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STAR - multi-mapping reads cut off

Hi,

I've been using STAR (v 2.6.1b) to align RNA-seq and Poly-Ribo-seq reads to the human reference genome (hg38). The next steps in my pipeline use multi-mapping reads as part of a quality filter.

Here is an example excerpt from a STAR log file:

MULTI-MAPPING READS:
    Number of reads mapped to multiple loci |   11334616
         % of reads mapped to multiple loci |   17.56%
    Number of reads mapped to too many loci |   797072
         % of reads mapped to too many loci |   1.23%

I can't find any information about the threshold for "reads mapped to too many loci". Can anyone help with this? I'd just like to know what "too many" actually means.

Thanks!

star rna-seq ribo-seq alignment short reads

1 answer

The default "too many" for STAR is above 10 mapping locations. This value is controlled by the parameter --outFilterMultimapNmax.

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