This is a test version of Biostars. For the public version, visit https://www.biostars.org.
Extracting specific hits from blast output. How to automate this process for multiple sequences

I am trying to get specific hits from a blast output. The following are the steps that I performed (this was done on web blast):

  1. Paste aa input sequence to blast and run it with default parameters on nr database
  2. Choose the new blast result page so that I can set some filters
  3. Set filter- identity from 50%-90%
  4. Select sequences with Query coverage of 70%
  5. Download all filtered hits in fasta/csv format.

So now, I have all blast hits for the input sequence in fasta format. However, I have more than 100 different sequences and would like to perform the same steps on each of them.

I could use blast+ but I am not sure if I can set the filters mentioned above in the commandline for blastp. I could not find these filters in >blastp -help. I also checked if Biopython can do this for me but I could not find useful links. Also could not find useful link in biostars or biology.stackexchange.com. The most related one that I found was here.

I am thinking that, after I get the output, I would need to have some script that will do this for me. I would really appreciate if someone can guide me in that right direction. Please forgive me if the question is not comprehensible. I can explain further if required. Thank you.

Following is a sample of the sequences that I have:

>sp|Q03155|AIDA_ECOLX AIDA-I autotransporter OS=Escherichia coli OX=562 GN=aidA-I PE=1 SV=1
MNKAYSIIWSHSRQAWIVASELARGHGFVLAKNTLLVLAVVSTIGNAFAVNISGTVSSGG
TVSSGETQIVYSGRGNSNATVNSGGTQIVNNGGKTTATTVNSSGSQNVGTSGATISTIVN
SGGIQRVSSGGVASATNLSGGAQNIYNLGHASNTVIFSGGNQTIFSGGITDSTNISSGGQ
QRVSSGGVASNTTINSSGAQNILSEEGAISTHISSGGNQYISAGANATETIVNSGGFQRV
NSGAVATGTVLSGGTQNVSSGGSAISTSVYNSGVQTVFAGATVTDTTVNSGGNQNISSGG
IVSETTVNVSGTQNIYSGGSALSANIKGSQIVNSEGTAINTLVSDGGYQHIRNGGIASGT
IVNQSGYVNISSGGYAESTIINSGGTLRVLSDGYARGTILNNSGRENVSNGGVSYNAMIN
TGGNQYIYSDGEATAAIVNTSGFQRINSGGTAPVQNSVVVTRTVSSAAKPFDAEVYSGGK
QTVYLWRGIWYSNFLTAVWSMFPGTASGANVNLSGRLNAFAGNVVGTILNQEGRQYVYSG
ATATSTVGNNEGREYVLSGGITDGTVLNSGGLQAVSSGGKASATVINEGGAQFVYDGGQV
TGTNIKNGGTIRVDSGASALNIALSSGGNLFTSTGATLPELTTMAALSVSQNHASNIVLE
NGGLLRVTSGGTATDTTVNSAGRLRIDDGGTINGTTTINADGIVAGTNIQNDGNFILNLA
ENYDFETELSGSGVLVKDNTGIMTYAGTLTQAQGVNVKNGGIIFDSAVVNADMAVNQNAY
INISDQATINGSVNNNGSIVINNSIINGNITNDADLSFGTAKLLSATVNGSLVNNKNIIL
NPTKESAGNTLTVSNYTGTPGSVISLGGVLEGDNSLTDRLVVKGNTSGQSDIVYVNEDGS
GGQTRDGINIISVEGNSDAEFSLKNRVVAGAYDYTLQKGNESGTDNKGWYLTSHLPTSDT
RQYRPENGSYATNMALANSLFLMDLNERKQFRAMSDNTQPESASVWMKITGGISSGKLND
GQNKTTTNQFINQLGGDIYKFHAEQLGDFTLGIMGGYANAKGKTINYTSNKAARNTLDGY
SVGVYGTWYQNGENATGLFAETWMQYNWFNASVKGDGLEEEKYNLNGLTASAGGGYNLNV
HTWTSPEGITGEFWLQPHLQAVWMGVTPDTHQEDNGTVVQGAGKNNIQTKAGIRASWKVK
STLDKDTGRRFRPYIEANWIHNTHEFGVKMSDDSQLLSGSRNQGEIKTGIEGVITQNLSV
NGGVAYQAGGHGSNAISGALGIKYSF

>sp|P86223|VDAC2_MESAU Voltage-dependent anion-selective channel protein 2 (Fragments) OS=Mesocricetus auratus OX=10036 GN=VDAC2 PE=1 SV=1
DIFNKGFGFGLVKYKWCEYGLTFTEKLTFDTTFSPNTGKKSNFAVGYRTGDFQLHTNVNN
GTEFGGSIYQKVCEDFDTSVNLAWTSGTNCTRVNNSSLIGVGYTQTLRPGVKLTLSALVD
GK

>sp|P64744|SMASE_MYCBO Sphingomyelinase OS=Mycobacterium bovis (strain ATCC BAA-935 / AF2122/97) OX=233413 GN=BQ2027_MB0912 PE=3 SV=1
MDYAKRIGQVGALAVVLGVGAAVTTHAIGSAAPTDPSSSSTDSPVDACSPLGGSASSLAA
IPGASVPQVGVRQVDPGSIPDDLLNALIDFLAAVRNGLVPIIENRTPVANPQQVSVPEGG
TVGPVRFDACDPDGNRMTFAVRERGAPGGPQHGIVTVDQRTASFIYTADPGFVGTDTFSV
NVSDDTSLHVHGLAGYLGPFHGHDDVATVTVFVGNTPTDTISGDFSMLTYNIAGLPFPLS
SAILPRFFYTKEIGKRLNAYYVANVQEDFAYHQFLIKKSKMPSQTPPEPPTLLWPIGVPF
SDGLNTLSEFKVQRLDRQTWYECTSDNCLTLKGFTYSQMRLPGGDTVDVYNLHTNTGGGP
TTNANLAQVANYIQQNSAGRAVIVTGDFNARYSDDQSALLQFAQVNGLTDAWVQVEHGPT
TPPFAPTCMVGNECELLDKIFYRSGQGVTLQAVSYGNEAPKFFNSKGEPLSDHSPAVVGF
HYVADNVAVR

This is a portion of the output that I have for the first sequenceblastp output for UniprotID Q03155

blast blastp blastoutput blasthits querycoverage
• 4,528 views • link
updated by AK AK • written by catchakhiljobby • catchakhiljobby

The most related one that I found was here.

The URL of "here" is linking to your blast output example picture.

• 0 views • link
written by AK AK

1 answer

Perhaps you could add an extra field (qcovs) in the tabular output format and then filter the results:

blastp -db <database_name> -query <input_file> \
  -outfmt "6 qseqid sseqid pident length mismatch gapopen qstart qend sstart send evalue bitscore qcovs" \
  > BLAST.out

The results can be filtered by (assuming you meant "no less than" 70%):

$ awk '$3>=50 && $3<=90 && $13>=70 {print $0}' BLAST.out | head
sp|Q03155|AIDA_ECOLX    gi|1001813006|ref|WP_061342166.1|   88.423  1287    148 1   1   1286    1   1287    0.0 2191    100
sp|Q03155|AIDA_ECOLX    gi|835829037|ref|WP_047671677.1|    88.423  1287    148 1   1   1286    1   1287    0.0 2191    100
sp|Q03155|AIDA_ECOLX    gi|742917718|ref|WP_039023028.1|    87.335  1287    162 1   1   1286    1   1287    0.0 2167    100
sp|Q03155|AIDA_ECOLX    gi|1423315803|ref|WP_112015431.1|   87.257  1287    163 1   1   1286    1   1287    0.0 2164    100
sp|Q03155|AIDA_ECOLX    gi|928847386|ref|WP_053897362.1|    86.946  1287    167 1   1   1286    1   1287    0.0 2159    100
sp|Q03155|AIDA_ECOLX    gi|1257025276|ref|WP_097478690.1|   86.558  1287    172 1   1   1286    1   1287    0.0 2125    100
sp|Q03155|AIDA_ECOLX    gi|1253042654|ref|WP_096924401.1|   86.402  1287    174 1   1   1286    1   1287    0.0 2124    100
sp|Q03155|AIDA_ECOLX    gi|934387324|emb|CTY45944.1|    85.315  1287    188 1   1   1286    1   1287    0.0 2105    100
sp|Q03155|AIDA_ECOLX    gi|1423661614|ref|WP_112076308.1|   76.318  1309    264 8   1   1286    1   1286    0.0 1856    100
sp|Q03155|AIDA_ECOLX    gi|1245792053|ref|WP_096100225.1|   76.318  1309    264 8   1   1286    1   1286    0.0 1856    100
• 0 views • link
written by AK AK

Perfect, this is what I wanted. Yes, above 70% coverage. Thank you very much SMK

• 0 views • link
written by catchakhiljobby • catchakhiljobby

If an answer was helpful you should upvote it, if the answer resolved your question you should mark it as accepted.
Upvote|Bookmark|Accept

• 0 views • link
written by lieven.sterck lieven.sterck

Log in to answer this question.

More posts like this