Research

Assigns GO terms, Pfam/InterPro domains, KEGG orthologs, EC numbers, and product names to predicted proteins using eggNOG-mapper (orthology), InterProScan (domain signatures), and KofamScan (KEGG), routing specialized functions to dbCAN/antiSMASH/AMRFinderPlus/SignalP. Covers the orthology-vs-domain-vs-homology paradigms, the annotation-error percolation cascade, domain-presence-is-not-function, GO IEA circularity in enrichment, evidence tiering, and bit-score/coverage thresholds. Use when ad...

Transfers gene annotations between genome assemblies via coordinate liftover (UCSC liftOver, CrossMap for same-species version updates) or feature/sequence projection (Liftoff for same/close species, miniprot for protein-level cross-species, TOGA/GeMoMa/CAT for distant clades). Covers the coordinate-vs-projection decision by divergence, why a successful lift is not biological confirmation, reference bias, the silent-dropping of unmapped features, build/PAR/MHC/inversion hazards, and transfer-...

Assesses the quality and completeness of a genome annotation with BUSCO (conserved single-copy ortholog recovery), OMArk (proteome completeness, consistency, and contamination), CheckM2 (prokaryotic completeness/contamination), and a gene-set sanity panel (gene count, mono-exonic fraction, protein-length distribution, mRNA:gene ratio, coding density). Covers the assembly-BUSCO-vs-proteome-BUSCO diagnostic, what BUSCO-Duplicated really means, why gene count is a vanity metric, and the QC of tr...

Infer transcription factor regulons from single-cell RNA-seq with pySCENIC by combining GRNBoost2 co-expression, cisTarget motif-enrichment pruning, and AUCell per-cell activity scoring. Covers the motif-pruning-as-directionality principle, regulon specificity scoring, run-to-run stability, and database/species matching. Use when identifying TF regulons, scoring TF activity per cell, finding master regulators of cell identity, or comparing regulon activity across conditions. For enhancer-driv...

Simulate transcription factor perturbation effects on cell state in silico with CellOracle and Dynamo, and predict transcriptional responses to genetic perturbations with GEARS, scGen, and CPA. Covers the direction-not-magnitude principle, local-linear validity, the GRN/velocity error it inherits, baseline discipline (mean and additive baselines), and the validation gap. Use when predicting TF knockout or overexpression effects, ranking driver TFs for fate transitions, or planning perturbatio...

Build enhancer-driven gene regulatory networks (eGRNs) by integrating single-cell RNA-seq and ATAC-seq using SCENIC+, CellOracle base GRNs, Pando, FigR, DIRECT-NET, TRIPOD, and scMEGA. Covers the accessibility-defines-enhancers principle, peak-to-gene linking and its cell-composition confound, the paired-vs-unpaired decision, and TF-region-gene eRegulon triplets. Use when analyzing 10x multiome or paired/unpaired scRNA+scATAC to infer cis-regulatory GRNs. For RNA-only regulons see scenic-regu...

Compare gene co-expression and regulatory networks between biological conditions to find rewired relationships using DiffCorr, DiffCoEx, DINGO/iDINGO, and CoDiNA. Covers the differential-connectivity-is-not-differential-expression distinction, the pairwise multiple-testing explosion, marginal vs partial (direct) rewiring, and the underpowered-rewiring failure mode. Use when comparing co-expression networks between disease vs control, treatment, or developmental stages, or finding hub genes th...

Build weighted gene co-expression networks to identify modules of co-regulated genes, relate them to phenotypes, and find hub genes using WGCNA, hdWGCNA, MEGENA, CEMiTool, and Gaussian graphical models. Covers signed-network choice, soft-threshold selection, module preservation, and the marginal-vs-partial-correlation distinction. Use when finding co-expression modules, identifying hub genes, relating gene networks to clinical or experimental traits, or building single-cell co-expression netw...

Defines cell populations in flow and spectral cytometry through manual gates (rectangle, polygon, quadrant, boolean) and reproducible automated gating (openCyto gating templates, flowDensity data-driven thresholds, flowClust model-based gates), organized as a hierarchical GatingSet (flowWorkspace) and round-tripped with FlowJo via CytoML. Covers the canonical gate order (time -> debris -> singlets -> live -> lineage), FMO-vs-isotype boundary setting, gate-order dependence and recompute semant...

Quality control for flow, spectral, and mass cytometry - time-based anomaly cleaning (flowAI, flowCut, PeacoQC, flowClean), margin/boundary event removal, signal-drift detection, dead-cell exclusion, CyTOF Gaussian/DNA/event-length checks, instrument calibration/standardization (MESF, CS&T, peak-2), and batch-level outlier flagging. Use when assessing acquisition quality, choosing a cleaning tool, ordering QC relative to compensation, deciding margin removal before density-based steps, or fla...

Unsupervised clustering and cell-type identification for high-dimensional flow, spectral, and mass cytometry - FlowSOM, PhenoGraph, FlowSOM-via-CATALYST, with UMAP/tSNE for visualization. Covers the type-vs-state marker distinction (cluster on lineage, test state within clusters), over-provision-then-metacluster, the Weber-Robinson benchmark, seed dependence and metacluster stability, why embeddings are for looking not measuring, and median-heatmap annotation/merging. Use when discovering pop...

Maps between gene identifier systems (Ensembl, Entrez, HGNC symbol, UniProt, RefSeq, MANE) using AnnotationDbi, biomaRt, mygene, pyensembl, and Ensembl REST. Encodes Ensembl version stripping with GENCODE _PAR_Y preservation, the Ziemann 2016 Excel autocorrect debacle and Bruford 2020 HGNC renames (SEPT*->SEPTIN*, MARCH*->MARCHF*, MARC*->MTARC*, DEC1->DELEC1), OCT4/POU5F1 alias resolution, biomaRt archive endpoints for release pinning, the `filters` (plural) gotcha, MANE Select for clinical r...

Imports gene expression count matrices from featureCounts, HTSeq, STAR ReadsPerGene, Salmon/kallisto via tximport or tximeta, RSEM, 10X Genomics MTX/H5, AnnData H5AD, and RDS. Handles silent-miscounting traps (featureCounts -p v2.0.2 API break, STAR strandedness column choice, salmon NumReads-sum without tximport, RSEM non-integer expected_count, GENCODE _PAR_Y suffix, zero-length-transcript TPM divide-by-zero), and encodes the tximport countsFromAbundance decision tree with the "lengthScaled...

Structures biological experiments so inference is valid by construction, covering Fisher's principles (randomization, replication, local control), the experimental-vs-observational unit distinction and pseudoreplication (Hurlbert 1984; Lazic 2018), randomization mechanics (complete, restricted, stratified, rerandomization, run-order), blocking layouts (randomized complete block, Latin square, incomplete block), factorial designs and interactions, and the split-plot/nested error strata hidden ...

Calculates statistical power for high-dimensional genomics experiments (bulk RNA-seq, scRNA-seq, ATAC-seq, ChIP-seq, methylation, proteomics) under negative-binomial count models using RNASeqPower, PROPER, and simulation via powsimR, distinguishing per-gene from marginal (transcriptome-wide) power, the role of mean expression and dispersion, and the sequencing-depth-versus-replicate tradeoff. Covers simulation as the honest default for overdispersed counts, FDR-aware average power versus sing...

Controls error rates across thousands of simultaneous tests in genomics discovery using false-discovery-rate methods (Benjamini-Hochberg 1995; Benjamini-Yekutieli 2001 for arbitrary dependence; Storey q-value with pi0 estimation; local FDR; independent filtering Bourgon 2010; covariate-weighted FDR via IHW Ignatiadis 2016), plus family-wise error control (Bonferroni, Holm) and the GWAS genome-wide threshold. Covers the FDR-versus-FWER choice as the discovery-versus-confirmatory distinction, t...

Visualises RNA-modification data with transcript-feature metagene plots (Guitar GuitarPlot; MetaPlotR; deepTools computeMatrix scale-regions), peak-centred heatmaps (ComplexHeatmap; deepTools plotHeatmap), IP-vs-input paired browser tracks (log2 IP/input bigWig via deepTools bamCompare; pyGenomeTracks; Gviz; IGV/UCSC track hubs), DRACH sequence-logo plots (ggseqlogo; MEME), feature-distribution stacked bars, and volcano/MA plots for differential modification. Establishes stop-codon enrichment...

Delimits putative species boundaries from molecular data within the de Queiroz 2007 unified-lineage framework using ASAP (Puillandre 2021 successor to ABGD), mPTP C++ (Kapli 2017 successor to bPTP; bPTP is Python NOT R), GMYC single/multi-threshold (Pons 2006; Fujisawa 2013), multilocus BPP v4 with prior calibration from data (NOT defaults; Yang 2015), SNAPP + BFD* for SNP delimitation, DELINEATE (Sukumaran 2021) speciation-process modeling to address Sukumaran & Knowles 2017 PNAS critique th...

Build OncoPrint and co-mutation matrix plots from somatic-variant cohorts using ComplexHeatmap, maftools, and comut.py with alteration-type stacking, sample ordering by mutational burden, mutual-exclusivity overlays, and clinical annotation tracks. Use when visualizing per-sample mutation patterns across recurrent driver genes, comparing alteration classes, or identifying mutually-exclusive / co-occurring driver pairs.

Plot per-gene mutation distributions on a protein-domain map (lollipop / needle plots) showing mutation position, recurrence count, and variant classification with maftools, g3-lollipop, trackViewer, and ProteinPaint. Use when visualizing recurrent mutation hotspots on a single gene's protein, marking domain boundaries from UniProt/Pfam, comparing missense vs truncating distributions, or contrasting two cohorts on the same lollipop.

Resolve subclonal copy number, whole-genome doubling, and copy-number tumor evolution from bulk sequencing with Battenberg, TITAN, and MEDICC2. Covers clonal versus subclonal copy-number states, haplotype phasing for subclonal resolution, cancer cell fraction, whole-genome-doubling detection and timing relative to mutations, mirrored subclonal allelic imbalance, and copy-number phylogenies. Use when a tumor is heterogeneous and bulk data shows non-integer copy number, when calling subclonal C...

Resolve the architecture of focal oncogene amplifications — extrachromosomal DNA (ecDNA), breakage-fusion-bridge (BFB) cycles, homogeneously staining regions (HSR), and linear amplification — from whole-genome sequencing with AmpliconArchitect, the AmpliconSuite pipeline, and AmpliconClassifier. Covers copy-number seed selection, breakpoint-graph reconstruction, balanced-flow optimization, ecDNA classification, and the limits of depth-only amplification calls. Use when a focal amplification n...

Detect, date, and contextualize whole-genome duplication (WGD / paleopolyploidy) events using wgd v2 (Chen et al 2024), KsRates (Sensalari 2022 substitution-rate-corrected Ks dating), DupGen_finder (Qiao 2019), MAPS (Li 2018 phylogenomic), POInT (Conant 2008 ordered-block), SLEDGe (2024 ML-based), Whale.jl (Bayesian DL+WGD), and synteny-anchored paranome construction. Use when identifying ancient polyploidy from Ks distributions and synteny block analysis, positioning WGD events relative to s...

Model gene-family birth-death dynamics across a species tree using CAFE5 (Mendes et al 2020 Bioinformatics 36:5516 gamma-distributed rate categories), CAFE5-error (annotation-error-aware), Count (Csurös 2010 ancestral state reconstruction), BadiRate (Librado 2012 likelihood + parsimony), DupliPHY-Family, and ALE/AleRax (for per-family DTL; see [[gene-tree-species-tree-reconciliation]]). Test lineage-specific gene-family expansions and contractions, distinguish biological dynamics from annotat...