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Zanti M, Michailidou K, Loizidou MA, Machattou C, Pirpa P, Christodoulou K, Spyrou GM, Kyriacou K, Hadjisavvas A. Performance evaluation of pipelines for mapping, variant calling and interval padding, for the analysis of NGS germline panels. BMC Bioinformatics 2021; 22:218. [PMID: 33910496 PMCID: PMC8080428 DOI: 10.1186/s12859-021-04144-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/16/2021] [Accepted: 04/15/2021] [Indexed: 11/10/2022] Open
Abstract
Background Next-generation sequencing (NGS) represents a significant advancement in clinical genetics. However, its use creates several technical, data interpretation and management challenges. It is essential to follow a consistent data analysis pipeline to achieve the highest possible accuracy and avoid false variant calls. Herein, we aimed to compare the performance of twenty-eight combinations of NGS data analysis pipeline compartments, including short-read mapping (BWA-MEM, Bowtie2, Stampy), variant calling (GATK-HaplotypeCaller, GATK-UnifiedGenotyper, SAMtools) and interval padding (null, 50 bp, 100 bp) methods, along with a commercially available pipeline (BWA Enrichment, Illumina®). Fourteen germline DNA samples from breast cancer patients were sequenced using a targeted NGS panel approach and subjected to data analysis. Results We highlight that interval padding is required for the accurate detection of intronic variants including spliceogenic pathogenic variants (PVs). In addition, using nearly default parameters, the BWA Enrichment algorithm, failed to detect these spliceogenic PVs and a missense PV in the TP53 gene. We also recommend the BWA-MEM algorithm for sequence alignment, whereas variant calling should be performed using a combination of variant calling algorithms; GATK-HaplotypeCaller and SAMtools for the accurate detection of insertions/deletions and GATK-UnifiedGenotyper for the efficient detection of single nucleotide variant calls. Conclusions These findings have important implications towards the identification of clinically actionable variants through panel testing in a clinical laboratory setting, when dedicated bioinformatics personnel might not always be available. The results also reveal the necessity of improving the existing tools and/or at the same time developing new pipelines to generate more reliable and more consistent data. Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12859-021-04144-1.
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Affiliation(s)
- Maria Zanti
- Department of Electron Microscopy/Molecular Pathology, The Cyprus Institute of Neurology and Genetics, 2371, Nicosia, Cyprus.,Cyprus School of Molecular Medicine, 2371, Nicosia, Cyprus.,Bioinformatics Department, The Cyprus Institute of Neurology and Genetics, 2371, Nicosia, Cyprus
| | - Kyriaki Michailidou
- Cyprus School of Molecular Medicine, 2371, Nicosia, Cyprus.,Biostatistics Unit, The Cyprus Institute of Neurology and Genetics, 2371, Nicosia, Cyprus
| | - Maria A Loizidou
- Department of Electron Microscopy/Molecular Pathology, The Cyprus Institute of Neurology and Genetics, 2371, Nicosia, Cyprus.,Cyprus School of Molecular Medicine, 2371, Nicosia, Cyprus
| | - Christina Machattou
- Department of Electron Microscopy/Molecular Pathology, The Cyprus Institute of Neurology and Genetics, 2371, Nicosia, Cyprus
| | - Panagiota Pirpa
- Department of Electron Microscopy/Molecular Pathology, The Cyprus Institute of Neurology and Genetics, 2371, Nicosia, Cyprus
| | - Kyproula Christodoulou
- Cyprus School of Molecular Medicine, 2371, Nicosia, Cyprus.,Neurogenetics Department, The Cyprus Institute of Neurology and Genetics, 2371, Nicosia, Cyprus
| | - George M Spyrou
- Cyprus School of Molecular Medicine, 2371, Nicosia, Cyprus.,Bioinformatics Department, The Cyprus Institute of Neurology and Genetics, 2371, Nicosia, Cyprus
| | - Kyriacos Kyriacou
- Department of Electron Microscopy/Molecular Pathology, The Cyprus Institute of Neurology and Genetics, 2371, Nicosia, Cyprus.,Cyprus School of Molecular Medicine, 2371, Nicosia, Cyprus
| | - Andreas Hadjisavvas
- Department of Electron Microscopy/Molecular Pathology, The Cyprus Institute of Neurology and Genetics, 2371, Nicosia, Cyprus. .,Cyprus School of Molecular Medicine, 2371, Nicosia, Cyprus.
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