Agent skill
bio-read-alignment-bwa-alignment
Install this agent skill to your Project
npx add-skill https://github.com/FreedomIntelligence/OpenClaw-Medical-Skills/tree/main/skills/bio-read-alignment-bwa-alignment
SKILL.md
name: bio-read-alignment-bwa-alignment description: Align DNA short reads to reference genomes using bwa-mem2, the faster successor to BWA-MEM. Use when aligning DNA short reads to a reference genome. tool_type: cli primary_tool: bwa-mem2 measurable_outcome: Execute skill workflow successfully with valid output within 15 minutes. allowed-tools:
- read_file
- run_shell_command
BWA-MEM2 Alignment
Build Index
# Index reference genome (required once)
bwa-mem2 index reference.fa
# Creates: reference.fa.0123, reference.fa.amb, reference.fa.ann, reference.fa.bwt.2bit.64, reference.fa.pac
Basic Alignment
# Paired-end reads
bwa-mem2 mem -t 8 reference.fa reads_1.fq.gz reads_2.fq.gz > aligned.sam
# Single-end reads
bwa-mem2 mem -t 8 reference.fa reads.fq.gz > aligned.sam
Alignment with Read Groups
# Add read group information (required for GATK)
bwa-mem2 mem -t 8 \
-R '@RG\tID:sample1\tSM:sample1\tPL:ILLUMINA\tLB:lib1' \
reference.fa reads_1.fq.gz reads_2.fq.gz > aligned.sam
Direct to Sorted BAM
# Pipe to samtools for sorted BAM output
bwa-mem2 mem -t 8 \
-R '@RG\tID:sample1\tSM:sample1\tPL:ILLUMINA' \
reference.fa reads_1.fq.gz reads_2.fq.gz | \
samtools sort -@ 4 -o aligned.sorted.bam -
# Index the BAM
samtools index aligned.sorted.bam
Mark Duplicates Pipeline
# Full pipeline: align, fixmate, sort, markdup
bwa-mem2 mem -t 8 -R '@RG\tID:sample1\tSM:sample1\tPL:ILLUMINA' \
reference.fa reads_1.fq.gz reads_2.fq.gz | \
samtools fixmate -m -@ 4 - - | \
samtools sort -@ 4 - | \
samtools markdup -@ 4 - aligned.markdup.bam
samtools index aligned.markdup.bam
Common Options
bwa-mem2 mem -t 8 \ # Threads
-M \ # Mark shorter split hits as secondary (Picard compatible)
-Y \ # Use soft clipping for supplementary alignments
-K 100000000 \ # Process INT input bases in each batch
-R '@RG\tID:s1\tSM:s1' \ # Read group
reference.fa r1.fq r2.fq
Key Parameters
| Parameter | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|
| -t | 1 | Number of threads |
| -k | 19 | Minimum seed length |
| -w | 100 | Band width for extension |
| -r | 1.5 | Re-seeding trigger ratio |
| -c | 500 | Skip seeds with more than INT hits |
| -A | 1 | Match score |
| -B | 4 | Mismatch penalty |
| -O | 6 | Gap open penalty |
| -E | 1 | Gap extension penalty |
| -M | off | Mark secondary alignments |
Output Filters
# Filter unmapped and low quality
bwa-mem2 mem -t 8 reference.fa r1.fq r2.fq | \
samtools view -@ 4 -bS -q 20 -F 4 - | \
samtools sort -@ 4 -o aligned.filtered.bam -
Split Read Alignment
# For SV detection, use -Y for soft clipping
bwa-mem2 mem -t 8 -Y reference.fa r1.fq r2.fq > aligned.sam
Memory Requirements
- Index loading: ~10GB for human genome
- Per thread: ~1-2GB
- Typical human WGS: 30-50GB RAM with 8 threads
BWA-MEM (Alternative)
# Build index
bwa index reference.fa
# Paired-end alignment
bwa mem -t 8 reference.fa reads_1.fq.gz reads_2.fq.gz > aligned.sam
# With read groups
bwa mem -t 8 -R '@RG\tID:sample1\tSM:sample1\tPL:ILLUMINA' \
reference.fa reads_1.fq.gz reads_2.fq.gz > aligned.sam
# Direct to sorted BAM
bwa mem -t 8 -R '@RG\tID:sample1\tSM:sample1\tPL:ILLUMINA' \
reference.fa reads_1.fq.gz reads_2.fq.gz | \
samtools sort -@ 4 -o aligned.sorted.bam -
BWA-MEM vs BWA-MEM2
| Feature | BWA-MEM | BWA-MEM2 |
|---|---|---|
| Status | Active | Archived |
| Speed | 1x | 2-3x faster |
| Index format | .bwt | .bwt.2bit.64 |
| Results | Baseline | Nearly identical |
| Memory | ~5GB | ~10GB |
Related Skills
- read-qc/fastp-workflow - Preprocess reads before alignment
- alignment-files/alignment-sorting - Post-alignment processing
- alignment-files/duplicate-handling - Mark duplicates
- variant-calling/variant-calling - Call variants from BAM
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