Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease caused by the bacterium Mycobacterium tuberculosis. According to the WHO, in 2018 there were 10.0 million new cases of TB worldwide and 1.4 million deaths due to the disease, making TB the world’s most deadly infectious disease. The publication of the genome of M. tuberculosis H37Rv in 1998 gave researchers a powerful new tool for understanding this pathogen. This genome has been revised since then, with the latest version being available as RefSeq entry NC_000962.3. The genome comprises a single circular chromosome of some 4.4 megabases. The H37Rv strain that the genome was sequenced from is a long-preserved laboratory strain, originally isolated from a patient in 1905 and named as H37Rv in 1935. It is notably different in some genomic regions from some modern clinical strains but remains the standard reference sequence for M. tuberculosis (Mtb). In a larger context, M. tuberculosis is a prominent member of the Mycobacterium Tuberculosis Complex (MTBC).

This group of related species comprises the 10 lineages of human-infecting M. tuberculosis as well as predominantly animal-infecting species such as M. bovis and M. pinnipedii. Two other close relatives of Mtb, M. leprae and M. lepromatosis circulate between humans, causing the disease leprosy. Finally, amongst the Mycobacteria there are several other species that live in the environment and can cause human disease. These are the Nontuberculous Mycobacteria.

Variation in the genome of M. tuberculosis (Mtb) is associated with changes in phenotype, for example, drug resistance and virulence. It is also useful for outbreak investigation as the single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in a sample can be used to build a phylogeny.

This tutorial will focus on identifying genomic variation in Mtb and using that to explore drug resistance and other aspects of the bacteria.

Get your data

The data for today is a sample of M. tuberculosis collected from a southern African patient. In addition to the bacterial sequence sample, we will work with a Genbank format version of the genome of the inferred most recent common ancestor of the M. tuberculosis complex which is combined with the annotation of the H37Rv reference sequence. This ancestral genome only differs from the H37Rv version 3 genome (NC_000962.3) by the insertion of SNPs to try and model the ancestor of all lineages of Mtb.

Hands-on: Get the data

1. Import the following files from Zenodo or from the shared data library

   https://zenodo.org/record/3960260/files/004-2_1.fastq.gz
   https://zenodo.org/record/3960260/files/004-2_2.fastq.gz
   https://zenodo.org/record/3960260/files/Mycobacterium_tuberculosis_ancestral_reference.gbk
   https://zenodo.org/record/3960260/files/Mycobacterium_tuberculosis_h37rv.ASM19595v2.45.chromosome.Chromosome.gff3
   

   Tip: Importing via links

   • Copy the link location

   • Click galaxy-upload Upload Data at the top of the tool panel

   • Select galaxy-wf-edit Paste/Fetch Data

   • Paste the link(s) into the text field

   • Press Start

   • Close the window

   Tip: Importing data from a data library

   As an alternative to uploading the data from a URL or your computer, the files may also have been made available from a shared data library:

   1. Go into Data (top panel) then Data libraries
   2. Navigate to the correct folder as indicated by your instructor.
      • On most Galaxies tutorial data will be provided in a folder named GTN - Material –> Topic Name -> Tutorial Name.
   3. Select the desired files
   4. Click on Add to History galaxy-dropdown near the top and select as Datasets from the dropdown menu

   5. In the pop-up window, choose

      • “Select history”: the history you want to import the data to (or create a new one)
   6. Click on Import

Quality control

This step serves the purpose of identifying possible issues with the raw sequenced reads input data before embarking on any “real” analysis steps.

Some of the typical problems with NGS data can be mitigated by preprocessing affected sequencing reads before trying to map them to the reference genome. Detecting some other, more severe problems early on may at least save you a lot of time spent on analyzing low-quality data that is not worth the effort.

Here, we will perform a standard quality check on our input data and only point out a few interesting aspects of that data. For a more thorough explanation of NGS data quality control, you may want to have a look at the dedicated tutorial on “Quality control”.

Hands-on: Quality control of the input datasets

1. Execute FastQC ( Galaxy version 0.74+galaxy0) on both of your fastq datasets

   • param-files “Short read data from your current history”: select both FASTQ datasets.

   Tip: Select multiple datasets

   1. Click on param-files Multiple datasets
   2. Select several files by keeping the Ctrl (or COMMAND) key pressed and clicking on the files of interest

   The FastQC tool input form looks like this. You only need to pay attention to the top part where Short read data from your current history is selected. Leave all the other parameters at their default values and click Execute.

   

   When you start this job, four new datasets (one with the calculated raw data, another one with an html report of the findings for each input dataset) will get added to your history.

While one could examine the quality control report for each set of reads (forward and reverse) independently it can be quite useful to inspect them side by side using the MultiQC tool.

Hands-on: Combining QC results

1. Use MultiQC ( Galaxy version 1.11+galaxy1) to aggregate the raw FastQC data of all input datasets into one report
   • In “Results”
     • “Which tool was used generate logs?”: FastQC
     • In “FastQC output”
       • “Type of FastQC output?”: Raw data
       • param-files “FastQC output”: both RawData outputs of FastQC tool

2. Using the galaxy-eye button, inspect the Webpage output produced by the tool

   Question

   1. Based on the report, do you think preprocessing of the reads (trimming and/or filtering) will be necessary before mapping?

   2. What is the average GC content of the data (known as GC%) in the 004-2_1 dataset?

   Solution

   1. Sequence quality is quite good overall. If anything you might consider trimming the 3’ ends of reads (base qualities decline slightly towards the 3’ ends) or to filter out the small fraction of reads with a mean base quality < 5. We will run fastp tool on the fastq datasets in the next step

   2. The GC% is 66%, which is close to the 65.6% that one expects from a M. tuberculosis sample. Examining the GC% is a quick way to check that the sample you have sequenced contains reads from the organism that you expect.

As these reads look like they need a bit of trimming, we can turn to the fastp tool to clean up our data.

Hands-on: Quality trimming

1. Use fastp ( Galaxy version 0.23.4+galaxy0) to clean up the reads and remove the poor quality sections.
   • “Single-end or paired-end reads?”: Paired
   • param-files “Input 1”: 004-2_1.fastq.gz
   • param-files “Input 2”: 004-2_2.fastq.gz

2. Inspect the output produced by fastp

   Question

   1. Was there a difference in file size of the reads before and after trimming? Is the difference the same between both sets of reads?

   Solution

   1. After processing by fastp the output files are about 80 MB smaller than the inputs. The change in size is similar for both files.

The next section, on looking for contamination in our data using Kraken2, takes a long time to run and can be skipped and perhaps run later if you prefer.

Hands-on: Choose Your Own Tutorial

This is a "Choose Your Own Tutorial" section, where you can select between multiple paths. Click one of the buttons below to select how you want to follow the tutorial

Skip Kraken2 Run Kraken2

Find variants with Snippy

We will now run the Snippy tool on our reads, comparing them to the reference.

Snippy is a tool for rapid bacterial SNP calling and core genome alignments. Snippy finds SNPs between a haploid reference genome and your NGS sequence reads. It will find both substitutions (SNPs) and insertions/deletions (indels).

If we give Snippy an annotated reference in Genbank format, it will run a tool called SnpEff which will figure out the effect of any changes on the genes and other features. If we just give Snippy the reference sequence alone without the annotations, it will not run SnpEff.

We have an annotated reference built from the inferred M. tuberculosis ancestral reference genome and the gene annotation from the H37Rv strain so will use it in this case.

Hands-on: Run Snippy

1. Snippy ( Galaxy version 4.6.0+galaxy0) with the following parameters
   • “Will you select a reference genome from your history or use a built-in index?”: Use a genome from history and build index
   • “Use the following dataset as the reference sequence”: Mycobacterium_tuberculosis_ancestral_reference.gbk
   • “Single or Paired-end reads”: Paired
   • “Select first set of reads”: fastp on X: Read 1 output
   • “Select second set of reads”: fastp on X: Read 2 output

• Under “Advanced parameters”
  • “Minimum proportion for variant evidence”: 0.1 (This is so we can see possible rare variants in our sample)
• Under “Output selection” select the following:
  • “The final annotated variants in VCF format”
  • “A simple tab-separated summary of all the variants”
  • “The alignments in BAM format”
  • Deselect any others.

1. Inspect the Snippy VCF output

   Question

   1. What type of variant is the first one in the list?

   2. What was the effect of this variant on the coding region it was found in?

   3. How many variants were found?

   Solution

   1. Substitution of a C to a T. This variant is supported by 197 reads.

   2. According to SnpEff, it’s a Synonymous change in Rv0002.

   3. 1098 variants are found. To count variants, look at how many non-comment lines are in the snippy VCF output or how many lines (excluding the header) there are in the VCF file. This is quite typical for M. tuberculosis.

RECAP: So far we have taken our sample reads, cleaned them up a bit, checked for taxonomic assocation, compared the reads with our reference sequence and then called variants (SNPs and indels) between our sample and the reference genome. We have tried to mitigate a few errors along the way:

1. Sequencing errors: these were addressed by the quality trimming step
2. Sample contamination: we used Kraken2 to assess the extent of this problem in our sample
3. Appropriate choice of a reference genome: we used a genome that is inferred to be ancestral to all M. tuberculosis for our analysis and the diversity within Mtb is limited enough for us to rely on a single reference genome for the entire species.
4. Quality filtering in the mapping and variant calling stage: Internally snippy uses tools like bwa-mem and freebayes that judge the quality of their predictions. snippy then uses this information to perform some filtering on variant calling predictions.

Further variant filtering and drug resistance profiling

We still cannot entirely trust the proposed variants. In particular, there are regions of the M. tuberculosis genome that are difficult to effectively map reads to. These include the PE/PPE/PGRS genes, which are highly repetitive, and the IS (insertion sequence sites). Secondly, when an insertion or deletion (indel) occurs in our sample relative to the reference it can cause apparent, but false, single nucleotide variants to appear near the indel. Finally, where few reads map to a region of the reference genome, either because of a sequence deletion or because of a high GC content in the genomic region, we cannot be confident about the quality of variant calling in the region. The TB Variant Filter can help filter out variants based on a variety of criteria, including those listed above.

Hands-on: Run TB Variant Filter

1. TB Variant Filter ( Galaxy version 0.4.0+galaxy0) with the following parameters
   • “VCF file to be filter”: snippy on data XX, data XX, and data XX mapped reads vcf file
   • “Filters to apply”: Select Filter variants by region and Filter sites by read alignment depth.

2. Open the new VCF file.

   Question

   1. How many of the original variants have now been filtered out?

   Solution

   1. 131 (The difference in the number of lines between the snippy vcf file and the filtered vcf file.)

Details: Which filters to apply?

TB Variant Filter tries to provide reasonable defaults for filtering variants predicted in the M. tuberculosis genome, using multiple different strategies. Firstly, certain regions of the Mtb genome contain repetitive sequences, e.g. from the PE/PPE gene family. Historically all of the genomic regions corresponding to those genes were filtered out but the new default draws on work from Maximillian Marin and others. This list of “refined low confidence” (RLC) regions is the current region filter in TB Variant Filter for reads over 100 bp. If you are using shorter reads (e.g. from Illumina iSeq) the “Refined Low Confidence and Low Mappability” region list should be used instead. For more on how these regions were calculated read the paper or preprint.

In addition to region filters, filters for variant type, allele frequency, coverage depth and distance from indels are provided. Older variant callers struggled to accurately call insertions and deletions (indels) but more recent tools (e.g. GATK v4 and the variant caller used in Snippy, Freebayes) no longer have this weakness. One remaining reason to filter SNVs/SNPs near indels is that they might have a different evolutionary history to “free standing” SNVs/SNPs, so the “close to indel filter” is still available in TB Variant Filter in case such SNPs/SNVs should be filtered out.

Now that we have a collection of high-quality variants we can search them against variants known to be associated with drug resistance. The TB Profiler tool does this using a database of variants curated by Dr Jody Phelan at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. It can do its own mapping and variant calling but also accepts mapped reads in BAM format as input. It does its own variant calling and filtering.

Finally, TB Variant Report uses the COMBAT-TB eXplorer database of M. tuberculosis genome annotation to annotate variants in Mtb. It also takes the output of TB Profiler and produces a neat report that is easy to browse and search.

Hands-on: Run TB Profiler and TB Variant Report

1. TB-Profiler profile ( Galaxy version 6.2.1+galaxy0) with the following parameters
   • “Input File Type”: BAM
   • “Bam”: snippy on data XX, data XX, and data X mapped reads (bam)

   TB Profiler produces 3 output files, it’s own VCF file, a report about the sample including it’s likely lineages and any AMR found. There is also a .json formatted results file.

2. When snippy is run with Genbank format input it prepends GENE_ to gene names in the VCF annotation. This causes a problem for TB Variant report, so we need to edit the output with sed.

   Text transformation with sed ( Galaxy version 1.1.1) with the following parameters:

   • “File to process”: TB Variant Filter on data XX
   • “SED Program”: s/GENE_//g
3. TB Variant Report ( Galaxy version 1.0.1+galaxy0) with the following parameters
   • “Input SnpEff annotated M.tuberculosis VCF(s)”: Text transformation on data XX
   • “TBProfiler Drug Resistance Report (Optional)”: TB-Profiler Profile on data XX: Results.json

4. Open the drug resistance and variant report html files.

   Question

   1. What was the final lineage of the sample we tested?

   2. Were there any drug resistances found?

   Solution

   1. 4 with sublineage 4.4.1.1.1.

   2. Yes, resistance to isoniazid, rifampicin, ethambutol, pyrazinamide and streptomycin as well as to the flouroquinolines (amikacin, capreomycin and kanamycin) is predicted from mutations in the katG, rpoB, embB, pncA, rpsL and rrs (ribosomal RNA) genes respectively.

At this point we have a drug resistance report from TB Profiler, aligned reads from snippy and variants both in VCF format and in the easier-to-read format produced by TB Variant report. Often this is enough information on a sample, and we might end our analysis here, especially if we are processing many samples together, as is described towards the end of this tutorial.

We will, however, spend some time examining this data in more detail in the next section.

View Snippy output in JBrowse

We could go through all of the variants in the VCF files and read them out of a text table, but this is onerous and doesn’t really give the context of the changes very well. It would be much nicer to have a visualisation of the SNPs and the other relevant data. A genome viewer, such as JBrowse, can be used within Galaxy to display the M. tuberculosis genome and the data from our analysis.

Hands-on: Run JBrowse

1. Use seqret ( Galaxy version 5.0.0) to convert the Genbank format reference (Mycobacterium_tuberculosis_ancestral_reference.gbk) to FASTA format. Use the following parameters:
   • “Sequences”: Mycobacterium_tuberculosis_ancestral_reference.gbk
   • “Use feature information”: No
   • “Read one sequence and stop”: Yes
   • “Output sequence file format”: FASTA (m)
2. JBrowse ( Galaxy version 1.16.11+galaxy1) with the following parameters
   • “Reference genome to display”: Use a genome from history
     • “Select the reference genome”: seqret output from the previous step

     This sequence will be the reference against which annotations are displayed

   • “Genetic Code”: 11: The Bacterial, Archaeal and Plant Plastid Code
   • “JBrowse-in-Galaxy Action”: New JBrowse Instance

   • “Track Group”

     We will now set up three different tracks - these are datasets displayed underneath the reference sequence (which is displayed as nucleotides in FASTA format). We will choose to display the sequence reads (the .bam file), the variants found by snippy (the .gff file) and the annotated reference genome (the wildtype.gff)

     • Track 1 - sequence reads: Click on Insert Track Group and fill it with
       • “Track Category” to sequence reads
       • Click on Insert Annotation Track and fill it with
         • “Track Type” to BAM Pileups
         • “BAM Track Data” to snippy on data XX, data XX, and data XX mapped reads (bam)
         • “Autogenerate SNP Track” to No
         • “Track Visibility” to On for new users
     • Track 2 - variants: Click on Insert Track Group and fill it with
       • “Track Category” to variants
       • Click on Insert Annotation Track and fill it with
         • “Track Type” to VCF SNPs
         • “SNP Track Data” to TB Variant Filter on data XX
         • “Track Visibility” to On for new users
     • Track 3 - annotated reference: Click on Insert Track Group and fill it with
       • “Track Category” to annotated reference
       • Click on Insert Annotation Track and fill it with
         • “Track Type” to GFF/GFF3/BED Features
         • “GFF/GFF3/BED Track Data” to https://zenodo.org/record/3531703/files/Mycobacterium_tuberculosis_h37rv.ASM19595v2.45.chromosome.Chromosome.gff3
         • “JBrowse Track Type [Advanced]” to Canvas Features
         • Click on “JBrowse Styling Options [Advanced]”
         • “JBrowse style.label” to product
         • “JBrowse style.description” to product
         • “Track Visibility” to On for new users

A new dataset will be created in your history, containing the JBrowse interactive visualisation. We will now view its contents and play with it by clicking the galaxy-eye (eye) icon of the JBrowse on data XX and data XX - Complete dataset. The JBrowse window will appear in the centre Galaxy panel.

What you should see is something like this:

Open JBrowse in a new tab

You can now click on the names of the tracks to add them in, try the vcf file and gff file. You can see where the variants are located and which genes they are in. If you click on the BAM file you can zoom right in to see the read alignments for each variant if you wish.

Question: Using JBrowse to examine a known variant

1. Paste Chromosome:761009..761310 into the JBrowse location bar and click Go. Ensure that the BAM and VCF tracks are set to visible. What is the meaning of the red column that shows up in the middle of the display of reads (the BAM track)?

2. What change happened at position 761155 in the genome, according to the read and variant data displayed?

3. How did this change impact the rpoB gene, the gene that is found on the forward strand overlapping this position?

Solution

1. The red column is a variant that is present in almost all of the reads aligning to the genome at position 761155.

2. Examining the VCF track the variant is shown as a mutation from C to T.

3. The “frame” of the codons in this gene can be determined by navigating to where the rpoB gene, the second horizontal bar in the annotation track, starts (position 759807). This gene is in frame 0 on the forward strand, the top frame in the display. Navigating back to position 761155, the amino acid encoded in the reference genome is S, that is serine. The mutation from a C to a T changes the codon at this position to L, leucine, and is associated with resistance to the drug rifampicin.

While the rifampicin resistance mutation being examined here is already reported by TB-Profiler, JBrowse allows us to examine the evidence underlying this mutation in more detail.

An alternative to running JBrowse within Galaxy is to install IGV and use Galaxy’s built-in support for visualising BAM files with IGV.

Tip: Using IGV with Galaxy

You can send data from your Galaxy history to IGV for viewing as follows:

1. Install IGV on your computer (IGV download page)
2. Start IGV
3. In recent versions of IGV, you will have to enable the port:
   • In IGV, go to View > Preferences > Advanced
   • Check the box Enable Port
4. In Galaxy, expand the dataset you would like to view in IGV
   • Make sure you have set a reference genome/database correctly (dbkey) (instructions)
   • Under display in IGV, click on local

This requires more setup for the user, for example loading the FASTA file of the genome into IGV and downloading any annotation GFF3 files you want to use with IGV. On the other hand, running IGV locally is often faster than using JBrowse in Galaxy.

Different samples, different stories (optional)

In Zenodo we have included sample 18-1 from the same study (aka. ERR1750907). This is also a southern African M. tuberculosis sample, but in some ways quite different from the sample we have analysed in the tutorial thus far.

Hands-on: Take a closer look at sample 18-1

1. Fetch the data from Zenodo

   https://zenodo.org/record/3960260/files/018-1_1.fastq.gz
   https://zenodo.org/record/3960260/files/018-1_2.fastq.gz
   

2. Examine the sequence quality with FastQC ( Galaxy version 0.73+galaxy0).

3. Examine the sample composition with Kraken2 ( Galaxy version 2.1.1+galaxy1).

   Question

   1. What problems were discovered with sequence quality?

   2. What did the Kraken2 report show? How does this impact your assessment of variants discovered from this sample?

   Solution

   1. The quality of the sequence drops sharply towards the end of the sequences. Even more concerning, the sequence content changes across the length of the sample, which is not what we would expect at all. Finally, the sample seems to contain sequencing adapters, an artefact of the sequencing process that should be trimmed out before any sequence analysis.

   2. Less than 60% of the sequence reads are associated with the genus Mycobacterium. Perhaps the quality problems in the sequence reads contribute to this poor classification? They certainly will make variant calling less reliable. You might get too many (false positive) or too few (false negative) variants reported compared to what is actually present in the sample.

As you can see, the quality of sequence data strongly determines how useful it is for subsequent analysis. This is why quality control is always a first step before trying to call and interpret variants. What we do with a sample like this will depend on what resources we have available. Can we discard it and use other data for our analysis? Can we re-sequence? Can we clean it up, remove the adapters (using Trimmomatic, fastp or cutadapt) and perhaps use the Kraken2 output to decide which reads to keep? These are all possible strategies and there is no one answer for which is the correct one to pursue.

The next example is SRR12416842 from an Indonesia study of multi-drug resistant (MDR) tuberculosis.

Hands-on: Take a closer look at sample SRR12416842

1. Fetch the data from EBI European Nucleotide Archive

   ftp://ftp.sra.ebi.ac.uk/vol1/fastq/SRR124/042/SRR12416842/SRR12416842_1.fastq.gz
   ftp://ftp.sra.ebi.ac.uk/vol1/fastq/SRR124/042/SRR12416842/SRR12416842_2.fastq.gz
   

2. Perform quality trimming with fastp ( Galaxy version 0.23.4+galaxy0) and examine it’s HTML output to see quality before and after trimming.

3. Map the samples to the M. tuberculosis reference genome with Snippy ( Galaxy version 4.6.0+galaxy0). Make sure to select the BAM output as one of the outputs.

   Question

   1. Was the sequence quality good?

   2. How many variants were discovered by snippy?

   Solution

   1. The fastp result shows that while there is some dropoff in sequence quality (especially towards the end of the reads from the second dataset), the sequences are of good enough quality to analyse.

   2. snippy discovered more than 15,000 variants. This is unusual for a M. tuberculosis sample where we expect at most a few thousand variants across the length of the genome.

4. Run samtools stats ( Galaxy version 2.0.5) on the snippy on data XX, data XX, and data XX mapped reads (bam) file. In the output, pay attention to the sequences, reads mapped and reads unmapped results.

5. Run the BAM Coverage Plotter ( Galaxy version 20201223+galaxy0) on the mapped reads BAM file that you got from snippy using the FASTA format reference you made with seqret as the reference.

   Question

   1. What percentage of reads mapped to the reference genome?

   2. If you could run the BAM Coverage Plotter tool, was the coverage even across the genome?

   Solution

   1. Less than 110000 out of 7297618, that is 1.5%, of the reads mapped to the reference genome.

   2. The image from the BAM Coverage Plotter tool shows just a few vertical bars, suggestion that almost no reads mapped to the reference genome.

   

   By contrast, reads from the 004-02 map evenly across the M. tuberculosis genome, with an average depth of over 100 reads, as shown in this output from BAM Coverage Plotter:

   

   If you wish to investigate further, analyse the SRR12416842 sample with Kraken2.

There is something clearly wrong with sample SRR12416842, perhaps indicating sample contamination. This example of a sample that doesn’t map to the reference genome illustrates that even when sequence quality is good, sequence data problems can become apparent in later steps of analysis and it is important to always have a sense of what results to expect. You can develop a better sense of what quality control results to expect by first practicing techniques with known data before analysing new samples.

Processing many samples at once: Collections and Workflows (optional)

In the tutorial thus far we have focused on processing single samples, where two read datasets (forward and reverse reads) are associated with a single sample. In practice, sequence analysis typically involves analysing batches of samples and we run the same analysis steps for each sample in the batch. Galaxy supports working with batches using collections and workflows.

If you have followed all of the steps of this tutorial, you will have two useable samples, one named 004-2 and another 018-1. Create a list of dataset pairs from these samples and call the collection samples.

Tip: Creating a paired collection

• Click on galaxy-selector Select Items at the top of the history panel
• Check all the datasets in your history you would like to include

• Click n of N selected and choose Build List of Dataset Pairs

• Change the text of unpaired forward to a common selector for the forward reads
• Change the text of unpaired reverse to a common selector for the reverse reads
• Click Pair these datasets for each valid forward and reverse pair.
• Enter a name for your collection
• Click Create List to build your collection
• Click on the checkmark icon at the top of your history again

The workflow that we are going to use is published on WorkflowHub.eu and you can run it directly on Galaxy servers using the link below:

Hands-on: Importing and Launching a WorkflowHub.eu Workflow

Launch TB Variant Analysis v1.0 (v1) (View on WorkflowHub)

Launch TB Variant Analysis v1.0 (v1) (View on WorkflowHub)

Tip: If this does not work

WorkflowHub is a workflow management system which allows workflows to be FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable), citable, have managed metadata profiles, and be openly available for review and analytics.

1. Ensure that you are logged in to your Galaxy account.
2. Click on the Workflow menu, located in the top bar.
3. Click on the Import button, located in the right corner.
4. In the section “Import a Workflow from Configured GA4GH Tool Registry Servers (e.g. Dockstore)”, click on Search form.
5. In the TRS Server: workflowhub.eu menu you should type name:"TB Variant Analysis v1.0"
6. Click on the desired workflow, and finally select the latest available version.

After that, the imported workflows will appear in the main workflow menu. In order to run the workflow, just need to click in the workflow-run Run workflow icon.

Below is a short video showing this uncomplicated procedure:

If the text above doesn’t show a text to run or if you are not on one of the public “usegalaxy.*” servers that integrate with WorkflowHub.eu:

1. Copy the URL of this link (e.g. via right click) or save it to your computer and
2. Import the workflow into Galaxy
3. Click the run icon (it is a small white right-pointing triangle on a blue background)

Tip: Importing a workflow

• Click on Workflow on the top menu bar of Galaxy. You will see a list of all your workflows.
• Click on galaxy-upload Import at the top-right of the screen
• Provide your workflow
  • Option 1: Paste the URL of the workflow into the box labelled “Archived Workflow URL”
  • Option 2: Upload the workflow file in the box labelled “Archived Workflow File”
• Click the Import workflow button

Below is a short video demonstrating how to import a workflow from GitHub using this procedure:

Hands-on: Analysing samples with the TB Variant Reporting workflow

1. Run the TB Variant Analysis workflow workflow using the following parameters

   • param-collection Reads the samples collection of your input reads

   • param-file Reference Genome the Mycobacterium_tuberculosis_ancestral_reference.gbk reference genome

2. Click the Run Workflow button at the top-right of the screen

The workflow will produce a series of collections, with the most important outputs being tagged with dataset tags.

• The MultiQC report tagged qc_report contains information on fastp read trimming and BamQC mapping statistics.

• The filtered VCF is transformed with sed and tagged as annotated_vcf

• The TB-Profiler drug resistance report is tagged with drug_resistance_report

• The TB VCF Report outputs are tagged with variant_report

• For each sample a consensus genome is created by inserting the single nucleotide variants into the reference genome. This is tagged as consensus_genome and is intended for use in building a phylogenetic tree.

• The Kraken2 report (to check for contamination) is tagged with kraken_report

The workflow also produces a Workflow Invocation Report that summarises the outputs of the workflow. This can be found on the Workflow Invocation menu which is either in the User menu or on the History menu depending on which version of Galaxy you are using.

Conclusion

Thank you for coming to the end of this tutorial. After completing this tutorial you might want to follow some of the other tutorials in the Galaxy Training Network on analysing M. tuberculosis data. Just search for tuberculosis in the search bar. Enjoy the rest of your day!

You've Finished the Tutorial

Please also consider filling out the Feedback Form as well!

Key points

• variants in M. tuberculosis sequencing data can be discovered using common microbial bioinformatics tools

• it is not enough to just call variants, variant calling involves multiple quality control steps

• the choice of reference genome and some quality control procedures are species-specific, and require knowledge of the organism in question

• batches of samples can be processed using Galaxy dataset collections and workflows

Frequently Asked Questions

Useful literature

Further information, including links to documentation and original publications, regarding the tools, analysis techniques and the interpretation of results described in this tutorial can be found here.

Feedback

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Citing this Tutorial

1. Peter van Heusden, Simon Gladman, Thoba Lose, M. tuberculosis Variant Analysis (Galaxy Training Materials). https://training.galaxyproject.org/training-material/topics/variant-analysis/tutorials/tb-variant-analysis/tutorial.html Online; accessed TODAY
2. Hiltemann, Saskia, Rasche, Helena et al., 2023 Galaxy Training: A Powerful Framework for Teaching! PLOS Computational Biology 10.1371/journal.pcbi.1010752
3. Batut et al., 2018 Community-Driven Data Analysis Training for Biology Cell Systems 10.1016/j.cels.2018.05.012

BibTeX

@misc{variant-analysis-tb-variant-analysis,
author = "Peter van Heusden and Simon Gladman and Thoba Lose",
	title = "M. tuberculosis Variant Analysis (Galaxy Training Materials)",
	year = "",
	month = "",
	day = "",
	url = "\url{https://training.galaxyproject.org/training-material/topics/variant-analysis/tutorials/tb-variant-analysis/tutorial.html}",
	note = "[Online; accessed TODAY]"
}
@article{Hiltemann_2023,
	doi = {10.1371/journal.pcbi.1010752},
	url = {https://doi.org/10.1371%2Fjournal.pcbi.1010752},
	year = 2023,
	month = {jan},
	publisher = {Public Library of Science ({PLoS})},
	volume = {19},
	number = {1},
	pages = {e1010752},
	author = {Saskia Hiltemann and Helena Rasche and Simon Gladman and Hans-Rudolf Hotz and Delphine Larivi{\`{e}}re and Daniel Blankenberg and Pratik D. Jagtap and Thomas Wollmann and Anthony Bretaudeau and Nadia Gou{\'{e}} and Timothy J. Griffin and Coline Royaux and Yvan Le Bras and Subina Mehta and Anna Syme and Frederik Coppens and Bert Droesbeke and Nicola Soranzo and Wendi Bacon and Fotis Psomopoulos and Crist{\'{o}}bal Gallardo-Alba and John Davis and Melanie Christine Föll and Matthias Fahrner and Maria A. Doyle and Beatriz Serrano-Solano and Anne Claire Fouilloux and Peter van Heusden and Wolfgang Maier and Dave Clements and Florian Heyl and Björn Grüning and B{\'{e}}r{\'{e}}nice Batut and},
	editor = {Francis Ouellette},
	title = {Galaxy Training: A powerful framework for teaching!},
	journal = {PLoS Comput Biol}
}

                   

Galaxy Administrators: Install the missing tools

You can use Ephemeris's shed-tools install command to install the tools used in this tutorial.

shed-tools install [-g GALAXY] [-a API_KEY] -t <(curl https://training.galaxyproject.org/training-material/api/topics/variant-analysis/tutorials/tb-variant-analysis/tutorial.json | jq .admin_install_yaml -r)

Alternatively you can copy and paste the following YAML

---
install_tool_dependencies: true
install_repository_dependencies: true
install_resolver_dependencies: true
tools:
- name: text_processing
  owner: bgruening
  revisions: 86755160afbf
  tool_panel_section_label: Text Manipulation
  tool_shed_url: https://toolshed.g2.bx.psu.edu/
- name: text_processing
  owner: bgruening
  revisions: d698c222f354
  tool_panel_section_label: Text Manipulation
  tool_shed_url: https://toolshed.g2.bx.psu.edu/
- name: text_processing
  owner: bgruening
  revisions: 86755160afbf
  tool_panel_section_label: Text Manipulation
  tool_shed_url: https://toolshed.g2.bx.psu.edu/
- name: emboss_5
  owner: devteam
  revisions: 63dd26468588
  tool_panel_section_label: EMBOSS
  tool_shed_url: https://toolshed.g2.bx.psu.edu/
- name: fastqc
  owner: devteam
  revisions: 3d0c7bdf12f5
  tool_panel_section_label: FASTA/FASTQ
  tool_shed_url: https://toolshed.g2.bx.psu.edu/
- name: fastqc
  owner: devteam
  revisions: 5ec9f6bceaee
  tool_panel_section_label: FASTA/FASTQ
  tool_shed_url: https://toolshed.g2.bx.psu.edu/
- name: samtools_stats
  owner: devteam
  revisions: 541082d03bef
  tool_panel_section_label: SAM/BAM
  tool_shed_url: https://toolshed.g2.bx.psu.edu/
- name: bcftools_consensus
  owner: iuc
  revisions: da0bf365652d
  tool_panel_section_label: Variant Calling
  tool_shed_url: https://toolshed.g2.bx.psu.edu/
- name: fastp
  owner: iuc
  revisions: c59d48774d03
  tool_panel_section_label: FASTA/FASTQ
  tool_shed_url: https://toolshed.g2.bx.psu.edu/
- name: jbrowse
  owner: iuc
  revisions: a6e57ff585c0
  tool_panel_section_label: Graph/Display Data
  tool_shed_url: https://toolshed.g2.bx.psu.edu/
- name: jvarkit_wgscoverageplotter
  owner: iuc
  revisions: ac048a34cac3
  tool_panel_section_label: Graph/Display Data
  tool_shed_url: https://toolshed.g2.bx.psu.edu/
- name: kraken2
  owner: iuc
  revisions: 20e2f64aa1fe
  tool_panel_section_label: Metagenomic Analysis
  tool_shed_url: https://toolshed.g2.bx.psu.edu/
- name: mosdepth
  owner: iuc
  revisions: 5854d0da92b4
  tool_panel_section_label: SAM/BAM
  tool_shed_url: https://toolshed.g2.bx.psu.edu/
- name: multiqc
  owner: iuc
  revisions: abfd8a6544d7
  tool_panel_section_label: Quality Control
  tool_shed_url: https://toolshed.g2.bx.psu.edu/
- name: qualimap_bamqc
  owner: iuc
  revisions: 4a89c6f84425
  tool_panel_section_label: SAM/BAM
  tool_shed_url: https://toolshed.g2.bx.psu.edu/
- name: snippy
  owner: iuc
  revisions: d220115f882b
  tool_panel_section_label: Variant Calling
  tool_shed_url: https://toolshed.g2.bx.psu.edu/
- name: tb_variant_filter
  owner: iuc
  revisions: 32f14a2723ec
  tool_panel_section_label: Annotation
  tool_shed_url: https://toolshed.g2.bx.psu.edu/
- name: tbprofiler
  owner: iuc
  revisions: 4839e590cb26
  tool_panel_section_label: Annotation
  tool_shed_url: https://toolshed.g2.bx.psu.edu/
- name: tbvcfreport
  owner: iuc
  revisions: 42818629ec4c
  tool_panel_section_label: Annotation
  tool_shed_url: https://toolshed.g2.bx.psu.edu/
- name: tbvcfreport
  owner: iuc
  revisions: 9793bc5d741b
  tool_panel_section_label: Annotation
  tool_shed_url: https://toolshed.g2.bx.psu.edu/

Feedback

5 stars	18
4 stars	9
3 stars	1

July 2024

• 3 stars: Liked: I was able to challenge myself, and had a background knowledge of how to determine SNPs and drug resistance patterns Disliked: Some of the version IDs don't tally with the version provided for the tutorial

June 2024

• 5 stars: Liked: The sequential flow of the work makes it easier to understand downstream analysis using Galaxy. I practiced this tutorial three times, and I have conceptualized the key aspect of mapping and variant calling for Mtb NGS analysis. Disliked: How to translate this knowledge and skills in analyzing NGS raw data for Enteric pathogens and other microorganisms. Please, for comparative data analysis, you can add one ESKAPE pathogen for this studies
• 4 stars: Liked: The step-by-step analysis of the genome. Very interesting information and easy to follow steps. I like Galaxy. The course was well organized and really made easy for people like me who is a wet lab scientist who is not familiar with the dry lab analysis and computer systems. Disliked: I think next time, the time should be extended to allow the participants to complete all the tutorials before moving to the next session. The reason I am saying this is because from my own personal experience, it is difficult to pay attention in the next session when your mind is still stuck in the previous tutorial that was left incomplete. other that, the course was well organized and really made easy for people like me who is a wet lab scientist.
• 5 stars: Liked: Gene viewing, Find variants with Snippy Disliked: probably direct the us the new users to run tool after commanding
• 5 stars: Liked: The hints section since the galaxy platform is new to me. I am used to coding and using the linux platform. But this was refreshing to use Disliked: An example comparing single-end and paired-end data results would be interesting
• 5 stars: Liked: Stepwise presentation of information made it easy to follow the tutorial Disliked: Please, the training has been more productive. You can include information on genotyping Mycobacterium ulceran to give a clear-cut genomic differences between Mtb
• 5 stars: Liked: Presentation skills, audibility of the instructor
• 4 stars: Liked: step by step guide Disliked: I did not get the same JBrowse so I tried to do it again. I still got the "minimal" instead of the "complete" even after following the step by step procedure.

October 2023

• 4 stars: Liked: Very clear and well explain tutorial Disliked: Maybe I would suggest to put some figures to easy find some commands on galaxy

May 2023

• 5 stars: Liked: Have a great Job. I am doing my Research on MTB of Bioinformatics Analysis. It was really Helpful. Disliked: sorry to say, but one of my suggestion is on next time need Hands on Session Tutorial vedio.

January 2023

• 5 stars: Liked: The extra examples (2 NGS datasets) at the end of the tutorial are very useful, it gives me a better idea on how to troubleshoot and identify the problem, when encountering a bad NGS data Disliked: Perhaps it will be helpful to include more explanation of the results for the different tools after each steps (e.g. a hyperlink to the bioinformatics tool's user manual for more result explanation)

July 2022

• 4 stars: Liked: The clear instructions on how to use the tools Disliked: allowing learners to supply the solution and evaluating the answers

March 2022

• 5 stars: Liked: Tutorials easy to follow Disliked: This is great model of learning
• 4 stars: Liked: I like that even though we do not have to type in commands, we still have steps to follow. I have made errors but still were able to use tools to rectify. One can play around till the correct output! Disliked: Specification of version to use as we ended up getting different answers due to using default version
• 4 stars: Liked: the hands on helped with grasping tasks Disliked: Requires much more time
• 4 stars: Liked: I like the step by step instructions on what to do Disliked: It would be better if the tutorials should also be in video form for easy understanding
• 5 stars: Liked: overall the tutorial was easy to go through Disliked: sometimes it was unclear where some of the errors came from and how they can be fixed
• 5 stars: Liked: Sequence analysis

July 2021

• 5 stars: Liked: The step-by-step description help a lot!. Thank you