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  • efoss
    Member
    • Jul 2011
    • 98

    problem understanding NCBI SRA fastq files

    I downloaded some sra files from NCBI's short read archive and converted them to fastq format. The experiment is described as paired end reads, so I expected to get two fastq files from each sra file. Instead, I only got one fastq file from each. Then I thought that I could find which reads were read1 reads and which ones were read2 reads, but I couldn't see anything to indicate whether it's a read1 or a read2. Here are some lines from one of the files:


    @SRR254172.11 ILLUMINA-20A1B2_0004_FC6282EAAXX:6:1:1921:953 length=160
    NACAAAGGTAATTGCAAGTCCCTTCGTGCCAAAACGTCCAGCCCTTCCAACCCTGTGCAAATAAGTATCAGCTGAGTCTGAATCTGCATTCATTCTGGAATGACTCAGGAAGAAAGGCTAACAAGATATAAGAACTTCAAGGAAGGCCACAAGAGAATTC
    +SRR254172.11 ILLUMINA-20A1B2_0004_FC6282EAAXX:6:1:1921:953 length=160
    #)0+)**2,,@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@:3:::@@@22:<<:8@@:@@@@@@@IIHIIIIIIII?HHIIFIGIIIIIIEGIGHIIIIFAIBDIHHGEHDBEFIIB<IIHHI3EFEDFC@HH@F@2;8<>@0??

    You get one line starting with @, then a line with the sequence, then a line essentially identical to the @ line except starting with + rather than @, and then a line with base quality scores.

    Does anyone understand this format and how I can get fastq files for both read1 and read2?

    Thank you.

    Eric
  • maubp
    Peter (Biopython etc)
    • Jul 2009
    • 1544

    #2
    The basics of FASTQ are described here http://nar.oxfordjournals.org/conten...r.gkp1137.full and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FASTQ_format

    How did you do the conversion? I recall there are extra switches needed at the command line for paired end data...
    Last edited by maubp; 03-30-2012, 12:23 AM.

    Comment

    • efoss
      Member
      • Jul 2011
      • 98

      #3
      Originally posted by maubp View Post
      How did you do the conversion? I recall there are extra switches needed at the command line for paired end data...
      Hi Maubp,

      I'll bet that that's where I'm making a mistake. I did the conversion in two ways, neither of which gave me the paired end reads I wanted:

      fastq-dump *.sra

      fastq-dump.2 *.sra

      Eric

      Comment

      • jrm5100
        Junior Member
        • Mar 2012
        • 1

        #4
        You need to use the --split-3 option.

        fastq-dump --split-3 *.sra

        Comment

        • efoss
          Member
          • Jul 2011
          • 98

          #5
          Originally posted by jrm5100 View Post
          You need to use the --split-3 option.

          fastq-dump --split-3 *.sra
          Thanks so very much!!

          Eric

          Comment

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