Introduction Usage Parameters Output Results Releases

Introduction

This document describes the output produced by the pipeline.

The directories listed below will be created in the results directory after the pipeline has finished. All paths are relative to the top-level results directory. <sample> is a placeholder for the real sample name provided in the samplesheet.csv.

Pipeline overview

The pipeline is built using Nextflow and processes data using the following steps:

  • FastQC - Raw read QC - Output not in the results directory by default
  • fastp - (Optional) preprocessing of raw reads
  • kraken2 - Classification of the (preprocessed) reads and extracting the searched taxa from the results
  • bbduk - Classification of the (preprocessed) reads
  • classification - Preparation of the read IDs for filtering and/or validation
  • blastn - (Optional) validation of the reads classified as the searched taxa and extracting ids of validated reads
  • filter - (Optional) filtering of the raw or preprocessed reads using either the read ids from kraken2 and/or bbduk output or blastn output
  • summary - The summary of the classification and the optional validation
  • MultiQC - Aggregate report describing results and QC from the whole pipeline
  • Pipeline information - Report metrics generated during the workflow execution

Only the filtering results, the summary, MultiQC and pipeline information are shown by default in the results folder. Also, if the output from the filter are classified using kraken2, a kraken2 folder, containing a filtered/ and a removed/folder, will be shown.

FastQC

FastQC gives general quality metrics about your sequenced reads. It provides information about the quality score distribution across your reads, per base sequence content (%A/T/G/C), adapter contamination and overrepresented sequences. For further reading and documentation see the FastQC help pages.

fastp

fastp performs preprocessing of the reads (adapter/quality trimming). For details of the output, please refer to this site.

Output files
  • fastp/: Contains the output from the preprocessing step.
    • <sample>_longReads/: If long reads are present in your samplesheet.csv this folder is generated containing the fastp-report.
      • <sample>_longReads.fastp.html: The report on the preprocessing step.
      • <sample>_longReads.fastp.json: The data on the preprocessing step in .json-format.
    • <sample>_R1/: If single-end short reads are present in your samplesheet.csv this folder is generated.
      • same pattern as in <sample>_longReads/ with the prefix <sample>_R1.fastp.*.
    • <sample>/: For paired-end short reads in your samplesheet.csv this folder is generated.
      • same pattern as in <sample>_longReads/ with the prefix <sample>.fastp.*.

kraken2

kraken2 classifies the reads. The important files are *.classifiedreads.txt, *.kraken2.report.txt, isolated/*.classified.txt and summary/*.kraken2_summary.tsv. <sample> can be replaced by <sample>_longReads, <sample>_R1 or left as <sample> depending on the cases mentioned in fastp.

Output files
  • kraken2/: Contains the output from the kraken2 classification steps.
    • filtered/: Contains the classification of the filtered reads (post-filtering).
      • <sample>.classifiedreads.txt: The whole kraken2 output for filtered reads.
      • <sample>.kraken2.report.txt: Statistics on how many reads were assigned to which taxon/taxonomic group in the filtered reads.
    • isolated/: Contains the isolated lines and ids for the taxon/taxa mentioned in the tax2filter parameter.
      • <sample>.classified.txt: The whole kraken2 output for the taxon/taxa mentioned in the tax2filter parameter.
      • <sample>.ids.txt: The ids from the whole kraken2 output assigned to the taxon/taxa mentioned in the tax2filter parameter.
    • removed/: Contains the classification of the removed reads (post-filtering).
      • <sample>.classifiedreads.txt: The whole kraken2 output for removed reads.
      • <sample>.kraken2.report.txt: Statistics on how many reads were assigned to which taxon/taxonomic group in the removed reads.
    • summary/: Summary of the kraken2 process.
      • <sample>.kraken2_summary.tsv: Contains two three columns, column 1 is the sample name, column 2 the amount of lines in the untouched kraken2 output and column 3 the amount of lines in the isolated output.
    • taxonomy/: Contains the list of taxa to filter/to assess for.
      • taxa_to_filter.txt: Contains the taxon ids of all taxa to assess the data for or to filter out.
    • <sample>.classifiedreads.txt: The whole kraken2 output for all reads.
    • <sample>.kraken2.report.txt: Statistics on how many reads were assigned to which taxon/taxonomic group.

bbduk

bbduk classifies the reads by kmer matching to a reference. As soon as one k-mer is in the reference, the read is classified. The important files are *.bbduk.log and ids/*.bbduk.txt. <sample> can be replaced by <sample>_longReads, <sample>_R1 or left as <sample> depending on the cases mentioned in fastp.

Output files
  • bbduk/: Contains the output from the bbduk classification step.
    • ids/: Contains the files with the IDs classified by bbduk.
      • <sample>.bbduk.txt: Contains the classified IDs per sample.
    • <sample>.bbduk.log: Contains statistics on the bbduk run.

classification

Either the merged IDs from bbduk and kraken2 or the ones produced by one of the tools are shown in this folder. Also, the summary files of the classification step are included.

Output files
  • classification/: Contains the results and the summaries of the classification step.
    • ids/: Contains either the merged ID files of the classification step or the ones from one classification tool.
      • <sample>.ids.txt: Contains the classified IDs.
    • summary/: Contains the summary files of either the classification step or the ones from one classification tool. - <sample>.classification_summary.tsv: Contains the count of reads classified.

blastn

blastn can validate the reads classified by kraken2 as the taxon/taxa to be assessed/to be filtered. To reduce computational burden only the highest scoring hit per input sequence is returned. If in any case one would need more information this can be done via the max_hsps- and max_target_seqs-flags in the modules.config file.

Output files
  • blast/
    • filtered_ident_cov/: The read ids and statistics of the reads which were validated by blastn to be the taxon/taxa to assess/to filter.
      • <sample>_R1.identcov.txt: File is present for single-end and paired-end short reads.
      • <sample>_R2.identcov.txt: File is present for paired-end short reads.
      • <sample>_longReads.identcov.txt: File is present for long reads.
    • summary/: Short overview of the amount of reads which were validated by blastn.
      • <sample>.blastn_summary.tsv: <sample> can be one of two options for this file. Either stay as <sample> or be <sample>_longReads for long reads.

filter

In this folder, the filtered and re-renamed reads can be found. This result has to be carefully examined using the other information in the results folder.

Output files
  • filter/: Folder containing the filtered and re-renamed reads.
    • filtered/: Folder containing the decontaminated reads
      • <sample>_filtered.fastq.gz: The filtered reads, <sample> can stay as <sample> for single-end short reads, take the pattern <sample>_{R1,R2} for paired-end reads and <sample>_longReads for long reads.
  • removed/: Folder containing the removed reads (optional)
    • <sample>_removed.fastq.gz: The removed reads, <sample> can stay as <sample> for single-end short reads, take the pattern <sample>_{R1,R2} for paired-end reads and <sample>_longReads for long reads.

summary

The summary file lists all statistics of kraken2 and/or bbduk (and optionally blastn) per sample. It is a combination of the summary files of the classification step and blastn and can be used for a quick overview of the pipeline run. By default, only the summary of the classification step is shown.

classified with *blastn_unique_idsblastn_linesfilteredblastn_unique_idsfilteredblastn_lines
<sample> (For short reads it is the same as in the samplesheet.csv, for long reads it is <sample>_longReads)Number of IDs classified in the classification stepNumber of unique IDs in blastn output, should be the same as blastn_linesNumber of lines in the blastn outputNumber of IDs in the blastn output after the filtering for identity and coverage, should be the same as filteredblastn_linesNumber of lines in the blastn output after the filtering for identity and coverage
Output files
  • summary/: Folder containing the summary.
    • summary.tsv: File containing the summary in the format stated above.

MultiQC

Output files
  • multiqc/
    • multiqc_report.html: a standalone HTML file that can be viewed in your web browser.
    • multiqc_data/: directory containing parsed statistics from the different tools used in the pipeline.
    • multiqc_plots/: directory containing static images from the report in various formats.

MultiQC is a visualization tool that generates a single HTML report summarising all samples in your project. Most of the pipeline QC results are visualised in the report and further statistics are available in the report data directory.

Results generated by MultiQC collate pipeline QC from supported tools e.g. FastQC. The pipeline has special steps which also allow the software versions to be reported in the MultiQC output for future traceability. For more information about how to use MultiQC reports, see http://multiqc.info.

Downstream samplesheets

The pipeline can also generate input files for the following downstream pipelines:

Output files
  • downstream_samplesheets/
    • taxprofiler.csv: Filled out nf-core/taxprofiler --input csv with paths to reads saved in the results directory
    • mag-pe.csv: Filled out nf-core/mag --input csv for paired-end reads with paths to reads saved in the results directory
    • mag-se.csv: Filled out nf-core/mag --input csv for single-end reads with paths to reads saved in the results directory
Warning

Any generated downstream samplesheet is provided as ‘best effort’ and are not guaranteed to work straight out of the box! They may not be complete (e.g. some columns may need to be manually filled in).

Warning

Detaxizer can process long-reads independent from short reads. nf-core/mag (as of 3.1.0) can only take short, or short + long but not standalone long-reads as an input (this is being worked on). Standalone long-reads will not be included in the nf-core/mag samplesheets.

Pipeline information

Output files
  • pipeline_info/
    • Reports generated by Nextflow: execution_report.html, execution_timeline.html, execution_trace.txt and pipeline_dag.dot/pipeline_dag.svg.
    • Reports generated by the pipeline: pipeline_report.html, pipeline_report.txt and software_versions.yml. The pipeline_report* files will only be present if the --email / --email_on_fail parameter’s are used when running the pipeline.
    • Reformatted samplesheet files used as input to the pipeline: samplesheet.valid.csv.
    • Parameters used by the pipeline run: params.json.

Nextflow provides excellent functionality for generating various reports relevant to the running and execution of the pipeline. This will allow you to troubleshoot errors with the running of the pipeline, and also provide you with other information such as launch commands, run times and resource usage.