VDB flag in VCF file

[lre1234]

This may be a basic question, but what is the VDB flag in the VCF file. I don't really understand the description given and can't seem to find any information about it:

##INFO=<ID=VDB,Number=1,Type=Float,Description="Variant Distance Bias">

Are higher values better, or lower ones?

Any info would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks

[sdvie]

I would also be very interested in a more extensive explication on this feature.

[colindaven]

True, it is very poorly described in the docs. This is from the samtools mailing list

Re: [Samtools-help] VDB field
From: Petr Danecek <pd3@sa...> - 2012-02-20 10:05

Attachments: vdb.pdf
Hi Rick,

VDB checks if variant bases occur at random positions in the aligned
portion of the reads. Attached is a slide explaining it in more detail.
It is described in a paper which is currently under review.

Best,
Petr

[sdvie]

These two slides that Petr attached were very helpful, thank you Colin for pointing it out.