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Weird Lines Of Fastq File

Usually we see fastq format like:

@HWI-ST150_0129:3:1:6030:54572#0/2
GTGAGTACAAGAGATAATTTCAGAGGTATTTGGAATATAGATTTTTAAAAGTAGTTTTGAAGACTTTTTTAAAACAGCATTTAAAAGGTTTTTGGTGCCAA
+HWI-ST150_0129:3:1:6030:54572#0/2
b`bbb`ccc`bYbb`ffeefc^dcccYbcccaa`bddddeffccfdddcd```bbcddddeec^ecffc^dddcddZdcc^^ddac`T_bTW\V`\b```d

However recently I came across very weird lines like:

dd\ecce^eee`eddaaecfedfccdadfeedfe`eac\]a_Z\\`cada\dT]U_bbYd^dadYad`d^`d^^_cTaYbYb^dd\dTUTQVI\\\\SUUaBBBWI-ST150_0129:3:1:5776698:942532
dd\GTCACTGAGTTTCAGCAACAATCTCTGTTTTCTTTGGAATTACCGCCACTAGACCTGAATTACCATCTTCAGGCCTAGCAGTGGTAATTCCTTCCCATATTWI-ST150_0129:3:1:6286698:942532
dd\ffffffffefefff^fcfffefafffffffdfdd`^efcffeefefefffffaffeeeeYdddc`addcdcdcde`YYb^``b^GVVWZY_TY`^POYXO^WI-ST150_0129:3:1:57767238942522
dd\CACGGGTAACCTCTAAACACACATATGCTAGTAAGAGCAAAGTAACACAGACAGCAAAGACTGGAAAAAATAACGAATCCTTCAATGCGAAGACATAGTTGWI-ST150_0129:3:1:62867238942522

Can anyone give a hint what's this? Some special format for Illumina 1.5+? thx

edit: I actually transfer this file from other server using "scp". Original file is pretty good; while the one after being transferred is crappy! This is so weird! This is really

fasta

I'll second the "corrupt" statement. It's nothing which should ever come out as FASTQ. Look upstream for any program which might have scrambled your data.

How did you get the fastq? Did you extract it from a NCBI SRA file?

i actually just get from my collaborator. ...

Try doing a sha1sum on the file on the server and the file you downloaded to see if it was indeed corrupted.

1 answer

Your file is definitely corrupt. The end of each line contains the header of the next line. You can fix it yourself somehow, but I'd say try transferring it somehow so that the encoding will not change the file contents.

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