BRGenomics 1.8.0
Importing genomics files is accomplished using the rtracklayer
package, which
contains a variety of functions and options for importing and exporting.
# import bed file
genelist <- import.bed("~/data/genelists/genes.bed")
# import gff
genelist <- import.gff("~/data/genelists/genes.gff")
# export a bed file after modifying
export.bed(genelist, "~/data/genelists/filtered_genes.bed")
One of the more useful GenomicRanges
functions is the promoters()
function,
which returns ranges centered on the strand-specific start of the input ranges:
library(BRGenomics)
data("txs_dm6_chr4")
tx4 <- txs_dm6_chr4[c(1, 10, 200, 300)]
tx4
## GRanges object with 4 ranges and 2 metadata columns:
## seqnames ranges strand | tx_name gene_id
## <Rle> <IRanges> <Rle> | <character> <character>
## [1] chr4 879-5039 + | FBtr0346692 FBgn0267363
## [2] chr4 69326-110059 + | FBtr0308615 FBgn0085432
## [3] chr4 184225-193489 - | FBtr0089150 FBgn0039890
## [4] chr4 1009895-1027101 - | FBtr0309865 FBgn0025741
## -------
## seqinfo: 7 sequences from dm6 genome
tx4_pr <- promoters(tx4, upstream = 50, downstream = 100)
tx4_pr
## GRanges object with 4 ranges and 2 metadata columns:
## seqnames ranges strand | tx_name gene_id
## <Rle> <IRanges> <Rle> | <character> <character>
## [1] chr4 829-978 + | FBtr0346692 FBgn0267363
## [2] chr4 69276-69425 + | FBtr0308615 FBgn0085432
## [3] chr4 193390-193539 - | FBtr0089150 FBgn0039890
## [4] chr4 1027002-1027151 - | FBtr0309865 FBgn0025741
## -------
## seqinfo: 7 sequences from dm6 genome
width(tx4_pr)
## [1] 150 150 150 150
BRGenomics ships with a more flexible alternative function called
genebodies()
. While promoters()
has the arguments upstream
and
downstream
, which take only positive values, the genebodies()
function uses
start
and end
arguments that can be positive or negative, and arguments
fix.start
and fix.end
for determining whether to define the positions in
relation to the (strand-specific) beginning or ends of genes.
Below, we demonstrate several uses of the genebodies()
function, using a list
of transcripts which start at a transcription start site (TSS) and end at a
cleavage and polyadenylation site (CPS).
Original regions:
tx4
## GRanges object with 4 ranges and 2 metadata columns:
## seqnames ranges strand | tx_name gene_id
## <Rle> <IRanges> <Rle> | <character> <character>
## [1] chr4 879-5039 + | FBtr0346692 FBgn0267363
## [2] chr4 69326-110059 + | FBtr0308615 FBgn0085432
## [3] chr4 184225-193489 - | FBtr0089150 FBgn0039890
## [4] chr4 1009895-1027101 - | FBtr0309865 FBgn0025741
## -------
## seqinfo: 7 sequences from dm6 genome
Genebody regions from 300 bp downstream of the TSS to 300 bp upstream of the CPS:
genebodies(tx4, start = 300, end = -300)
## GRanges object with 4 ranges and 2 metadata columns:
## seqnames ranges strand | tx_name gene_id
## <Rle> <IRanges> <Rle> | <character> <character>
## [1] chr4 1179-4739 + | FBtr0346692 FBgn0267363
## [2] chr4 69626-109759 + | FBtr0308615 FBgn0085432
## [3] chr4 184525-193189 - | FBtr0089150 FBgn0039890
## [4] chr4 1010195-1026801 - | FBtr0309865 FBgn0025741
## -------
## seqinfo: 7 sequences from dm6 genome
By default, fix.start = "start"
and fix.end = "end"
. But we can change
either of them to define ranges based solely on the beginnings or ends of the
input regions.
Get promoter regions from 50 bp upstream to 100 bp downstream of the TSS:
genebodies(tx4, -50, 100, fix.end = "start")
## GRanges object with 4 ranges and 2 metadata columns:
## seqnames ranges strand | tx_name gene_id
## <Rle> <IRanges> <Rle> | <character> <character>
## [1] chr4 829-979 + | FBtr0346692 FBgn0267363
## [2] chr4 69276-69426 + | FBtr0308615 FBgn0085432
## [3] chr4 193389-193539 - | FBtr0089150 FBgn0039890
## [4] chr4 1027001-1027151 - | FBtr0309865 FBgn0025741
## -------
## seqinfo: 7 sequences from dm6 genome
Regions from 100 bp upstream of to 50 bp upstream of the TSS:
genebodies(tx4, -100, -50, fix.end = "start")
## GRanges object with 4 ranges and 2 metadata columns:
## seqnames ranges strand | tx_name gene_id
## <Rle> <IRanges> <Rle> | <character> <character>
## [1] chr4 779-829 + | FBtr0346692 FBgn0267363
## [2] chr4 69226-69276 + | FBtr0308615 FBgn0085432
## [3] chr4 193539-193589 - | FBtr0089150 FBgn0039890
## [4] chr4 1027151-1027201 - | FBtr0309865 FBgn0025741
## -------
## seqinfo: 7 sequences from dm6 genome
Regions from 1kb upstream of the CPS to 1kb downstream of the CPS
genebodies(tx4, -1000, 1000, fix.start = "end")
## GRanges object with 4 ranges and 2 metadata columns:
## seqnames ranges strand | tx_name gene_id
## <Rle> <IRanges> <Rle> | <character> <character>
## [1] chr4 4039-6039 + | FBtr0346692 FBgn0267363
## [2] chr4 109059-111059 + | FBtr0308615 FBgn0085432
## [3] chr4 183225-185225 - | FBtr0089150 FBgn0039890
## [4] chr4 1008895-1010895 - | FBtr0309865 FBgn0025741
## -------
## seqinfo: 7 sequences from dm6 genome
Regions within the first 10kb downstream of the CPS:
genebodies(tx4, 0, 10000, fix.start = "end")
## GRanges object with 4 ranges and 2 metadata columns:
## seqnames ranges strand | tx_name gene_id
## <Rle> <IRanges> <Rle> | <character> <character>
## [1] chr4 5039-15039 + | FBtr0346692 FBgn0267363
## [2] chr4 110059-120059 + | FBtr0308615 FBgn0085432
## [3] chr4 174225-184225 - | FBtr0089150 FBgn0039890
## [4] chr4 999895-1009895 - | FBtr0309865 FBgn0025741
## -------
## seqinfo: 7 sequences from dm6 genome
The reduceByGene()
and intersectByGene()
are two other useful functions,
which perform two common tasks very efficiently.
reduceByGene()
takes all ranges that share the same gene name (e.g. different
transcript isoforms) and combines them such that all positions are represented.
txs <- txs_dm6_chr4[order(txs_dm6_chr4$gene_id)] # sort by gene_id
txs[1:10]
## GRanges object with 10 ranges and 2 metadata columns:
## seqnames ranges strand | tx_name gene_id
## <Rle> <IRanges> <Rle> | <character> <character>
## [1] chr4 1172469-1181628 - | FBtr0089204 FBgn0002521
## [2] chr4 1172469-1181628 - | FBtr0089205 FBgn0002521
## [3] chr4 501810-538373 + | FBtr0332913 FBgn0004607
## [4] chr4 501810-539792 + | FBtr0089070 FBgn0004607
## [5] chr4 501810-540874 + | FBtr0307167 FBgn0004607
## [6] chr4 47710-56331 - | FBtr0089178 FBgn0004859
## [7] chr4 47710-56331 - | FBtr0308074 FBgn0004859
## [8] chr4 47710-57041 - | FBtr0306168 FBgn0004859
## [9] chr4 697689-721173 + | FBtr0089235 FBgn0005558
## [10] chr4 704651-721173 + | FBtr0089236 FBgn0005558
## -------
## seqinfo: 7 sequences from dm6 genome
reduceByGene(txs, gene_names = txs$gene_id)
## GRanges object with 111 ranges and 0 metadata columns:
## seqnames ranges strand
## <Rle> <IRanges> <Rle>
## FBgn0002521 chr4 1172469-1181628 -
## FBgn0004607 chr4 501810-540874 +
## FBgn0004859 chr4 47710-57041 -
## FBgn0005558 chr4 697689-721173 +
## FBgn0005561 chr4 1088798-1113317 +
## ... ... ... ...
## FBgn0266727 chr4 776475-777146 -
## FBgn0266728 chr4 959224-959434 -
## FBgn0267363 chr4 879-5039 +
## FBgn0267734 chr4 228576-229112 -
## FBgn0283557 chr4 400703-400765 -
## -------
## seqinfo: 7 sequences from dm6 genome
By default, the gene names are maintained as the names of the rows (ranges) in the output. To set them into metadata again, we could run:
txs_redux <- reduceByGene(txs, gene_names = txs$gene_id)
txs_redux$gene_id <- names(txs_redux)
names(txs_redux) <- NULL
txs_redux
## GRanges object with 111 ranges and 1 metadata column:
## seqnames ranges strand | gene_id
## <Rle> <IRanges> <Rle> | <character>
## [1] chr4 1172469-1181628 - | FBgn0002521
## [2] chr4 501810-540874 + | FBgn0004607
## [3] chr4 47710-57041 - | FBgn0004859
## [4] chr4 697689-721173 + | FBgn0005558
## [5] chr4 1088798-1113317 + | FBgn0005561
## ... ... ... ... . ...
## [107] chr4 776475-777146 - | FBgn0266727
## [108] chr4 959224-959434 - | FBgn0266728
## [109] chr4 879-5039 + | FBgn0267363
## [110] chr4 228576-229112 - | FBgn0267734
## [111] chr4 400703-400765 - | FBgn0283557
## -------
## seqinfo: 7 sequences from dm6 genome
Note that reduceByGene()
is not guaranteed to produce a single range per
gene, but will produce the fewest number of ranges required to represent all
input positions.
Also note that while the output ranges for a given gene are disjoint, it is possible for ranges from different genes to overlap one another.
To make all ranges disjoint (no position overlapped more than once), set
disjoin = TRUE
.
While reduceByGene()
creates a comprehensive representation of all input
ranges (e.g. a “union” of the set of input ranges), intersectByGene()
outputs
only the consensus region, i.e. the region that is shared across all the ranges
of a particular gene.
txs[1:10]
## GRanges object with 10 ranges and 2 metadata columns:
## seqnames ranges strand | tx_name gene_id
## <Rle> <IRanges> <Rle> | <character> <character>
## [1] chr4 1172469-1181628 - | FBtr0089204 FBgn0002521
## [2] chr4 1172469-1181628 - | FBtr0089205 FBgn0002521
## [3] chr4 501810-538373 + | FBtr0332913 FBgn0004607
## [4] chr4 501810-539792 + | FBtr0089070 FBgn0004607
## [5] chr4 501810-540874 + | FBtr0307167 FBgn0004607
## [6] chr4 47710-56331 - | FBtr0089178 FBgn0004859
## [7] chr4 47710-56331 - | FBtr0308074 FBgn0004859
## [8] chr4 47710-57041 - | FBtr0306168 FBgn0004859
## [9] chr4 697689-721173 + | FBtr0089235 FBgn0005558
## [10] chr4 704651-721173 + | FBtr0089236 FBgn0005558
## -------
## seqinfo: 7 sequences from dm6 genome
txs_insxt <- intersectByGene(txs, gene_names = txs$gene_id)
txs_insxt[order(names(txs_insxt))]
## GRanges object with 110 ranges and 0 metadata columns:
## seqnames ranges strand
## <Rle> <IRanges> <Rle>
## FBgn0002521 chr4 1172469-1181628 -
## FBgn0004607 chr4 501810-538373 +
## FBgn0004859 chr4 47710-56331 -
## FBgn0005558 chr4 707429-721173 +
## FBgn0005561 chr4 1098525-1110974 +
## ... ... ... ...
## FBgn0266727 chr4 776475-777146 -
## FBgn0266728 chr4 959224-959434 -
## FBgn0267363 chr4 879-5039 +
## FBgn0267734 chr4 228576-229112 -
## FBgn0283557 chr4 400703-400765 -
## -------
## seqinfo: 7 sequences from dm6 genome
Unlike reduceByGene()
, intersectByGene()
is guaranteed to return no more
than 1 range per gene. However, genes for which no consensus is possible (i.e.
no single range can overlap every input range) are dropped from the genelist.