SNP calling exercise answers part 1

Answers

Q1

First index the gVCF:

/home/ctools/htslib-1.20/tabix -f -p vcf NA24694.gvcf.gz

Then run HaplotypeCaller:

/home/ctools/gatk-4.6.2.0/gatk --java-options "-Xmx10g" HaplotypeCaller \
  -R /home/databases/references/human/GRCh38_full_analysis_set_plus_decoy_hla.fa \
  -I /home/projects/22126_NGS/exercises/snp_calling/NA24694.bam \
  -L chr20 \
  -O NA24694.gvcf.gz \
  --dbsnp /home/databases/databases/GRCh38/Homo_sapiens_assembly38.dbsnp138.vcf.gz \
  -ERC GVCF

Then genotype the gVCF:

/home/ctools/gatk-4.6.2.0/gatk GenotypeGVCFs \
  -R /home/databases/references/human/GRCh38_full_analysis_set_plus_decoy_hla.fa \
  -V NA24694.gvcf.gz \
  -L chr20 \
  --dbsnp /home/databases/databases/GRCh38/Homo_sapiens_assembly38.dbsnp138.vcf.gz \
  -O NA24694.vcf.gz

Finally, count SNPs using bcftools stats:

/home/ctools/bcftools-1.23/bcftools stats NA24694.vcf.gz

You should see something like:

SN    0    number of SNPs:    75684

Answer: There are 75,684 SNPs on chromosome 20 in this sample.

---

Q2

Index the VCF if not already indexed:

/home/ctools/htslib-1.20/tabix -p vcf NA24694.vcf.gz

Then query the 1 Mb region:

/home/ctools/htslib-1.20/tabix NA24694.vcf.gz chr20:32000000-33000000 | wc -l

Answer: 1290 variant sites in this region (all variant types).

---

Q3

Count only SNPs (exclude indels and multi-allelic sites):

/home/ctools/bcftools-1.23/bcftools view -H --type snps NA24694.vcf.gz chr20:32000000-33000000 | wc -l

or equivalently:

/home/ctools/htslib-1.20/tabix -h NA24694.vcf.gz chr20:32000000-33000000 \
  | /home/ctools/bcftools-1.23/bcftools view -H --type snps - \
  | wc -l

Answer: 956 SNPs in the region.

---

Q4

Variant at chr20:32011209

/home/ctools/htslib-1.20/tabix NA24694.vcf.gz chr20:32011209-32011209

chr20  32011209  rs147652161  G  A  264.64  .  
AC=1;AF=0.500;AN=2;BaseQRankSum=-0.301;DB;DP=24;FS=3.949;MQ=60.00;QD=11.03;SOR=0.552  
GT:AD:DP:GQ:PL  0/1:15,9:24:99:272,0,533

Interpretation:

• Genotype: 0/1 (heterozygous G/A)
• Allele depth (AD): 15 G and 9 A
• Depth (DP): 24
• Genotype quality (GQ): 99
• Genotype likelihoods (PL): 272,0,533 (het most likely)

Variant at chr20:32044279

/home/ctools/htslib-1.20/tabix NA24694.vcf.gz chr20:32044279-32044279

chr20  32044279  rs4525768  C  T  799.06  .  
AC=2;AF=1.00;AN=2;DB;DP=21;MQ=60.00;QD=28.99  
GT:AD:DP:GQ:PL  1/1:0,21:21:63:813,63,0

Interpretation:

• Genotype: 1/1 (homozygous T/T)
• Allele depth (AD): 0 C, 21 T
• Depth (DP): 21
• Genotype quality (GQ): 63
• Genotype likelihoods (PL): 813,63,0 (homozygous alt most likely)

---

Q5

Higher-quality heterozygous SNP:

chr20 32974911 rs6088051 A G ... GT:AD:DP:GQ:PL  0/1:8,13:21:99:411,0,247

Lower-quality heterozygous SNP:

chr20 64291638 rs369221086 C T ... GT:AD:DP:GQ:PL  0/1:4,2:6:38:38,0,114

Why?

• The first site has much higher depth (21× vs 6×)
• Allele balance is more reasonable: 8/13 vs 4/2
• The genotype quality (GQ) is much higher: 99 vs 38
• Overall likelihoods strongly support the correct genotype

Conclusion: More data ⇒ higher confidence.

---

Q6

Count SNPs with no dbSNP ID (column 3 = .):

/home/ctools/bcftools-1.23/bcftools view -H --types snps NA24694.vcf.gz chr20:32000000-33000000 \
  | cut -f 3 \
  | grep -v rs \
  | wc -l

or equivalently:

/home/ctools/bcftools-1.23/bcftools view -H --types snps NA24694.vcf.gz chr20:32000000-33000000 \
  | cut -f 3 \
  | grep "\." \
  | wc -l

Answer: 17 novel SNPs

---

Q7

You found:

• 956 total SNPs in the region (Q3)
• 17 novel SNPs (Q6)

Only ~1.8% of SNPs are novel.

This is expected because:

• Han Chinese individuals are extremely well represented in dbSNP and 1000 Genomes.
• dbSNP contains >100 million known variants, so most common variation is already catalogued.
• Novel variants tend to be rare or extremely rare.

Conclusion: The number of novel variants is small and biologically reasonable.