Issue with low proportion_repeat

[mhguo1]

Hello, I'm getting odd errors when using lower --proportion-repeat in strling extract. For example, when running this command:

strling extract -f GRCh38_full_analysis_set_plus_decoy_hla.fa -p 0.4 NA06989.final.cram test.bin

I get this error:
fatal.nim(49) sysFatal
Error: unhandled exception: genome_strs.nim(39, 12) w.start < w.stop repeat ACCTTT not found in expected region for (chrom: "chr2", start: 71388200, stop: 71388500, repeat: "ACCTTT"), TGAAGGCAGCTAAATTCTCTTACCCTGAGGCTAAGGGCAAGTAGTAGGTAACAAAGGAGTGTAAAGGAATTTATCTAGATAAGTTTATTTACTTTTGCCGACCTTTGATCATCCGACCTTTGATCATCCGACCTTTGATCATCTGACCTTTGATCATCTGACCTTTGATCATCCGACCTTTGATCATCTGACCTTTGATCATCCGCGTGCAGGACTGCTCCCTACAGGCGGGGGCAACAACTACCCACAGATTGTGTTGGCTCCAGGCCTTTGTCATTAAATCTGTACTAAATAAATACA, (chrom: "chr2", start: 71388500, stop: 71388500, repeat: "ACCTTT") [AssertionDefect]

strling version: 0.5.1
fatal.nim(49) sysFatal
Error: unhandled exception: unpack.nim(59, 12) fs != nil [strling] got nil fileStream in unpack_file. check given file-path [AssertionDefect]

I am using a 1000 Genomes sample downloaded from ftp://ftp.sra.ebi.ac.uk/vol1/run/ERR323/ERR3239459/NA06989.final.cram

Thanks!

[brentp]

Thanks for reporting. Using the lower --proportion-repeat does indeed uncover some problems. I can recreate and pushed a fix. We'll need to evaluate the change in performance. I also have another idea to try to fix which I'll post shortly. Note that this is an interesting read with this repeat structure (split on ACCTTT):

TGAAGGCAGCTAAATTCTCTTACCCTGAGGCTAAGGGCAAGTAGTAGGTAACAAAGGAGTGTAAAGGAATTTATCTAGATAAGTTTATTTACTTTTGCCG
ACCTTT
GATCATCCG
ACCTTT
GATCATCCG
ACCTTT
GATCATCTG
ACCTTT
GATCATCTG
ACCTTT
GATCATCCG
ACCTTT
GATCATCTG
ACCTTT
GATCATCCGCGTGCAGGACTGCTCCCTACAGGCGGGGGCAACAACTACCCACAGATTGTGTTGGCTCCAGGCCTTTGTCATTAAATCTGTACTAAATAAATACA

[brentp]

BTW, I'm interested to hear what @hdashnow thinks, but my experience is that lowering proportion_repeat is usually not fruitful.

[hdashnow]

Thanks @brentp

@mhguo1 I'm curious why you'd like to use proportion repeat = 0.4? This is extremely low, which is why we never tested this. If you're having trouble recovering a specific locus maybe we can address that in a different way?

[mhguo1]

Hi all, thank you for looking into this! Perhaps I'm not fully understanding this parameter well. I'm interested in looking at milder expansions and felt that the default value of -p 0.8 was too high so was playing around with it. If I understand this correctly, with a 150 bp PE read, a value of 0.8 for a trinucleotide repeat expansion would only consider expansions past 40 repeats (150*0.8/3).

[hdashnow]

@mhguo1 You are correct, STRling is tuned to discover larger expansions. Are you looking to discover new loci, or call known ones? If you are looking at a specific locus you can force STRling to genotype it even if it is small.

[mhguo1]

I'm mostly hoping to call known ones, so I guess I will just add a custom bed file with known sites to -l to the call command. Thanks!

[hdashnow]

Great! Let us know if you have additional questions, or see any other errors. It was useful to get this one fixed.