This is the desktop application for Metabuli, a metagenomic classification that jointly analyzes both DNA and amino acid sequences. Built with Vue.js and Electron, it provides an intuitive interface for running metagenomic classification jobs and visualizing the results.
For more details of Metabuli, please see GitHub, Nature Methods, PDF, bioRxiv, or ISMB 2023 talk.
The NCBI
and Assemblies
buttons in the Sankey subtree view do not work when searching against a GTDB-based database.
We will make a button for GTDB soon.
- macOS (Universal
.dmg
) - Windows (
.exe
) - Linux (AppImage
.AppImage
)
- Download pre-built databases
- Create or update databases directly in the app
- Run taxonomic classification
- Upload and browse classification results
- Extract reads classified under a specific taxon
- Explore results with interactive Sankey and Krona plots.
- Introduced the
Custom Database
page, enabling users to:- Create new databases.
- Add new sequences to existing databases.
- Enhanced
Sankey visualization
:- Implemented Sankey plot verification for ensuring accuracy of visualized results.
- Resolved a bug in lineage extraction from raw data that previously caused inaccuracies in lineage representation on the Sankey plot.
- Initial release of Metabuli App.
- Visit the GitHub Releases page for the latest builds.
- The application is pre-built for macOS, Windows, and Linux.
- Simply download the executable for your platform from the Releases section.
Note: If you encounter a security warning when opening the app, follow the instructions below to bypass the warning:
- macOS: Refer to this guide on how to open apps from unidentified developers.
- Windows: Click 'More info' and then 'Run anyway' to continue.
You can preprocess raw reads either in the separate
Quality Control
tab or in theSearch Settings
tab as part of the classification process.
Metabuli App supports fastp
and fastplong
for raw read quality control, respectively for short and long reads.
You can upload one or more (gzipped) FASTQ files for quality control.
For each sample, fastp
/fastplong
will generate the following files:
- Pre-processed FASTQ files
- Quality control and filtering report files in HTML format
- JSON format report files for further analysis
Default settings are generally suitable for most datasets, but you can adjust them as needed. Below are the parameters adjustable in the GUI. Other parameters can be provided as a text file (Please see "Advanced Settings" below). For more details, please refer fastp GitHub repository.
--disable_quality_filtering
: Disable quality filtering.--qualified_quality_phred
: Minimum per-base Phred quality score (default 15).--unqualified_percent_limit
: Maximum fraction of "low-quality" bases allowed (default 40%).--average_qual
: Minimum average quality score for the read (default none).
--disable_length_filtering
: Disable length filtering.--length_required
: Minimum read length required (default 50). Reads shorter than this are discarded.--length_limit
: Maximum read length allowed (default none). Reads longer than this are discarded.
- Adapter sequences are automatically detected if not specified.
--disable_adapter_trimming
: Disable adapter trimming.--adapter_sequence
: Adapter for read 1. It disables auto-detection for SE reads.--adapter_sequence_r2
: Adapter for read 2 (for PE data). For PE data, the specified adapter sequences are used only when auto-detection fails.--adapter_fasta
: FASTA file of adapter sequences. They are used after trimming adapters that are either auto-detected or specified with--adapter_sequence
or--adapter_sequence_r2
.
--low_complexity_filter
: Enable low complexity filtering.--complexity_threshold
: Reads with complexity below this value are discarded. Range: 0~100. (default 30)
--cut_front
: Enable cutting reads from the front (5') based on quality.--cut_front_window_size
: Size of the window for cutting from the front (default 4).--cut_front_mean_quality
: Minimum mean quality for the front window (default 20).--cut_tail
: Enable cutting reads from the tail (3') based on quality.--cut_tail_window_size
: Size of the window for cutting from the tail (default 4).--cut_tail_mean_quality
: Minimum mean quality for the tail window (default 20).
--thread
: Number of threads to use (default max(all, 16)).--compression
: Output compression level (default 4).
Default settings are generally suitable for most datasets, but you can adjust them as needed. Below are the parameters adjustable in the GUI. Other parameters can be provided as a text file (Please see "Advanced Settings" below). For more details, please refer fastplong GitHub repository.
--disable_quality_filtering
: Disable quality filtering.--qualified_quality_phred
: Minimum per-base Phred quality score (default 15).--unqualified_percent_limit
: Maximum fraction of "low-quality" bases allowed (default 40%).--mean_qual
: Minimum average quality score for the read (default none).
--disable_length_filtering
: Disable length filtering.--length_required
: Minimum read length required (default 1000). Reads shorter than this are discarded.--length_limit
: Maximum read length allowed (default none). Reads longer than this are discarded.
- Adapter sequences are automatically detected if not specified.
- It's recommended to specify adapters if they are known using
--start_adapter
and--end_adapter
. --disable_adapter_trimming
: Disable adapter trimming.--start_adapter
: Read start adapter sequence.--end_adapter
: Read end adapter sequence.--adapter_fasta
: FASTA file of adapter sequences.
--low_complexity_filter
: Enable low complexity filtering.--complexity_threshold
: Reads with complexity below this value are discarded. Range: 0~100. (default 30)
--cut_front
: Enable cutting reads from the front (5') based on quality.--cut_front_window_size
: Size of the window for cutting from the front (default 4).--cut_front_mean_quality
: Minimum mean quality for the front window (default 20).--cut_tail
: Enable cutting reads from the tail (3') based on quality.--cut_tail_window_size
: Size of the window for cutting from the tail (default 4).--cut_tail_mean_quality
: Minimum mean quality for the tail window (default 20).
--thread
: Number of threads to use (default max(all, 16)).--compression
: Output compression level (default 4).
You can provide additional parameters in a text file. The file should contain one parameter per line, and each line should start with the parameter name followed by its value. Parameters here will override the GUI settings.
Check fastp and fastplong GitHub repository for parameter list.
Please use long options (e.g., --disable_quality_filtering
) instead of short options (e.g., -Q
).
For example:
--disable_quality_filtering
--qualified_quality_phred 20
--unqualified_percent_limit 30
Metabuli App provides two taxonomic profiling modes in Search Settings panel: New Search and Upload Report.
- Mode: Select the analysis mode among single-end, paired-end, or long-read.
- Enable Quality Control: Check it to enable quality control for the input reads.
fastp
andfastplong
are used for short and long reads, respectively.- Please see QC documentation for more details.
- Job ID: Enter a unique identifier for the job.
- Query Files: Specify your query sample(s) to classify.
- FASTA/FASTQ and their gzipped versions are supported.
ADD ENTRY
to upload multiple samples to process using the same settings.
- Database Folder: Select the folder of Metabuli database.
- Output Folder: Specify the folder where the results will be saved.
- Result files are saved in
Job ID
folder under the specified output folder. - When multiple samples are processed, results are saved in
Job ID/sample_name
directories.
- Result files are saved in
- Max RAM: Specify the maximum RAM (in GiB) to allocate for the job. (all available RAM by default)
-
--min-score
: Set the minimum similarity score for making a classification.- Search results of scores lower than this are discarded to reduce false positives at the cost of sensitivity.
- Default is 0 to maximize sensitivity.
- Recommended values below increase precision without reducing the F1 score.
- These values are determined from score distributions of false and true positives in synthetic benchmarks (details in Supp. Fig. 4-7 in the Metabuli paper):
- Illumina short reads: 0.15
- PacBio HiFi reads: 0.07
- PacBio Sequel II reads: 0.005
- Nanopore long reads: 0.008
-
--min-sp-score
: Set the minimum similarity score for species‐ or lower‐rank classification.- Reads with scores below this threshold are assigned to genus‐ or higher‐rank to avoid overconfident calls.
- Recommended values below increase precision without reducing the F1 score (details in Supp. Fig. 4-7 in the Metabuli paper):
- Illumina short reads: 0.5
- PacBio HiFi reads: 0.3
-
--threads
: Specify thread count for the job. (all threads by default) -
--taxonomy-path
: Use it when your database does not havetaxonomy
folder ortaxonomyDB
file. Provide a directroy ofnames.dmp
,nodes.dmp
, andmereged.dmp
files. -
--accession-level
: Classify reads to accessions if the database is created with--accession-level
option.
- Click the
Run Metabuli
button to start the metagenomic classification process. - You can track the progress and see real-time backend output in the logs.
- Once the analysis is complete, you can view the results in three different forms:
- Table: View the raw classification data in a table format.
- Sankey Diagram: A flow diagram representing the lineage information of the displayed taxa.
- Krona Chart: A hierarchical interactive chart that visualizes classification results.
1. JobID_classifications.tsv: It contains the classification results for each read. The columns are as follows.
is_classified
: Classified or notname
: Read IDtaxID
: Tax. ID in the tax. dump files used in database creationquery_length
: Effective read lengthscore
: DNA level identity scorerank
: Taxonomic rank of the taxontaxID:match_count
: List of "taxID : k-mer match count"
#query_id name taxID query_length score rank taxID:match_count
0 SRR14484345.1.1 0 141 0 - -
1 SRR14484345.8.1 2697049 141 0.808511 no rank 2697049:25
2. JobID_report.tsv: It follows Kraken2's report format. The first line is a header, and the rest of the lines are tab-separated values. The columns are as follow.
clade_proportion
: Percentage of reads classified to the clade rooted at this taxonclade_count
: Number of reads classified to the clade rooted at this taxontaxon_count
: Number of reads classified directly to this taxonrank
: Taxonomic rank of the taxontaxID
: Tax ID according to the taxonomy dump files used in the database creationname
: Taxonomic name of the taxon
#clade_proportion clade_count taxon_count rank taxID name
6.3491 1403612 1403612 no rank 0 unclassified
93.6509 20703786 5550 no rank 1 root
93.5580 20683246 8058 no rank 131567 cellular organisms
93.3781 20643465 680714 superkingdom 2 Bacteria
58.9608 13034701 105888 clade 1783272 Terrabacteria group
54.7279 12098906 472184 phylum 1239 Bacillota
50.0354 11061529 743978 class 186801 Clostridia
24.4574 5406894 402967 order 186802 Eubacteriales
18.2228 4028593 206645 family 216572 Oscillospiraceae
8.4570 1869631 950213 genus 216851 Faecalibacterium
3.0276 669332 655324 species 853 Faecalibacterium prausnitzii
0.0238 5271 5271 strain 718252 Faecalibacterium prausnitzii L2-6
0.0199 4407 4407 strain 657322 Faecalibacterium prausnitzii SL3/3
3. JobID_krona.html: It is for an interactive Krona plot. You can use any modern web browser to open JobID_krona.html
.
To visualize results from a previously completed job:
- Navigate to the Upload Report tab.
- Upload the
report.tsv
file from a prior job. - View the uploaded results directly in the Results tab. For this job type, results are provided in:
- Table: The raw data in table format.
- Sankey Diagram: A flow diagram representing the lineage paths for the displayed taxa (without the Krona chart).
You can download pre-built databases here.
You can create a new database in "NEW DATABASE" tab by providing these three files:
- FASTA files : Each sequence must have a unique
>accession.version
or>accesion
header (e.g.,>CP001849.1
or>CP001849
). - NCBI-style taxonomy dump :
names.dmp
,nodes.dmp
, andmerged.dmp
. Sequences with tax. IDs absent here are skipped. - NCBI-style accession2taxid : Sequences with accessions absent here are skipped, and versions are ignored.
NCBI Taxonomy
: Download here.GTDB
: Download taxonkit-GTDB files here.ICTV
: Download taxonkit-ICTV files here.Custom taxonomy
: Generate your ownnames.dmp
,nodes.dmp
, andmerged.dmp
.
NCBI Taxonomy
: Download here. Check README to know what file to use.GTDB
: It is auto generated using ataxid.map
in the taxonkit-GTDB folder.ICTV
: Useprepare-accession2taxid.sh
in here.Custom accession2taxid
: Generate your ownaccession2taxid
file.
- Taxonomy dump files:
- Edit
nodes.dmp
andnames.dmp
to introduce a newtaxid
inaccession2taxid
.
- Edit
- accession2taxid file:
- For a sequence whose header is
>custom
, addcustom[tab]custom[tab]taxid[tab]anynumber
. - As above, version number is not necessary.
taxid
must be included in thenodes.dmp
andnames.dmp
.- Put any number for the last column. It is not used in Metabuli.
- For a sequence whose header is
- GTDB-based checkbox: Check if you use taxonkit-generated GTDB taxonomy
dmp
files. - Database Folder: The folder where the database will be generated.
- FASTA List: A file containing absolute paths to FASTA files.
- Accession2TaxId: A path to NCBI-style accession2taxid following the format below.
accession accession.version taxid gi ACCESSION ACCESSION.1 12345 6789
- Taxonomy Path: Folder of taxonomy dump files (
names.dmp
,nodes.dmp
, andmerged.dmp
are requried).
--make-library
: Make species genome library before indexing. It is highly recommended when a single FASTA file contains multiple species.--cds-info
: File containing CDS file paths. Provided CDSs are used for included accessions instead of predicted genes. Prodigal's gene prediction is skipped. Only GenBank/RefSeq CDS files are supported.--accession-level
: Set 1 to create an accession level database, with which you can classify reads to specific accessions.
(WARNING: It it not tested for large databases. Using it with > 100K sequences may cause issues.)--max-ram
: Specify the maximum RAM (in GiB) to allocate for the job.--threads
: Specify the number of threads to use for the job.
You can add new sequences to an existing database in the "UPDATE DATABASE" tab by providing these inputs:
- FASTA files : Each sequence must have a unique
>accession.version
or>accesion
header (e.g.,>CP001849.1
or>CP001849
). - NCBI-style accession2taxid : Sequences with accessions not listed here will be skipped. Version numbers are ignored.
(It is auto generated when the GTDB-based checkbox is checked.) - Old database folder: The folder containing the existing database to be updated.
- GTDB-based checkbox: Check this if you are adding genomes using the taxonkit-GTDB taxonomy.
- Old Database Folder: The folder containing the existing database to be updated.
- New Database Folder: The folder where the updated database will be generated.
- FASTA List: A file containing absolute paths to FASTA files.
- Taxonomy Info
- If GTDB-based is checked: provide the taxonkit-GTDB taxonomy folder.
- If not checked: provide an NCBI-style accession2taxid file.
--make-library
: Make species genome library before indexing. It is highly recommended when a single FASTA file contains multiple species.--cds-info
: File containing CDS file paths. Provided CDSs are used for included accessions instead of predicted genes. Prodigal's gene prediction is skipped. Only GenBank/RefSeq CDS files are supported.--accession-level
: Set 1 to create an accession level database, with which you can classify reads to specific accessions.
(WARNING: It it not tested for large databases. Using it with > 100K sequences may cause issues.)--max-ram
: Specify the maximum RAM (in GiB) to allocate for the job.--threads
: Specify the number of threads to use for the job.--new-taxa
: Used when adding sequences from taxa not included in the existing database. See the section below for details.
[WARNING] Mixing taxonomies within the same domain is not recommended. For example, adding prokaryotes to a GTDB-based database using NCBI taxonomy will cause issues, but adding eukaryotes or viruses to a GTDB-based database using NCBI taxonomy is fine since GTDB does not cover them.
1. Check taxonomy dump files to see if you really need to add new taxa. taxdump
command retrieves taxdump files of an existing database.
2-1. Create a new taxa list
If you have both accession2taxid and taxonomy dump files for the new sequences, you can use the CREATE NEW TAXA
button next to the New Taxa
option.
This generates two files:
newtaxa.tsv
for theNew Taxa
optionnewtaxa.accession2taxid
forAccession 2 Tax Id
field.
Suppose you're adding eukaryotic sequences to a GTDB-based database. Since GTDB doesn't include eukaryotes, you may want to use NCBI taxonomy for eukaryotes.
You can download taxdump
files from here and accession2taxid
from here.
- How to use
CREATE NEW TAXA
:Old Database Folder
: Your existing GTDB database folder.FASTA List
: A file containing absolute paths to FASTA files to be added.New Taxonomy Path
: The folder of NCBI Taxonomy dump files.Accession 2 Tax Id
: NCBI-style accession2taxid file.Output Folder
: The folder wherenewtaxa.tsv
andnewtaxa.accession2taxid
will be generated.
- How to run
UPDATE DATABASE
:GTDB-Based checkbox
: Don't Check it since you are not using GTDB tree for new sequences.Old Database Folder
: Your existing GTDB database folder.New Database Folder
: The folder for the updated database to be created.FASTA List
: The same one as above.Accession 2 Tax Id
:newtaxa.accession2taxid
generated byCREATE NEW TAXA
.New Taxa
option:newtaxa.tsv
generated byCREATE NEW TAXA
.
2-2. Manually prepare a new taxa list
For the New Taxa
option, provide a four-column TSV file in the following format.
taxID parentID rank name
The new taxon must be linked to a taxon in the existing database's taxonomy.
Suppose you want to add Saccharomyces cerevisiae to a GTDB database whose taxonomy lacks the Fungi kingdom and only includes one eukaryote (Homo sapiens). In this scenario, your new taxa list and accession2taxid should be as follows.
# New taxa list
## taxid parentTaxID rank name // Don't put this header in your actual file.
10000013 10000012 species Saccharomyces cerevisiae
10000012 10000011 genus Saccharomyces
10000011 10000010 family Saccharomycetaceae
10000010 10000009 order Saccharomycetales
10000009 10000008 class Saccharomycetes
10000008 10000007 phylum Ascomycota
10000007 10000000 kingdom Fungi // 10000000 is Eukaroyte taxID of the pre-built DB.
# accession2taxid
accession accession.version taxid gi
newseq1 newseq1 10000013 0
newseq2 newseq2 10000013 0
Watch this demo to see how to run a new search on Metabuli:
NewSearch_Demo_Video.mov
Watch this demo to see how to view the results from a completed search:
Metabuli.Demo.v1.0.0.View.Results.mp4
The development of the Metabuli Desktop Application has been inspired by and leverages the following tools:
-
Pavian: Elements of the table layouts and visualizations in Metabuli were inspired by Pavian for metagenomic data analysis. (Pavian GitHub Repository).
-
Krona: The Krona tool is embedded in the results page for hierarchical data visualization. (Krona GitHub Repository).
-
fastp: Ultrafast one-pass FASTQ data preprocessing, quality control, and deduplication software. (fastp GitHub Repository)
-
fastplong:
fastp
for long reads. (fastplong GitHub Repository)
We would like to acknowledge the authors of these tools for their excellent work, which has significantly contributed to the development of Metabuli App.