COVID-19 variant calling pipeline

This pipeline is used to process SARS-CoV-2 sequencing data from raw reads to variants and assembly files. This pipeline is able to process both Nanopore and Illumina paired-end sequencing data.

This workflow wraps two separate analysis pipelines:

The SARS-CoV-2 Illumina GeNome Assembly Line (SIGNAL) pipeline for Illumina paired-end data; created by the McArthur lab
An implementation of the ARTIC protocol for use with Nanopore data by the Connor lab

Visit the repositories for each workflow for more information on the steps, protocols, and parameters in use.

Required software

Docker
Cromwell & Java (8+) OR miniwdl & python3
cURL (for download script)

Required data files

Some reference files are required by the SIGNAL pipeline. They can be downloaded automatically using the download-data.sh script in the scripts directory by running:

./scripts/download-data.sh

This will download required data files to the data directory at the root of the repository. These files total ~3.5 GB.

Running the workflow

It is assumed that all commands will be run from the root of the repository directory. If run from elsewhere, the input file should be updated to use absolute file paths. Note that the download_fastqs task (the first task) relies on a reliable internet connection; connection to NCBI's SRA can sometimes be unstable. If the workflow fails at this step, try rerunning it at a later time when NCBI's servers may be under lighter load.

Selecting inputs

Inputs must be selected and filled in to a JSON-format file. A template file may be found here: inputs/input_template.json.

Input identifier	Description	Possible values
main.Run_ID	NCBI run accession ID	Find SARS-CoV-2 sequencing runs here
main.type	Sequencing platform used; determines which analysis pipeline is run	Must be one of ["NANOPORE", "ILLUMINA_PE"]
main.signal_scheme_bed	[SIGNAL] The BED-format primer scheme used to prepare the Illumina PE library	Only used in the ILLUMINA_PE workflow (SIGNAL). Can be the path to any properly formatted file. ARTIC primer files can be found here. See section on Primer schemes below.
main.artic_primer_version	[ARTIC] The ARTIC primer version used to prepare the Nanopore library	Only used in the NANOPORE workflow (ARTIC). Must be one of ["V1", "V2", "V3"]. Other primer schemes for Nanopore samples are not currently supported.
main.human_reference	[SIGNAL] Path to an archive file containing human reference sequences	Downloaded using the scripts/download-data.sh script.
main.kraken_db	[SIGNAL] Path to an archive file containing the Kraken2 database files	" " "
main.viral_reference_genome	[SIGNAL] Path to the SARS-CoV-2 viral reference FASTA (MN908947.3)	" " "
main.viral_reference_feature_coords	[SIGNAL] Path to the SARS-CoV-2 viral reference feature coordinate file	" " "
main.breseq_reference	[SIGNAL] Path to the SARS-CoV-2 GBK-format file	" " "
main.min_freq_high_confidence_threshold	[SIGNAL] Frequency threshold to call high-confidence variants	Default: 0.25
main.ivar_min_freq_threshold	[SIGNAL] Minimum frequency threshold to call variants	Default: 0.03
main.ivar_min_coverage_depth	[SIGNAL] Minimum coverage depth to call variants	Default: 10
main.ivar_min_variant_quality	[SIGNAL] Minimum variant quality	Default: 20
main.ivar_freq_threshold	[SIGNAL] Frequency threshold to build consensus sequence	Default: 0.75
main.mpileup_depth	[SIGNAL] Mpileup depth for iVar	Default: 100000
main.signal_min_qual	[SIGNAL] Minimum quality used in trimgalore and iVar trim	Default: 20
main.signal_min_length	[SIGNAL] Minimum read length to retain after trimming	Default: 20
main.artic_min_length	[ARTIC] Minimum read length for artic guppyplex	Default: 400
main.artic_max_length	[ARTIC] Maximum read length for artic guppyplex	Default: 700

All [SIGNAL] file locations have been prefilled in the template input file. These files are downloaded and moved to the correct locations by the data download script.

Run_ID, type, signal_scheme_bed file location, and artic_primer_version must be filled in on the template input file for the workflow to be run. For formatting help, check out the test input files in the same directory. Any inputs with default values defined to not need to be explicitly defined in the input file if no change to the default value is required.

For more information about SIGNAL parameters, see here. For more information about ARTIC parameters, see here.

Test input files

Example Illumina PE input file: inputs/illumina_pe.test_input.json
Example Nanopore input file: inputs/nanopore.test_input.json

Primer schemes

Primer schemes (the input to main.signal_scheme_bed) available in the data/primer_schemes directory are from the official artic-network github. The v3 scheme was altered such that it's 5th column was set to 60 for every row to conform with the BED specification (required by ivar).

Different schemes may be used for the Illumina PE workflow, e.g. schemes available in the SIGNAL github. The Nanopore workflow is currently only able to operate on ARTIC primer schemes (v1, v2, and v3).

Running using Cromwell

Ensure you have first filled out all input files appropriately.

From the root of the repository, run:

java -jar /path/to/cromwell.jar run workflows/main.wdl -i inputs/input_template.json

Output and execution files will be located in the cromwell-executions directory. When the workflow finishes successfully, it will output JSON (to stdout) specifying the full path to each output file.

Running using miniwdl