Varia is a tool to predict var genes based on short 150-200 base pair sequences (like PCR fragments). It is composed of two module Varia VIP and Varia GEM.
To install Varia, and first download the current version, eg.
- git clone https://github.com/GCJMackenzie/Varia.git
- Move to direcory "cd Varia/Varia1_6"
- Next you need to download two files with var genes data. You can obviously provide your own, see manual, but download:
3a: download vardb_domains.txt.gz from https://github.com/ThomasDOtto/varDB/tree/master/Datasets/Varia/ into the directory domains and unzip it
Run next: cat vardb_domains.txt | perl -e 'while(){@ar=split(/\t/); chomp($ar[3]); $h{$ar[0]}.=$ar[3]."-"}; foreach $k (keys %h){ print "$k\t$h{$k}\n"}' > vardb_GEM_domains.txt to generate a different version of the domains 3b download mega_var.fasta.gz from https://github.com/ThomasDOtto/varDB/tree/master/Datasets/Varia/ into the directory vardb and unzip it - change the attributes of executable files: chmod 755 *.sh
- Run the installation scrip ./Install_Varia.sh. This will install all the needed packages.
- Set the path as suggested in the last line of the varia installation script: PATH=$PATH:<...Varia/Varia1_6> export PATH
- Finally install vsearch:
conda install -c bioconda vsearch
conda install -c bioconda/label/cf201901 vsearch
with Varia.sh VIP -h you should get information how to run the first module.
We tested Varia on a linux and Mac (10.13) enviroment.
#Pre-requisites
Varia is run in a Linux environment. To run module 1, Varia requires the following tools be installed and be included in the user’s path: (The installation script will try to install some of them)
-mcl v12-135: https://micans.org/mcl/
-megablast + formatdb v2.2.26: https://blast.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/Blast.cgi?CMD=Web&PAGE_TYPE=BlastDocs&DOC_TYPE=Download
-samtools v1.7: http://samtools.sourceforge.net/
-Vsearch 2.14.2
-circos v 0.69-6, perl v 5.022000: http://circos.ca/software/download/circos/
The script Install_Varia.sh, has been included to help check the required tools are installed. Varia has two pipelines, the var identification and prediction, Varia_VIP, and the var gene expression analysis module, (2) Varia_GEM.
#Run the script
Arguments
Varia_VIP is run using the following command line:
Varia.sh [optional arguments] -i [input tag file]
-i is the only mandatory argument required to run Varia_VIP as this specifies the input file to be used. Varia_VIP also has a number of optional arguments, which can be used to change the output directory and change various filters used throughout the module, a detailed list of these options and their default settings can be found in the readme file, or by using:
Varia.sh -h
Varia is building on existing var gene databases can that be found at:
ftp://ftp.sanger.ac.uk/pub/project/pathogens/Plasmodium/falciparum/PF3K/varDB/FullDataset/
and
https://github.com/ThomasDOtto/varDB