Provided by: vienna-rna_2.7.0+dfsg-1_amd64 
NAME
RNApvmin - manual page for RNApvmin 2.7.0
SYNOPSIS
RNApvmin [options] <file.shape>
DESCRIPTION
RNApvmin 2.7.0
Calculate a perturbation vector that minimizes discripancies between predicted and observed pairing
probabilities
The program reads a RNA sequence from stdin and uses an iterative minimization process to calculate a
perturbation vector that minimizes the discripancies between predicted pairing probabilites and observed
pairing probabilities (deduced from given shape reactivities). Experimental data is read from a given
SHAPE file and normalized to pairing probabilities. The experimental data has to be provided in a
multiline plain text file where each line has the format '[position] [nucleotide] [absolute shape
reactivity]' (e.g. '3 A 0.7'). The objective function used for the minimization may be weighted by
choosing appropriate values for sigma and tau.
The minimization progress will be written to stderr. Once the minimization has terminated, the obtained
perturbation vector is written to stdout.
-h, --help
Print help and exit
--detailed-help
Print help, including all details and hidden options, and exit
--full-help
Print help, including hidden options, and exit
-V, --version
Print version and exit
-v, --verbose
Be verbose. (default=off)
Lower the log level setting such that even INFO messages are passed through.
I/O Options:
Command line options for input and output (pre-)processing
-j, --numThreads=INT
Set the number of threads used for calculations.
--log-level=level
Set log level threshold. (default=`2')
By default, any log messages are filtered such that only warnings (level 2) or errors (level 3)
are printed. This setting allows for specifying the log level threshold, where higher values
result in fewer information. Log-level 5 turns off all messages, even errors and other critical
information.
--log-file[=filename]
Print log messages to a file instead of stderr. (default=`RNApvmin.log')
--log-time
Include time stamp in log messages.
(default=off)
--log-call
Include file and line of log calling function.
(default=off)
Algorithms:
Select additional algorithms which should be included in the calculations. The Minimum free
energy (MFE) and a structure representative are calculated in any case.
--shapeConversion=STRING
Specify the method used to convert SHAPE reactivities to pairing probabilities.
(default=`O')
The following methods can be used to convert SHAPE reactivities into the probability for a certain
nucleotide to be unpaired.
'M': Use linear mapping according to Zarringhalam et al. 2012
'C': Use a cutoff-approach to divide into paired and unpaired nucleotides (e.g. "C0.25")
'S': Skip the normalizing step since the input data already represents probabilities for being
unpaired rather than raw reactivity values
'L': Use a linear model to convert the reactivity into a probability for being unpaired (e.g.
"Ls0.68i0.2" to use a slope of 0.68 and an intercept of 0.2)
'O': Use a linear model to convert the log of the reactivity into a probability for being unpaired
(e.g. "Os1.6i-2.29" to use a slope of 1.6 and an intercept of -2.29)
--tauSigmaRatio=DOUBLE
Ratio of the weighting factors tau and sigma. (default=`1.0')
A high ratio will lead to a solution as close as possible to the experimental data, while a low
ratio will lead to results close to the thermodynamic prediction without guiding pseudo energies.
--objectiveFunction=INT
The energies of the perturbation vector and the discripancies between predicted and observed
pairing probabilities contribute to the objective function. This parameter defines, which function
is used to process the contributions before summing them up. 0 square 1 absolute.
(default=`0')
--sampleSize=INT
The iterative minimization process requires to evaluate the gradient of the objective function.
(default=`1000')
A sample size of 0 leads to an analytical evaluation which scales as O(N^4). Choosing a sample
size >0 estimates the gradient by sampling the given number of sequences from the ensemble, which
is much faster.
-N, --nonRedundant
Enable non-redundant sampling strategy.
(default=off)
--intermediatePath=STRING Write an output file for each iteration of the
minimization process.
Each file contains the used perturbation vector and the score of the objective function. The
number of the iteration will be appended to the given path.
--initialVector=DOUBLE
Specify the vector of initial pertubations. (default=`0')
Defines the initial perturbation vector which will be used as starting vector for the minimization
process. The value 0 results in a null vector. Every other value x will be used to populate the
initial vector with random numbers from the interval [-x,x].
--minimizer=ENUM
Set the minimizing algorithm used for finding an appropriate perturbation vector.
(possible values="conjugate_fr",
"conjugate_pr", "vector_bfgs", "vector_bfgs2", "steepest_descent", "default" default=`default')
The default option uses a custom implementation of the gradient descent algorithms while all other
options represent various algorithms implemented in the GNU Scientific Library. When the GNU
Scientific Library can not be found, only the default minimizer is available.
--initialStepSize=DOUBLE
The initial stepsize for the minimizer methods.
(default=`0.01')
--minStepSize=DOUBLE
The minimal stepsize for the minizimer methods.
(default=`1e-15')
--minImprovement=DOUBLE
The minimal improvement in the default minizimer method that has to be surpassed to considered a
new result a better one.
(default=`1e-3')
--minimizerTolerance=DOUBLE
The tolerance to be used in the GSL minimizer
methods.
(default=`1e-3')
-S, --pfScale=DOUBLE
In the calculation of the pf use scale*mfe as an estimate for the ensemble free energy (used to
avoid overflows).
(default=`1.07')
The default is 1.07, useful values are 1.0 to 1.2. Occasionally needed for long sequences.
Structure Constraints:
Command line options to interact with the structure constraints feature of this program
--maxBPspan=INT
Set the maximum base pair span.
(default=`-1')
Energy Parameters:
Energy parameter sets can be adapted or loaded from user-provided input files
-T, --temp=DOUBLE
Rescale energy parameters to a temperature of temp C. Default is 37C.
(default=`37.0')
-P, --paramFile=paramfile
Read energy parameters from paramfile, instead of using the default parameter set.
Different sets of energy parameters for RNA and DNA should accompany your distribution. See the
RNAlib documentation for details on the file format. The placeholder file name 'DNA' can be used
to load DNA parameters without the need to actually specify any input file.
-4, --noTetra
Do not include special tabulated stabilizing energies for tri-, tetra- and hexaloop hairpins.
(default=off)
Mostly for testing.
--salt=DOUBLE
Set salt concentration in molar (M). Default is 1.021M.
Model Details:
Tweak the energy model and pairing rules additionally using the following parameters
-d, --dangles=INT
How to treat "dangling end" energies for bases adjacent to helices in free ends and multi-loops.
(default=`2')
With -d1 only unpaired bases can participate in at most one dangling end. With -d2 this check is
ignored, dangling energies will be added for the bases adjacent to a helix on both sides in any
case; this is the default for mfe and partition function folding (-p). The option -d0 ignores
dangling ends altogether (mostly for debugging). With -d3 mfe folding will allow coaxial stacking
of adjacent helices in multi-loops. At the moment the implementation will not allow coaxial
stacking of the two enclosed pairs in a loop of degree 3 and works only for mfe folding.
Note that with -d1 and -d3 only the MFE computations will be using this setting while partition
function uses -d2 setting, i.e. dangling ends will be treated differently.
--noLP Produce structures without lonely pairs (helices of length 1).
(default=off)
For partition function folding this only disallows pairs that can only occur isolated. Other pairs
may still occasionally occur as helices of length 1.
--noGU Do not allow GU pairs.
(default=off)
--noClosingGU
Do not allow GU pairs at the end of helices.
(default=off)
--nsp=STRING
Allow other pairs in addition to the usual AU,GC,and GU pairs.
Its argument is a comma separated list of additionally allowed pairs. If the first character is a
"-" then AB will imply that AB and BA are allowed pairs, e.g. --nsp="-GA" will allow GA and AG
pairs. Nonstandard pairs are given 0 stacking energy.
--energyModel=INT
Set energy model.
Rarely used option to fold sequences from the artificial ABCD... alphabet, where A pairs B, C-D
etc. Use the energy parameters for GC (--energyModel 1) or AU (--energyModel 2) pairs.
--helical-rise=FLOAT
Set the helical rise of the helix in units of Angstrom.
(default=`2.8')
Use with caution! This value will be re-set automatically to 3.4 in case DNA parameters are loaded
via -P DNA and no further value is provided.
--backbone-length=FLOAT
Set the average backbone length for looped regions in units of Angstrom.
(default=`6.0')
Use with caution! This value will be re-set automatically to 6.76 in case DNA parameters are
loaded via -P DNA and no further value is provided.
REFERENCES
If you use this program in your work you might want to cite:
R. Lorenz, S.H. Bernhart, C. Hoener zu Siederdissen, H. Tafer, C. Flamm, P.F. Stadler and I.L. Hofacker
(2011), "ViennaRNA Package 2.0", Algorithms for Molecular Biology: 6:26
I.L. Hofacker, W. Fontana, P.F. Stadler, S. Bonhoeffer, M. Tacker, P. Schuster (1994), "Fast Folding and
Comparison of RNA Secondary Structures", Monatshefte f. Chemie: 125, pp 167-188
R. Lorenz, I.L. Hofacker, P.F. Stadler (2016), "RNA folding with hard and soft constraints", Algorithms
for Molecular Biology 11:1 pp 1-13
S. Washietl, I.L. Hofacker, P.F. Stadler, M. Kellis (2012) "RNA folding with soft constraints:
reconciliation of probing data and thermodynamics secondary structure prediction" Nucl Acids Res: 40(10),
pp 4261-4272
The energy parameters are taken from:
D.H. Mathews, M.D. Disney, D. Matthew, J.L. Childs, S.J. Schroeder, J. Susan, M. Zuker, D.H. Turner
(2004), "Incorporating chemical modification constraints into a dynamic programming algorithm for
prediction of RNA secondary structure", Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA: 101, pp 7287-7292
D.H Turner, D.H. Mathews (2009), "NNDB: The nearest neighbor parameter database for predicting stability
of nucleic acid secondary structure", Nucleic Acids Research: 38, pp 280-282
EXAMPLES
RNApvmin acceptes a SHAPE file and a corresponding nucleotide sequence, which is read form stdin.
RNApvmin sequence.shape < sequence.fasta > sequence.pv
The normalized SHAPE reactivity data has to be stored in a text file, where each line contains the
position and the reactivity for a certain nucleotide ([position] [nucleotide] [SHAPE reactivity]).
1 A 1.286
2 U 0.383
3 C 0.033
4 C 0.017
...
...
98 U 0.234
99 G 0.885
The nucleotide information in the SHAPE file is optional and will be used to cross check the given input
sequence if present. If SHAPE reactivities could not be determined for every nucleotide, missing values
can simply be omited.
The progress of the minimization will be printed to stderr. Once a solution was found, the calculated
perturbation vector will be print to stdout and can then further be used to constrain RNAfold's
MFE/partition function calculation by applying the perturbation energies as soft constraints.
RNAfold --shape=sequence.pv --shapeMethod=W < sequence.fasta
AUTHOR
Dominik Luntzer, Ronny Lorenz
REPORTING BUGS
If in doubt our program is right, nature is at fault. Comments should be sent to rna@tbi.univie.ac.at.
RNApvmin 2.7.0 September 2025 RNAPVMIN(1)