The CryptoGenotyper is a fast and reproducible tool that can be used to classify the genotype of Cryptosporidium samples by directly analyzing the DNA electropherogram files (.ab1) that correspond to two of its characteristic gene markers: SSU rRNA and gp60.
Cryptosporidium is a protozoan parasite that causes the enteric disease, cryptosporidiosis. It is transmitted to both humans and animals through zoonotic or anthroponotic means, and these dynamics can be studied through the analysis of SSU rRNA or gp60 gene locus. Although due to the nature of these gene targets, manual analysis can be repetitive and difficult, allowing for the potential of inaccurate or incomplete results to be reported.
CryptoGenotyper is able to analyze both well-defined and poorly-resolved peaks to ultimately output the corresponding sequence along with the Cryptosporidium genotype in standard nomenclature.
biopython >= 1.70,<1.78numpy >= 1.1python > 3.6blast == 2.9.0clustalw >= 2.1
If running Ubuntu these requirements could be installed via one-liner command (might need preceed with sudo). Due to version restriction, biopython is installed via pip3
apt install clustalw ncbi-blast+ python3 python3-numpy python3-pip && pip3 install "biopython>=>=1.7,<1.78"
The CryptoGenotyper can be installed by pulling source code from this repository or via conda package management system from the bioconcda channel.
git clone https://github.com/phac-nml/CryptoGenotyper.git && cd CryptoGenotyper && python3 setup.py installconda install -c bioconda cryptogenotyper
Only few parameters required to run cryptogenotyper including input *.ab1 file, marker (18S or gp60), sequence type (forward, reverse, contig), output prefix.
usage: cryptogenotyper [-h] [--verbose] -i INPUT -m MARKER -t SEQTYPE
[-f FORWARDPRIMERNAME] [-r REVERSEPRIMERNAME]
[-o OUTPUTPREFIX] [-d DATABASEFILE] [-v]
[--noheaderline]
In silico type cryptosporidium from sanger reads in AB1 format
optional arguments:
-h, --help show this help message and exit
--verbose Turn on verbose logging [False].
-i INPUT, --input INPUT
Path to directory with AB1 forward and reverse files
OR path to a single AB1 file
-m MARKER, --marker MARKER
Name of the marker. Currently gp60 and 18S markers are
supported
-t SEQTYPE, --seqtype SEQTYPE
Input sequences type. Select one option out of these
three: contig - both F and R sequences provided
forward - forward only sequence provided reverse -
reverse only sequence provided
-f FORWARDPRIMERNAME, --forwardprimername FORWARDPRIMERNAME
Name of the forward primer to identify forward read
(e.g. gp60F, SSUF)
-r REVERSEPRIMERNAME, --reverseprimername REVERSEPRIMERNAME
Name of the reverse primer to identify forward read
(e.g. gp60R, SSUR)
-o OUTPUTPREFIX, --outputprefix OUTPUTPREFIX
Output name prefix for the results (e.g. test results
in test_report.fa)
-d DATABASEFILE, --databasefile DATABASEFILE
Custom database reference file
-v, --version show program's version number and exit
--noheaderline Display header on tab-delimited file [False]
The example folder contains a couple of sequences to try out by executing the following commands.
cryptogenotyper -i example/P17705_Crypto16-2F-20170927_SSUF_G12_084.ab1 -m 18S -t forward -f SSUF -o test
cryptogenotyper -i example/P17705_gp60-Crypt14-1F-20170927_gp60F_G07_051.ab1 -m gp60 -t forward -f gp60F -o test
cryptogenotyper -i example/ -m 18S -t contig -f SSUF -r SSUR -o test
cryptogenotyper -i example/ -m gp60 -t contig -f gp60F -r gp60R -o test
Please cite the following publication if you find this subtyping tool useful in your work.
Yanta, C.A., Bessonov, K., Robinson, G., Troell, K., Guy, R.A. (2021) CryptoGenotyper: A new bioinformatics tool for rapid Cryptosporidium identification. Food and Waterborne Parasitology, 23:e00115. doi: 10.1016/j.fawpar.2021.e00115