alimask - calculate and add column mask to a multiple sequence alignment
alimask [
options]
msafile postmsafile
alimask is used to apply a mask line to a multiple sequence alignment,
based on provided alignment or model coordinates. When
hmmbuild
receives a masked alignment as input, it produces a profile model in which the
emission probabilities at masked positions are set to match the background
frequency, rather than being set based on observed frequencies in the
alignment. Position-specific insertion and deletion rates are not altered,
even in masked regions.
alimask autodetects input format, and produces
masked alignments in Stockholm format.
msafile may contain only one
sequence alignment.
A common motivation for masking a region in an alignment is that the region
contains a simple tandem repeat that is observed to cause an unacceptably high
rate of false positive hits.
In the simplest case, a mask range is given in coordinates relative to the input
alignment, using
--alirange <s>. However it is more
often the case that the region to be masked has been identified in coordinates
relative to the profile model (e.g. based on recognizing a simple repeat
pattern in false hit alignments or in the HMM logo). Not all alignment columns
are converted to match state positions in the profile (see the
--symfrac flag for
hmmbuild for discussion), so model positions
do not necessarily match up to alignment column positions. To remove the
burden of converting model positions to alignment positions,
alimask
accepts the mask range input in model coordinates as well, using
--modelrange <s>. When using this flag,
alimask determines which alignment positions would be identified by
hmmbuild as match states, a process that requires that all
hmmbuild flags impacting that decision be supplied to
alimask.
It is for this reason that many of the
hmmbuild flags are also used by
alimask.
- -h
- Help; print a brief reminder of command line usage and all
available options.
-
-o <f>
- Direct the summary output to file <f>, rather
than to stdout.
A single mask range is given as a dash-separated pair, like
--modelrange
10-20 and multiple ranges may be submitted as a comma-separated list,
--modelrange 10-20,30-42.
-
--modelrange <s>
- Supply the given range(s) in model coordinates.
-
--alirange <s>
- Supply the given range(s) in alignment coordinates.
- --apendmask
- Add to the existing mask found with the alignment. The
default is to overwrite any existing mask.
-
--model2ali <s>
- Rather than actually produce the masked alignment, simply
print model range(s) corresponding to input alignment range(s).
-
--ali2model <s>
- Rather than actually produce the masked alignment, simply
print alignment range(s) corresponding to input model range(s).
- --amino
- Assert that sequences in msafile are protein,
bypassing alphabet autodetection.
- --dna
- Assert that sequences in msafile are DNA, bypassing
alphabet autodetection.
- --rna
- Assert that sequences in msafile are RNA, bypassing
alphabet autodetection.
These options control how consensus columns are defined in an alignment.
- --fast
- Define consensus columns as those that have a fraction
>= symfrac of residues as opposed to gaps. (See below for the
--symfrac option.) This is the default.
- --hand
- Define consensus columns in next profile using reference
annotation to the multiple alignment. This allows you to define any
consensus columns you like.
-
--symfrac <x>
- Define the residue fraction threshold necessary to define a
consensus column when using the --fast option. The default is 0.5.
The symbol fraction in each column is calculated after taking relative
sequence weighting into account, and ignoring gap characters corresponding
to ends of sequence fragments (as opposed to internal
insertions/deletions). Setting this to 0.0 means that every alignment
column will be assigned as consensus, which may be useful in some cases.
Setting it to 1.0 means that only columns that include 0 gaps (internal
insertions/deletions) will be assigned as consensus.
-
--fragthresh <x>
- We only want to count terminal gaps as deletions if the
aligned sequence is known to be full-length, not if it is a fragment (for
instance, because only part of it was sequenced). HMMER uses a simple rule
to infer fragments: if the sequence length L is less than or equal to a
fraction <x> times the alignment length in columns, then the
sequence is handled as a fragment. The default is 0.5. Setting
--fragthresh 0 will define no (nonempty) sequence as a fragment;
you might want to do this if you know you've got a carefully curated
alignment of full-length sequences. Setting --fragthresh 1 will
define all sequences as fragments; you might want to do this if you know
your alignment is entirely composed of fragments, such as translated short
reads in metagenomic shotgun data.
HMMER uses an ad hoc sequence weighting algorithm to downweight closely related
sequences and upweight distantly related ones. This has the effect of making
models less biased by uneven phylogenetic representation. For example, two
identical sequences would typically each receive half the weight that one
sequence would. These options control which algorithm gets used.
- --wpb
- Use the Henikoff position-based sequence weighting scheme
[Henikoff and Henikoff, J. Mol. Biol. 243:574, 1994]. This is the default.
- --wgsc
- Use the Gerstein/Sonnhammer/Chothia weighting algorithm
[Gerstein et al, J. Mol. Biol. 235:1067, 1994].
- --wblosum
- Use the same clustering scheme that was used to weight data
in calculating BLOSUM substitution matrices [Henikoff and Henikoff, Proc.
Natl. Acad. Sci 89:10915, 1992]. Sequences are single-linkage clustered at
an identity threshold (default 0.62; see --wid) and within each
cluster of c sequences, each sequence gets relative weight 1/c.
- --wnone
- No relative weights. All sequences are assigned uniform
weight.
-
--wid <x>
- Sets the identity threshold used by single-linkage
clustering when using --wblosum. Invalid with any other weighting
scheme. Default is 0.62.
-
--informat <s>
- Assert that input msafile is in alignment format
<s>, bypassing format autodetection. Common choices for
<s> include: stockholm, a2m, afa,
psiblast, clustal, phylip. For more information, and
for codes for some less common formats, see main documentation. The string
<s> is case-insensitive ( a2m or A2M both
work).
-
--outformat <s>
- Write the output postmsafile in alignment format
<s>. Common choices for <s> include:
stockholm, a2m, afa, psiblast, clustal,
phylip. The string <s> is case-insensitive (
a2m or A2M both work). Default is stockholm.
-
--seed <n>
- Seed the random number generator with <n>, an
integer >= 0. If <n> is nonzero, any stochastic
simulations will be reproducible; the same command will give the same
results. If <n> is 0, the random number generator is seeded
arbitrarily, and stochastic simulations will vary from run to run of the
same command. The default seed is 42.
See
hmmer(1) for a master man page with a list of all the individual man
pages for programs in the HMMER package.
For complete documentation, see the user guide that came with your HMMER
distribution (Userguide.pdf); or see the HMMER web page (
http://hmmer.org/).
Copyright (C) 2020 Howard Hughes Medical Institute.
Freely distributed under the BSD open source license.
For additional information on copyright and licensing, see the file called
COPYRIGHT in your HMMER source distribution, or see the HMMER web page
(
http://hmmer.org/).
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