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Help regarding RNAseq data analysis.

So I am pretty new at this and this may seem a bit naive but can anybody tell me which files do I need to download in order to do the alignment step of the RNAseq data analysis. I am looking to download the .fa and .gtf files of the human reference genome hg38, but I am bit confused as to which file do I need. To clarify, I am a bit lost on which file is the reference genome file and the gtf files. Can anybody provide me a link of the files I would need to download?

rna-seq alignment next-gen

2 answers

Thank you so very much for the quick response. However a follow up question to your answer. Do we need the toplevel file or the primary assembly file? I read somewhere that said to avoid downloading the toplevel file and instead go for the primary assembly file.

There is a really nice summary of what the different options are as well as what their benefits and drawbacks are available here: http://lh3.github.io/2017/11/13/which-human-reference-genome-to-use

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