Sentieon Germline Whole Genome Sequencing Analysis

Align reads to the reference genome, call variants, and calculate quality metrics using Sentieon.

Align reads to the reference genome, call variants, and calculate quality metrics using Sentieon.

This workflow implements the Sentieon® Genomics software, a set of software tools that perform highly accurate and computationally efficient analysis of genomic data. This workflow performs read alignment, duplicate marking, base quality score recalibration (BQSR), and variant calling steps. The workflow is designed for use with a variety of reference genomes, which are downloaded as part of workflow execution. The workflow also computes quality metrics on the deduplicated alignments and produces various plots which can be used to quickly inspect sample quality.

The workflow can optionally output a gVCF rather than a VCF file, which can be combined with other sample gVCFs for use in joint genotyping.

This workflow was developed by the Sentieon development and is written in Workflow Description Language (WDL). Further documentation can be found here.

Workflow Inputs

The workflow can be run using either paired FASTQ or aligned BAM/CRAM files. If using the FASTQ entrypoint, r1_fastq, r2_fastq, and read_groups must be defined. If using the BAM/CRAM entrypoint, input_aln and input_aln_idx must be defined.

Input Description
r1_fastq R1 fastq files
r2_fastq R2 fastq files
read_groups Sample read groups
input_aln Input alignment (BAM/CRAM) files
input_aln_idx Input alignment (BAM/CRAM) index files
reference_name The name of the human reference genome build. (‘hg38_alt’, ‘hg38_gatk’, ‘hg38’, ‘hg38_noalt’, ‘hs38’, ‘b37_gatk’, ‘b37’, ‘hs37d5’, ‘hg19’, ‘ucsc_hg19’)
run_dedup_and_qc If true, mark duplicates and output QC metrics and plots.
output_gvcf Output variant calls in the gVCF format instead of VCF
dnascope_model The Sentieon DNAscope variant calling model
canonical_user_id Your account’s AWS canonical user ID. Used to acquire a Sentieon license
sentieon_docker Sentieon docker image
is_pcr_free Set to true if the data is processed with a PCR-free library prep
n_threads Number of vCPUs to allocate for the task
memory Memory to allocate for the task

Workflow Outputs

The workflow produces variant calls in either VCF or gVCF format will be produced. Other outputs will depend on the options selected.

Output Description
calls_vcf Variant calls in VCF or gVCF format
calls_vcf_tbi Variant calls index
Metrics and reads files Metrics and reads files are produced if run_dedup_and_qc is set to true.
aligned_reads Aligned and duplicate marked reads
aligned_index Index for aligned_reads
dedup_metrics File containing the metrics data from the deduping stage
mq_metrics File containing metrics quantifying the mean base quality score for each sequencing cycle
qd_metrics File containing metrics quantifying the number of bases with a specific base quality score
gc_summary Summary of the GC bias in the reference and the sample
gc_metrics File containing metrics quantifying the GC bias in the reference and the sample
as_metrics File containing statistics about the read alignment
is_metrics File containing metrics quantifying the statistical distribution of insert sizes
mq_plot Plot of the mq_metrics
qd_plot Plot of the gd_metrics
gc_plot Plot of the gc_metrics
is_plot Plot of the is_metrics
bqsr_table Sample recal table output by running BQSR. Base quality score recalibration will run if no custom dnascope_model is provided.

Containers

The latest version of the Sentieon Docker image can be run by following the instructions listed here.