Provided by: hmmer_3.4+dfsg-2_amd64 
NAME
hmmscan - search sequence(s) against a profile database
SYNOPSIS
hmmscan [options] hmmdb seqfile
DESCRIPTION
hmmscan is used to search protein sequences against collections of protein profiles. For
each sequence in seqfile, use that query sequence to search the target database of
profiles in hmmdb, and output ranked lists of the profiles with the most significant
matches to the sequence.
The seqfile may contain more than one query sequence. Each will be searched in turn
against hmmdb.
The hmmdb needs to be press'ed using hmmpress before it can be searched with hmmscan.
This creates four binary files, suffixed .h3{fimp}.
The query seqfile may be '-' (a dash character), in which case the query sequences are
read from a stdin pipe instead of from a file. The hmmdb cannot be read from a stdin
stream, because it needs to have those four auxiliary binary files generated by hmmpress.
The output format is designed to be human-readable, but is often so voluminous that
reading it is impractical, and parsing it is a pain. The --tblout and --domtblout options
save output in simple tabular formats that are concise and easier to parse. The -o option
allows redirecting the main output, including throwing it away in /dev/null.
OPTIONS
-h Help; print a brief reminder of command line usage and all available options.
OPTIONS FOR CONTROLLING OUTPUT
-o <f> Direct the main human-readable output to a file <f> instead of the default stdout.
--tblout <f>
Save a simple tabular (space-delimited) file summarizing the per-target output,
with one data line per homologous target model found.
--domtblout <f>
Save a simple tabular (space-delimited) file summarizing the per-domain output,
with one data line per homologous domain detected in a query sequence for each
homologous model.
--pfamtblout <f>
Save an especially succinct tabular (space-delimited) file summarizing the per-
target output, with one data line per homologous target model found.
--acc Use accessions instead of names in the main output, where available for profiles
and/or sequences.
--noali
Omit the alignment section from the main output. This can greatly reduce the output
volume.
--notextw
Unlimit the length of each line in the main output. The default is a limit of 120
characters per line, which helps in displaying the output cleanly on terminals and
in editors, but can truncate target profile description lines.
--textw <n>
Set the main output's line length limit to <n> characters per line. The default is
120.
OPTIONS FOR REPORTING THRESHOLDS
Reporting thresholds control which hits are reported in output files (the main output,
--tblout, and --domtblout).
-E <x> In the per-target output, report target profiles with an E-value of <= <x>. The
default is 10.0, meaning that on average, about 10 false positives will be reported
per query, so you can see the top of the noise and decide for yourself if it's
really noise.
-T <x> Instead of thresholding per-profile output on E-value, instead report target
profiles with a bit score of >= <x>.
--domE <x>
In the per-domain output, for target profiles that have already satisfied the per-
profile reporting threshold, report individual domains with a conditional E-value
of <= <x>. The default is 10.0. A conditional E-value means the expected number
of additional false positive domains in the smaller search space of those
comparisons that already satisfied the per-profile reporting threshold (and thus
must have at least one homologous domain already).
--domT <x>
Instead of thresholding per-domain output on E-value, instead report domains with a
bit score of >= <x>.
OPTIONS FOR INCLUSION THRESHOLDS
Inclusion thresholds are stricter than reporting thresholds. Inclusion thresholds control
which hits are considered to be reliable enough to be included in an output alignment or a
subsequent search round. In hmmscan, which does not have any alignment output (like
hmmsearch or phmmer) nor any iterative search steps (like jackhmmer), inclusion thresholds
have little effect. They only affect what domains get marked as significant (!) or
questionable (?) in domain output.
--incE <x>
Use an E-value of <= <x> as the per-target inclusion threshold. The default is
0.01, meaning that on average, about 1 false positive would be expected in every
100 searches with different query sequences.
--incT <x>
Instead of using E-values for setting the inclusion threshold, instead use a bit
score of >= <x> as the per-target inclusion threshold. It would be unusual to use
bit score thresholds with hmmscan, because you don't expect a single score
threshold to work for different profiles; different profiles have slightly
different expected score distributions.
--incdomE <x>
Use a conditional E-value of <= <x> as the per-domain inclusion threshold, in
targets that have already satisfied the overall per-target inclusion threshold.
The default is 0.01.
--incdomT <x>
Instead of using E-values, instead use a bit score of >= <x> as the per-domain
inclusion threshold. As with --incT above, it would be unusual to use a single bit
score threshold in hmmscan.
OPTIONS FOR MODEL-SPECIFIC SCORE THRESHOLDING
Curated profile databases may define specific bit score thresholds for each profile,
superseding any thresholding based on statistical significance alone.
To use these options, the profile must contain the appropriate (GA, TC, and/or NC)
optional score threshold annotation; this is picked up by hmmbuild from Stockholm format
alignment files. Each thresholding option has two scores: the per-sequence threshold <x1>
and the per-domain threshold <x2>. These act as if -T <x1> --incT <x1> --domT <x2>
--incdomT <x2> has been applied specifically using each model's curated thresholds.
--cut_ga
Use the GA (gathering) bit scores in the model to set per-sequence (GA1) and per-
domain (GA2) reporting and inclusion thresholds. GA thresholds are generally
considered to be the reliable curated thresholds defining family membership; for
example, in Pfam, these thresholds define what gets included in Pfam Full
alignments based on searches with Pfam Seed models.
--cut_nc
Use the NC (noise cutoff) bit score thresholds in the model to set per-sequence
(NC1) and per-domain (NC2) reporting and inclusion thresholds. NC thresholds are
generally considered to be the score of the highest-scoring known false positive.
--cut_tc
Use the NC (trusted cutoff) bit score thresholds in the model to set per-sequence
(TC1) and per-domain (TC2) reporting and inclusion thresholds. TC thresholds are
generally considered to be the score of the lowest-scoring known true positive that
is above all known false positives.
CONTROL OF THE ACCELERATION PIPELINE
HMMER3 searches are accelerated in a three-step filter pipeline: the MSV filter, the
Viterbi filter, and the Forward filter. The first filter is the fastest and most
approximate; the last is the full Forward scoring algorithm. There is also a bias filter
step between MSV and Viterbi. Targets that pass all the steps in the acceleration pipeline
are then subjected to postprocessing -- domain identification and scoring using the
Forward/Backward algorithm.
Changing filter thresholds only removes or includes targets from consideration; changing
filter thresholds does not alter bit scores, E-values, or alignments, all of which are
determined solely in postprocessing.
--max Turn off all filters, including the bias filter, and run full Forward/Backward
postprocessing on every target. This increases sensitivity somewhat, at a large
cost in speed.
--F1 <x>
Set the P-value threshold for the MSV filter step. The default is 0.02, meaning
that roughly 2% of the highest scoring nonhomologous targets are expected to pass
the filter.
--F2 <x>
Set the P-value threshold for the Viterbi filter step. The default is 0.001.
--F3 <x>
Set the P-value threshold for the Forward filter step. The default is 1e-5.
--nobias
Turn off the bias filter. This increases sensitivity somewhat, but can come at a
high cost in speed, especially if the query has biased residue composition (such as
a repetitive sequence region, or if it is a membrane protein with large regions of
hydrophobicity). Without the bias filter, too many sequences may pass the filter
with biased queries, leading to slower than expected performance as the
computationally intensive Forward/Backward algorithms shoulder an abnormally heavy
load.
OTHER OPTIONS
--nonull2
Turn off the null2 score corrections for biased composition.
-Z <x> Assert that the total number of targets in your searches is <x>, for the purposes
of per-sequence E-value calculations, rather than the actual number of targets
seen.
--domZ <x>
Assert that the total number of targets in your searches is <x>, for the purposes
of per-domain conditional E-value calculations, rather than the number of targets
that passed the reporting thresholds.
--seed <n>
Set the random number seed to <n>. Some steps in postprocessing require Monte
Carlo simulation. The default is to use a fixed seed (42), so that results are
exactly reproducible. Any other positive integer will give different (but also
reproducible) results. A choice of 0 uses an arbitrarily chosen seed.
--qformat <s>
Assert that input seqfile is in format <s>, bypassing format autodetection. Common
choices for <s> include: fasta, embl, genbank. Alignment formats also work; common
choices include: stockholm, a2m, afa, psiblast, clustal, phylip. For more
information, and for codes for some less common formats, see main documentation.
The string <s> is case-insensitive (fasta or FASTA both work).
--cpu <n>
Set the number of parallel worker threads to <n>. The default is 0, meaning off
(no thread-level parallelization), because hmmscan is typically i/o bound and the
extra overhead of our current multithreaded implementation isn't worthwhile. You
can also control this number by setting an environment variable, HMMER_NCPU. There
is also a master thread, so the actual number of threads that HMMER spawns is at
least <n>+1.
This option is not available if HMMER was compiled with POSIX threads support
turned off.
--stall
For debugging the MPI master/worker version: pause after start, to enable the
developer to attach debuggers to the running master and worker(s) processes. Send
SIGCONT signal to release the pause. (Under gdb: (gdb) signal SIGCONT)
(Only available if optional MPI support was enabled at compile-time.)
--mpi Run under MPI control with master/worker parallelization (using mpirun, for
example, or equivalent). Only available if optional MPI support was enabled at
compile-time.
SEE ALSO
See hmmer(1) for a master man page with a list of all the individual man pages for
programs in the HMMER package.
For complete documentation, see the user guide that came with your HMMER distribution
(Userguide.pdf); or see the HMMER web page (http://hmmer.org/).
COPYRIGHT
Copyright (C) 2023 Howard Hughes Medical Institute.
Freely distributed under the BSD open source license.
For additional information on copyright and licensing, see the file called COPYRIGHT in
your HMMER source distribution, or see the HMMER web page (http://hmmer.org/).
AUTHOR
http://eddylab.org