Biostrings

The Structstrings package implements the widely used dot bracket annotation for storing base pairing information in structured RNA. Structstrings uses the infrastructure provided by the Biostrings package and derives the DotBracketString and related classes from the BString class. From these, base pair tables can be produced for in depth analysis. In addition, the loop indices of the base pairs can be retrieved as well. For better efficiency, information conversion is implemented in C, inspired to a large extend by the ViennaRNA package.

The package provides S4 classes and methods to filter, summarise and visualise genetic variation data stored in VCF files. In particular, the package extends the FilterRules class (S4Vectors package) to define news classes of filter rules applicable to the various slots of VCF objects. Functionalities are integrated and demonstrated in a Shiny web-application, the Shiny Variant Explorer (tSVE).

A set of tools to forge BSgenome data packages. Supersedes the old seed-based tools from the BSgenome software package. This package allows the user to create a BSgenome data package in one function call, simplifying the old seed-based process.

Seamlessly interfaces the Basic Local Alignment Search Tool (BLAST) running locally to search genetic sequence data bases. This work was partially supported by grant no. R21HG005912 from the National Human Genome Research Institute.

systemPipeR is a workflow management environment for reproducible data analysis that integrates R with command-line software. It enables researchers to design, execute, and report complex workflows on local machines and HPC systems. The framework combines R-based analysis with external tools through a Common Workflow Language (CWL) interface, manages workflow dependencies and restart capabilities, and automatically generates reproducible scientific analysis reports. The companion package systemPipeRdata provides ready-to-use workflow templates that simplify workflow setup and customization. Alternatively, workflow templates can be loaded from dedicated GitHub repositories.

Biological inferences obtained from molecular data are only as good as the extent of evolutionary signatures retained in the genetic data. Techniques available to quantify these signatures are largely targeted towards phylogeny reconstruction and they often rely on adhoc hypothesis tests of significance. I present a Bayesian function that assesses whether a set of genetic sequences are saturated. That is, it is useful for determining whether the evolutionary information in the sequences has eroded with time. Site specific Bayes factors are generated with respect to codon bases to allow for straightforward applications in extensive computational biology inquiries, including natural selection analyses.