New SLiMSuite Blog

This Blog has now been retired. Please visit the new SLiMSuite blog (and update any bookmarks).

SLiMSuite Short Linear Motif discovery and analysis: Blog switchover

Posts and pages from this blog have now been imported into a new SLiMSuite Short Linear Motif discovery and analysis blog, which will take over as the main source of ongoing news, tips, documentation and updates. Posts will be cross-posted here for a while before eventually this blog is discontinued.

SLiMSuite 2014-04-22 now available

A new download of SLiMSuite (release 2014-04-22) is now available. As well as fixing the gopher.py error, the download page and readme have had a slight makeover, which should make them load quicker.

As part of ongoing consolidation and documentation, SeqSuite has now been incorporated into in a single SLiMSuite download. (Previously, SLiMSuite was available as a reduced set of programs and SeqSuite had the full set.) The intention is to retire the SeqSuite moniker over the coming months, although the programs themselves will still be available.

The lastest release also features a new program, SLiMFarmer, for running (Q)SLiMFinder and SLiMProb batch jobs on parallel processors. SLiMFarmer is still under development and should hopefully work with other SLiMSuite programs too but has not yet been tested.

Other miscellaneous updates are listed below.

Updates since last release:

• comparimotif_V3: Updated from Version 3.10.
→ Version 3.10: Added forking.
→ Version 3.11: Added additional overlap/matchfix checks during basic comparison to try and speed up.
→ Version 3.12: Replaced deprecated sets.Set() with set().

• gablam: Updated from Version 2.11.
→ Version 2.12: Consolidated use of BLAST V2.

• haqesac: Updated from Version 1.9.
→ Version 1.10: Added exceptions for BLAST failure.

• picsi: Updated from Version 1.1.
→ Version 1.2: Updated to BUDAPEST 2.3 and rje_mascot.

• pingu_V4: Created.
→ Version 4.0: Initial Compilation based on code from SLiMBench and PINGU 3.9 (inherited as pingu_V3).
→ Version 4.1: Adding compilation of PPI databases using new rje_xref V1.1 and older objects from PINGU V3.
→ Version 4.2: Bug fixes for use of PPISource to create PPI databases.

• qslimfinder: Updated from Version 1.6.
→ Version 1.7: Fixed "MustHave=LIST" correction of motif space.

• seqmapper: Updated from Version 2.0.
→ Version 2.1: Added catching of failure to read input sequences. Removed 'Run' from GABLAM table.

• slimbench: Updated from Version 2.0.
→ Version 2.1: Fixed memsaver=T unless in development mode (dev=T). Removed old Assessment. Tested with simbench analysis.
→ Version 2.2: Replaced searchini=LIST with searchini=FILE and moved to SimBench commands.
→ Version 2.2: Modified the FN/TN and ResNum calculations. No longer rate TP in random data as OT.

• slimfarmer: Created.
→ Version 0.0: Initial Compilation.
→ Version 1.0: Functional version using rje_qsub and rje_iridis to fork out SLiMSuite runs.
→ Version 1.1: Updated to use rje_hpc.JobFarmer and incorporate main SLiMSuite farming within SLiMFarmer class.

• slimfinder: Updated from Version 4.5.
→ Version 4.6: Minor modification to seqocc=T function. !Experimental! Added main occurrence output and modified savespace.

• slimmutant: Created.
→ Version 0.0: Initial Compilation.
→ Version 1.0: Working version with standalone functionality.

• slimprob: Updated from Version 1.0.
→ Version 1.1: Tidied import commands.
→ Version 1.2: Increased extras=X levels. Adjusted maxsize=X assessment to be post-masking.

• ned_rankbydistribution: Updated from Version 1.1.
→ Version 1.2: Replaced depracated Set module.

• rje: Updated from Version 4.8.
→ Version 4.9: Added rje.slimsuite, which determines the slimsuite home directory from rje.py file path.
→ Version 4.10: Added osx=T/F option for Mac-specific running options.

• rje_blast_V2: Updated from Version 2.4.
→ Version 2.5: Minor modifications for SLiMCore UPC generation.
→ Version 2.6: Minor bug fixes.

• rje_db: Updated from Version 1.2.
→ Version 1.3: Minor modifications for SLiMCore FUPC development.
→ Version 1.4: Added list checking with addEmptyTable.

• rje_dismatrix_V2: Updated from Version 2.9.
→ Version 2.10: Minor modifications for SLiMCore UPC.

• rje_genemap: Updated from Version 1.4.
→ Version 1.5: Minor tweak of expected HGNC input following change to downloads.

• rje_hpc: Created.
→ Version 1.0: Initial Compilation based on rje_iridis V1.10.

• rje_iridis: Updated from Version 1.9.
→ Version 1.10: Modified freemem setting to run on Katana. Made rsh optional. Removed defunct IRIDIS3 option.

• rje_obj: Updated from Version 1.3.
→ Version 1.4: Added sourceDataFile() method from SLiMBench for wider use.
→ Version 1.5: Added 'basestr' and 'basefile' cmdlist types.
→ Version 1.6: Added osx=T/F option for Mac-specific running options.

• rje_qsub: Updated from Version 1.4.
→ Version 1.5: Added emailing of job stats after run. Added vmem limit.

• rje_seq: Updated from Version 3.17.
→ Version 3.18: Minor BLAST+ bug fixes. Added exceptions to readBLAST failure.

• rje_seqlist: Updated from Version 1.3.
→ Version 1.4: Added dna2prot reformat function.

• rje_slimcore: Updated from Version 1.12.
→ Version 1.13: Modified the savespace settings to reduce numbers of files. targz file now uses RunID not Build Info.
→ Version 1.14: Started adding code for Fragmented UPC (FUPC) clustering.

• rje_slimlist: Updated from Version 1.2.
→ Version 1.3: Added auto-download of ELM data.

• rje_uniprot: Updated from Version 3.14.
→ Version 3.14: Added dblist=LIST and dbsplit=T/F for additional DB link output control. Set unipath default to url.
→ Version 3.15: Added extraction of taxonomic groups. Add UniFormat to improve pure downloads.
→ Version 3.16: Added WBGene ID's from WormBase as one of the recognised DB XRef to parse.
→ Version 3.17: Efficiency tweak to URL-based extraction of acclist.
→ Version 3.18: Minor modification to database parsing.

• rje_xref: Updated from Version 1.0.
→ Version 1.1: Added output of ID lists to text files. Major reworking. Tested with HPRD and HGNC.

New downloads and fixed webpages

New releases of SeqSuite and SLiMSuite are now available. The webpages have now hopefully been fixed too, including the broken Manual links. (A bit of trouble parsing some the docstrings had messed up the HTML, in case you care!) Please report any more anomalies.

There are not many major updates since the last release. The biggest are that SLiMFinder (and QSLiMFinder) now produce a single *.occ.csv containing motif instances for all datasets, in addition to the old dataset-specific files. This is to make the output more consistent with SLiMProb although do note that some of the column headers are different. The new file contains the same data as the old dataset-specific *.occ.csv files plus two additional columns: Dataset and RunID. (These match the main *.csv output.)

Dataset-specific results files have also been cleaned up a little for (Q)SLiMFinder and SLiMProb (i.e. the SLiMCore Class in libraries/rje_slimcore) to make the targz=T/F and savespace=X options a little more useful and consistent. This will be the subject of another post shortly.

Other miscellaneous updates are listed below.

Updates since last release:

• comparimotif_V3: Updated from Version 3.10.
→ Version 3.10: Added forking.
→ Version 3.11: Added additional overlap/matchfix checks during basic comparison to try and speed up.

• qslimfinder: Updated from Version 1.6.
→ Version 1.7: Fixed "MustHave=LIST" correction of motif space.

• slimfinder: Updated from Version 4.5.
→ Version 4.6: Minor modification to seqocc=T function. !Experimental! Added main occurrence output and modified savespace.

• rje_pydocs: Updated from Version 2.8.
→ Version 2.8: Added docsource=PATH : Input path for Python Module documentation (manuals etc.) ['../docs/']
→ Version 2.9: Attempts to fix some broken links and sort out manuals confusion

• rje_slimcore: Updated from Version 1.12.
→ Version 1.13: Modified the savespace settings to reduce numbers of files. targz file now uses RunID not Build Info.

• rje_uniprot: Updated from Version 3.14.
→ Version 3.14: Added dblist=LIST and dbsplit=T/F for additional DB link output control. Set unipath default to url.
→ Version 3.15: Added extraction of taxonomic groups. Add UniFormat to improve pure downloads.

Wonky webpages

It has come to my attention that the formatting has got a bit messed up at the SLiMSuite download pages. A new release of the downloads will be made soon and hopefully these kinks can get ironed out at the same time. (I'm not sure what's happened!)

SLiMSuite Down Under

Rich has recently moved to Sydney, Australia to take up a position at the University of New South Wales (UNSW). As a result, things are a bit disrupted at present but a better-than-normal service should resume shortly, as should continuing to update the documentation. There are also plans to mirror the Bioware servers in UNSW, so watch this space.

If you are in Sydney and fancy a SLiM-related job, Rich also has a postdoc opportunity at present.

New Software Release

New releases of SLiMSuite and SeqSuite are now available. Please note that RJESuite has now been discontinued - for simplicity, all of the extra gubbins is now part of the SeqSuite release. SLiMSuite still represents a cut-down version that focuses on Short Linear Motif analysis tools.

There have been a number of updates since the last release, which will be the focus of future posts. The biggest change since the last release is the implementation of BLAST+ as the default in place of BLAST for most tools. The old BLAST can still be invoked using the oldblast=T switch. In addition to blastpath=PATH, a new blast+path=PATH parameter will need to be set.

Apart from some file organisation tweaks, the other major change is that CompariMotif now has a memsaver=T mode, which will process very large motif lists much quicker and avoid memory issues. The XGMML output is not (yet) available in this mode. For multi-processor CPUs and large searchdb motif lists, CompariMotif now also supported forking (forks=X).

Documentation is in the process of having an overhaul and is still lagging behind as a result. Please ask if anything is unclear and that section of documentation will be prioritised.

Updates since last release:

• aphid: Updated from Version 2.0.
→ Version 2.1: Reduced import commands.

• budapest: Updated from Version 2.1.
→ Version 2.2: Removed unrequired rje_dismatrix import.
→ Version 2.3: Updated to use rje_blast_V2. Needs further updates for BLAST+. Deleted obsolete OLDreadMascot() method.

• comparimotif_V3: Updated from Version 3.9.
→ Version 3.10: Added MemSaver option, which will read and process input motifs (not searchdb) one motif at a time.
→ Version 3.10: Added forking.

• fiesta: Updated from Version 1.5.
→ Version 1.6: Removed HAQESAC import (uses MultiHAQ).
→ Version 1.7: Updated to use rje_blast_V2. Needs work to make function with BLAST+.

• gablam: Updated from Version 2.10.
→ Version 2.11: Altered to use BLAST+ and rje_blast_V2.

• gasp: Updated from Version 1.3.
→ Version 1.4: Minor tweaks to imports.

• gfessa: Updated from Version 1.2.
→ Version 1.3: Tidied module imports.
→ Version 1.4: Switched to rje_blast_V2. More work needed for BLAST+.

• haqesac: Updated from Version 1.8.
→ Version 1.9: Added rje_blast_V2 implementation and BLAST+. Use oldblast=T for old BLAST.

• peptcluster: Updated from Version 1.3.
→ Version 1.4: Bug fixes for end of sequence characters and different length peptides.

• picsi: Updated from Version 1.0.
→ Version 1.1: Updated to blast_V2 and BLAST+.

• pingu: Updated from Version 3.8.
→ Version 3.9: Tidied imports.

• qslimfinder: Updated from Version 1.5.
→ Version 1.6: Removed excess module imports.

• slimbench: Updated from Version 1.8.
→ Version 1.9: Added memsaver option. Replaced SLiMSearch with SLiMProb. Altered default IO paths.
→ Version 1.9: Removed 3DID again: new ELM interaction_domains file has position-specific PPI details.
→ Version 2.0: Major overhaul of input options to standardise/clarify. Implemented auto-downloads and PPI datasets.

• slimprob: Updated from Version 1.0.
→ Version 1.1: Tidied import commands.

• slimsuite: Created.
→ Version 0.0: Initial Compilation with downloadelm function.

• rje_pydocs: Updated from Version 2.6.
→ Version 2.7: Added rje_ppi output for module links.
→ Version 2.8: Added parsing of commandline options from docstring and cmdRead calls.
→ Version 2.8: Added docsource=PATH : Input path for Python Module documentation (manuals etc.) ['../docs/']

• rje: Updated from Version 4.6.
→ Version 4.7: Added self.warn list and self.warnLog() functions to Log object. Modified i=-1 quitchoice to raise not quit.
→ Version 4.8: Added perc cmdtype = float that is multiplied by 100.0 if < 1.0. Removed server option from iniCmds().

• rje_ancseq: Updated from Version 1.2.
→ Version 1.3: Changed "biproblem" error handling in gaspProbs()

• rje_blast_V1: Updated from Version 1.14.
→ Version 1.15: Added OldBLAST/Legacy option to Object for compatibility with rje_blast_V2. (Always True!)

• rje_blast_V2: Updated from Version 2.1.
→ Version 2.2: Added gablamData() to return old-style GABLAM dictionary from table.
→ Version 2.3: Added blastCluster() method to return UPC clustering and GABLAM distance matrix from a file.
→ Version 2.4: Scrapped BLAST "Run" field to simplify code - keep a single run per BLASTRun object.

• rje_db: Updated from Version 1.0.
→ Version 1.1: Added sortedEntries() function.
→ Version 1.2: Added Table.hasField(field). Add openTable(), readEntry() and readSet() methods.

• rje_forker: Created.
→ Version 0.0: Initial Compilation.

• rje_iridis: Updated from Version 1.8.
→ Version 1.9: Added scanning of legacy folder - moving GOPHER_V2!

• rje_obj: Updated from Version 1.0.
→ Version 1.1: Added rje_zen import and self.zen() to call rje_zen.Zen().wisdom().
→ Version 1.2: Added warnLog functions.
→ Version 1.3: Added perc cmdtype = float that is multiplied by 100.0 if < 1.0. Also added cmdtype = date for YYYY-MM-DD.

• rje_ppi: Updated from Version 2.7.
→ Version 2.8: Tweaked Spring Layout. Stores original Hub and Spoke Field.

• rje_seq: Updated from Version 3.16.
→ Version 3.17: Updated to use BLAST+ and rje_blast_V2

• rje_sequence: Updated from Version 2.2.
→ Version 2.3: Added alternative self.info keys for sequence (for UniProt splice variants). Added SpliceVar dict.

• rje_slimcore: Updated from Version 1.10.
→ Version 1.11: Tidied some of the module imports.
→ Version 1.12: Upgraded BLAST to BLAST+. Can use old BLAST with oldblast=T.

• rje_slimlist: Updated from Version 1.1.
→ Version 1.2: Added some extra functions for CompariMotif Memsaver mode

• rje_tree: Updated from Version 2.9.
→ Version 2.10: Added cleanup of *.r.csv file following R-based PNG generation.

• rje_uniprot: Updated from Version 3.13.
→ Version 3.14: Added direct retrieval of UniProt entries from URL, including full proteomes. Updated output file naming.
→ Version 3.14: Added dblist=LIST and dbsplit=T/F for additional DB link output control. Set unipath default to url.

• rje_xml: Updated from Version 0.1.
→ Version 0.2: Added parsing from URL.

• rje_xref: Updated from Version 0.0.
→ Version 1.0: Added xfrom and xto fields and xMap() function for mapping from one ID set to another.

Updated programs coming soon...

SLiMSuite and Seqsuite have been undergoing some tidying and additional tweaks, such as implementing BLAST+ in most programs. The documentation is also undergoing a bit of an overhaul (see the Documentation links in the left sidebar) and so the distribution of the latest code is being held back for a while. If you want access to the latest versions, however, feel free to get in touch. (Particularly if you want to use BLAST+ with SLiMSuite or HAQESAC.)

New look Bioware

The Bioware server has a new(ish!) look! The function of the tools should be much the same (although various updates are in progress) but the feel of the site should hopefully be cleaner and more consistent on mobile devices. Feedback welcome!

SLiMScape: a protein short linear motif analysis plugin for Cytoscape.

New paper published!

O’Brien KT, Haslam NJ & Shields DC (2013). SLiMScape: a protein short linear motif analysis plugin for Cytoscape. BMC Bioinformatics 14(1):224. [Epub ahead of print]

BACKGROUND: Computational protein short linear motif discovery can use protein interaction information to search for motifs among proteins which share a common interactor. Cytoscape provides a visual interface for protein networks but there is no streamlined way to rapidly visualize motifs in a network of proteins, or to integrate computational discovery with such visualizations.

RESULTS: We present SLiMScape, a Cytoscape plugin, which enables both de novo motif discovery and searches for instances of known motifs. Data is presented using Cytoscape’s visualization features thus providing an intuitive interface for interpreting results. The distribution of discovered or user defined motifs may be selectively displayed and the distribution of protein domains may be viewed simultaneously. To facilitate this SLiMScape automatically retrieves domains for each protein.

CONCLUSION: SLiMScape provides a platform for performing short linear motif analyses of protein interaction networks by integrating motif discovery and searchtools in a network visualization environment. This significantly aids in the discovery of novel short linear motifs and in visualizing the distributionof known motifs.

PMID: 23855714

SLiMSuite at the OMICS Group 3rd International Conference on Proteomics & Bioinformatics

If anyone is attending the OMICS Group 3rd International Conference on Proteomics & Bioinformatics this week then be sure to say hello. I am speaking on the last day in the “Computational Biology” track.. (Never the best time to talk at a conference as there is limited time for follow up but at least it is before lunch!)

SLiM Pickings: mining structural and sequence data for the prediction of short linear protein interaction motifs

Short Linear Motifs (SLiMs) are short functional protein sequences that act as ligands to mediate transient protein-protein interactions (PPI) in critical biological pathways and signaling networks. SLiMs are short (3-15aa), generally tolerate considerable sequence variation and typically have fewer than five residues critical for function. These features result in a degree of evolutionary plasticity not seen in domains and SLiMs often add new functions to proteins by convergent evolution. They also present a challenge for computational identification, making it difficult to differentiate biological signal from stochastic patterns. Despite this, discovering new SLiMs is of great interest due to their potential as therapeutic targets.

In recent years, we have made great progress in SLiM discovery, particularly through development of the SLiMSuite package of bioinformatics tools. SLiMs generally occur in structurally disordered regions of proteins and exhibit evolutionary conservation relative to other disordered residues. SLiMFinder uses this knowledge and exploits patterns of convergent evolution to predict novel, over-represented motifs within a statistical framework with high specificity. Applying this approach to a comprehensive set of human PPI data has highlighted interactome complexity and quality as the next challenges for SLiM prediction. Our latest development, QSLiMFinder (“Query” SLiMFinder) tackles some of these issues by incorporating specific interaction data to restrict the motif search space, which improves both the sensitivity and biological relevance of predictions. We are now using QSLiMFinder to combine structurally defined domain-motif interactions with large-scale PPI data to perform large-scale de novo SLiM prediction.

Documentation

SLiMSuite and SeqSuite have grown into rather unwieldy beasts since their origins as individual programs and the documentation has struggled to keep up. In particular, the original plan of a single PDF manual per program is getting creaky. Because of the shared reliance on common modules, multiple programs make use of the same sets of options for alignments and conservation scoring etc. and propagating tweaks and modifications through all the manuals can be a bit head-wrecking.

As a result of all of this, the documentation currently undergoing a bit of a review and rethink. I am still keen to keep the PDF manuals (as I think they are useful) but will be working through an intermediate phase of online Markdown/HTML documentation of some kind. The current plan is to trickle out draft copies via the blog and then probably release a Git repository once sufficiently populated.

In the meantime, I would be interested to hear any thoughts regarding favoured documentation styles etc. (e.g. HTML vs PDF, large files vs small chunks) as well as bits that are particularly unclear or in need of attention.

New Software Release

New releases of SeqSuite, SLiMSuite and RJESuite are now available.

The biggest change since the last release is the renaming of SLiMSearch to SLiMProb. This is to avoid confusion between the old SLiMSearch 1.x (now SLiMProb) and the newer SLiMSearch 2.x webserver, which has a different range of functions.

Updates since last release:

• cpppred: Created.

• gopher: Updated from Version 3.1.
→ Version 3.2: Minor tweak to prevent unwanted directory generation for programs using existing GOPHER alignments.
→ Version 3.3: Added rje_blast_V2 to use BLAST+. Run with legacy=T to stick with old NCBI BLAST. Started utilising rje_seqlist.

• pepbindpred: Created.

• slimprob: Created.
→ Version 1.0: SLiMProb 1.0 based on SLiMSearch 1.7. Altered output files to be *.csv and *.occ.csv.

• file_monster: Updated from Version 2.0.
→ Version 2.1: Added dirsum function.

• rje: Updated from Version 4.5.
→ Version 4.6: Added dev and warn options.

• rje_blast_V2: Created.
→ Version 2.0: Initial Compilation from rje_blast_V1 V1.14.
→ Version 2.1: Tweaking code to work with GOPHER 3.x - removing self.info etc. Added blastObj() method.

• rje_db: Updated from Version 0.4.
→ Version 0.5: Initial coding of index mode. (Not yet fully functional.)
→ Version 1.0: Working, so upgraded to version 1.0!

• rje_obj: Updated from Version 0.0.
→ Version 1.0: Fully working version, so upgraded to 1.0. Added dev and warn options.

• rje_seq: Updated from Version 3.15.
→ Version 3.16: Added BLAST+ path and seqFromBlastDBCmd()

• rje_slimcalc: Updated from Version 0.5.
→ Version 0.6: Minor tweak to avoid unwanted GOPHER directory generation.
→ Version 0.7: Added RLC to "All" conscore running.

• rje_slimcore: Updated from Version 1.9.
→ Version 1.10: Bypass UPC generation for single sequences.

Documentation is still in the process of development. BLAST+ implementation is ongoing - please get in touch if this is something you need.

Second BUDAPEST paper published

A second paper using BUDAPEST, "Responses of the Emiliania huxleyi proteome to ocean acidification" came out on Friday. An overview can be found in a University of Southampton press release, Marine algae show resilience to carbon dioxide emissions.

A type of marine algae could become bigger as increasing carbon dioxide emissions are absorbed by the oceans, according to research led by scientists based at the National Oceanography Centre, Southampton (NOCS). The study, published this month in PLoS ONE, investigated how a strain of the coccolithophore Emiliania huxleyi might respond if all fossil fuels are burned by the year 2100 – predicted to drive up atmospheric CO2 levels to over four times the present day.

You can read the rest of the press release here.

There are some additional images and a video in a UC Santa Barbara press release, which gives a good summary of the science in the study.

---

Bethan M. Jones, M. Debora Iglesias-Rodriguez, Paul J. Skipp, Richard J. Edwards, Mervyn J. Greaves, Jeremy R. Young, Henry Elderfield, C. David O’Connor (2013) Responses of the Emiliania huxleyi proteome to ocean acidification. PLoS ONE, dx.plos.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0061868.

New Software Release

New releases of SeqSuite, SLiMSuite and RJESuite are now available.

Updates since last release:

• budapest: Updated from Version 2.0.
→ Version 2.1: Improved handling of iTRAQ data using rje_mascot V1.2.

• comparimotif_V3: Updated from Version 3.8.
→ Version 3.8: Changed scoring of overlapping ambiguities - uses IC of all possible ambiguities. Added "Ugly" match type.
→ Version 3.9: Added xgformat=T/F : Whether to use default CompariMotif formatting or leave blank for e.g. Cytoscape [True]

• happi: Updated from Version 1.1.
→ Version 1.2: Added addclass and refined output for Host-Pathogen PPI analysis.

• pingu: Updated from Version 3.7.
→ Version 3.8: Hopefully fixed issue of Fasta file generation log output writing to wrong log file.

• qslimfinder: Updated from Version 1.4.
→ Version 1.4: Added qexact=T/F option for calculating Exact Query motif space (True) or estimating from dimers (False).
→ Version 1.5: Implemented SigV calculation. Modified extras setting.

• seqmapper: Updated from Version 1.2.
→ Version 2.0: Reworked with new Object format, new BLAST(+) module and new seqlist module.

• slimbench: Updated from Version 1.5.
→ Version 1.6: Added "simonly" to datatype - calculates both SN and FPR from "sim" data (ignores "ran") to check query bias.
→ Version 1.7: Added Benchmarking of ELM datasets without queries.
→ Version 1.8: Added Benchmarking dataset generation from PPI data and 3DID.

• slimfinder: Updated from Version 4.4.
→ Version 4.5: Minor modifications to fix sigV and sigPrime bugs. Modified extras setting. Added palindrome setting for DNA motifs.

• file_monster: Updated from Version 1.6.
→ Version 2.0: Major reworking with new object making use of rje_db tables etc. Old functions to be ported with time.

• rje_dbase: Updated from Version 2.2.
→ Version 2.3: Added construction of EnsEMBL TaxaDB sets during TaxaDB construction.

• rje_seqgen: Updated from Version 1.6.
→ Version 1.7: Modified/fixed ESTgen function to work for protein sequences.

• ned_rankbydistribution: Updated from Version 1.0.

• rje: Updated from Version 4.4.
→ Version 4.5: Modified randomString() and added stringShuffle() methods.

• rje_blast_V1: Created.
→ Version 0.0: Initial Working Compilation.
→ Version 0.1: No Out Object in Objects
→ Version 1.0: Corrected to work with blastn (and blastp)
→ Version 1.1: Added special calling for Cerberus
→ Version 1.2: Added GABLAM and GABLAMO to BlastHit
→ Version 1.3: Added GABLAM calculation upon reading BLAST results and clearing Alignment sequences to save memory
→ Version 1.4: Tidied up the module with improved logging and progress reporting. Added dbCleanup.
→ Version 1.5: Added checking for multiple hits with same name and modified BLAST_Run.hitToSeq()
→ Version 1.6: Added nucleotide vs protein searches to GABLAM
→ Version 1.7: Added nucleotide vs nucleotide searches to GABLAM
→ Version 1.8: Added local alignment summary output to ReadBLAST()
→ Version 1.9: Added BLAST -C
→ Version 1.10: Added BLAST -g
→ Version 1.11: Added gablamfrag=X : Length of gaps between mapped residue for fragmenting local hits [100]
→ Version 1.12: Altered checkDB and cleanupDB to spot index files split over multiple files (*.00.p* etc.)
→ Version 1.13: Added localcut=X : Cut-off length for local alignments contributing to global GABLAM stats) [0]
→ Version 1.14: Added blast.checkProg(qtype,stype) to check whether blastp setting matches sequence formats.

• rje_blast_V2: Created.
→ Version 2.0: Initial Compilation from rje_blast_V1 V1.14.

• rje_db: Updated from Version 0.3.
→ Version 0.4: Improved use of AutoID and added Table.autoID() method.

• rje_ensembl: Updated from Version 2.8.
→ Version 2.9: Reduced DNA chromosome downloads. Updated some species data. Added "known_by_projection" handling.

• rje_genbank: Updated from Version 0.2.
→ Version 0.3: Added reloading of features.

• rje_hmm_V1: Created.
→ Version 0.0: Initial Working Compilation.
→ Version 1.0: Working version with multiple HMM capacity
→ Version 1.1: Added hmmpfam option
→ Version 1.2: Cleaned up and debugged for rje_ensembl.ensDat()

• rje_hmm_V2: Created.
→ Version 2.0: Initial HMMER3.0 version based on Version 1.2 and RJE_BLAST 2.0.

• rje_markov: Updated from Version 2.1.

• rje_mascot: Updated from Version 1.0.
→ Version 1.1: Fixed bugs for reading in data with unmatched peptides and iTRAQ data.
→ Version 1.2: Added

• rje_menu: Updated from Version 0.2.
→ Version 0.3: Modified to work with new object types.

• rje_ppi: Updated from Version 2.5.
→ Version 2.6: Added addPPI(hub,spoke,evidence) method. Added nodelist option.
→ Version 2.7: Added tabout=T/F Output PPI data as Node and Edge tables [False]

• rje_seqlist: Updated from Version 1.1.
→ Version 1.2: Added seqshuffle option for randomising sequences.

• rje_uniprot: Updated from Version 3.12.
→ Version 3.13: Minor bug fix for link table output.

• rje_xref: Created.
→ Version 0.0: Initial Compilation.

New SLiMSuite, SeqSuite and RJESuite downloads available

Just in time for Christmas, new releases of all the downloads are available at the Edwards Lab software page. Documentation is still lagging behind but will hopefully catch up (along with a bit of an overhaul of this blog). Questions welcome in the meantime.

In addition to QSLiMFinder 1.4, the biggest change this release is probably the upgrade of GOPHER. Version 3.x features improved organisation of output files for queries from different species in addition to a capacity to have several different multiple alignment programs run on the same orthologue sets. See the website for more info.

Updates since last release:

• gopher: Created.
→ Version 3.0: See archived GOPHER 1.9 and gopher_V2 2.9 for history and obselete options.
→ Version 3.0: Added organise=T/F and gopherdir=PATH for improved file organisation. Tightened savespace.
→ Version 3.0: Added compfilter=T/F for improved complexity filter and composition statistics control for *initial* BLAST.
→ Version 3.0: Changed default tree extension to *.nwk for compatibility with MEGA. Deleted _phosAlign() method.
→ Version 3.0: Added orthology ID option and alignment program to customise output further.
→ Version 3.1: Added full reciprocal best hit method. (fullrbh=T/F)

• gopher_V2: Updated from Version 2.8.
→ Version 2.9: Deleted oldStigg() method. Added simple Reciprocal Best Hit orthology prediction.

• qslimfinder: Updated from Version 1.2.
→ Version 1.3: Updated the output for Max/Min filtering and the pickup options.
→ Version 1.4: Added additional dictionary and list to store Query dimers and SLiMs for motif space calculations.
→ Version 1.4: Added qexact=T/F option for calculating Exact Query motif space (True) or estimating from dimers (False).

• slimfinder: Updated from Version 4.2.
→ Version 4.3: Updated the output for Max/Min filtering and the pickup options. Removed TempMaxSetting.
→ Version 4.4: Modified to work with GOPHER V3.0.

• rje: Updated from Version 4.3.
→ Version 4.4: Added lineFromIndex(target,file,re_index='^(\S+)\s',sortunique=False,xreplace=True).

• rje_seq: Updated from Version 3.13.
→ Version 3.14: Added CLUSTAL Omega alignment program ['clustalo']
→ Version 3.15: Added PAGAN alignment program ['pagan'] and (hopefully) fixed minor Windows fastacmd bug.

• rje_sequence: Updated from Version 2.1.
→ Version 2.2: Added more yeast species.

• rje_slimcalc: Updated from Version 0.4.
→ Version 0.5: Altered to use GOPHER V3 and handle nested alignment directories.

• rje_slimlist: Updated from Version 1.0.
→ Version 1.1: Modified to work with GOPHER V3.0 for alignments.

New SLiMSuite, SeqSuite and RJESuite releases are now available

New releases of SLiMSuite, SeqSuite and RJESuite are now available from the Edwards Lab software page.

Please note that the documentation (particularly the manuals) are still lagging a bit behind, so do report anything that does not make sense. The default settings also need to be verified as there is a chance that some of these may have inadvertently changed over the years. (The same core code is now used for the webservers, which often have different defaults.) Checking these along with updating and checking the servers themselves are ongoing priorities.

A full list of updated modules is given below. As well as SLiMMaker now handling end of sequence characters, the biggest changes this release are updates to CompariMotif to (3.7) output unmatched input motifs and (3.8) improve handling of partially overlapping ambiguous positions (e.g. [AGS] and [ST]). The motivation behind both these changes is the ongoing benchmarking (and preparation for publication) of QSLiMFinder and the creation of SLiMBench for benchmarking motif prediction methods. A QSLiMFinder section has been added to the SLiMFinder Manual (section 5.4). SLiMBench is still a work in progress and will be documented in a later release.

Updates since last release:

• comparimotif_V3: Updated from Version 3.6.
→ Version 3.7: Added coreIC and output of unmatched motifs.
→ Version 3.8: Added overlaps=T/F : Whether to include overlapping ambiguities (e.g. [KR] vs [HK]) as match [True]
→ Version 3.8: Changed scoring of overlapping ambiguities - uses IC of all possible ambiguities. Added "Ugly" match type.

• slimbench: Created.
→ Version 0.0: Initial Compilation.
→ Version 0.1: Functional version with benchmarking dataset generation.
→ Version 1.0: Consolidation of "working" version with additional basic benchmarking analysis.
→ Version 1.1: Added simulated dataset construction and benchmarking.
→ Version 1.2: Added MinIC filtering to benchmark assessment. Sorted beginning/end of line for reduced ELMs.
→ Version 1.3: Made SimCount a list rather than Integer. Sorted CompariMotif assessment issue.
→ Version 1.4: Added ICCut and SLiMLenCut as lists and output columns.
→ Version 1.5: Added Summary Results output table. Removed PropRes.

• slimmaker: Updated from Version 1.0.
→ Version 1.1: Modified to work with end of line characters.

• slimsearch: Updated from Version 1.5.
→ Version 1.6: Minor tweaks to Log output. Add option for UPC number in occ output.

• rje: Updated from Version 4.1.
→ Version 4.2: Modified INI reading across the board to look in ../settings/ and look for defaults.ini as well as rje.ini.
→ Version 4.2: Enabled handing on -ini FILE in addition to ini=FILE.
→ Version 4.3: Added ilist and nlist types to cmdRead for objects. (Lists of integers and floats). Add ratio() function.

• rje_blast: Updated from Version 1.13.
→ Version 1.14: Added blast.checkProg(qtype,stype) to check whether blastp setting matches sequence formats.

• rje_db: Created.
→ Version 0.0: Initial Compilation.
→ Version 0.1: Added merge tables option.
→ Version 0.2: Miscellaneous updates to various methods.
→ Version 0.3: Minor doc tweaks and added keepFields().

• rje_seq: Updated from Version 3.12.
→ Version 3.13: Updated sequence type checking for use with GABLAM 2.10.

• rje_seqlist: Created.
→ Version 0.0: Initial Compilation. Based on rje_seq 3.10.
→ Version 0.1: Added basic species filtering and sequence output.
→ Version 0.2: Added upper case filtering.
→ Version 0.3: Added accnum filtering and sequence renaming.
→ Version 0.4: Added sequence redundancy filtering.
→ Version 0.5: Added newgene=X for sequence renaming (newgene_spcode__newaccXXX). NewAcc no longer fixed Upper Case.
→ Version 1.0: Upgraded to "ready" Version 1.0. Added concatenate=T and split=X options for sequence concatenation.
→ Version 1.0: Added reading of sequence type from rje_seq.py and mixed=T/F.
→ Version 1.1: Added shortName() and modified SeqDict.

• rje_sequence: Updated from Version 2.0.
→ Version 2.1: Added re_unirefprot = re.compile('^([A-Za-z0-9\-]+)\s+([A-Za-z0-9]+)_([A-Za-z0-9]+)\s+')

• rje_slim: Updated from Version 1.5.
→ Version 1.6: Fixed splitting bug introduced by lower case motifs.

• rje_slimcore: Updated from Version 1.8.
→ Version 1.9: Minor modifications to Log output. Updated motifSeq() function to output unmasked sequences.

• rje_slimlist: Updated from Version 0.6.
→ Version 1.0: Functional module with lower case motif splitting fixed and ? -> .{0,1} replacement.

• rje_zen: Updated from Version 1.0.
→ Version 1.1: Added a few more words here and there.

Bioware servers back up

Following the recent move-induced technical issues, the Bioware webservers are now back on line, with the exception of SLiMSearch 1.0. SLiMSearch2 is also operating with reduced function until another upgrade can be performed in the near future. CompariMotif has been upgraded to Version 3.6 in line with the recent package updates.

A few of the links to help pages etc. might still be broken, so please report anything that is not quite behaving as expected.

New software downloads available

SLiMsuite and SeqSuite downloads have now been updated and are available from my homepage.

The only real change of note since the last release is that CompariMotif can now recognise ELM Class downloads and the motif splitting has been updated to cope with variable-length non-wildcard repeats (e.g. R{0,1}).

The CompariMotif webserver is undergoing some final checks and should be back up shortly, with SLiMFinder and SLiMSearch to follow.

SLiMSuite servers temporarily down

Following some technical issues that have arisen due to some quite major behind-the-scenes re-organisation, the Bioware webserver implementations of SLiMSuite programs have been temporarily taken off-line.

The plan is to give them a bit of attention, iron out any wrinkles that have developed, and then hopefully get them back online over the next week or so. The servers affected are:

• CompariMotif
  
• GOPHER
  
• SLiMDisc (now part of SLiMFinder)
  
• SLiMFinder
  
• SLiMSearch
  
• SLiMSearch 2.0
  

These programs (except SLiMSearch 2.0) are available for download. If you have a particular need for any of these servers, please contact me and I will accelerate its re-appearance.

As each server becomes available, it will be posted here.