computationally  expensive,  and  can  have  lower  accuracy than the algorithm I propose.
       Additionally, implementations of these methods rarely handle barcodes of differing  length
       and combinatorial barcoding well, if at all.

       Central  to  Axe's  algorithm  is the concept of hamming-mismatch tries. A trie is a N-ary
       tree for an N letter alphabet. In the case of high-throughput sequencing  reads,  we  have
       the alphabet AGCT, corresponding to the four nucleotides of DNA, plus N, used to represent
       ambiguous base calls. Instead of matching each barcode to each read, we pre-calculate  all
       allowable  sequences  at  each  mismatch  level,  and store these in level-wise tries. For
       example, to match to a hamming distance of 2, we create three tries:  One  containing  all
       barcodes,  verbatim, and two tries where every sequence within a hamming distance of 1 and
       2 of each barcode respectively. Hereafter, these tries are referred to  as the  0,  1  and
       2-mm  tries,  for  a  hamming distance (mismatch) of 0, 1 and 2. Then, we find the longest
       prefix in each sequence read in the 0mm trie. If this prefix is not a valid  leaf  in  the
       0mm trie, we find the longest prefix in the 1mm trie, and so on for all tries in ascending
       order. If no prefix of the read is a complete sequence in any trie, the read  is  assigned
       to an "non-barcoded" output file.

       This  algorithm ensures optimal barcode matching in many ways, but is also extremely fast.
       In situations with barcodes of differing length, we ensure  that  the  longest  acceptable
       barcode  at a given hamming distance is chosen; assuming that sequence is random after the
       barcode, the probability of false assignments using this method is  low.  We  also  ensure
       that  short  perfect  matches  are preferred to longer inexact matches, as we firstly only
       consider barcodes with no error, then 1 error, and so on. This  ensures  that  reads  with
       barcodes  that  are  followed  by random sequence that happens to inexactly match a longer
       barcode in the set are not falsely assigned to this longer barcode.

       The speed of this algorithm is largely due to the constant time  matching  algorithm  with
       respect  to  the  number  of  barcodes  to  match.  The  time  taken to match each read is
       proportional instead to the length of the barcodes, as for a barcode of length l, at  most
       l  +  1  trie  level descents are required to find an entry in the trie. As this length is
       more-or-less constant and small, the overall complexity of axe's algorithm is O(n)  for  n
       reads,  as  opposed  to  O(nm)  for  n  reads and m barcodes as is typical for traditional
       matching algorithms

       • genindex

AUTHOR

       Kevin Murray

COPYRIGHT

       2017, Kevin Murray