update-sequence-db - MEME Suite

# The MEME Suite

## Motif-based sequence analysis tools

## update-sequence-db

### Usage:

`update-sequence-db [options] <sequence database directory>`

### Description

Download sequence databases.

Creates a SQLite database called `fasta_db.sqlite` and downloads sequences from multiple sources while storing information about the sequences in the database.

The program will start in status display mode where it will give regular updates on what it is doing. You can switch it to command mode by pressing Enter. In command mode you can type the two basic commands "help" which will show the available commands and "status" which will switch it back to status mode. While sequences are downloading you may use the command "exit" to stop any further downloading.

### Input

#### <sequence database directory>

The folder to store downloaded database files. The MEME Suite expects to find sequence databases in a folder called `fasta_databases` either inside in the folder `MEME Install Folder/db` or in the folder specified to the configure script `--with-db DB Install Folder` . Depending on how you configured the MEME Suite you should either specify `MEME Install Folder/db/fasta_databases` or `DB Install Folder/fasta_databases` .

### Output

By default, all of the standard sequence databases supported by the MEME Suite will be updated. Specifying one or more specific types of databases overrides this default, and then only the specified types of sequence database will be updated. You can also specify individual types of database to omit using the `--no_X` options, where `X` is one of the allowed database types (see the section "Select Databases to Update", below).

The program creates a folder called `downloads` and a folder called `logs`. It also creates a SQLite database called `fasta_db.sqlite`. Every sequence database that is downloaded is initially put in the folder `downloads` until it has been completely downloaded. When the sequence has been downloaded it will be decompressed or merged from multiple sources as required and put into a sequence file with either a `.faa` or `.fna` extension for protein or DNA sequences. Once the sequence has been expanded it will be processed by `fasta-get-markov` to calculate a 1st order background model in a file with the extension `.bfile`. Additionally `fasta-get-markov` will calculate the number of sequences, the shortest, longest and average size and all this information will be stored in the SQLite database.

### Configuration

Configuration files that tweak the behaviors of the sequence database downloaders will be automatically generated in the `conf/` subdirectory within the specified sequence database directory.

Additionally the miscellaneous source downloader will check the `conf/` subdirectory for any files ending with the extension `.csv` which it reads to determine sequence sources. The MEME Suite includes two files `db_general.csv` and `db_other_genomes.csv` in the distribution's `etc` folder which may be moved into the `conf` folder, though this is not done automatically during install.

### Options

Option | Parameter | Description | Default Behavior
--- | --- | --- | ---
Help
Select Databases to Update
--[no_]ensembl |  | [Do not] update genomes from Ensembl. | Update all sequence databases.
--[no_]genbank |  | [Do not] update genomes from GenBank. | Update all sequence databases.
--[no_]ucsc |  | [Do not] update the genomes from UCSC. | Update all sequence databases.
--[no_]rsat |  | [Do not] update the upstream sequence databases from RSAT. | Update all sequence databases.
--[no_]epd |  | [Do not] update the Eukaryotic Promoter Database. | Update all sequence databases.
--[no_]misc |  | [Do not] update the miscellaneous sequence databases specified in `.csv` files in the database subdirectory `conf/`. There are two example `.csv` files in the MEME Suite `etc/` directory. | Update all sequence databases.
--updater | classname | Experimental Specify the classname of a custom updater. |
File Cleanup
--obsolete | file pattern | Mark any sequence databases that match the given glob syntax file pattern as obsolete causing them to be hidden from the interface. This option may be repeated to specify multiple patterns. After the files are obsoleted the updater exits. | Run as normal.
--delete_old |  | Sequence databases marked as obsolete (on a previous update) will be deleted. | Sequence databases marked as obsolete will be left untouched.
--retain_missing |  | Database entries for missing files are retained. | Database entries for missing files are removed.
Backwards compatibility
--csv:directory |  | Create a csv file and index file that lists all the databases to enable backwards compatibility with older releases. The directory to create the csv and index file can be specified if desired but if it is not specified then the csv and index file will be placed in the sequence database directory. | Don't create a csv or index file.
Miscellaneous
--bin | directory | Specify the location to find the fasta-get-markov tool. | The program will search the configured bin directory and if fasta-get-markov is not present it will search the path.
--log | log file | Specify the file to write logs. | A log will be written the `logs` directory below the sequence database directory.
--v | log level | Specify the logging level [1-8]. | A default logging level of 3 is used which outputs errors, warnings and summary information.
--priors | tsv file | Specify a tab separated values file listing all the priors that should be listed in the database. The updater will exit after changing the priors. Note that pre-existing priors will be removed! | Run as normal.

### Adding Priors

MCAST and FIMO support priors for sequence databases but adding them is still a manual process. The process will probably be automated in future however until then this is how you add priors.

1. Create priors with prior sources like DNase1 hypersensitivity sequence tag counts using create-priors. This will create two files: `priors.wig` and `priors.dist` which you should rename in a way that makes sense.
2. Run `gzip` on each of the files. This should leave them with the extension ".gz" - it is important that you leave this extension so they can be ungzip-ed by the webservice script later.
3. Move the gzip-ed ".wig" and ".dist" files into the sequence database directory. They may be at the top level or nested within folders however they must be accessible by a relative path without any ".." elements.
4. Create a file listing all the priors one per line with the fields separated by tabs.

   Field | Description
   --- | ---
   Sequence File | The path to the sequence file relative to the sequence database directory.
   Wig File | The path to the gzip-ed ".wig" file relative to the sequence database directory.
   Dist File | The path to the gzip-ed ".dist" file relative to the sequence database directory.
   Biosample | A short descriptive name for the sample used in the experiment that the priors were derived from.
   Assay | A short descriptive name for the experiment that the priors were derived from.
   Source | A short descriptive name of the lab or group that performed the experiment that the priors were derived from.
   URL | A URL linking to further information on the experiment.
   Description | A description of the experiment which may contain HTML.

5. Finally run
   update-sequence-db --priors priors tsv sequence database directory
   which will replace the existing priors in the database with those listed in the TSV file. Check the log file generated by update-sequence-db to ensure that all the priors were added without error.

### Database Schema

As well as downloading the sequence files from many sources, the updater tracks the files using a SQLite database. The schema of the database is given below.

#### tblCategory

Column | Type | Constraint | Description
--- | --- | --- | ---
id | INTEGER | PRIMARY KEY | A auto-generated unique identifier for the category. Other tables reference this field.
name | TEXT | UNIQUE NOT NULL | The unique name of the category as shown to users.

#### tblListing

Column | Type | Constraint | Description
--- | --- | --- | ---
id | INTEGER | PRIMARY KEY | A auto-generated unique identifier for the listing. Other tables reference this field.
categoryId | INTEGER | NOT NULL REFERENCES tblCategory (id) | The identifier of the category that contains this listing.
name | TEXT | NOT NULL | The name of the listing shown to users.
description | TEXT | NOT NULL | The description of the listing shown to users.

The combination of the fields `categoryId` and `name` is unique.

#### tblSequenceFile

Column | Type | Constraint | Description
--- | --- | --- | ---
id | INTEGER | PRIMARY KEY | A auto-generated unique identifier for the sequence file.
retriever | INTEGER | NOT NULL | An identifier for the code module that downloaded this sequence. It allows the individual code modules to ensure they don't change the records of files downloaded by other modules.
listingId | INTEGER | NOT NULL REFERENCES tblListing (id) | The identifier of the listing that contains this sequence file.
alphabet | INTEGER | NOT NULL CHECK (alphabet IN (1, 2, 4)) | Represents the alphabet as powers of 2 so they can be combined into a bitset. RNA = 1, DNA = 2, Protein = 4.
edition | INTEGER | NOT NULL | A machine readable version. This field is used for sorting. Larger numbers are considered newer.
version | TEXT | NOT NULL | A human readable version which is displayed to the user.
description | TEXT | NOT NULL | The description of the sequence file, often containing information about the source.
fileSeq | TEXT | UNIQUE NOT NULL | The relative path to the sequence file.
fileBg | TEXT | UNIQUE NOT NULL | The relative path to the background file.
sequenceCount | INTEGER | NOT NULL | The number of sequences.
totalLen | INTEGER | NOT NULL | The total end-to-end combined length of the sequences.
minLen | INTEGER | NOT NULL | The length of the shortest sequence.
maxLen | INTEGER | NOT NULL | The length of the longest sequence.
avgLen | REAL | NOT NULL | The average length of the sequences.
stdDLen | REAL | NOT NULL | Currently unused! Intended to store the standard deviation of the average length.
obsolete | INTEGER | DEFAULT 0 | Used to flag sequences as obsolete. Sequences flagged as obsolete are hidden from the interface.

The combination of the fields `listingId`, `alphabet` and `edition` is unique.

#### tblPriorFile

Column | Type | Constraint | Description
--- | --- | --- | ---
id | INTEGER | PRIMARY KEY | A auto-generated unique identifier for the prior.
sequenceId | INTEGER | NOT NULL REFERENCES tblSequenceFile (id) | The identifier of the sequence that is associated with this prior.
filePrior | TEXT | UNIQUE NOT NULL | The relative path to the wig file (which may be gzipped).
fileDist | TEXT | UNIQUE NOT NULL | The relative path to the dist file (which may be gzipped).
biosample | TEXT | NOT NULL | A short descriptive name for the sample used in the experiment that the priors were derived from.
assay | TEXT | NOT NULL | A short descriptive name for the experiment that the priors were derived from.
source | TEXT | NOT NULL | A short descriptive name of the lab or group that performed the experiment that the priors were derived from.
url | TEXT | NOT NULL | A URL linking to further information on the experiment.
description | TEXT | NOT NULL | A description of the experiment which may contain HTML.