Working with genomics ranges

Last updated on 2024-03-12 | Edit this page

Overview

Questions

  • What is the recommended way to represent coordinates on a genomic scale in Bioconductor?
  • What Bioconductor packages provides methods to efficiently process genomic ranges?
  • How can I import/export sets of genomic coordinates from/to various genomic file formats?

Objectives

  • Explain how genomic coordinates and intervals are represented in the Bioconductor project.
  • Identify Bioconductor packages and methods available to process ranges of genomic coordinates.

Install packages


Before we can proceed into the following sections, we install some Bioconductor packages that we will need. First, we check that the BiocManager package is installed before trying to use it; otherwise we install it. Then we use the BiocManager::install() function to install the necessary packages.

R

if (!requireNamespace("BiocManager", quietly = TRUE))
    install.packages("BiocManager")

BiocManager::install("GenomicRanges")

The GenomicRanges package and classes


Why do we need classes for genomic ranges?

In the era of genomics, many observations are reported as ranges of coordinates - i.e., intervals - on a genomic scale. Depending on the nature of the assay, those genomic ranges may represent genes, transcripts, exons, single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), transcription factor binding sites, or peaks from next-generation sequencing assays such as ChIP-seq or ATAC-seq.

Genomic ranges tie those observations of assayed values (e.g., gene expression) to a physical location in the genome or an organism. For instance, those genomic ranges can be used to query physical proximity or overlap between assayed features and databases of known regulatory regions.

Often, the final genomic ranges used for reporting measurements are the result of combinations and operations on sets of genomic ranges in databases of known genomic features. For instance, in RNA-sequencing, next-generation sequencing reads are often counted within individual exons, and those counts are subsequently aggregated across all the exons of each gene. Separately, promoters are frequently defined as region of arbitrary width, partly upstream and/or downstream of known transcription start sites (TSS).

Importantly, genomic ranges do not necessarily need to span multiple coordinates. The notion of range is meant in the mathematical way, and single-nucleotide genomic ranges (e.g., SNPs) can be described as opening and closing at the same coordinate (or at the next coordinate, in the case of a right-open interval).

For many organisms, the genetic material is split into a number of separate nucleic acid molecules (e.g., chromosomes, plasmids). As such, genomic ranges are described by the name of the sequence and the numeric interval of coordinates on that sequence.

Example uses of the GenomicRanges algebra.

Example uses of the GenomicRanges algebra. Adapted from Huber, Carey, Gentleman, Anders, Carlson, Carvalho, Bravo, Davis, Gatto, Girke, Gottardo, Hahne, Hansen, Irizarry, Lawrence, Love, MacDonald, Obenchain, Oles, Pages, Reyes, Shannon, Smyth, Tenenbaum, Waldron, and Morgan (2015). The figure illustrates the example of a gene model that comprises two transcripts, and the definition of various genomic ranges relative to that gene model. For instance - in this specific illustration - unspliced transcripts summarise the entire range of coordinates from the start of the first exon to the end of the last exon; while the gene region is defined as the set of coordinates included in at least one exon of one transcript.

A brief introduction to intervals

Intervals are described in mathematical terms using a start and an end position on an axis of continuous coordinates. The interval then comprises all the real numbers between those two coordinates, and the width of each interval can be computed from the difference between the coordinates of the start and end positions.

Generally speaking, the start and end position can be any rational number, including floating-point numbers. However, in genomics, integer coordinates are typically used to represent the location of monomers (e.g., nucleotide, amino acid) in the sequence of polymers (e.g., nucleic acid, protein).

You may come across packages, databases, and programming languages that use different rules to define intervals. In R, indexing is 1-based (meaning that the first position in a sequence is 1), which contrasts with Python that is 0-based (the index of the first position in a sequence is 0). Similarly, references files in the UCSC Genome Browser are 0-based, while those of the Ensembl Genome Browser are 1-based.

The definition of intervals in a shared coordinate system allows calculations such as the distance between two intervals - generally calculated as the distance between the two closest edges of those intervals -, and the identification of overlapping intervals.

Example of intervals.

Example of intervals. Three intervals named A, B, and C, are represented. Interval A starts at position 5 and ends at position 9, for a width of 4 units; interval B starts at position 1 and ends at position 3, for a width of 2 units; interval C starts at position 3 and ends at position 6, for a width of 3 units. Intervals A and C overlap, from coordinates 5 to 6; while intervals B and C meet at coordinate 3, but do not strictly overlap each other.

A brief introduction to genomic ranges

Genomic ranges essentially extend the notion of mathematical intervals on sets of biological sequences (e.g., chromosomes). In other words, genomic ranges combine the name of the biological sequence on which they are located with the integer range of coordinates that the genomic ranges span in that sequence. This is key to distinguish genomic features that span an overlapping range of coordinates on different biological sequences.

Furthermore, the double-stranded nature of DNA sequences also adds the notion of strandedness to genomic ranges. If known, the strand information of genomic features is a key piece of information that should be tracked, so that it may be used for downstream analyses. For instance, genomic ranges spanning a common range of coordinates on opposite strands of the same DNA sequence may not be considered to overlap (e.g., for the purpose of strand-specific next-generation sequencing assays).

Genomic ranges are closed intervals - the start and end positions are included in the interval; in the example of nucleic acids, the start position indicates the first nucleotide in the interval, and the end position indicates the last nucleotide in the interval.

Example of genomic intervals.

Example of genomic ranges. Genomic ranges are defined by the name of the biological sequence in which they are located (here, “chr1”), and the positions of start and end in that sequence. Here, numeric positions are not explicitly shown, but implied by the sequence of nucleic acids and the arrow indicating coordinates increasing from the left to the right. In this example, genomic ranges can be used to describe individual exons, with metadata grouping those exons into transcripts and genes. Furthermore, the strandedness of exons, transcripts, and genes is an important piece of information to precisely describe the location of each genomic range in the double-stranded DNA polymer.

The GenomicRanges package


Overview

The GenomicRanges package implements S4 classes to represent genomic ranges as S4 objects.

Specifically, the GRanges class is designed to store a set of intervals including the name of the sequence where features are located as well as the range of integer coordinates spanned by the feature in that sequence.

More generally, the IRanges class is designed to store a set of intervals over a range of integer coordinates, without the notion of sequence names. As such, a GRanges object is merely the combination of an IRanges object and a vector of sequence names.

Those S4 classes provide automatic validity-checking functionality, and a range of methods implementing common operations on integer intervals and genomic ranges, from the calculation of distance between pairs of intervals to the identification of overlapping genomic ranges.

A short presentation of the basic classes defined in the GenomicRanges package is available in one of the package vignettes, accessible as vignette("GenomicRangesIntroduction"), while more detailed information is provided in the other package vignettes, accessible as browseVignettes("GenomicRanges").

First steps

To get started, we load the package.

R

library(GenomicRanges)

The IRanges class

While the genomic space of many organisms is subdivided into multiple sequences (e.g., chromosomes), many operations on genomic ranges take place within individual sequences, where only integer positions matter. The IRanges class provides a container for such “simple” ranges that are defined by two out of three pieces of information:

  • the start position of the range
  • the width of the range
  • the end position of the range

The IRanges() constructor function accepts those three pieces of information in the arguments start=, width=, and end=. For instance, we create two integer ranges from their start position and width:

  • one range starts at position 10 and has width 10
  • one range starts at position 15 and has width 5

R

demo_iranges <- IRanges(start = c(10, 15), width = c(10, 5))
demo_iranges

OUTPUT

IRanges object with 2 ranges and 0 metadata columns:
          start       end     width
      <integer> <integer> <integer>
  [1]        10        19        10
  [2]        15        19         5

We note how the object displays not only the start and width information that we requested for each range, but also the end position that is naturally computed from the other two pieces of information.

Challenge

Create the same two ranges as above, using the arguments start= and end= of the IRanges() constructor function.

R

IRanges(start = c(10, 15), end = c(19, 19))

OUTPUT

IRanges object with 2 ranges and 0 metadata columns:
          start       end     width
      <integer> <integer> <integer>
  [1]        10        19        10
  [2]        15        19         5

The start and end positions as well as the width of every interval can be extracted as numeric vector using the functions start(), end() and width(), respectively.

R

start(demo_iranges)

OUTPUT

[1] 10 15

R

end(demo_iranges)

OUTPUT

[1] 19 19

R

width(demo_iranges)

OUTPUT

[1] 10  5

Objects of the IRanges family extend the Vector class, and are handled as unidimensional vectors in terms of indexing. As such, individual ranges can be extracted by integer index like any regular vector.

R

demo_iranges[1]

OUTPUT

IRanges object with 1 range and 0 metadata columns:
          start       end     width
      <integer> <integer> <integer>
  [1]        10        19        10

Metadata on IRanges

The IRanges class can accommodate metadata information on each range, including names - passed to the names= argument - and miscellaneous metadata passed as named vectors.

For instance, we create two ranges named “A” and “B”. Furthermore, we define metadata fields to store an example of character values and numeric values, respectively. Both the names and the values of the metadata fields are completely arbitrary in this example.

R

demo_with_metadata <- IRanges(
  start = c(10,  15),
  end   = c(19,  19),
  names = c("A", "B"),
  character_metadata = c("control", "target"),
  numeric_metadata = c(100, 200)
)
demo_with_metadata

OUTPUT

IRanges object with 2 ranges and 2 metadata columns:
        start       end     width | character_metadata numeric_metadata
    <integer> <integer> <integer> |        <character>        <numeric>
  A        10        19        10 |            control              100
  B        15        19         5 |             target              200

The metadata columns can be extracted as a DataFrame using the function mcols() (short for “metadata columns”).

R

mcols(demo_with_metadata)

OUTPUT

DataFrame with 2 rows and 2 columns
  character_metadata numeric_metadata
         <character>        <numeric>
A            control              100
B             target              200

The character vector of names can be extracted using the function names().

R

names(demo_with_metadata)

OUTPUT

[1] "A" "B"

Similarly to named vector of base data types, individual ranges can be extracted by name.

R

demo_with_metadata["A"]

OUTPUT

IRanges object with 1 range and 2 metadata columns:
        start       end     width | character_metadata numeric_metadata
    <integer> <integer> <integer> |        <character>        <numeric>
  A        10        19        10 |            control              100

Operations on IRanges

IRanges provide the basis for most operations on ranges of numerical coordinates.

For instance, given two sets of ranges - a query set and a subject set - the findOVerlaps() function can be used to find out which pairs of ranges in the two sets overlap with each other.

R

query_iranges <- IRanges(
  start = c(8, 16),
  end   = c(14, 18)
)
overlaps_iranges <- findOverlaps(query = query_iranges, subject = demo_iranges)
overlaps_iranges

OUTPUT

Hits object with 3 hits and 0 metadata columns:
      queryHits subjectHits
      <integer>   <integer>
  [1]         1           1
  [2]         2           1
  [3]         2           2
  -------
  queryLength: 2 / subjectLength: 2

The results are returned in the form of a Hits object, which we have not introduced yet. A Hits object is visualised as a table that comprises two integer columns named queryHits and subjectHits. Each row in the table reports an overlap between one range in the query set and one range in the subject set, with the integer value in each column indicating the index of the range in each set involved in the overlap.

In this example, we confirm that the first range in the query set overlaps the first range in the subject set; while the second range in the query set overlaps both ranges in the subject set.

Going further

For downstream use, the two components can be extracted from Hits objects using their names, respectively:

R

queryHits(overlaps_iranges)

OUTPUT

[1] 1 2 2

R

subjectHits(overlaps_iranges)

OUTPUT

[1] 1 1 2

While displayed as a table, Hits objects are actually handled like vectors. Individual hits between one query range and one subject range can be extracted their index:

R

overlaps_iranges[1]

OUTPUT

Hits object with 1 hit and 0 metadata columns:
      queryHits subjectHits
      <integer>   <integer>
  [1]         1           1
  -------
  queryLength: 2 / subjectLength: 2

The GRanges class

Having defined integer ranges, the only additional information necessary to define genomic ranges is the name of the genomic sequence on which each range is located.

For instance, we define two genomic ranges, as follows:

  • one genomic range on chromosome 1 (abbreviated “chr1”), from position 10 to 25
  • one genomic range on chromosome 2 (abbreviated “chr2”), from position 20 to 35

To do so, we use the GRanges() constructor function. We provide the sequence names as a character vector to the argument seqnames=, and we provide both the start and end position to the argument ranges= as an IRanges object.

R

demo_granges <- GRanges(
  seqnames = c("chr1", "chr2"),
  ranges = IRanges(
    start = c(10, 20),
    end   = c(25, 35))
)
demo_granges

OUTPUT

GRanges object with 2 ranges and 0 metadata columns:
      seqnames    ranges strand
         <Rle> <IRanges>  <Rle>
  [1]     chr1     10-25      *
  [2]     chr2     20-35      *
  -------
  seqinfo: 2 sequences from an unspecified genome; no seqlengths

In the console, the object displays the sequence names in the seqnames component, and the ranges in the form start-end in the ranges component. Furthermore, the example above also demonstrate that GRanges objects possess a component called strand; the symbol * indicates unstranded genomic ranges, as we have not provided that information.

The strand information can be supplied to the strand= argument, for instance:

R

demo_granges2 <- GRanges(
  seqnames = c("chr1", "chr2"),
  ranges = IRanges(
    start = c(10, 20),
    end   = c(25, 35)),
  strand  = c("+", "-")
)
demo_granges2

OUTPUT

GRanges object with 2 ranges and 0 metadata columns:
      seqnames    ranges strand
         <Rle> <IRanges>  <Rle>
  [1]     chr1     10-25      +
  [2]     chr2     20-35      -
  -------
  seqinfo: 2 sequences from an unspecified genome; no seqlengths

Finally, the examples above also demonstrate that GRanges objects include a component called seqinfo, which is occasionally used to store information about each sequence that may be represented in the seqnames component. In the latest example above, we have not provide any information about any sequence. As such, the seqinfo component was automatically populated with the names of the sequences that we used to create the object, while the remaining pieces of information were left unspecified, as NA.

R

seqinfo(demo_granges2)

OUTPUT

Seqinfo object with 2 sequences from an unspecified genome; no seqlengths:
  seqnames seqlengths isCircular genome
  chr1             NA         NA   <NA>
  chr2             NA         NA   <NA>

The example above reveals that information about sequences include not only their respective name and length, but also whether they represent a circular polymer (e.g., plasmid), and the name of the genome that they are part of.

This information can be provided directly to the constructor when the object is created, or edited on an existing object using the seqinfo() accessor and the Seqinfo() constructor:

R

seqinfo(demo_granges2) <-  Seqinfo(
    seqnames = c("chr1", "chr2"),
    seqlengths = c(1234, 5678),
    isCircular = c(FALSE, TRUE),
    genome = c("homo_sapiens", "homo_sapiens")
)
demo_granges2

OUTPUT

GRanges object with 2 ranges and 0 metadata columns:
      seqnames    ranges strand
         <Rle> <IRanges>  <Rle>
  [1]     chr1     10-25      +
  [2]     chr2     20-35      -
  -------
  seqinfo: 2 sequences (1 circular) from homo_sapiens genome

Metadata on GRanges

Similarly to IRanges, metadata can be passed directly to the GRanges constructor function. For instance:

R

demo_granges3 <- GRanges(
  seqnames = c("chr1", "chr2"),
  ranges = IRanges(
    start = c(10, 20),
    end = c(25, 35)),
  metadata1 = c("control", "target"),
  metadata2 = c(1, 2)
)
demo_granges3

OUTPUT

GRanges object with 2 ranges and 2 metadata columns:
      seqnames    ranges strand |   metadata1 metadata2
         <Rle> <IRanges>  <Rle> | <character> <numeric>
  [1]     chr1     10-25      * |     control         1
  [2]     chr2     20-35      * |      target         2
  -------
  seqinfo: 2 sequences from an unspecified genome; no seqlengths

Importing genomic ranges from files

Frequently, large collections of genomic ranges are imported from files rather than described in manually written code. In particular, genome-wide annotations of known gene features are distributed as files on websites such as the Ensembl FTP and the UCSC Genome Data sites.

Various file formats are commonly used to store genomic ranges in bioinformatics workflows. For instance, the BED (Browser Extensible Data) format is commonly found in Chromatin Immunoprecipitation Sequencing (ChIP-Seq), while GTF (Gene Transfer Format, GTF2.2) is the de facto standard file format to describe genomic features such as exons, transcripts, and genes.

In the following example, we import the gene model for Actin Beta (ACTB) from a small GTF file as a set of genomic ranges. The example file represents a subset of a GTF file for the Homo sapiens species, downloaded from the Ensembl FTP site. The original file contains more than 3 millions lines and 22 metadata fields, from which a subset was extracted into a smaller file for this lesson.

In particular, we use the import() generic defined in the BiocIO package - with methods implemented in the rtracklayer package - as a versatile function that is capable of recognising common file extensions and associating them with the appropriate method for parsing each particular file format.

R

library(rtracklayer)

WARNING

Warning: replacing previous import 'S4Arrays::makeNindexFromArrayViewport' by
'DelayedArray::makeNindexFromArrayViewport' when loading 'SummarizedExperiment'

R

actb_gtf_data <- rtracklayer::import("data/actb.gtf")
actb_gtf_data

OUTPUT

GRanges object with 267 ranges and 7 metadata columns:
        seqnames          ranges strand |      source           type     score
           <Rle>       <IRanges>  <Rle> |    <factor>       <factor> <numeric>
    [1]        7 5526409-5563902      - | rtracklayer     gene              NA
    [2]        7 5526409-5530601      - | rtracklayer     transcript        NA
    [3]        7 5530542-5530601      - | rtracklayer     exon              NA
    [4]        7 5529535-5529684      - | rtracklayer     exon              NA
    [5]        7 5529535-5529657      - | rtracklayer     CDS               NA
    ...      ...             ...    ... .         ...            ...       ...
  [263]        7 5540676-5540771      - | rtracklayer five_prime_utr        NA
  [264]        7 5529658-5529663      - | rtracklayer five_prime_utr        NA
  [265]        7 5561852-5562716      - | rtracklayer transcript            NA
  [266]        7 5562390-5562716      - | rtracklayer exon                  NA
  [267]        7 5561852-5561949      - | rtracklayer exon                  NA
            phase         gene_id   gene_name   transcript_id
        <integer>     <character> <character>     <character>
    [1]      <NA> ENSG00000075624        ACTB            <NA>
    [2]      <NA> ENSG00000075624        ACTB ENST00000674681
    [3]      <NA> ENSG00000075624        ACTB ENST00000674681
    [4]      <NA> ENSG00000075624        ACTB ENST00000674681
    [5]      <NA> ENSG00000075624        ACTB ENST00000674681
    ...       ...             ...         ...             ...
  [263]      <NA> ENSG00000075624        ACTB ENST00000414620
  [264]      <NA> ENSG00000075624        ACTB ENST00000414620
  [265]      <NA> ENSG00000075624        ACTB ENST00000646584
  [266]      <NA> ENSG00000075624        ACTB ENST00000646584
  [267]      <NA> ENSG00000075624        ACTB ENST00000646584
  -------
  seqinfo: 1 sequence from an unspecified genome; no seqlengths

Going further

Individual methods for parsing specific file formats can be invoked directly. For instance, in this case, the GTF file format being identical to the GFF version 2 file format, we could have directly invoked the function rtracklayer::import.gff2() with the exact same effect.

Refer to the documentation of the rtracklayer package for the full list of methods available.

In the example above, the contents of the GTF file were imported into a GRanges object. For each entry in the file, the sequence name, start and end position, and strand information were used to populate the dedicated components of the object, while all other pieces of information are stored as separate columns of metadata.

From here on, this GRanges object can be manipulated just like any of the other GRanges objects that we have created earlier in this episode.

Operations on GRanges and the GRangesList class

As we have demonstrated so far, GRanges objects can be manually defined or imported from files. Those often represent genomic regions of interest, and databases of known genomic features, respectively. Either way, a number of operations are commonly applied to GRanges objects throughout bioinformatics workflows.

Subset

For instance, the subset() method is extremely convenient to extract a set of genomic ranges matching a condition on any component, including sequence name, start and end position, strand, or any metadata field. In the example below, we extract all the records of type transcript that start at position 5527147.

R

subset(actb_gtf_data, type == "transcript" & start == 5527147)

OUTPUT

GRanges object with 5 ranges and 7 metadata columns:
      seqnames          ranges strand |      source       type     score
         <Rle>       <IRanges>  <Rle> |    <factor>   <factor> <numeric>
  [1]        7 5527147-5529949      - | rtracklayer transcript        NA
  [2]        7 5527147-5530581      - | rtracklayer transcript        NA
  [3]        7 5527147-5530604      - | rtracklayer transcript        NA
  [4]        7 5527147-5530604      - | rtracklayer transcript        NA
  [5]        7 5527147-5530604      - | rtracklayer transcript        NA
          phase         gene_id   gene_name   transcript_id
      <integer>     <character> <character>     <character>
  [1]      <NA> ENSG00000075624        ACTB ENST00000642480
  [2]      <NA> ENSG00000075624        ACTB ENST00000676397
  [3]      <NA> ENSG00000075624        ACTB ENST00000676319
  [4]      <NA> ENSG00000075624        ACTB ENST00000676189
  [5]      <NA> ENSG00000075624        ACTB ENST00000473257
  -------
  seqinfo: 1 sequence from an unspecified genome; no seqlengths

Split

Separately, the split() method is useful to divide a set of genomic ranges initially stored in a single GRanges object into groups that are stored in a named list of GRanges objects. Conveniently, the GRangesList class provides a container for efficiently displaying and processing lists of GRanges objects.

In the example below, we first extract the subset of entries that represent exons, before separating those exons by transcript identifier, yielding the result as a GRangesList object.

R

actb_exons <- subset(actb_gtf_data, type == "exon")
actb_exons_by_transcript <- split(actb_exons, actb_exons$transcript_id)
actb_exons_by_transcript

OUTPUT

GRangesList object of length 23:
$ENST00000414620
GRanges object with 4 ranges and 7 metadata columns:
      seqnames          ranges strand |      source     type     score
         <Rle>       <IRanges>  <Rle> |    <factor> <factor> <numeric>
  [1]        7 5562574-5562790      - | rtracklayer     exon        NA
  [2]        7 5540676-5540771      - | rtracklayer     exon        NA
  [3]        7 5529535-5529663      - | rtracklayer     exon        NA
  [4]        7 5529282-5529400      - | rtracklayer     exon        NA
          phase         gene_id   gene_name   transcript_id
      <integer>     <character> <character>     <character>
  [1]      <NA> ENSG00000075624        ACTB ENST00000414620
  [2]      <NA> ENSG00000075624        ACTB ENST00000414620
  [3]      <NA> ENSG00000075624        ACTB ENST00000414620
  [4]      <NA> ENSG00000075624        ACTB ENST00000414620
  -------
  seqinfo: 1 sequence from an unspecified genome; no seqlengths

$ENST00000417101
GRanges object with 3 ranges and 7 metadata columns:
      seqnames          ranges strand |      source     type     score
         <Rle>       <IRanges>  <Rle> |    <factor> <factor> <numeric>
  [1]        7 5529806-5529982      - | rtracklayer     exon        NA
  [2]        7 5529535-5529663      - | rtracklayer     exon        NA
  [3]        7 5529235-5529400      - | rtracklayer     exon        NA
          phase         gene_id   gene_name   transcript_id
      <integer>     <character> <character>     <character>
  [1]      <NA> ENSG00000075624        ACTB ENST00000417101
  [2]      <NA> ENSG00000075624        ACTB ENST00000417101
  [3]      <NA> ENSG00000075624        ACTB ENST00000417101
  -------
  seqinfo: 1 sequence from an unspecified genome; no seqlengths

$ENST00000425660
GRanges object with 7 ranges and 7 metadata columns:
      seqnames          ranges strand |      source     type     score
         <Rle>       <IRanges>  <Rle> |    <factor> <factor> <numeric>
  [1]        7 5530524-5530601      - | rtracklayer     exon        NA
  [2]        7 5529535-5529663      - | rtracklayer     exon        NA
  [3]        7 5529161-5529400      - | rtracklayer     exon        NA
  [4]        7 5529019-5529059      - | rtracklayer     exon        NA
  [5]        7 5528281-5528719      - | rtracklayer     exon        NA
  [6]        7 5528004-5528185      - | rtracklayer     exon        NA
  [7]        7 5527156-5527891      - | rtracklayer     exon        NA
          phase         gene_id   gene_name   transcript_id
      <integer>     <character> <character>     <character>
  [1]      <NA> ENSG00000075624        ACTB ENST00000425660
  [2]      <NA> ENSG00000075624        ACTB ENST00000425660
  [3]      <NA> ENSG00000075624        ACTB ENST00000425660
  [4]      <NA> ENSG00000075624        ACTB ENST00000425660
  [5]      <NA> ENSG00000075624        ACTB ENST00000425660
  [6]      <NA> ENSG00000075624        ACTB ENST00000425660
  [7]      <NA> ENSG00000075624        ACTB ENST00000425660
  -------
  seqinfo: 1 sequence from an unspecified genome; no seqlengths

...
<20 more elements>

When printing the object above in the console, the first line confirms the class of the object as GRrangesList, while each named GRanges in that list is introduced by the dollar sign and the name of that item, just like regular named lists in base R.

Length

By nature, many of the methods applicable to list objects can be directly applied to GRangesList objects. For instance, the lengths() function can be used on GRangesList to display the length of each GRanges object in the list as an integer vector.

In the latest example above, we can compute the number of exons in each transcript as the length of each GRanges object within the GRangesList:

R

lengths(actb_exons_by_transcript)

OUTPUT

ENST00000414620 ENST00000417101 ENST00000425660 ENST00000432588 ENST00000443528 
              4               3               7               5               3 
ENST00000462494 ENST00000464611 ENST00000473257 ENST00000477812 ENST00000480301 
              5               3               5               5               2 
ENST00000484841 ENST00000493945 ENST00000642480 ENST00000645025 ENST00000645576 
              5               6               5               4               5 
ENST00000646584 ENST00000646664 ENST00000647275 ENST00000674681 ENST00000675515 
              2               6               3               6               6 
ENST00000676189 ENST00000676319 ENST00000676397 
              6               3               6 

Challenge

Importantly, the function lengths() (with a final s) demonstrated above is different from the function length() (without s). The former is meant to be used on list objects, while the latter is meant to be used on vectors.

What does length(actb_exons_by_transcript) return, and why?

R

length(actb_exons_by_transcript)

OUTPUT

[1] 23

This code returns the single integer value 23, which is the number of GRanges in the GRangesList object and the number of transcripts for the gene ACTB.

Subset by overlap

Possibly one of the most common operations when working with genomic ranges is to subset arbitrarily large collections of genomic ranges to those located in a specific region of the genome; for instance, when visualising information as tracks in a genome browser.

To demonstrate, we manually define a new GRanges representing a region of interest that we will use to extract all of the genomic ranges imported earlier from the GTF file which overlap that region of interest.

R

region_of_interest <- GRanges(
    seqnames = "7",
    ranges = IRanges(start = 5525830, end = 5531239)
)
actb_in_region <- subsetByOverlaps(x = actb_gtf_data, ranges = region_of_interest)
actb_in_region

OUTPUT

GRanges object with 256 ranges and 7 metadata columns:
        seqnames          ranges strand |      source           type     score
           <Rle>       <IRanges>  <Rle> |    <factor>       <factor> <numeric>
    [1]        7 5526409-5563902      - | rtracklayer     gene              NA
    [2]        7 5526409-5530601      - | rtracklayer     transcript        NA
    [3]        7 5530542-5530601      - | rtracklayer     exon              NA
    [4]        7 5529535-5529684      - | rtracklayer     exon              NA
    [5]        7 5529535-5529657      - | rtracklayer     CDS               NA
    ...      ...             ...    ... .         ...            ...       ...
  [252]        7 5529535-5529657      - | rtracklayer CDS                   NA
  [253]        7 5529655-5529657      - | rtracklayer start_codon           NA
  [254]        7 5529282-5529400      - | rtracklayer exon                  NA
  [255]        7 5529282-5529400      - | rtracklayer CDS                   NA
  [256]        7 5529658-5529663      - | rtracklayer five_prime_utr        NA
            phase         gene_id   gene_name   transcript_id
        <integer>     <character> <character>     <character>
    [1]      <NA> ENSG00000075624        ACTB            <NA>
    [2]      <NA> ENSG00000075624        ACTB ENST00000674681
    [3]      <NA> ENSG00000075624        ACTB ENST00000674681
    [4]      <NA> ENSG00000075624        ACTB ENST00000674681
    [5]      <NA> ENSG00000075624        ACTB ENST00000674681
    ...       ...             ...         ...             ...
  [252]      <NA> ENSG00000075624        ACTB ENST00000414620
  [253]      <NA> ENSG00000075624        ACTB ENST00000414620
  [254]      <NA> ENSG00000075624        ACTB ENST00000414620
  [255]      <NA> ENSG00000075624        ACTB ENST00000414620
  [256]      <NA> ENSG00000075624        ACTB ENST00000414620
  -------
  seqinfo: 1 sequence from an unspecified genome; no seqlengths

Like the subset() method, the subsetByOverlaps() method returns a new GRanges object. We can visually compare the information printed in the object (256 ranges in the new subsetted object, relative to 267 ranges in the original object), or we can programmatically compare the length of the two objects to check whether the new GRanges object is any smaller than the original GRanges object:

R

length(actb_in_region) - length(actb_gtf_data)

OUTPUT

[1] -11

In the example above, we learn that the new GRanges object has 11 records less than the original GRanges object.

Going further

Many more methods exist to operate on GRanges and GRangesList objects than what could be demonstrated here.

You can find the full list of functions defined in the GenomicRanges package on the index page of the package documentation, accessible using help(package="GenomicRanges"). You can also find more examples and use cases in the package vignettes, accessible using browseVignettes("GenomicRanges").

Key Points

  • The GenomicRanges package defines classes to represent ranges of coordinates on a genomic scale.
  • The GenomicRanges package also defines methods to efficiently process genomic ranges.
  • The rtracklayer package provides functions to import and export genomic ranges from and to common genomic file formats.