deepvariant on Biowulf

DeepVariant is an analysis pipeline that uses a deep neural network to call genetic variants from next-generation DNA sequencing data by converting pileups from bam files to images and feeding them to a DNN based model.

Starting with version 1.5.0 a variant module with the -deeptrio is provided. This variant is targeted at analyzing trios and duos. An example is provieded below

References:

Documentation
Important Notes

Interactive job
Interactive jobs should be used for debugging, graphics, or applications that cannot be run as batch jobs.

Allocate an interactive session and run the program. Note that for the purposes of this demonstration a GPU node is used for all three steps of the pipeline. For real applications, please only use GPU nodes for the call_variant step and make sure to parallelize the make_examples step. Sample session:

[user@biowulf]$ sinteractive --gres=gpu:p100:1,lscratch:50 --cpus-per-task=6 --mem=24g
salloc.exe: Pending job allocation 46116226
salloc.exe: job 46116226 queued and waiting for resources
salloc.exe: job 46116226 has been allocated resources
salloc.exe: Granted job allocation 46116226
salloc.exe: Waiting for resource configuration
salloc.exe: Nodes cn4224 are ready for job

[user@cn4224 ~]$ cd /lscratch/$SLURM_JOB_ID
[user@cn4224 ~]$ module load deepvariant/1.6.0
[user@cn4224 ~]$ cp -r ${DEEPVARIANT_TEST_DATA:-none} input
[user@cn4224 ~]$ tree input
input
|-- [user   3.7M]  NA12878_S1.chr20.10_10p1mb.bam
|-- [user   5.3K]  NA12878_S1.chr20.10_10p1mb.bam.bai
|-- [user    264]  test_nist.b37_chr20_100kbp_at_10mb.bed
|-- [user   5.6K]  test_nist.b37_chr20_100kbp_at_10mb.vcf.gz
|-- [user    197]  test_nist.b37_chr20_100kbp_at_10mb.vcf.gz.tbi
|-- [user    61M]  ucsc.hg19.chr20.unittest.fasta
|-- [user     23]  ucsc.hg19.chr20.unittest.fasta.fai
|-- [user   593K]  ucsc.hg19.chr20.unittest.fasta.gz
|-- [user     23]  ucsc.hg19.chr20.unittest.fasta.gz.fai
`-- [user    15K]  ucsc.hg19.chr20.unittest.fasta.gz.gzi

[user@cn4224 ~]$ mkdir output
[user@cn4224 ~]$ REF=input/ucsc.hg19.chr20.unittest.fasta
[user@cn4224 ~]$ BAM=input/NA12878_S1.chr20.10_10p1mb.bam

Extract images of pileups from the input bam file with make_examples, which is single threaded and consumes 1-2GB of memory. Note that starting with version 1.1.0 it is necessary to specify --channels insert_size to make_examples for WGS and WES models. For other models other channels are needed.

[user@cn4224 ~]$ make_examples --mode calling \
                      --ref "${REF}" \
                      --reads "${BAM}" \
                      --regions "chr20:10,000,000-10,010,000" \
                      --channels insert_size \
                      --examples output/examples.tfrecord.gz

For 1.8.0 --channels does not exist any more. Instead use --channel_list. For example:

[user@cn4224 ~]$ module load deepvariant/1.8.0
[user@cn4224 ~]$ make_examples --mode calling \
                      --ref "${REF}" \
                      --reads "${BAM}" \
                      --regions "chr20:10,000,000-10,010,000" \
                      --channel_list=read_base,base_quality,mapping_quality,strand,read_supports_variant,base_differs_from_ref,insert_size \
                      --examples output/examples.tfrecord.gz

Please note, that make_examples must be called with --norealign_reads --vsc_min_fraction_indels 0.12 flag for PacBio long reads.

This step can be parallelized with gnu parallel on a single machine, in which case multiple output files are generated. Let's clean up the serial results and re-produce them in parallel.

[user@cn4224 ~]$ rm output/examples.tfrecord.gz # discard the output from the non-parallel run above
[user@cn4224 ~]$ module load parallel
[user@cn4224 ~]$ N_SHARDS=3
[user@cn4224 ~]$ mkdir -p logs
[user@cn4224 ~]$ seq 0 $((N_SHARDS-1)) \
                      | parallel -j ${SLURM_CPUS_PER_TASK} --eta --halt 2 --joblog "logs/log" --res "logs" \
                        make_examples --mode calling \
                          --ref "${REF}" \
                          --reads "${BAM}" \
                          --regions "chr20:10,000,000-10,010,000" \
                          --examples "output/examples.tfrecord@${N_SHARDS}.gz" \
                          --channels insert_size \
                          --task {}
[user@cn4224 ~]$ tree output
output
├── [user  231K]  examples.tfrecord-00000-of-00003.gz
├── [user    80]  examples.tfrecord-00000-of-00003.gz.example_info.json
├── [user  214K]  examples.tfrecord-00001-of-00003.gz
├── [user    80]  examples.tfrecord-00001-of-00003.gz.example_info.json
├── [user  234K]  examples.tfrecord-00002-of-00003.gz
└── [user    80]  examples.tfrecord-00002-of-00003.gz.example_info.json

0 directories, 6 files

Call variants on the sharded output. The module is stored at /opt/models/model.chpt in the singularity image containing deepvariant. To parallelize this step, multiple separate jobs would have to be run. Note that since version 0.5.1, there are two models - one for WGS data, one for WES. They are /opt/wes/model.ckpt and /opt/wes/model.ckpt. For backwards compatibility with version 0.4.1, /opt/models/model.ckpt points to the WGS model as well.

[user@cn4224 ~]$ CALL_VARIANTS_OUTPUT="output/call_variants_output.tfrecord.gz"
[user@cn4224 ~]$ #< 0.9.0 MODEL="/opt/wgs/model.ckpt"
[user@cn4224 ~]$ #< 1.6.0 MODEL="/opt/models/wgs/model.ckpt"
[user@cn4224 ~]$ MODEL="/opt/models/wgs"
[user@cn4224 ~]$ call_variants \
                    --outfile "${CALL_VARIANTS_OUTPUT}" \
                    --examples "output/examples.tfrecord@${N_SHARDS}.gz" \
                    --checkpoint "${MODEL}" \
                    --writer_threads=6

Other models available in 1.6.{0,1}:

Note that starting with version 1.6.0 call_variants creates mutiple output files depending on the number of writer threads. That does not change the way postprocess_variants is called below but it is necessary to limit the threads to avoid creating more threads per user than the default limit on Biowulf compute nodes.

Finally, convert the output to VCF format

[user@cn4224 ~]$ postprocess_variants \
                    --ref "${REF}" \
                    --infile "${CALL_VARIANTS_OUTPUT}" \
                    --outfile "output/example.vcf.gz"
[user@cn4224 ~]$ tree output
output
|-- [user   4.1K]  call_variants_output.tfrecord.gz
|-- [user   180K]  examples.tfrecord-00000-of-00003.gz
|-- [user   151K]  examples.tfrecord-00000-of-00003.gz.run_info.pbtxt
|-- [user   166K]  examples.tfrecord-00001-of-00003.gz
|-- [user   151K]  examples.tfrecord-00001-of-00003.gz.run_info.pbtxt
|-- [user   174K]  examples.tfrecord-00002-of-00003.gz
|-- [user   151K]  examples.tfrecord-00002-of-00003.gz.run_info.pbtxt
`-- [user   2.2K]  example.vcf.gz

[user@cn4224 ~]$ exit
salloc.exe: Relinquishing job allocation 46116226
[user@biowulf ~]$

With version 0.5.1, deepvariant gained the ability to generate gVCF output.

In version 0.9.0 deepvariant added a single command (run_deepvariant) to run the whole pipeline. However, since step 1 and 3 can be run without GPU it is more efficient to run the steps separately

ONT and Pacbio models

The run_deepvariant pipeline wrapper applies additional arguments to make_examples depending on the choice of model. In the example above with WGS that is just --channel insert_size. For the PACBIO and ONT_R104 models more options are used (this is current for version 1.6.1):

[user@cn4224 ~]$ special_args=( --add_hp_channel
    --alt_aligned_pileup='diff_channels' 
    --max_reads_per_partition=600 
    --min_mapping_quality=1 
    --parse_sam_aux_fields 
    --partition_size=25000 
    --phase_reads 
    --pileup_image_width=199 
    --norealign_reads 
    --sort_by_haplotypes 
    --track_ref_reads 
    --vsc_min_fraction_indels=0.12 )

[user@cn4224 ~]$ if [[ "${MODEL}" == "/opt/models/pacbio" ]] ; then
        special_args+=( --min_mapping_quality=1 )
    elif [[ "${MODEL}" == "/opt/models/ont_r104" ]] ; then
        special_args+=( --min_mapping_quality=5 --vsc_min_fraction_snps=0.08 )
    fi

[user@cn4224 ~]$ seq 0 $((N_SHARDS-1)) \
                      | parallel -j ${SLURM_CPUS_PER_TASK} --eta --halt 2 --joblog "logs/log" --res "logs" \
                        make_examples --mode calling \
                          --ref "${REF}" \
                          --reads "${BAM}" \
                          --regions "chr20:10,000,000-10,010,000" \
                          --examples "output/examples.tfrecord@${N_SHARDS}.gz" \
                          "${special_args[@]}" \
                          --task {}
Interactive job - deeptrio
Interactive jobs should be used for debugging, graphics, or applications that cannot be run as batch jobs.

Deeptrio is build on top of deepvariant and follows the same steps. Deeptrio considers genetic inheritance when calling variants and produces joint examples from all samples to ensure that variant calls are made for the same sites in all samples. It is available as a variant version starting with 1.5.0.

[user@biowulf]$ sinteractive --gres=gpu:p100:1,lscratch:50 --cpus-per-task=6
salloc.exe: Pending job allocation 46116226
salloc.exe: job 46116226 queued and waiting for resources
salloc.exe: job 46116226 has been allocated resources
salloc.exe: Granted job allocation 46116226
salloc.exe: Waiting for resource configuration
salloc.exe: Nodes cn4224 are ready for job

[user@cn4224 ~]$ cd /lscratch/$SLURM_JOB_ID
[user@cn4224 ~]$ module load deepvariant/1.6.0-deeptrio
[user@cn4224 ~]$ cp -r ${DEEPTRIO_TEST_DATA:-none} input
[user@cn4224 ~]$ tree input
input
|-- [user   2.9G]  GRCh38_no_alt_analysis_set.fasta
|-- [user   7.6K]  GRCh38_no_alt_analysis_set.fasta.fai
|-- [user   1.3M]  HG002.chr20.10_10p1mb.bam
|-- [user   6.7K]  HG002.chr20.10_10p1mb.bam.bai
|-- [user    11M]  HG002_GRCh38_1_22_v4.2.1_benchmark_noinconsistent.bed
|-- [user   149M]  HG002_GRCh38_1_22_v4.2.1_benchmark.vcf.gz
|-- [user   1.6M]  HG002_GRCh38_1_22_v4.2.1_benchmark.vcf.gz.tbi
|-- [user   1.4M]  HG003.chr20.10_10p1mb.bam
|-- [user   6.7K]  HG003.chr20.10_10p1mb.bam.bai
|-- [user    13M]  HG003_GRCh38_1_22_v4.2.1_benchmark_noinconsistent.bed
|-- [user   140M]  HG003_GRCh38_1_22_v4.2.1_benchmark.vcf.gz
|-- [user   1.6M]  HG003_GRCh38_1_22_v4.2.1_benchmark.vcf.gz.tbi
|-- [user   1.3M]  HG004.chr20.10_10p1mb.bam
|-- [user   6.7K]  HG004.chr20.10_10p1mb.bam.bai
|-- [user    12M]  HG004_GRCh38_1_22_v4.2.1_benchmark_noinconsistent.bed
|-- [user   142M]  HG004_GRCh38_1_22_v4.2.1_benchmark.vcf.gz
`-- [user   1.6M]  HG004_GRCh38_1_22_v4.2.1_benchmark.vcf.gz.tbi

[user@cn4224 ~]$ mkdir output
Make examples
[user@cn4224 ~]$ module load parallel
[user@cn4224 ~]$ N_SHARDS=$SLURM_CPUS_PER_TASK
[user@cn4224 ~]$ mkdir -p logs output
[user@cn4224 ~]$ seq 0 $((N_SHARDS-1)) \
                      | parallel -j ${SLURM_CPUS_PER_TASK} --eta --halt 2 --joblog "logs/log" --res "logs" \
                        make_examples --mode calling \
                          --ref input/GRCh38_no_alt_analysis_set.fasta \
                          --reads_parent1 "input/HG003.chr20.10_10p1mb.bam" \
                          --sample_name_parent1 "HG003" \
                          --reads_parent2 "input/HG004.chr20.10_10p1mb.bam" \
                          --sample_name_parent2 "HG004" \
                          --reads "input/HG002.chr20.10_10p1mb.bam" \
                          --sample_name "HG002" \
                          --regions "chr20:10,000,000-10,010,000" \
                          --examples "output/intermediate_results_dir/make_examples.tfrecord@${N_SHARDS}.gz" \
                          --channels insert_size \
                          --gvcf "output/intermediate_results_dir/gvcf.tfrecord@6.gz" \
                          --pileup_image_height_child "60" \
                          --pileup_image_height_parent "40" \
                          --task {}

Call variants on the sharded output. The module is stored at /opt/models/model.chpt in the singularity image containing deepvariant. To parallelize this step, multiple separate jobs would have to be run - for example a job for each member of the trio

[user@cn4224 ~]$ for n in parent1 parent2 child ; do
        call_variants \
            --outfile output/intermediate_results_dir/call_variants_output_${n}.tfrecord.gz \
            --examples output/intermediate_results_dir/make_examples_${n}.tfrecord@${N_SHARDS}.gz \
            --checkpoint "/opt/models/deeptrio/wgs/parent/model.ckpt"
            --writer_threads=6
    done

Finally, convert the output to VCF format

[user@cn4224 ~]$ declare -Asamples=( [parent1]=HG003 [parent2]=HG004 [child]=HG002 )
[user@cn4224 ~]$ for n in parent1 parent2 child ; do
        postprocess_variants \
            --ref input/GRCh38_no_alt_analysis_set.fasta \
            --infile output/intermediate_results_dir/call_variants_output_${n}.tfrecord.gz \
            --outfile output/${samples[$n]}.output.vcf.gz \
            --nonvariant_site_tfrecord_path output/intermediate_results_dir/gvcf_${n}.tfrecord@${N_SHARDS}.gz \
            --gvcf_outfile output/${samples[$n]}.g.vcf.gz
    done
[user@cn4224 ~]$ exit
salloc.exe: Relinquishing job allocation 46116226
[user@biowulf ~]$

Batch job
Most jobs should be run as batch jobs.

Create a batch input file for each step (e.g. deepvariant_step[123].sh) similar to the following. Note that for simplicity there is little error checking in the example scripts. Note also that only step2 makes use of a GPU and that the current version of DeepVariant cannot scale to more than 1 GPU.

#! /bin/bash
# this is deepvariant_step1.sh

module load deepvariant/1.6.0 || exit 1
module load parallel

wd=$PWD

[[ -d /lscratch/${SLURM_JOB_ID} ]] && cd /lscratch/${SLURM_JOB_ID} || exit 1
rm -rf input output
mkdir input output $wd/logs-parallel-$SLURM_JOB_ID
cp "${DEEPVARIANT_TEST_DATA}"/* input || exit 1

REF=input/ucsc.hg19.chr20.unittest.fasta
BAM=input/NA12878_S1.chr20.10_10p1mb.bam
N_SHARDS=12

seq 0 $((N_SHARDS-1)) \
    | parallel -P ${SLURM_CPUS_PER_TASK} --halt 2 \
        --joblog "$wd/logs-parallel-$SLURM_JOB_ID/log" --res "$wd/logs-parallel-$SLURM_JOB_ID" \
      make_examples --mode calling \
        --ref "${REF}" \
        --reads "${BAM}" \
        --regions "chr20:10,000,000-10,010,000" \
        --examples output/examples.tfrecord@${N_SHARDS}.gz\
        --channels insert_size \
        --task {} \
|| exit 1

cp -r output $wd
#! /bin/bash
# this is deepvariant_step2.sh

module load deepvariant/1.6.0 || exit 1

#< 0.9.0 MODEL="/opt/wgs/model.ckpt"
MODEL="/opt/models/wgs"
N_SHARDS=12
CALL_VARIANTS_OUTPUT="output/call_variants_output.tfrecord.gz"

call_variants \
 --outfile "${CALL_VARIANTS_OUTPUT}" \
 --examples "output/examples.tfrecord@${N_SHARDS}.gz" \
 --checkpoint "${MODEL}" \
 --writer_threads=6
|| exit 1
#! /bin/bash
# this is deepvariant_step3.sh

module load deepvariant/1.6.0 || exit 1

REF=input/ucsc.hg19.chr20.unittest.fasta
CALL_VARIANTS_OUTPUT="output/call_variants_output.tfrecord.gz"

postprocess_variants \
  --ref "${REF}" \
  --infile "${CALL_VARIANTS_OUTPUT}" \
  --outfile "output/example.vcf.gz" \
|| exit 1

Submit these jobs using the Slurm sbatch command. In this example, job dependencies are used to tie the jobs together.

biowulf$ sbatch --cpus-per-task=6 --mem-per-cpu=2g --gres=lscratch:10 deepvariant_step1.sh
1111
biowulf$ sbatch --dependency=afterany:1111 --cpus-per-task=6 \
               --gres=lscratch:10,gpu:p100:1 --partition=gpu deepvariant_step2.sh
1112
biowulf$ sbatch --dependency=afterany:1112 deepvariant_step3.sh
1113
Swarm of Jobs
A swarm of jobs is an easy way to submit a set of independent commands requiring identical resources.

Create a swarmfile for the first step of the pipeline (e.g. deepvariant.swarm). For example:

make_examples --mode calling --ref /path/to/genome.fa --reads "sample1.bam" \
    --regions "chr1" --examples sample1_chr1.tfrecord.gz --channels insert_size
make_examples --mode calling --ref /path/to/genome.fa --reads "sample1.bam" \
    --regions "chr2" --examples sample1_chr2.tfrecord.gz --channels insert_size
make_examples --mode calling --ref /path/to/genome.fa --reads "sample1.bam" \
    --regions "chr3" --examples sample1_chr3.tfrecord.gz --channels insert_size

Submit this job using the swarm command.

swarm -f deepvariant.swarm [-g #] --module deepvariant/1.6.0
where
-g # Number of Gigabytes of memory required for each process (1 line in the swarm command file)
--module deepvariant Loads the deepvariant module for each subjob in the swarm